Sheila's Ports of Call Guides: The Beautiful Baltics, Part 5: Scenic St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg, Russia, can be the highlight of any Baltic cruise, especially if your ship will dock there overnight. There is so much to see in this city with its rich history, culture, art, and architecture, that even two days isn't enough. Our ship was docked there for two full days so we got to experience quite a bit, though our schedule was definitely go, go, go with no time to just relax and enjoy, which I would have liked. If you are an American visiting St. Petersburg on a cruise ship, it is highly advised that you book excursions with a licensed tour operator rather than trying to visit on your own, especially due to safety issues and the need for Visas. There are many tour operators to choose from, and you can go with a large group on a big bus, a small group in a van, or hire a driver and guide to take you around in a private car. Whatever you are looking for, there are tour operators out there to help you, and it's really your best bet.

There appears to be a bit of misinformation floating around, though, concerning cruise line excursions versus private tours and when you can get off the ship. Apparently, some cruise passengers have been told that they had to wait for those on cruise line excursions to disembark the ship before those on private tours could, and this is simply not true. You are allowed to get off the ship at the same time as everyone else, regardless of how or with whom you booked your excursions. So if someone tries to sell you a cruise line excursion based on the fact that you will get off the ship first, don't listen to them. On our cruise, we were given forms in our stateroom to fill out, stating the name of our tour operator and the time our tour began, and we were then assigned a disembarkation time so that we could meet our tour operator at the right time. It was a piece of cake getting off the ship but there was quite a line to get through immigration control, so keep that in mind when you want to disembark.

While we would really have preferred to hire a private driver and guide for our two days in St. Petersburg, our budget would not all for that, so we decided to go with a small group tour that would hit the highlights. I booked us into an existing group of 7 people for the 2-day “A Tour” (the least strenuous) through SPB Tours, and it worked out to be $220 per person – not bad at all but perhaps not the best choice in the long run due to the schedule we had to keep, but definitely within our budget and we ended up with a very nice group. While I enjoyed St. Petersburg and found it to be quite fascinating, I had several issues with our tour: 1) our tour guide, Elena, was very bossy and since she was always concerned about time and sticking to the schedule she was at times rude; 2) we were promised time to shop for souvenirs but I thought we would have flexibility and choice of where to shop; instead, we were only allowed to shop at three different stores to which we were taken, and all offered the same (and in my opinion) overpriced merchandise; and 3) I felt that we spent too much time in certain areas and only had photo stops for others that I would have liked to experience from the inside. The third point probably could have been remedied had I selected a tour with more flexibility, but the only real way to truly be flexible is to hire a private guide and driver, so if that is what you are looking for, be sure to budget for it when you book your cruise!

Our tour began at 9:00 am when we were driven through the city on an orientation tour. We stopped along the Neva river to get a few photos of St. Isaac’s Cathedral and then went to the square where we could get better photos for a few minutes. The Cathedral is really quite a sight with its gleaming onion domes and I would have liked to see it from the inside but unfortunately we didn’t have time. There were quite a few kiosks in the square offering souvenirs, but we were quickly ushered back into the van so that we could continue with our tour. Here is a photo of St. Isaac's Cathedral:



From St. Isaac's Square we headed out to Peterhof Palace to tour the lower gardens. The Palace is often referred to as the "Russian Versailles" and the whole grounds are huge and you could probably spend an entire day there seeing the palace and everything. There are many fountains but the most spectacular area is right at the bottom of the palace, called the Grand Cascade. We got there just in time to see the fountains all begin to flow along with music at 11:00 am. It really was a beautiful experience and the fountains really are cool because they are not operated by pumps! Here's me and my friend, Brenda, in front of the Grand Cascade:



After watching the Grand Cascade fountains for a bit, we spent at least another 90 minutes walking around the lower gardens; and while it really was beautiful, after a while it stopped being really interesting to me and I think I would have preferred to tour part of the Palace, but that wasn't part of our tour. As we headed back to the van we stopped at a little Blini stand near the entrance to the grounds to have lunch. Blini are like crepes and I had one filled with chicken and mushrooms (delicious!) and one filled with apple (pretty good) and they cost only about 3 or 4 USD, so they were very inexpensive and pretty filling as well. We hopped back in the van and then spent at least an hour working our way through traffic to get to Catherine’s Palace in Pushkin.

Catherine's Palace is really pretty spectacular and we had a pretty complete tour of the inside of the palace. However, I wasn't able to enjoy the palace as much as I had hoped because I was recovering from spinal surgery after a car accident, and by this point in the day my back was aching so badly that I could barely walk. The most memorable rooms of the palace for me were the grand ballroom, with its walls of gold and the beautifully painted ceiling, and the Amber Room, whose walls were covered in all shades of genuine amber, and amber was even used to create picture frames and other architectural/design details. Photography was allowed in all the rooms we visited except for the Amber Room, which is really too bad; here's a photo of the palace exterior, though:



On the way back to the ship we stopped for souvenirs at one shop and we arrived back at the ship at about 5:30 pm. This was problematic for us because we had booked tickets through SPB Tours for the ballet that evening and we had to be back at the van at 6:10, so we didn't have much time to change clothes or eat dinner. I ran upstairs to the grille on the pool deck to get hamburgers and fries for us and then rushed back down to our stateroom to change clothes, and then I ate my burger in the van on the way. We were going to see "Sleeping Beauty" at the historic Mariinsky Theatre, but I had no idea that with four acts and three intermissions, the entire ballet would last four hours!

This was my first time at the ballet, and what an experience it was, seeing "Sleeping Beauty" in a grand historic theater in St. Petersburg, Russia! We had nice seats in a box at the back of the main floor, which was slightly raised so that we could see clearly above all the heads in front of us. Unfortunately, the stiff upright dining-room type chairs that we had to sit on wreaked havoc on my back and neck, and within a few minutes my shoulders were aching as badly as my lower back had been during the day, so I ended up feeling miserable and I didn't get to really savor the experience as I had hoped, but I really will treasure it always.

Day 2 began at 8:40 am when we took another drive through the city, where we stopped for about 5 minutes to take photos of the Church on Spilled Blood. I would really have liked to go inside that cathedral because it is so ornate with all the different mosaic tiles and colors, but we didn’t have time. Here's a photo of the incredible Church on Spilled Blood:



We then walked briefly through an indoor Farmer’s Market (why I don’t know, as we couldn’t buy anything there to take back on the ship with us) that sold fresh fish, meats, and produce; and then we took a subway ride for one stop and then back to show us how nicely the subway stations are designed. Next we drove the Peter and Paul Fortress to see the inside of Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral, which is the oldest cathedral in St. Petersburg. Actually, I wasn't feeling well enough to visit the cathedral so my roommate and I stayed in the van to rest because we were in for a lot of walking later in the day. We then stopped for a very quick lunch at a local pierogi restaurant and then went to another shop for souvenirs. I had bought everything I had intended to buy the day before, so when I told our tour guide, Elena, that I wasn’t planning on buying anything, she quite rudely ordered me back to the van. I did not appreciate being told what to do, and unfortunately everyone in the group began grumbling about our guide as the day wore on.

