By Gary Walther

Altitude condenses eye-level chaff. From the Bridge Deck, the bow of the Crystal Serenity becomes an elegant geometry, circle-in-triangle with planes of blue as background. And a figure to yield perspective. Having space to yourself, though, is not a one-off on Crystal, whose ships are tops when it comes to the ratio of public space per passenger. On The Hotel Detective’s Southeast Asia cruise, where this photo was taken, it was the norm. See The Hotel Detective’s other reports at blogs.forbes.com/garywalther.