【正文】 s club from morning to evening and seniors have great fun in the karaoke bar and cinema. I saw some older people in wheelchairs on board. Cruise travel is fabulous for everybody, says Xue, a 35yearold from Shanghai. She says she is keen to try the Royal Caribbean’s newest cruise ship, the 18deck Quantum of the Seas that can carry 4,180 passengers, which is moving to Shanghai in May. Carnival, Royal Caribbean39。s first auto train ready to serve Life39。s travel website last year. Tourists from Shanghai are also willing to spend more, many paying 4,000 yuan ($652) to 6,000 yuan, to take a cruise. Xue Yifan, who returned last week from a sixday cruise trip to Japan and South Korea with her 6yearold son and parents, paid 8,000 yuan for the trip per person. She says the itinerary arranged for the guests was amazing. Life39。ll be 第 14 頁 extrapampered with two crewmembers on board to every one passenger. But let39。s getting close to three years at sea. On this cruise, we are particularly pampered: There are only 56 passengers－ and 119 crewmembers. There are usually 120 to 150 passengers on board, and most cruises are fully booked－ popular destinations such as Antarctica and the Mediterranean as much as a year ahead. Late summer timing and the challenge of booking return flights after disembarking at Kangerlussuaq have kept our group on the small side. We39。s no assigned seating, except at the wele and farewell dinners hosted by Croatian captain Denis Radja) features gourmet European fare. Lunches are expansive buffets in the restaurant－ though in good weather, many of us sit in the sun on the observation deck, where there is a small buffet as well as sandwiches and pastas made to order. I39。re promised a landing near two thermal pools with a view of passing icebergs. Those swimming suits we packed will be used after all. Each day, there is at least one lecture by an expert－ a geologist, birder, Viking scholar, botanist, anthropologist or marine biologist. These informal talks are fortably spaced between gourmet meals and freeflowing wine and spirits, all of which can be enjoyed in the collegiality of the restaurant or in the cozy privacy of your cabin. The cabins are surprisingly spacious, and the butler assigned to my suite keeps the plimentary minibar stocked with my preferred beverages and snacks. He and the cabin valet will discreetly tidy up the room each day while I39。s last yellow wildflowers. We explore an outdoor museum, watch a kayak demonstration at a traditional hunting camp, enjoy an Inuit choir performance in the church, and enjoy coffee and a folk dancing at the local culture center. Nanortalik means place of polar bears in the local Inuit language, but a fanged ivory skull in the museum is the closest we39。re on the wrong day, Silver Explorer works its way as close to shore as possible before droppinganchor. Then we pull on our waterproof pants, jackets and boots, and climb single file intoZodiacs－ the big, motorized rubber rafts that will take us to the day39。s relative pettiness is key to our itinerary. At the moment, we are cruising overa channel 240 meters deep, but yesterday, winding through Skoldungen Fjord, we hadscooted over depths as shallow as 69 meters. You can39。s landmass into the continents we know today. There are about 50 passengers on board, most huddled among the rails at 8 am in the bright red parkas provided by the Silversea cruise line. The air temperature is 9 C－ the water temperature is12 C, expedition leader Stefan Kredel announces on a loudspeaker, just in case anybody is planning to strip off for a morning swim. Our luxury vessel is small as cruise ships go. American TV39。s Level 6, Fonseca tells us we39。s Prince Christian Sound, named after a longago Danish royal who became King Christian VIII. In the distance, the water surface is a smooth sheet of darkgreen jade under the overcast sky. The cruis