We then made our way to the world-famous Hermitage Museum and spent the remainder of the afternoon there. I enjoy art museums for the most part, but I like to go to the exhibits that interest me and don't really care to wander around too much. It's just the way I am and what I like to do, and I've done that in the Louvre, the Uffizi, the Accademia, and even the Vatican, and I feel that I have enjoyed them all in my own way. Since I had been concerned about the amount of time we were going to be at the Hermitage from the beginning, I spoke with our tour operator and I was told that we could go off on our own in the museum if we wanted, so that we could see what was important to us. However, Elena did not like that idea and was visibly upset when we requested to go off on our own, and due to the enormous crowds in the place and the sheer size and confusing layout, we felt compelled to stay with her as she led us from room to room. We spent about two hours at the museum and I would have liked to have spent more time on the Impressionists on the third floor, but those artists were not emphasized on our tour. Overall, I must say that the Hermitage is certainly impressive and I am glad I got to visit it, but it just wasn't my cup of tea. Here's a shot of Leonardo DaVinci's Madonna and Child on display at the Hermitage:



Afterwards, we drove to another souvenir shop near St. Isaac’s Square to shop one final time for souvenirs, and the day was over at about 4:00 when we were dropped off at the port. Sine I just wasn't feeling well enough to really enjoy St. Petersburg, I would love to go back there again and be able to really take it all in. The tour we took was certainly worthwhile and everyone seemed to really enjoy it, and it did give us a good overview of the city and the most important sights; however, its pace was just too intense for me due to my physical condition and I believe I would have enjoyed this historic city much more had I had more time to relax. Overall, St. Petersburg is a really cool city and I think you'll find it as fascinating and scenic as I did.

Sheila's Ports of Call Guides: The Beautiful Baltics, Part 3: Happy Helsinki

I have to admit that I was less excited about seeing Helsinki than I was Stockholm and the other Baltic ports of call on my recent cruise, and I get the feeling that this is a common reaction. Helsinki is a nice town, seemingly quiet and peaceful, with friendly people, but it just doesn't seem to hold the true dramatic appeal that many of the other Baltic ports do.

One recommendation that I can make right off the bat for Helsinki is if you are going to be exploring on your own, get a good map, especially if you use your cruise line's shuttle service into town. You need to take some form of transportation from your cruise ship dock into town, unless you're up for quite a walk and you have lots of time. Our cruise line offered a roundtrip shuttle from the dock into town for 8 Euros per person, and since that was less expensive than the cost of a taxi, we took the shuttle. The problems began, however, when the shuttle let us off in the middle of town and we had no idea of where to go and what to see from there. Luckily, I had downloaded an interactive map on my iPhone for this city because the map I had from the cruise ship plus the confusing location where the shuttle left us made it difficult to navigate at first. I had to ask the driver to locate us on the map and to point us in the right direction because I had no idea where we were as we were on some side street that I couldn’t identify.

Once I figured out where we were, though, the city was pretty easy to navigate on foot. Turns out we were about a block away from a large, beautiful park called Esplanade Park, which seemed to be the focal point of the city because people were out there relaxing, people watching, and picnicing all day. The park had beautiful lawn areas and landscaping with flowers and trees, and there were statues in the ceter commemorating important people and events in Helsinki's history. There were streets bordering both the north and south sides of the long park, and these streets had upscale shopping and cafes with outdoor seating, so it really seemed like that whole area was the place to be in Helsinki, and people seemed relaxed and happy. Here is a picture of part of the park:



Once you have walked along the park, it turns out that if you continue to follow either of the streets lining the park straight for a couple of blocks, you will end up at the downtown pier area. This area hosts a daily Farmer's Market where they sell food, ice cream, beverages, produce, meats, and souvenirs. There are many orange-colored tents there and many things to buy and look at, so it's an interesting place to spend some time. All of the sellers that we encountered at the Farmer's Market spoke English, and they were all very friendly and eager to talk about how much they loved their city. Some sellers there took credit cards, but it turns out that if you need to get cash for shopping, there is a bank in a gray building on Etelaespanadi (the street on the south side of Esplanade Park) to the west of the Farmer's Market area.



Once you have walked through the farmer’s market you can continue down Pohjoiesplanadi (the street on the north side of the park) towards the Russian Orthodox Cathedral, the Uspenski Cathedral, which is visible from there. This beautiful church with its red-brown brick, green roof, and gleaming gold onion domes sits on a hill about 2 or 3 blocks walk from the Farmer's Market area.



We didn't go in the Uspenski Cathedral but we walked around that area and had a snack at a nice quiet café along the waterfront behind the church. Afterwards, we went back west along Alexandersgatan until we came upon Senate Square and the Lutheran Cathedral. The gleaming white cathedral with its giant green dome is set in the center of a square that houses not only the Senate building but (I believe) the University of Helsinki. Unfortunately, the cathedral is situated at the top of about 50 steps or so, and with our being so tired, we didn’t go in, but apparently it is quite beautiful inside.



There is a nice souvenir shop across the street from the cathedral, and if you walk straight south from the Cathedral you will come up to Esplanade Park again. From there, we walked back west and over to our shuttle stop, but not before we stopped in a store where I bought a new pair of shoes.

Overall, Helsinki is a nice town but it doesn’t have the appeal or attractions that Stockholm or other Baltic ports have; however, if the weather is nice and you don’t feel like doing a ton of grueling sightseeing, the park and waterfront area is a very nice place to shop, have a bite to eat, and watch the happy people of Helsinki!

Sheila's Ports of Call Guides: The Beautiful Baltics, Part 2: Spectacular Stockholm

If you arrive in Stockholm by cruise ship and dock at Frihamnen Pier, there are a couple of ways to get into town from there. Some cruise lines offer a shuttle service; ours did, and it dropped you off at the Opera House, which was still a few blocks walk to Gamla Stan, the Old Town. You can also take a taxi, but they are expensive. The least expensive alternative is to take the public bus. You can take the #76 bus into town, and you catch the bus at a stop outside Frihamnen Pier. How do you find the bus stop? You follow the blue line that is painted on the street and it will lead you directly to it! One key point you need to know if you want to take the bus into town: BUY YOUR BUS TICKETS FIRST! If you decide to just get off the ship and follow other people walking to the bus stop, you will end up VERY disappointed because you cannot buy bus tickets from the driver; you must buy them in advance.

You can buy your bus tickets inside the port building which you walk through right after you get off the ship. You can buy single tickets, return tickets (one ride there and back), or all-day tickets, which are good for multiple rides on and off throughout the day. Since we didn't plan on taking the bus more than just getting to Gamla Stan and back, we bought only return tickets, and they were still less expensive than the cruise line's shuttle (and they got us closer to Gamla Stan). It is quite a walk to the bus stop outside the Frihamnen port area – probably about a mile — but certainly doable in 15 to 20 minutes, so keep that in mind if you can't walk well. The buses can be crowded and are not air conditioned (at least they weren’t when I was there) so keep that in mind if you are traveling in warm weather. Board the bus through the front door and show your ticket to the driver. Once you are on the bus, notice the electronic displays which tell you the next stop coming up and watch for your stop. When your stop is approaching, press one of the red buttons on the bus to request a stop, and you may have to press another button in front of the bus door to get it to open.

