Sonia King felt like taking a bubble bath — a desire doomed to go unfulfilled on your average cruise with cramped showers or limited toiletries. But King, a mosaic artist from San Francisco, wasn’t on your standard big box ship.

This was a 13-night Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection transatlantic voyage bound for Portugal, so she asked her suite ambassador (the cruise’s answer to a butler) if there was any sud solution on board. They’d look into it for her, she was told.

After dinner with her husband, King returned to her stateroom to find “a hot bubble bath, a bottle of champagne, rose petals, LED candles waiting for me,” she said. “I remain blown away with that, but that is a typical experience.”

The Ritz-Carlton is the first of a growing number of luxury hotel brands getting into the crui

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