Q – Enjoying your information and humor. Wondering if you might advise if one of the better cruise lines is offering a Crossword Puzzle cruise. I am an aficionado of the sport and would greatly enjoy a cruise that focused on this subject. We like to stretch our minds when we travel and there seem to be very few opportunities. We subscribe to the New York Times pretty much exclusively for the Crossword page. Thanks and hope you will do more for those readers who appreciate an intellectual challenge or two along the way.
A – The best of the cruises for Crossword fanatics is always offered by Cunard. There is a “Celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the Puzzles” on a Queen Mary 2 sailing this December 8th from New York to Southampton. It is being referred to as “The Crossword Crossing.” This program is offered as one in a series of New York Times branded packages. Although you are late for this year’s sailing, it is expected to be repeated in the future. Several Times Crossword pages editors will be on-board including famed, some might say notoriously difficult, puzzle master Will Shortz. It has been our experience that foul language is most often expressed by crossword fans in the middle of a Shortz puzzle. Shocking really. Crossings, with their days at sea, or longer voyages with a number of days at sea tend to have the best,most intellectually grounded lectures. Expect to hear little discussion of Proust over dinner on a one-week Caribbean jaunt.
