A Taste of The Old World: Opulent Cruises & Travel
Fall foliage of Budapest, Hungary
Stephanie Pok went on her first cruise when she was 14. The Meeker, Oklahoma, native grew up with a mother who worked full time, leaving few opportunities for indulgent travel scenarios — but the cruise changed her world, to use her words. She said she knew that somehow she’d be traveling someday, an impressive vision and determination for a young woman surrounded by farmland and fishing holes between Shawnee and Meeker, years before the casinos showed up.
About the same time — 8th grade, in fact — Pok chose Cambodia for a report in her social studies class. She knew nothing about the southeast Asian country, and even less about Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge or the Killing Fields of Democratic Kampuchea (as the country was briefly called). The exercise, like the cruise, was eye-opening, allowing Pok to envision a wider world with diverse cultures. It also laid the groundwork for her future in a way she could never have predicted.
“When I went to OCU at 18, I met my husband Visal,” Pok says. “His father was murdered by the Khmer Rouge before the family escaped to Thailand. He’d stayed to run a hospital, thinking they wouldn’t execute doctors and other professionals.”
The family assumed disguises to escape a work camp before fleeing to Thailand, and then migrating to the U.S. with the help of Campus Crusade for Christ. The young Visal would grow up in Southern California, with its wide-ranging, exciting food culture, before moving to Oklahoma for medical school. Pok credits him with helping to further open her eyes to food and culture.
“I was so curious about his past, culture and country,” she says. “I asked so many questions, but he’d experienced all that when he was only 5 or 6, so he didn’t always have answers.”
Eventually, Pok met his family, and got to ask the unanswered questions of Visal’s mother. Like many families who have survived trauma, the story had not been a subject of much discussion, so Pok was amazed when the aunts started chipping in with their stories, all of which culminated in a storytelling session when the family held a reunion for the 30th anniversary of their escape from Cambodia.
The overlapping of food and culture is well documented: food is culture; culture is food. Eating is both necessary and pleasurable, but the circumstances around our eating imbue the dishes and meals with emotional content that makes them the stuff of profound and powerful memories. Pok was thrilled to participate in a series of narrative events in which the family learned its own collective history, and that has driven her quest to offer clients transformative experiences of the world.
“Growing up outside Shawnee, I still knew somehow that I’d be traveling someday,” Pok says. “I didn’t know how, but Visal just increased my desire to see the world, to experience different cultures and different foods.”
A job at Life.church after leaving the district attorney’s office — her last degree was criminal justice management — afforded an opportunity to work in travel. “In my job at Life.church, I was able to travel extensively, and one of my primary tasks was booking travel,” she says. “I started Opulent Cruises and Travel in August 2022 to bring together my love of travel and the desire I have to help as many people as I can grow close together while experiencing other cities and cultures, as well as making a lifetime of shared memories.”
After 11 years at Life.church (four on staff and seven as a volunteer), her role had changed, and Opulent was born of that desire to help others experience the broader world.
“We love river cruises,” Pok says. “There is something a little artificial about ports on ocean cruises, but river cruises drop you in the heart of the city. The ports of call are much closer together, and the pacing is better; sometimes you’re in one port for two days. The last time we did a Danube River cruise, we stopped in the center of Vienna and then had two days, which meant we got to take a full day to explore Salzburg nearby.”
Opulent offers thematic cruises, as well, which can be an excellent way to dive into personal interests; beer, wine, history, architecture … even pickleball.
As an example, that Danube River cruise puts tourists in immediate proximity to the ancient wine culture of Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Austria. And because of the density and size of Eastern Europe, the time between ports is very short.
“You’re in a port every day,” Pok says. “And on the wine cruise, for example, the cruise serves excellent wines at every port. Budapest has so many delicious wines, and those bottles are hard to find in Oklahoma, so it opens up a wider world of wine, too. There is a sommelier on the cruise, and the stops are based on vineyards and wineries. Additionally, even something as specific as a wine cruise has more options than just tastings and vineyards. You can choose from multiple excursions.”
The pickleball cruise is growing in popularity at the same pace as the sport — currently, pickleball courts in the U.S. are being built faster than any other sports facilities, and existing tennis courts are being converted for pickleball at an astounding rate. Pok said the cruise features pickleball with some of the best European pros and coaches in the mornings, followed by beautiful and exciting excursions in the afternoons and evenings.
Another popular choice is the Christmas Cruise. It’s not a show like in the U.S., but it does put you in the best holiday markets along the Main, Danube and Rhine rivers. Pok can also curate cruise experiences based on personal interests.
“I get feedback from all my clients,” she says. “We are involved from the planning state to an actual debriefing stage. With most cruises, the experience is over at the end of the cruise, but we’re with you all the way to the feedback to constantly improve what we do.” •
Learn more about Opulent Cruises & Travel at: opulentcruises.com
Danube River flows through Budapest