We took the #76 bus from outside the port area to Kungstradgarden, which is a short walk to Gamla Stan (Old Town) so we could get cash at an ATM, and it was about 3 blocks straight and across a bridge to Gamla Stan. If you don't need to get cash first and want to go right to Gamla Stan, you can take the bus to the Slottsbacken stop. Kungstradgarden is a very nice part of town, very modern, and it is in stark contrast to the Gamla Stan. If you get off at Kunstradgarden like we did, you follow that street (Kungstradgardsgatan) in the direction the bus was going and you will eventually come to a bridge; you can see the Royal Palace from there so it’s easy to find your way. The picture below is a view of the Royal Palace from across the bridge on Kungstradgardsgatan.



If you get to the Royal Palace before noon on a weekday you can see the changing of the guard ceremony, which is pretty cool. You need to walk around to the side of the palace and enter the courtyard there in order to see the ceremony so don’t get confused if you can’t find how to enter the palace grounds. The Palace is not a grand, spectacular building, but it is very large and stately looking and you can tour the Royal Apartments and other areas for a fee. Here is a photo from the ceremony:



I had planned to follow a walking tour that I had downloaded from the Internet but we decided to just walk around and go where we wanted. We ended up on a major thoroughfare, Vasterlanggatan, that had tons of shops and cafes, so it was very nice, and with the weather being sunny and in the mid-70s, it was really a wonderful day. We did some shopping in the myriad of shops (souvenir and otherwise) but as we weren’t very hungry, we decided to wait until we got back on the ship to have lunch. As we worked our way back up through Gamla Stan to the bus stop, we came across the Nobel Museum and took a few pictures but we did not go in. Stockholm is really a great city and everyone we encountered was very friendly and spoke English, so communication was not a problem at all.

There are many other sights to see in Stockholm, like the Skansen (open-air museum) and the Vasa Museum (a 17th century warship recovered from the ocean after sinking on her maiden voyage), and you can see these by taking a ferry from Gamla Stan; or by the #76 bus to the Djurgarden stop.

To catch the #76 bus back to Frihamnen from Gamla Stan, you walk to the Royal Palace, cross the street, and walk about a block down to your right and the stop is in the middle section of the street. The ride back to Frihamnen is relatively short, and once you get off the bus, you follow the lines on the pavement back to the pier.

Another option for getting around town and sightseeing in Stockholm is the Hop On/Hop Off ("HOHO") bus and/or boat. You can catch the HOHO bus right at the Frihamnen Pier and it will take you all around Stockholm, including Gamla Stan; but it is a much more expensive option, and I think you can get around from sight to sight pretty easily by either taking buses and ferries or walking. Plus, if you walk or use public transportation to get from place to place, you get more of a feel for the city than you would if you just sat on a sightseeing bus. I thought that taking the #76 bus was very easy and I would recommmend it to all of my cruise clients who would like to see Stockholm on their own while in port.

All in all, Stockholm is a very cool city: it has an interesting contrast between old and new; interesting things to see; great shopping; and very friendly people. In one word, I'd say Stockholm is SPECTACULAR!

Introducing Sheila's Personal Ports of Call Guides: "The Beautiful Baltics" Begins Tomorrow

Introducing my new blog series: Sheila's Personal Ports of Call Guides!

Because I am a Cruise Specialist and it is my job to help my clients book the right cruise for them, I thought it might be helpful to my clients if, from now on, I share information about the ports of call that I visit whenever I cruise. Of course, there is plenty of information about different ports of call all over the internet, but maybe the information that I provide, based upon my personal experiences, could give my clients a better idea of what really to expect when they visit a particular port of call.

So, beginning tomorrow, I will post the first blog in my series entitled "The Beautiful Baltics". See you then, and thanks for reading!

Celebrity Constellation Cruise Review: The Constellation is Stellar, But Not Quite Out of This World

I recently returned from a 12-night Baltic/Russia cruise on the Celebrity Constellation, which departed from Amsterdam on May 16, 2010. I was quite impressed with the Constellation and I think she is a very, very nice ship. She had just come out of a 15 day or so drydock, during which she was “Solsticized” by adding several new restaurants/dining venues, a Martini Bar, the Cellar Masters wine tasting area, and replacing carpets and furnishings in public areas and staterooms. I wanted to try the new Tuscan Grille restaurant but as my traveling companion has a very sensitive stomach when it comes to garlic, it was not recommended that we dine there. I also don’t drink much so I did not try the Martini Bar or Cellar Masters, although I did bring a bottle of wine onboard in my luggage and my roommate and I split the cost of a stateroom bar setup (Bacardi Rum and Diet Coke).

A note on the stateroom bar setup: they will only deliver six cans of soda to go with an entire bottle of rum (or whatever liquor you choose), so if you don’t like your drinks very strong, you may have to pay for additional mixers. We asked our room steward for some pineapple juice to use as a mixer, and he brought us one small container of it, but after that the bar manager told us we couldn’t have any more. However, later that evening our room steward brought us a huge can of pineapple juice, stating that he got it from a friend in the galley. With the large number of drinks we were able to make from that bottle of rum, the $80.00 we paid was well worth it, but if you ever order a bar setup, keep in mind that if you don’t have a nice room steward you may end up having to buy additional mixers.

The layout of the ship is pretty easy to remember: entertainment is forward (Celebrity Theater, Reflections lounge, etc.) and dining is aft. There is a nice thalasaotherapy pool on deck 10 in a very nice glass-roof enclosed area and use of the pool is free. I have encountered similar pools on other cruise lines and they charge for use of their thalassotherapy pool, so I really applaud Celebrity for offering theirs for free and in such a nice setting. The main pool is on deck 10 midship and while it seemed to be a pretty decent pool, it didn't get much use on this cruise because it was just too darn cold. The library had a really nice selection of books, which you could check out anytime on the honor system, and one thing I really enjoyed about the ship was that there were plenty of cozy places to sit and do your own thing, whether it be snuggle with your mate, enjoy a drink, or simply read and enjoy quiet. In addition to the great layout of the ship, the service was excellent, with crew member we encountered being very friendly and attentive, especially our room steward and our waiter.

Our inside stateroom was a small but larger than I expected for an inside stateroom, and it had ample storage and closet space for the two of us. The bathroom was small but still larger than the one we had with a balcony stateroom on the Celebrity Mercury. The twin bed was comfortable and our steward did a good job of keeping our room tidy. I had never sailed in an inside stateroom before, and, to tell the truth, I was quite concerned about feeling claustrophobic in such a small room, especially when dark. However, I was able to overcome those concerns by bringing a small battery-operated fan and by using an iPhone app that looks and acts like a nightstand clock to provide some light in the room. Another important note about inside staterooms: it's really easy to lose track of what time it is since there's no natural light coming in! It is very easy to oversleep in the morning since you have no idea whether it’s night or day so having a lighted clock that you can easily see is pretty much a necessity.

The Constellation’s food was excellent in the main dining room. Every day offered completely new and different selections, and they ranged from typical American fare to more exotic Moroccan and Indian dishes. The always available dinner selections included a New York Strip steak, which was a very nice steak compared to what has been offered as steak on other cruises. Dishes were always cooked as ordered and were presented very nicely, and portion size was just right. The buffet, unfortunately, left a lot to be desired, save for the make your own pasta and Asian stir-fry stations in the late afternoons/early evenings. Also, because these stations took a lot of time to make food for one person, they should be moved away from the actual buffet line to prevent “traffic jams”. I’m not a big fan of buffets to begin with, but this one was pretty typical uninspired buffet fare that was best visited when you just wanted a snack when other venues were not available.

