A ship sailing to the Caribbean in search of hidden treasure is hardly a new idea.

This time, however, the booty found will stay firmly in the hands of the owners.

Celebrity Equinox are putting on an 11-date cruise at the end of March, and on-board guests can take along collectibles to be valued by US television star and antiques expert, Dr. Lori.

“I conduct antique appraisals all over the country for major corporations, home and garden shows and all different folks and now we’re partnering with Celebrity to bring collectibles to the seas.

“My presentations are both humorous and informative and during those on board I’ll appraise people’s objects as well as teaching them a little bit about art and antique collecting. I have a lot of fun and get to meet wonderful folks – their objects tell us a little bit about them,” she said.

Daily Show

The television star appears on such shows as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the Tonight Show, and she says that Celebrity thought that the cruise would be a fun way to add a new dimension to their Celebrity Life onboard television programme.

The eleven-night cruise visits Grand Cayman briefly on 31 March, before heading off to Cartagena, Colon, Puerto Limon, Roatan and Cozumel and then returning to the home port of Fort Lauderdale. Dr. Lori said that the lengthy cruise would enable all of the 2,850 guests to get their stuff appraised.

Appraisal is limited to guests on the cruise and residents of any destination will not be able to take items to the ship for appraisal.

Exceptions

The television expert explained that there is no limit on what cruise guests could bring on board – with a few notable exceptions.

“From soup to nuts people can bring anything they like but we do discourage them from bringing weapons!”

The TV star has visited the Caribbean many times and she said she is looking forward to visiting Cayman in particular.

“There’s nothing like a sea turtle in Cayman. There are so many treasures that you see in the Caribbean, particularly underwater but we’re also going to concentrate on the art and architecture and history. We typically see a lot of types of antiques on our programmes and souvenir pieces can also be evaluated,” she said.

Fun

Dr. Lori concluded that on vacation people want to have fun and enjoy themselves and that is reflected in the non-traditional antiques appraisal event of the cruise. She noted that the first objects d’art were rather familiar ones to anyone who has ever wandered down a lonely beach and spotted something exotic glinting in the evening sun.

 “If you go back and look at the history of collecting what people don’t always realise that we first started collections with seashells and things from our travels.

“So the idea of putting together an expert in collecting with your travels is an obvious way to look at it,” said the antiques expert.