Read the article by Vincent Graff - The Daily Mail of Nicole's Table.

Here we are, drinking rum in a stranger's kitchen in Antigua, when I notice something strange stuck to the fridge door. It's an election poster.

'No to nose-picking. Yes to Emily for class president.' Without warning, the candidate sweeps in. She's 11 years old, dressed in school uniform and helps herself to a bowl of soup and a slice of butter rum cake. Then, before anyone has noticed, she nips up to her bedroom.

Hold on a second: I cooked that soup and cake! They're mine! This is a cruise trip like no other. We're midway through a week-long island-hopping tour of the Caribbean on the Celebrity Summit.

We've booked a shore excursion: a cookery lesson called At Home With Chef Nicole. And we really are in the chef's home (fridge notes, cheeky daughter and all). There are just four other people from the ship in Nicole Arthurton Dennis's pretty seaside house.

If your idea of cruising is a one size-fits-all experience — arrive at port, thousands of people pile out of the ship, some herded this way, some herded that — maybe it's time to re-evaluate. We're discovering that it's possible for a cruise holiday to be surprisingly ... intimate.

Read the full article here.

Local flavour: Vincent gets a cooking lesson from Chef Nicole in her Antigua kitchen