The room service menu was decent, offering mostly sandwiches, but the burgers were very tasty and service was relatively prompt. The room service breakfast menu offered mostly cold items but you could select from either plain scrambled eggs (which were often runny) or a plain omelet (which had no taste) and hot sides such as bacon or sausage, and it was always delivered either slightly before or right at our requested time. Room service orders could be ordered by phone or on the interactive TV (or by hanging the breakfast card on your door). You could also order from the main dining room’s menu for dinner, although I did this one night and had to wait over an hour for delivery.

The grill near the pool offered the typical burgers and fries, but unlike the burgers offered at the grill on other ships, these were awesome! The grill also offered chicken sandwiches and the like, as well as those all-important French fries, which were quite good. Another highlight was the ice cream station by the buffet, which was open every afternoon. The selection was always good and included ice cream as well as sorbet, plus candy toppings; and it beat the alternative of paying $3 for a scoop at the gelato bar on deck 5. Overall, the food on the Constellation was really good and I was impressed.

The one real negative about this cruise was the entertainment, or lack thereof. Our cruise director was neither entertaining nor funny, and unfortunately, this was my second time on a Celebrity cruise with a bad cruise director. I have been on many other cruises where the cruise director was a really fun guy: great to be around, funny, and very entertaining in his own right. The right cruise director can really make the entertainment onboard even more special, and I am beginning to wonder if I’ve just been unlucky with my Celebrity cruises, or if this is a problem with Celebrity. The problem with the entertainment, however, extended beyond the bad cruise director on this cruise. The Celebrity singers and dancers were mediocre at best, and unfortunately, they took up several evenings’ entertainment with their production shows. After watching their poor performance during the first night's show, I decided that an evening spent watching one of the limited TV channels in my stateroom would be more entertaining than watching the singers and dancers, so I did not bother attending any of the production shows. Several other nights were performances by singers that I’d never heard of, and, since they had not been introduced during the first nght’s Welcome Aboard Show, nobody else knew who they were either or what to expect. The other nights had some sort of comedy/juggling/acrobatics, but the shows were really nothing worth writing home about, unfortunately.

Daytime entertainment on sea days consisted mainly of trivia, sports-related contests, bingo, and the like. There were also other activities offered as part of Celebrity’s “Life” program, but most of them did not hold much interest for me and most required additional fees. While I certainly appreciate what Celebrity is trying to do here by enriching guests’ experiences onboard, I feel that they could include a lot of these activities without charging additional fees.

I would also like to note that the limited variety and quality of the entertainment onboard could be due to the clientele and the itinerary for this cruise. This was a 12-night cruise to the Baltics in mid-May, so you would expect the average age of passengers onboard to be higher since older people would have not only the disposable income but the time to travel for that long. Also, this was a very port-intensive itinerary with about 5 ports in a row (including overnight in St. Petersburg) without a sea day and the other sea days being at the beginning and the end of the cruise. With this cruise being so port-intensive, many passengers were very tired out at the end of each day, so it is possible that Celebrity felt it didn't need to really beef-up the evening's entertainment as they figured the shows wouldn't be very popular. This could also explain the lack of anything really extraordinary entertainment-wise on sea days as well, because I'm sure many passengers didn't feel like doing much on those days in order to recuperate from being in port!

One other brief point I would like to make about the Constellation is that I really do appreciate Celebrity's attempts to keep their older ships up to date, and the concept of "Solsticizing" is a good one. However, it seemed to me that the bulk of the new venues/improvements added during the dry dock were new ways for passengers to spend more money onboard (the new restaurants carry cover charges, the wine cellar and martini bar offer expensive drinks, etc.). I can't fault Celebrity for wanting to increase their bottom line, but I personally felt like I was constantly being bombarded to spend, Spend, SPEND, and for me that doesn't lead to a very relaxing vacation.

So, all in all, I think the Constellation is a very nice ship: she offers great food, great service, great accommodations and many beautiful, modern, and cozy venues, but the disappointing and uninspired entertainment made this cruise a little less stellar than I had hoped.

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This deal is exclusive to World Travel Holdings brands, including CruiseOne, so you won't find this deal on most cruise booking sites. But for the best service, book with your CruiseOne agent and take advantage of this deal!

To book a cruise under this promotion or any other, contact Sheila McPherson, Your Independent Cruise and Vacation Specialist, at 630-868-8719 or toll free 877-823-8597.

A Different Dolphin Excursion in Mexico!

In early April, 2010, I sailed on the Norwegian Star for 7 nights to the Mexican Riviera. I have done this itinerary many times and I always enjoy it because there is so much to do and see. My previous trips to Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas have primarily focused on shopping, but this time I decided to do something different: I wanted to see dolphins.

Most shore excursions that involve dolphins entail you standing in a large tank of water and having trained dolphins swim with you and maybe giving you a kiss. It's a fun experience because the dolphins are so cute and friendly, but is that really the best way to see dolphins? Wouldn't you prefer to see dolphins just being dolphins, instead of acting like trained seals? If that sounds like a good idea to you, then you should try taking a dolphins in the wild excursion: it's like whale-watching, but when you locate the dolphins in the water, you may get to jump in and swim with them!

I booked my excursion with ShoreTrips, entitled "Dolphins in the Wild with a Marine Biologist". The excursion is actually operated by a company called Wildlife Connection in Puerto Vallarta. You meet with the Wildlife Connection staff at Opequimar Pier in Puerto Vallarta, where they give you a brief introduction to the tour and information about dolphins, and then you head out on one of their boats to search for the dolphins. Each boat has a driver and a marine biologist with a camera. The marine biologist will take photos of the dolphins during the excursion and can email them to you if you wish. You have to keep in mind that since you're going to look for dolphins in the wild, you may not see any, but it also also possible that you may encounter dolphins that would like to play; and if you do, then you can get in the water and swim with them!

On our excursion, we set out looking for dolphins, and at first we didn't spot any, but we did see a manta ray and a whale! After a while, we spotted some dolphins but they didn't want to stay

up near the surface. We kept moving the boat around to different parts of the water to find dolphins and we ended up seeing quite a few. Some even leaped and flipped in the water like the trained dolphins do in the tanks, but this was better because it was spontaneous and the dolphins were doing it because they wanted to, not because they were commanded to do so. At one point our marine biologist got in the water to play with the dolphins, but they wouldn't stay near her and play so there was no point in us getting in the water.

The whole tour lasted about 3 hours (I think) and it was really a lot of fun. It was so exciting seeing the dolphins in their natural habitat, seeing them leap, swim, and play as they wish. I was a little disappointed that we didn't get to swim with the dolphins, but the trip was very interesting and I will always remember it. The next time I'm in Puerto Vallarta I will do it again and maybe I'll get lucky and get to swim with the dolphins next time!

Here's a clip of some dolphins leaping:

If you would be interested in taking this excurion the next time you are in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, please contact me at (630) 868-6719 or ShoreTrips at http://www.shoretrips.com/ and we will be happy to book it for you. You can reach Wildlife Connection directly at http://www.wildlifeconnection.com/.

You Mean I Can Now Do An Alaska Cruisetour Roundtrip from Seattle? Awesome!

