Cruises

Your honeymoon vacation would be wonderful on a cruise. You can even get married on some of the cruise lines. On one cruise vacation we were on, there was a couple that got married on land at the point of embarkation and then had the reception on the ship. Another time, it was funny when we were on the Grand Princess in the Casino, and in walked a bride in full bridal regalia.

We took our honeymoon vacation on a cruise which was fabulous. Ask your travel agent about cruise ships that leave on a Sunday or Monday if your wedding is on a Saturday. By taking a Sunday cruise for your honeymoon vacation you have 24 hours to make it to your ship and you wont have added stress on your wedding day. There couldnt be a better way to have a honeymoon. You can even set up through your Travel Agent a bridal registry which will enable your wedding guests to pre-pay for spa packages or champagne. Its a perfect gift to give to newlyweds who are frazzled after planning their wedding.

Cruise Tip for the Bride: You may want to book the cruise in your maiden name. All travel documents must match your ID. You will not have had time to change your passport or drivers license to your new name and Security is very strict since September 11th. So keep it simple, book the cruise in the brides maiden name and it is one less thing you have to worry about your honeymoon vacation.

On Princess Cruise Lines the following ships, Caribbean, Coral, Diamond, Grand, Golden, Island, and Star Princess, can web cam your wedding ceremony to love ones at home.

Any special occasion qualifies for a cruise, birthdays, honeymoon vacations, anniversaries, or family reunions. On the newer ships that have wedding chapels there is a storage space for your wedding gown next to the main lounge. This is useful when you purchase a package to get married at one of the destinations like Bermuda or St. Thomas.

On one Cruise in Norway on Celebrity, we had spent the day touring and we were tired when we got back to the ship. We decided that we would stay in our Cabin and have room service. The dinner arrived on a rolling table with a white linen table cloth, china, silver and wine goblets and we ordered off the dinner menu from the main dining room. What a romantic night that was. I highly recommend that. Weve also had our breakfast delivered to the room and set up on our private balcony. Wonderful!!

Christmas and New Years are a great time to cruise although they are more expensive. The ships are beautifully decorated and the air is festive. You dont do any of the work. If you cruise at Thanksgiving, trust me here, there will be a lot of families and lots of kids. An inexpensive time to cruise is the week before Christmas or Thanksgiving; all cruise lines have deals at that time.

So pick your special occasion, be it a birthday, anniversary, or honeymoon vacation, whatever, call your travel agent and Set Sail!

Happy Cruising!

Copyright 2006 Mary Hanna All Rights Reserved.
This article may be distributed freely on your website and in your ezines, as long as this entire article, copyright notice, links and the resource box are unchanged.

Why A Cruise Is Such A Great Value, Whats Included and Whats Not?

Cruising is about nothing if it’s not about having choices: sleeping in from a late night disco party or savoring a cup of latte as the sun rises over your balcony; dressing up for a formal night or lacing up for a run around an inline skating track. And every cruise line out there is competing for your attention, doing everything thing they can to lure you onboard.

You can have the vacation of a lifetime, see the world, completely unwind, take a walk on the wild side, dance the night away, feast on fabulous cuisine, learn something new, make friends, bond with your family, and steal quiet moments with your spouse. Whatever your heart desires, is yours, when you choose to cruise.

Cruising offers the best travel buy you can get for your money. It includes your meals, your cabin, you’re out onboard activities, nighttime parties and all sponsored entertainment. Each ship is a complete resort and destination unto itself.

Cruise ships and holidays are a natural match: Both are in the good-times business. And when you sail during the holiday season you get the fun of built-in parties and feast-quality meals plus someone else to cook them, someone else to do the decorating and entertaining, and someone else to clean up the mess afterward. The only thing they don’t do is write out your Christmas cards.

A cruise vacation removes 90% of the hassle of a land-based vacation. Your ship is your floating hotel, restaurant, resort, nightclub, tour office, and health club. You spend time enjoying your vacation, not waiting in hotel or rental car check-in lines.

On a traditional Vacation, the Family is pretty much stuck together, on a Cruise they are not. Each individual can pursue his or her interests and rejoin the Family at some prearranged time. Cruising is wonderful for Family Reunions because there is something for each generation to enjoy.

Expect to be pampered, massaged, and stuffed with culinary delights. Expect your imagination to wander, thinking of the ships of old. Expect to feel incredibly relaxed, exhilarated, caressed by sun, sand and wind; expect the unexpected. In short….RELAX and ENJOY!

Whether its a small family of 10 or a large group of 100, a cruise ship may be the best place for a reunion. Family reunion members seek accommodations they can use as a base for dining, sightseeing and socializing together. They want good children’s programs, entertainment and activities. But they also want to make sureeveryone in the group has personal time to pursue their own interests.

You are generally going to know what the cost of your vacation well be before you go. Your extra costs will be shore excursions, cocktails, spa treatments, beauty shop and casino gambling.

