Amenities for easy living

In deciding the interior design and the personal style of your apartment or penthouse you should take into account the amenities and services available to you on Raffles. These are planned around those you would typically find in a long established, lovely coastal village in the south of France.

Keep in mind that in your floating village you’re only a few minutes from your door to the Raffles supermarket, plus a special section for your own long term food storage. It will accommodate your personal cache of Norwegian smoked salmon or the Aberdeen Angus you purchased at the point of origin.

Typically the amenities and services are not free. For example, the supermarket prices include a 20% mark up over cost (not including deprecation). This 20% is used for the running costs of the supermarket and any profit then goes to the ship’s central fund to defray the whole ship’s cost of operation. In other words the supermarket is operated as a cooperative.

However, no sales onboard include any form of taxation and as most supplies are obtained duty free, basic prices are normally well below what they would be ashore.

Other amenities include:

A Harrods standard, gourmet supermarket (350m² / 3,500ft²), greengrocer, butcher, baker and wine cellar. Gourmet items are restocked approximately every 3 months from leading suppliers such as Harrods, Fortnum & Masons and Fauchon. The bakery will always have freshly baked baguettes, rolls, croissants and will bake daily to order. In port the managers will be happy to assist owners with any special fresh local purchases they may wish to make.
A 30 seat formal restaurant and bar, far forward and situated on the highest “A1” deck with magnificent all around views. With an open plan kitchen in the centre your meals here can be tailored to precisely what you want, limited only by availability of ingredients.
The chefs will also prepare a meal to be served in your own apartment.

A 40 seat casual indoor / outdoor bistro, bar and lounge situated aft at the poolside and near to the gym, sauna and children’s room. In the same area, there are large charcoal barbeques for your own deck party, or, if you prefer, crew members can cater for you.
A 25m long 2.9m deep fresh or salt water swimming pool, and two whirlpools at the centre of Raffles 12,000m² teak planked open deck. When at anchor there is the marina pool.
A 100m² (1,000ft²) children’s playroom / open area on “A” deck near the pool and bistro allowing easy monitoring of the grandchildren.
A 200m² (2,000ft²) his and hers sauna / gymnasium and solarium with 3.5m high full length wrap around glass walls facing aft, to help you keep fit on longer voyages.
The about 1,000m² (10,000ft²) of formal club lounge, bar, indoor recreation area, contains a massive library of travel guides, and cookery books, maps, satellite photos, charts, documentary CD’s / DVD’s, etc. It also has industrial strength Google Earth with a large screen, and a gyro stabilized billiard table. Situated on the main deck with views out through 5m high glass walls across the boat decks to both sides, this area is fully air-conditioned and has a separate enclosed cigar room. There is also a state of art golf simulator forward that lets you plan your games on all the world’s golf courses, you can now easily reach!
A marina / boat dock with a wide range of power and sailing boats, water toys and direct drive-in sea access for dive / expedition, ski boats and ferries. Occupying about 20,000m³ and the whole aft 50 meters of Raffles length, it includes a 12 person air diving centre, two 15m diving / exploration boats (with portable decompression chamber onboard) and a 3 person submarine.
There are also high and low speed diesel – water jet, 20 passenger ferries / 4 passenger water taxis, 4 tons landing craft, 4 person swamp air boat, to get you ashore in remote locations as well as mountain bikes, mopeds and hybrid - electric bikes and jeeps, etc. to use there.
A competition class 38ft carbon fibre sail boat to sleep six, plus a Hobie cat and numerous wind surfers + dinghies.
On the open deck over the marina are a 6 seat amphibious floatplane and 2 man helicopter for surveys, extended exploration, search and rescue, air ambulance emergencies, but also available for recreational flying by qualified pilots. Two x 2 person autogyros fitted with floats are carried for recreational flying and SAR.
Under water video viewing by two remotely operated (Spy Fish) vehicles (ROV) operating to a depth of 150m that can also be carried in the expedition boats, with what they see displayed on a large screen or PC for those that can’t dive.
A 45 seat, in leather arm chair comfort, auditorium - movie - lecture theatre with all the latest in sound and video systems.
A celestial observatory on a gyro stabilised platform at the 600m² observation bridge / and +forward viewing deck for entering port.
An open air hydroponic nursery to provide plants for public spaces and for hire on an exchange basis to apartments.
Two separate his and hers hobby workshops and stores
His / hers hairdresser – beautician.
Laundry / dry cleaning with coin operated machines or custom service.
Dressmaker / Tailor / Haberdashery.
Photographic, video – CD service and electronics repair shop.
A professional retail pharmacy (as part of the hospital facility).
State of art fully equipped office / business services centre and conference room.
Electronic bank / safety deposit (with encrypted satellite links to HSBC in Isle of Man and London) provisionally with an ATM to dispense local currency.
Note that retail sales outlets will typically be cashless with payment made by a special ship’s debit card.

Post office.
Pet hostel.
An automatic switchboard allows direct dialing anywhere in the world from your apartment and connected calls if needed from the business centre.
Inter denominational place of worship.
For use on long passages, deck tennis facilities, squash courts, and a jogging track. Raffles has about 12,000m² of open upper decks.
Raffles has a state-of-the-art medical facility that includes a 4 bed ICU with adjacent doctor’s office and nursing station. There is a fully equipped dental surgery and an operating theatre with gyro stabilized table. The hospital is connected 24-7 via fail safe satellite audio / video link to London’s University College Hospital. Additionally, all are backed up by a laboratory and a pharmacy that carries everything including antivenin for anywhere in the world.
The entire about 450m² medical facility is provided with its own special air conditioning / heating / ventilation system, and a back up power supply based on batteries and fuel cells.

THE EXCEPTIONAL LIFESTYLE

Amenities for easy living