Princess Launches Alaska Wilderness Sale on Convenient Cruisetours from Seattle, with Special Pricing Including Travel Between Seattle and Alaska Plus Stateroom Upgrade!

Princess Cruises announced today that it is again offering its popular Alaska Wilderness Sale promotion, but this promo also features a special lineup of cruisetours that offer passengers the extra convenience of roundtrip travel from Seattle. These unique packages make planning an Alaska land/sea vacation easier than ever by including ALL travel once the passenger gets to Seattle. This even includes airfare between Seattle and Alaska! The Alaska Wilderness Sale runs through December 31, 2009, and features 10 Seattle-based cruisetour options. Air travel between Seattle and Alaska, motorcoach transfers between Seattle and Vancouver, and an overnight stay in Seattle are all included in the package. Fares start at $1,899 for an interior stateroom and $2,299 for a balcony stateroom for an 11-night land/sea vacation, which includes a free stateroom category upgrade.

Princess Cruises offers a wide variety of Alaska Cruisetour options, including both northbound and southbound routes, with itineraries ranging from 11 to 15 nights. All passengers will experience Princess’ signature seven-night Voyage of the Glaciers cruise, combined with a variety of Direct to the Wilderness tours, or Explorer tours to the Copper River or Kenai areas. All tours feature Princess’ own riverside wilderness lodges, with at least two nights in the Denali National Park area and luxury train travel on ultra-domed railcars. “These packages make a visit to the heart of Alaska more convenient than ever, so the only other planning needed is travel to and from Seattle. We handle all other arrangements, so visitors can simply enjoy this incredible opportunity to experience Alaska’s top attractions, including Glacier Bay and Denali National Park.”

What sets Princess apart from many other cruise lines' Alaska cruisetours is that all of Princess' cruises feature daylight cruising of both Glacier Bay National Park AND either College Fjord or Hubbard Glacier. These itineraries provide guests with the best opportunities to view fantastic glaciers and wildlife. Another important distinction is that many cruise lines only offer one night in the Denali National Park area, but Princess includes at least two nights in this important area on every cruisetour so guests can maximize their experience there.

I think Princess has done an amazing job in deciding to offer roundtrip cruisetour packages from Seattle and I applaud them wholeheartedly. As a Cruise Specialist, I am very aware of the difficulties that come with booking a one-way cruise or cruisetour. On a northbound itinerary, arrangements often need to be made to get a passenger back to Vancouver or Seattle from Anchorage or Fairbanks; and on a southbound itinerary passengers often need transportation back to Anchorage so they can purchase the often lesser-expensive roundtrip air fares. It can often be very expensive and challenging to make this all work, but now Princess has made it so much easier.

With Princess' roundtrip Seattle cruisetour packages and their new Family Fun Cruisetours which I previously blogged about, there really is no reason now to forgo that trip to Alaska! So come on people and get those bookings done, as the Alaska Wilderness Sale ends December 31!

For more information, contact Sheila McPherson, Your Independent Cruise Specialist, at 630-868-6719, or toll free at 877-823-8597; or visit my website at http://www.serenitycruising.com/.

CruiseOne Agents Say Demand For Cruises Continues to Bounce Back

USAToday.com reported that travel agents attending the CruiseOne and Cruises Inc. National Conference last week on board the Carnival Pride say they're seeing a surge in last-minute bookings for fall and early winter as consumers grow more confident about the economy.

"Within the past two to three months the pendulum has swung upwards," says Ralph Santisteban, a Miami-based CruiseOne agent who has been in the business for 11 years. "I think they've been waiting to make sure they could leave with a clear [conscience]." Santisteban and other longtime cruise-selling agents at CruiseOne and Cruises Inc. say they're seeing people who have put off booking vacations all year long finally pulling the trigger.

"People have said 'enough is enough, I'm going,'" says Becky Piper, a CruiseOne agent in the Cleveland area. "I think they've realized that they still have a job, and they're mentally exhausted and need a vacation." Piper says her business began bouncing back in July after a horrible start to the year. As of March, her bookings were off 60% year-to-date from the previous year, she notes, but after a good July, August and September she's now caught back up and even is ahead a bit for the year.

The travel agents at the CruiseOne/Cruises Inc. conference, which took place last week on the Carnival Pride during a seven-night itinerary out of Baltimore, admit that heavy discounts by the big cruise lines has been a key factor in bringing back demand. Santisteban says customers definitely remain cost conscious. "The person who used to call to ask me for a suite is now calling to ask about a balcony," he notes. "The person who would call asking for a balcony is now calling to ask about an inside."

That said, the booking window -- how far people book in advance of a voyage -- is starting to move back out, say agents, and pricing is starting to edge upwards after months of rarely seen discounts. "Pricing is moving up, but what's funny is the client's expectations is that the pricing is still where it was (a few months ago)," says Piper. "It hasn't been an easy year," Piper adds. "But I really believe things are getting better."

CruiseOne and Cruises Inc. are part of World Travel Holdings, which bills itself as the nation's largest cruise retailer. The company also owns Cruises Only and Cruises.com, which sell cruises on their websites. It is important to note that each CruiseOne franchise is independently owned and operated, and CruiseOne agents like me offer unique personalized service that you can't get by booking on the internet or through a call center.

I would agree with my CruiseOne colleagues that pricing has started to creep upwards, but even if pricing is headed higher than it was a few months ago, there are still tremendous deals out there. However, I think the trend with my clients is that the booking window is holding steady from where it was early in the year, but this is still a shorter window than in the past.

Remember that it's not too late to book a cruise for the end of 2009, and you can take advantage of special deals in celebration of World's Largest Cruise Night, which is on October 13. Check out my website for more information at www.serenitycruising.com.

Wanna Take the Kids to Alaska? Now Princess Cruises Makes it FUN!

According to Cruise Industry News, Princess Cruises has just announced a new Alaska family-oriented cruisetour. To make it easier for families to plan a trip to the 49th state, which offers stunning scenery, abundant wildlife, and plethora of active adventure opportunities, Princess Cruises has added a fun new cruisetour option designed especially with family groups in mind.

Princess already offers a variety of Alaska cruisetours, but this one is different, as this 12-night cruisetour includes a variety of special features not usually included in a cruisetour package. Families will have the opportunity to travel on a jetboat, pan for gold, take an interactive tour of Denali National Park, and experience what Alaska is like in the winter when it’s many degrees below zero. The cruisetour (number: FUN) is offered at a 25 percent discount for all berths, so all members of the family are included in the special pricing. “This is really the ultimate family vacation,” said Charlie Ball, president of Princess Tours. “Alaska is a wonderful travel destination with kids, so we wanted to make it easy and affordable to plan the perfect Alaska experience for everyone in the family.”

Included in the Family Fun cruisetour are a seven-night Voyage of the Glaciers cruise plus a five-night land tour featuring one night at Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge, two nights at Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge and two nights at Fairbanks Princess Riverside Lodge. At sea, families can also take advantage of Princess’ many onboard programs especially for children, including a special Junior Ranger program in Glacier Bay National Park. Princess owns all of its lodging options in Alaska and all are conveniently located to nearby activities.

