Trump Yacht: Afloat in a Sea of Excess

The ceiling in the master stateroom is something endangered--tortoise shell. The bed is roughly the size of North Dakota, and the master bedroom comes with its own barber chair. Also in the master bathroom is a secret passageway concealed in the linen closet and enough onyx to sink most normal vessels.

The owner, real estate bizillionaire and best-selling author Donald Trump, was reportedly very frustrated when he couldn’t figure out which remote-control button on the all-electronic desk in the owner’s compound powered the triangular, marble, concealed bar 3 feet away.

Instead, Trump accidentally activated the nearby column of Luigi Sturchio sculpture that rotated to reveal a television screen and media center.

Trump and his wife, Ivana, were also said to be less than thrilled to discover that the ceiling of the so-called Ruby stateroom, all crisp in red-and-white stripes and designated for their little girl, opens to display an impressive set of moving mirrors.

Then again, the Trumps did buy the boat as is.

Practically a Steal

Whatever Saudi billionaire Adnan Khashoggi put in the 300-foot yacht, the Trumps, a thrifty pair, simply left.

By some standards, the Trumps did practically steal this third-largest motor yacht in the world. They snapped it up early this year for just $30 million, then spent $8.5 million on a 6-month face lift in the Netherlands. If it were built today, the Trump Organization says, the newly renamed Trump Princess, which carries a crew of 31, would cost between $150 million and $200 million.

Trump, ever the gracious host, spent the Fourth of July weekend and the rest of the week showing off his new plaything, which is anchored on the East River outside the elegant Water Club, at a series of parties for swells like Jackie Onassis and even for the serfs on his own staff. Too dazzled, for the most part, to say a lot more than “oh, wow,” the guests saw:

- 11 double-sized staterooms, each named and decorated for a precious stone. So careful is the adherence to this color scheme that even the ends of the towel racks are adorned with the appropriate gemstone colors.

- 210 telephones. (Trump “lives on the phone,” an associate explained.)

- three elevators.

- walls covered with 3,500 square meters of suede.

- a fully equipped private hospital that includes an operating room and X-ray facility. (Trump will probably convert all of this to storage, the associate said.)

- a helicopter landing platform.

- color TVs, VCRs, tape decks and CD players in the staterooms. Makeup kits and/or men’s toiletries in the baths.

- silver flatware by Christofle in the two dining areas.

- a pizza oven.

- a disco whose ceiling flashes huge pictures of Donald and Ivana.

- a movie theater with eight sets of plush banquet seats covered in green-gold and beige-striped fabric.

- a 15-foot swimming pool with spray current to swim against.

- two 30-foot Monte Carlo speedboats.

- enough shoe storage space to hold Imelda Marcos’ footwear, all of it.