It’s difficult to manage great expectations. It’s hard to excel when the bar is impossibly high.
Somehow, the Celebrity Adventures Tour of the Amalfi Coast delivers at every turn, in every port, in every way possible.
Over the next five days, you might find us cutting a sharp line through the Mediterranean Sea. Or anchored like an impact statement off some historic island. Or bobbing in rowboats on our way to the Grotta Azzurra—the famous Blue Grotto—where Celebrity Adventures has somehow secured an hourlong private tour for our entire group, before the swarms of tourists arrive.
The entrance to our sea cave is harrowing. We are told to lie down at the bottom of our rowboat. We contort the best we can, and as we move near the small entrance in the rock, our captain is clinging to a chain attached to the underside of the cliff.
He must time our entrance to the bob of the sea. He decides to mess around with us first.
“Hang on, this is my second day on the job!” he shouts.
A few seconds later, we’re inside the cave, where the water suddenly beams electric blue. The experience is like a Disney production, but very real. All the rowboat captains inside the Grotto begin serenading us in Italian, their proud voices booming off the walls of the dark cave.
“Volare! Oh oh!”
There are three starring attractions on this rollicking, seafaring adventure: the Evrima, the long-awaited Ritz-Carlton yacht finding its stride near the end of its rookie season at sea; the Amalfi Coast, where colorful towns are perched atop towering cliffs; and the incredible access to celebrity entertainers and intimate experiences provided onboard.
This Celebrity Adventures Tour includes world-renowned tenor Andrea Bocelli; music icon David Foster; his wife/singer/former American Idol contestant Katharine McPhee; country music superstar Reba McEntire; comedian Chris Tucker; actor John Corbett and wife/actress Bo Derek; former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield; and musical performers Brian McKnight, Pia Toscano, and Michael W. Smith.
They are not celebrities hidden behind red velvet ropes. They’re right next to you at breakfast or at the bar or in the ship’s fitness center. They are approachable and receptive, like a neighbor who lives down the block. You don’t have to get through their security team to say hello.
“This is a can’t-miss adventure full of fun and surprises,” Corbett says. “And you never know who you’re going to meet.”
To wit:
During our stop in Capri—or shortly after my wife nearly fainted from her first bite of a real Italian cannoli—I peered into a jewelry store. And there was Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana.
“Hey, Joe! Can I take picture?” I ask.
He quickly declined. I nodded in understanding. I moved the conversation to football, and how he changed the way America looked at clutch performers and championship athletes.
“Thanks, man,” he says. “Where are you guys from?”
I point at the Evrima in the sea below, a ship that was easily the Joe Montana of the harbor.
“Ok, you can take that picture,” Montana says, clearly impressed.
About the ship:
The Evrima has 10 decks, six restaurants, and five decks open to the public. It’s too big to be a yacht, and too small to be a cruise ship. It’s perfect.
The Evrima feels like a Ritz-Carlton should feel on water. Every stateroom has its own balcony and guests have their own private concierge. The bathrooms and showers are fantastic. Every night, we return to find high-end gifts from Celebrity Adventures laid out carefully on our bed. Every morning, we open the curtains and gasp at the breathtaking coastline.
If you’re still searching for inspiration, there are chilled bottles of Moët positioned in every gathering place on the yacht, in champagne buckets that are always brimming with ice.
“We call it Ritz water,” a concierge says. “It’s everywhere.”
We begin to relish the open spaces aboard the ship. Celebrity Adventures reserved the boat in full, just as it has for a 2025 cruise that will end with a private dinner at Bocelli’s villa. That means you are connected with everyone onboard, creating an unmistakable circle of trust. You may meet a diamond magnate from Canada; a business tycoon who has sired four professional hockey players; or cheer out loud for 91-year-old Harvey Mackay as the writer/business guru navigates a steep ramp off the Evrima into the inky darkness, climbing onto a skiff that will take us back into the island of Capri for a midnight afterparty.
“Har-vey! Har-vey! Har-vey!” we chant.
The headliner is Andrea Bocelli, the great Italian tenor who makes two appearances on our trip. The first takes place at the Royal Palace in Naples, at a private concert so transcendent that much of the audience was openly weeping.
The second performance takes place inside the Villa Ruffolo gardens atop the city of Ravello. La citta della musica. The city of music. At a musical venue beyond imagination.
A stage is suspended over a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean, some 1,200 feet above sea level.
To the left, a breathtaking cove surrounded by rugged Amalfi coastline. To the right, a pine tree so often photographed, it’s considered Italy’s most famous tree. Below, a sheer drop of nearly 500 feet.
On this night, Bocelli is a surprise guest, and he seems a bit uneasy.
“There’s a saying in Italy: ‘Drink too much wine and you won’t sing so well,’” Bocelli tells the audience.
“The day will never happen when you don’t sing well,” Foster replies.
Foster begins the song on piano, but Bocelli is clearly distracted. He’s fiddling with something in his left pocket. Out flies his smartphone, crashing on the stage below.
“Wow,” Foster deadpans. “Drink up!”
On cue, the inimitable Bocelli hits another song out of the park. When the song is over, he receives another standing ovation. His work here is done.
There were obstacles getting our trip launched. The pandemic stalled the industry. The rollout of the Evrima was delayed eight times over 33 months. Celebrity Adventures had to fight hard to keep their clifftop venue in Ravello, as the rescheduled tour of the Amalfi Coast suddenly bled into the city’s famous music festival.
And it wasn’t until midway through dinner on that final night in Ravello when organizers learned Bocelli was going to show up for a farewell performance.
Under normal conditions, this is something Bocelli never does. By rule, he does not and will not perform after dinner. But he makes an exception for Celebrity Adventures because of his deep relationships with founder Jimmy Walker and executive director Sean Currie.
Walker is the also the founder of Celebrity Fight Night, a Valley businessman/philanthropist who introduced Bocelli to his boyhood idol, the late Muhammad Ali. Ultimately, that relationship is why we’re on this ship.
So, if you’re free, join us next time. Make sure to pack white linen pants and lemon-yellow shoes. Don’t pick a fight with Holyfield, and vow to never miss a single afterparty. They’re that good.
And when you get here, remember, it’s “Gratz-ya” and not “Gratz-eee.” It means “thank you” in Italian. You’ll know it when you feel it.
For more information on the next Celebrity Adventures tour, visit CelebrityAdventures.org.
Dan Bickley is a sports columnist at ArizonaSports.com and talk show host at “Bickley and Marotta Mornings” on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.