These are the special inclusions for the Family Fun Cruisetour:
Daily Breakfast – Everyone in the family can start their morning off with the most important meal of the day.
Direct-to-the-Wilderness Rail Service with Lunch – Princess’ acclaimed Direct-to-the-Wilderness rail service gets families to their wilderness lodge faster, and includes lunch aboard the train.
Three Rivers Jetboat Tour (Mt. McKinley) – An exhilarating alternative to taking a motorcoach to Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge, this tour travels from Talkeetna to the lodge by jetboat, with stops along the river to view historic encampments and learn about the native wildlife.
Arctic Blast (Denali) – Family members can experience winter in Alaska – in the summertime. This special chamber is chilled to wintertime temperatures, so visitors can find out what happens to hot water when it is thrown in the air and whether soap bubbles can survive the cold.
Music of Denali Dinner Theater (Denali) – This rollicking musical comedy tells the legend of the first expedition to the summit of Mt. McKinley, accompanied by a hearty, family-style meal featuring smokehouse ribs and Alaska salmon.
Experience Alaska with Alaska Geographic Tour (Denali) – A more intimate tour of Denali National Park, this special experience includes a variety of interactive experiences, including an enhanced view of the Denali ecosystem and current research taking place. The narrated bus tour takes guests 15 miles into the park to a beautiful river valley where they embark on a short walk to the historic Savage River Camp, where they can participate in a number of hands-on experiences.
Denali Sourdough Expedition Breakfast (Denali) – While fueling up for the day with a family-style, Alaskan roadhouse-style breakfast, guests experience an unforgettable journey up Denali through breathtaking images in Laurent Dick's Climb Denali. Participants have the opportunity to meet this real mountain climber and ask questions about mountain climbing.
Riverboat Cruise and El Dorado Goldmine Tour (Fairbanks) – Families can enjoy traveling on an authentic sternwheeler for a fully-narrated cruise along the Chena River and try their hands at gold panning at the El Dorado Gold Mine, where they will learn about Alaska's gold mining history.

Fares for the Alaska Family Cruisetour (#FUN) start at $1,743 per person for the first and second berths, and $1,191 per person for the third and fourth berth passengers. That's under $100 per night for the third and fourth berth passengers, so a really good deal!

For more information on this Family Fun Cruisetour or any other cruise vacation, please contact Sheila McPherson, Your Independent Cruise Specialist, at (630) 868-6719 or toll-free at (877) 823-8597.

What Time is Dinner Again? Oh, Yeah, When We're Actually Hungry!

With the recent announcements by Royal Caribbean and Celebrity regarding their new flexible dining programs aboard their ships, I thought it would be a good time to comment on this major change in the industry.

Evening dining on cruise ships used to be all about schedules. You'd tpyically have two seatings for dinner each night, early or late, and you'd select your preferred seating time when you booked. Each night you'd sit at the same table with the same companions, and the evening entertainment would be scheduled around those dining times. There would be an early show for the late-seating diners, and a late show for the early-seating diners.

I have had both good and bad experiences with the traditional dining. One great experience was on the Carnival Jubilee way back in 1990. Our loud family of 5, who enjoyed laughing and having fun, was seated with another couple whom we did not know, but they enjoyed laughing along with us. Each night of the cruise we joked around with our waiter and busboy, who seemed to really enjoy our jokes, and it really was a lot of fun. Dinner was more than just dinner; it was an event. Our tablemates really got into our silly spirit and it really was a memorable experience for all. The opposite, however, was true the following year when my husband and went on our honeymoon on a Royal Caribbean ship. We were seated at a table with 2 other couples, and it was a disaster. One couple never spoke to us, even to greet us or say goodnight when they left the table; the other couple spoke but had about zero personality. We tried conversing with them but there were so many awkward silences that we eventually gave up. For some reason which I cannot recall, we were unable to change our seating assignment, so we began eating in the buffet instead.

Overall, the best part about traditional dining is forming a relationship with the waitstaff. On a recent Celebrity cruise, our waiter and busboy enjoyed making little animals from our napkins, and it seemed like every night they had something different with which to entertain us. On my husband's and my anniversary cruise last year on the Royal Caribbean Adventure of the Seas, we had a wonderful waiter who really helped make our cruise special. And on our most recent cruise on the Carnival Valor, our waitstaff really pleased our kids by knowing their likes and dislikes right away. The smile on my son's face as our waiter poured his ketchup on his nightly chicken nuggets dinner was priceless, as was my daughter's delight at being brought a shrimp cocktail without even asking. Those are the kind of experiences that really make cruising a wonderful vacation.

Unfortunately, you oftentimes forfeit that relationship when you have flexible dining. Since you eat at a different table each night and at different times, it is hard to get the same waiter and busboy more than once, unless you remember their names and specifically ask for them. Sometimes your request can be accommodated and sometimes it can't, so the whole experience becomes less personal and more like going to a typical restaurant.

Yet the flexibility of being able to eat when you are hungry and with whom you would like certainly has its merits, and I think it is great that almost all of the American contemporary cruise lines are now offering their own versions of flexible dining to give us more of a choice when we cruise. There are slight differences and distinctions between the cruise lines' programs, so I am briefly outlining them here.

I think it is important to begin with NCL, because their Freestyle Dining is probably what started the movement. NCL's program is very flexible, allowing you to eat wherever you want and whenever you want. Reservations can be made onboard the ship or you can walk up to a restaurant and be seated, but depending on the time you arrive, you may encounter a wait. NCL actually will charge a fee if you fail to cancel a reservation, but I think this is a good way to deter passengers from making reservations at every restaurant on the ship and preventing others from dining there when they'd like. Overall, I really like NCL's Freestyle cruising experience, and I think the Freestyle dining works well, but I have found some of their waitstaff to be very impersonal.

Princess has offered its Anytime Dining for quite a while now, and I think it works quite well also. One of the main dining rooms is used for traditional seatings, and the other is used for Anytime Dining. You can make reservations once you get onboard, or you can just show up, and sometimes, depending on what time it is, you may encounter a wait. I have taken a number of Princess cruises and never had to wait more than 15 minutes to be seated, so that turned out good, but on my last Princess cruise I encountered waitstaff that was impersonal and seemed rushed. Perhaps the waitstaff needed to be better trained or we caught them at a bad moment. Overall, the program works well in my opinion.

Holland America's As You Wish Dining works similarly to Princess's program. This program was introduced about 2 years ago and has been implemented fleetwide for about a year. As You Wish dining operates much like Princess's program does, with one dining room designated for traditional dining, and the other for flexible dining. Reservations can be made once onboard the ship.

Carnival now offers its Your Choice Dining on some of its ships and it should be implemented fleetwide in mid-2010. When booking, guests now choose which dining option they want, be it Early Seating, Late Seating, or Your Choice, and the dining selection is then confirmed. With Your Choice Dining, guests can make reservations once onboard and will be seated at 15-minute intervals. Too bad this program wasn't available when I sailed on the Valor last July because I would have liked to experience it. I assume that the program will operate similarly to Princess and Holland America, with one dining room for traditional and the other for Your Choice.

Royal Caribbean offers My Time Dining, which allows guests to make daily reservations once onboard. The difference with My Time Dining is that guests must enroll in the program in advance of their cruise, and they must pre-pay their gratuities to participate. I do not really understand why Royal Caribbean requires guests to pre-pay their gratuities, since the line charges gratuities to guests' onboard accounts anyway, but perhaps they do so to ensure that the waitstaff get what they are entitled to.