You can look at it as a prepaid vacation with extras of your choosing. Knowing what’s included and what’s not included allows you to budget your vacation spending more closely.

The cost of your cruise will depend on your choice of accommodations. These accommodations range from an inside Stateroom to a Suite with a Private Balcony overlooking the sea. Each Stateroom includes two twin beds or queen-size bed, bathroom, shower, TV and makeup table/desk.

When comparing the price of a cruise vacation versus a land-based holiday, consider that transportation, hotel, meals, entertainment and most activities are included. Even an all-inclusive land resort package can not top that (it doesn’t go anywhere).

Cruising is the best way to experience a number of destinations that you may want to revisit for a longer period of time later.

Today’s ships offer rock climbing, basketball, video arcades, swimming pools, spas, huge gyms with yoga and spinning classes, an indoor ice-skating rink and, yes, even mini-golf.

Remember, you only unpack once, no matter how many ports of call you visit. No checking in, or checking out and no running to make plane connections in order to get the next port. You’ll be sleeping while the ship takes you to a new destination. Fall asleep in one place and awake to a new one and youre already unpacked.

All your movies, shows and lounge entertainment are included.

You already have a seat at the best restaurant in town.

You have many choices for shopping, touring, entertainment and sports activities.

Cruise travel is for everyone who wants to have the best possible vacation at the best possible price.

Choose to cruise for CUISINE. Tantalize your taste buds with gourmet fare that showcases exotic ingredients, old standbys like pizza and ice cream or spa cuisine for a healthy alternative. Depending on your mood, dine in a traditional ballroom setting, a small bistro or a casual eatery.

Carbohydrate Counter Menus are the latest rage among the Cruise Lines.

Don’t forget the 24-hour room service, which is also free.

Heres a cruise tip: Choose to cruise for ROMANCE. Secluded beaches, in suite dining on a balcony overlooking the ocean and spa services for two are just some of the romantic pursuits available.

In many cruise reviews, cruising routinely earned the highest ratings in customer satisfaction among all vacation categories.

When you try cruising for the first time, you will be hooked. The one major complaint the Cruise lines hear over and over again, is that cruises end far too soon!

What’s not included in your cruise?

Typically those items and services there are of a personal nature are extra. Most alcoholic beverages, soft drinks, the salon services, shore excursions, shipboard gift and sundries purchases, Internet usage, long-distance phone calls, tips, casino gaming and your transportation to and from your cruise, are extra cost.

So what are you waiting for? Set Sail!

Happy Cruising!

Copyright 2006 Mary Hanna All Rights Reserved.
This article may be distributed freely on your website and in your ezines, as long as this entire article, copyright notice, links and the resource box are unchanged.

What is a repositioning cruise, and why would you want to go on one? Well, you might not want to, but there are many reasons why you would or would not want to embark on such a journey. A repositioning cruise is a little bit different from a normal cruise for a couple of reasons. Below is outlined some of the ways that it is different from a regular cruise and how this works for and against you and your travel needs.

(1) A repositioning cruise leaves one port and arrives in another. That is, a repositioning cruise does not return to the port from which it departed. This is because of the changing climates of the water. So, like birds, cruise ships relocate north or south depending on the season. This often takes a number of days and a lot of resources, so instead of relocating the ships sans passengers, the cruise lines offer repositioning cruises at a deeply discounted price.

(2) That brings us to pro number one. The cost is much less than your average cruise. However, since you have to pay your own air fare to and from the ports of call, it could end up being about the same in the long run, since your plane tickets to two different locations will likely be more than a standard round trip ticket.

(3) These trips are often longer than normal cruises, lasting an average of nine to eighteen days. This is great for longer vacations, and tend to be very relaxing for those who are able to take advantage of such an extended journey. However, many people can not afford to take so much time off of work, so this really is a niche market.

(4) Repositioning cruises tend to make much less stops at ports of call, since their main purpose is to relocate the ship to a final destination. This is good if you would like to spend a lot of time at sea, but if you want to see a lot of different places, than it is unlikely that you will find what you are looking for on a repositioning cruise.

So where can you find a repositioning cruise? Well, you could watch the birds and see which way they are flying. If that is not working for you, however, you could check out some of these resources:

The Carnival Spirit winters on the Mexican Riviera and repositions to Alaska via Hawaii in the fall.

The Carnival Liberty goes from the Mediterranean in the summer to the Atlantic in the fall

The Celebrity Constellation and the Celebrity Millennium relocate from the Caribbean to Europe in the spring and then head back for the Americas in the fall

The Costa Atlantica and Costa Mediterranea cross the Atlantic to reposition from the Caribbean to Europe in the spring.

There are many other opportunities to cash in on this great cruise discount. The best place to check is cruises repositioning from Alaska for the winter. Give your travel agent a call and check it out.