Royal Caribbean also offers a unique program called My Family Time Dining, which offers an expedited 40-minute dinner experience during the first seating in the main dining room for kids, ages 3-11, enrolled in the Adventure Ocean youth program. Once seated, kids will enjoy expedited service and be immediately served. Forty-five minutes into the seating, a youth counselor will escort kids from the main dining room entrance back to the Adventure Ocean spaces for continued evening activities, allowing parents to enjoy the rest of their dinner quietly while the children play elsewhere. This isn't flexible, in that it is only for early seating guests, but it sounds like a great program and apparently there is no charge to participate.

At the end of August, Celebrity announced its Celebrity Select dining program, which offers a feature that the other flexible dining programs do not offer: the ability to make dining reservations before you even board the ship! Guests can book reservations online up to 4 days before boarding, so they can really plan ahead! Like Royal Caribbean, Celebrity requires guests to enroll in the program in advance and requires pre-paid gratuities. The program became available on the September 26 sailing of the Equinox, and will be introduced on other ships according to a schedule on the cruise line's website. The online system for reservations is supposed to become operational for most sailings on October 15, and guests will always have at least 30 days before sailing to begin making their reservations.

With Celebrity's program starting up, we now have almost every contemporary and upscale American-market cruise line offering some form of flexible dining. Carnival, Royal Caribbean, NCL, Celebrity, Princess, and Holland America all offer a program, and I think this really shows how the industry is open to change. The only player in these American-market cruise line categories that does not offer a flexible dining program is Disney, although the fixed dining program they offer isn't exactly "traditional". Disney's program truly is unique, but I choose not to elaborate because the program is really beyond the scope of this blog entry. Nevertheless, this shift towards freedom to dine at guest's schedules instead of the cruise lines', shows how the cruise lines are constantly evolving to meet our needs and desires. This is yet another reason why cruising is about the best vacation experience around.

You Can Rock Climb, Ice Skate, Surf, and Now Hip Hop on Royal Caribbean!

Well, looks like Royal Caribbean has done it again, coming up with a new activity on its ships. We all know that you can rock climb, ice skate and surf aboard Royal Caribbean's ships, but now you can learn to Hip Hop Dance, too! The new Hip Hop dance adventure that transcends all ages, languages, and skill levels is taking Royal Caribbean ships by storm. This program is offering guests the opportunity to let loose, chase a dream, and ‘wow’ their cruisemates with cool new dance moves beginning summer 2009, all on ships in the fleet. Based on the documentary film by Dori Berinstein, award-winning director and producer of film, theater and television, the guest-participatory Gotta Dance experience is being exclusively offered by Royal Caribbean International.

“Gotta Dance is the newest Royal Caribbean International program that offers guests an opportunity to try something different on their vacation regardless of age and experience,” said Peter Compton, vice president, Entertainment, Royal Caribbean International. “Every age is welcome and no experience is necessary. As with many of our onboard programs, Gotta Dance helps bring families closer together and build lasting relationships among guests for an unforgettable cruise vacation.”

Royal Caribbean’s Gotta Dance is inspired by the award-winning documentary film of the same name, which will hit the big screen across the United States beginning in July 2009. Gotta Dance (www.GottaDanceTheMovie.com) chronicles the first-ever senior-citizen, hip-hop dance troupe for the New Jersey Nets Basketball Team. Just like the film, Royal Caribbean’s Gotta Dance program will offer guests, from the young to the young-at-heart, a chance to grab their moment in the spotlight.

Kicking off each cruise will be a special screening of the film. Guests sailing on select ships before the nationwide roll-out of the movie will be treated to an advanced viewing of Gotta Dance. Participants will then be divided into teams and, over the course of their vacation, will learn choreographed routines with a member of the Royal Caribbean dance team in rehearsals during sea days. The program will culminate with the main event – a farewell show on the last evening of the cruise, whereby each of the teams will perform their routines in the ship’s main theater.

Each of the groups will perform a different routine, all of which were choreographed by New Jersey Nets Dance Coach Kimberlee Garris, who also appears in the Gotta Dance film. For each song an easy and more complex choreography has been designed, and Royal Caribbean’s Gotta Dance instructors will have the option of tweaking these versions further based on group skill level.

So if you plan on taking a Royal Caribbean cruise starting this summer, be sure to pack your dancing shoes and prepare to dance, dance, dance!

Chill and Thrill with Royal Caribbean!

Looks like Disney will no longer be the only cruise line that combines theme park packages on land with its cruises. It has recently been announced that Royal Caribbean International and Universal Orlando are teaming up to offer vacation packages that combine a theme park visit with a cruise out of Port Canaveral. Now you get to chill out on the ship and then get your thrills at Universal all in one convenient package!

The “Way More Than a Cruise” packages will pair three- or four-night stays at Universal with a three- or four-night Bahamian cruise aboard Royal Caribbean’s Monarch of the Seas or a seven-night Caribbean sailing aboard the Freedom of the Seas. The packages include hotel and shipboard accommodations, multi-day passes to both Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure, admission to some CityWalk venues and ground transfers between airport, hotel, theme parks and Port Canaveral. I think this is a great idea for those cruise passengers who would like to extend their vacations in Florida and have all the components planned out for them; no worries about transportation or tickets or anything. Just book and go!

These packages will be available for travel beginning March 31, 2009. “Universal Orlando Resort is thrilled to enter this partnership, bringing together two incredible experiences to create one memorable vacation,” Bill Davis, president and chief operating officer for Universal Orlando Resort, said in a written statement. “Our guests will not only enjoy some of the most entertaining theme-park attractions ever created, but also the world-class experiences and service Royal Caribbean is known for delivering.”

As always, to take advantage of this offer, contact Sheila McPherson, Your Independent Cruise Specialist with CruiseOne, at (630) 868-6719 or (877) 823-8597.

Cruise Carnival, Get Paid? Carnival Cruise Lines Now Offers Cash Back!

Carnival Cruise Lines announced a few days ago a new promotion offering "cash back" of up to $240 per stateroom for a wide range of the line's "Fun Ship" departures this summer.


The new promotion is available in conjunction with virtually all three- to eight-day summer departures, including voyages to the Caribbean, Bahamas and Mexico from fourteen (yes, 14!) convenient North American homeports. Bookings must be made between March 9 - May 10, 2009, to qualify for the promotion, which is valid with the line's "Fun Select" advance purchase discount fares.


The cash back option is provided in the form of a shipboard credit that can be redeemed once on board. Guests will receive a $100 per stateroom shipboard credit on three- and four-day cruises; $150 per stateroom shipboard credit on five-day voyages; and $240 per stateroom shipboard credit for six-, seven- and eight-day sailings. $240 is quite a bit of money to spend, so this is a great deal!


The shipboard credit is automatically applied on guests' Sail & Sign accounts when they board their cruise and can be redeemed toward shore excursions, spa treatments, supper club reservations, gift shop items and a variety of other shipboard purchases. Any unused funds at the end of the cruise will be returned to guests on debarkation day in the form of a check. And that's the greatest part about this promotion, because usually shipboard credit is not refundable, so if you don't spend it, you lose it.


"A 'Fun Ship' cruise is already an affordable vacation option for today's value-conscious consumers and this new promotion - which provides guests with cash back that can be used toward any shipboard purchase -- makes the value of a Carnival cruise even more outstanding," said Lynn Torrent, Carnival's senior vice president of sales and guest services. I heartily agree!


The new promotion is capacity controlled and applies to new individual bookings for stateroom categories 4A to 11. To book, give me a call today at (630) 868-6719 or
(877) 823-8597, and you'll be on your way to getting some bucks back from Carnival!

Lose Your Job? No Problem! "CruiseAssurance" to the Rescue!

This is big news! Just the other day, Norwegian Cruise Line announced that it was offering job-loss protection as part of its travel insurance plan for cruises booked with NCL after May 1, 2009. If you had been at your job for at least one year, then lost your job and couldn't afford to take your cruise and cancelled, you'd get reimbursed in full for any cancellation fees. Sounds pretty good, right?

Well, now the news gets even better. CruiseOne has just announced their innovative "CruiseAssurance" travel protection policy, which covers guests sailing on ALL cruise lines. Plus, there's no extra charge for this added protection, which provides full reimbursement for cancellation fees, so you can book your cruise and not have to worry if you need to cancel because you just got a pink slip.

Under the “CruiseAssurance” policy, clients can cancel their trip up to the day of departure, or even during their vacation! The only requirements are that travelers purchase an entry-level travel insurance plan – administered by Travel Guard – and present their termination letter. One year of employment is required. “CruiseAssurance” applies to bookings made March 1 through May 2, 2009 and is offered in addition to an already comprehensive travel protection policy.

Like I said, this is really big news in the cruise industry, and everyone needs to know about it. With unbelievable pricing and promotions going on right now, there really is no better time to book a cruise, and with "CruiseAssurance", that just makes it even better!

To book your next cruise vacation, contact Sheila McPherson, Your Personal Cruise Specialist with CruiseOne, at (630) 868-6719 or toll free at (877) 823-8597.

Carnival Conquest is Now a "Funner" Fun Ship!

The Carnival Conquest has resumed service out of Galveston, Texas, now that she has undergone an extensive, multi-million-dollar renovation.

So what has been renovated? She got a new Circle "C" club for 12 to 14 year olds to hang out in, a massive LED screen on the Lido Deck, and eighteen balconies were added to existing oceanview staterooms.

I really like the Circle "C" club for tweens. The facilites are excellent, including a high-tech sound and lighting system, plasma screen TVs displaying movies and music videos, a touch-screen jukebox, and gaming pods with the latest video games and consoles. This gives these kids who aren't quite teenagers a perfect place to hang out and have fun in a setting all their own. They won't have to worry about their younger siblings interrupting their fun, because the younger set is safely installed in another area of the ship: the 4,200 square foot Camp Carnival play area. This area was also remodeled with updated gaming stations and various cosmetic enhancements.

The teens onboard will enjoy some enhancements to their 1,800-square-foot Club O2 teen center, which now features new plasma TVs. Carnival's programs for its younger guests are fleetwide and give them a real chance to play with others their own age while their parents get a break as well.

The addition of the Seaside Theater now puts the Conquest within a special "club" of ships within the line. The massive 270-square-foot LED screen on Lido Deck displays movies, concerts, sporting events, and other programming, including a “Morning Show” hosted by the ship’s cruise director. Utilizing the same technology featured in large stadiums and New York’s Times Square, the state-of-the-art entertainment system includes a 70,000-watt sound system, providing concert quality sound, even outdoors. The concept is similar to a program called "Movies Under the Stars" on some Princess ships and is quite enjoyable.

Eighteen staterooms on the Carnival Conquest that previously featured floor-to-ceiling windows have been retrofitted with private balconies, creating expansive 230-square-foot verandah staterooms. Including these accommodations, Carnival Conquest now has 573 total balcony staterooms – ideal for scenic Caribbean cruising.

Other improvements to the ship include replacing dozens of individual pieces of exercise equipment in the ship’s 14,500-square-foot Spa Carnival facility. Even more impressive, the Carnival Conquest is also the latest “Fun Ship” to offer bow-to-stern Wi-Fi access, enabling guests to use their laptop computers from any location on the ship, including their staterooms. This is a boon to those of us who need to stay connected even while we're at sea!

The 110,000-ton Carnival Conquest operates year-round seven-day Caribbean cruises departing Galveston every Sunday. In addition to seven-day western Caribbean cruises to Montego Bay, Grand Cayman and Cozumel, the ship begins a new weeklong eastern Caribbean option Feb. 15, with calls at Key West, Freeport and Nassau. The Feb. 15 departure will be the first of 11 eastern Caribbean cruises this year.

For more information on the Carnival Conquest or any ship in the Carnival fleet, contact me, your Personal Cruise Specialist, at (630) 868-6719.

CruiseOne is Celebrity's National Account Partner of the Year!

Celebrity Cruises announced today that it has named World Travel Holdings (WTH) its 2008 “National Account Partner of the Year.” WTH owns and operates several cruise brands, including Fort Lauderdale-based CruiseOne and Cruises Inc. CruiseOne is a leading U.S. franchise operation of more than 550 Franchise Owners specializing in cruise travel, and I am one of them! Our sister company, Cruises Inc., is the original host agency with nearly 500 independent contractors selling cruise vacations. With these brands, WTH is the nation’s leading retailer of cruise travel, and we love doing what we do!

“Throughout 2008, Celebrity Cruises showed that they are willing to make a continued investment in the travel agent community,” said Brad Tolkin, Co-Chairman and Co-CEO of World Travel Holdings, and all-around good guy. “Celebrity was the first to implement a no rebate policy and was among the first to eliminate fuel surcharges. They are clearly committed to helping travel agents succeed. This level of respect does not go unnoticed by our agents and as we proudly accept this honor, we pledge to continue doing our part in 2009.” You go, Brad!

The recognition of WTH as Celebrity Cruises’ 2008 “National Account Partner of the Year” follows a year of shared milestones for the industry leaders.

In September, CruiseOne and Cruises Inc. held the companies’ annual National Conference aboard the Celebrity Mercury, and I was there. Dondra Ritzenthaler, Senior Vice President of Sales for Celebrity and Azamara Cruises, served as the event’s keynote speaker, and her speech was, to use her words, "super fantastic!" Her speech was quite motivational and I will remember it for years to come. Also during the conference, Celebrity was named “Premium Cruise Line Partner of the Year.” That award was voted on by nearly 1,100 CruiseOne Franchise Owners and Cruises Inc. Independent Agents, although I didn't get to vote. I don't know why.

In November, WTH, CruiseOne and Cruises Inc. exclusively chartered the Celebrity Solstice for a special two-night sailing. The companies’ Franchise Owners and Independent Agents had exclusive access to this unique sailing and built widespread national consumer demand for the ship’s anticipated debut. I wanted to go on that sailing but wasn't able to, unfortunately; however, I heard it was s huge success.

"We are thrilled to recognize World Travel Holdings as our National Account Partner of the Year," said Dondra Ritzenthaler, Senior Vice President of Sales, Celebrity Cruises. "Day in and day out, the WTH team demonstrates nothing but professionalism and a desire to succeed, and it is a pleasure to partner with such a terrific group of people. We look forward to a long and continued partnership with WTH."

A good majority of the cruises I sold last year were on Celebrity, and I am proud to be a part of WTH's success in being named National Account Partner of the Year. Here's to being Celebrity's National Account Partner for 2009!