Photo of the Day- the old and the new

Today’s Photo of the Day comes from flicker user Kumukulanui who tells us “The ‘Pride of America’ cruise ship moored off Kailua-Kona on the Big Island of Hawai’i. Just in front of it is a small craft made in the style of the traditional wa’a kaulua (twin-hulled canoe) that Hawaiians used to travel around the Pacific Ocean in centuries past.”

Do you have some photos from your travels that you would like to share? Upload it to the Gadling group pool on Flickr. If we like it we might just select it to be a future Photo of the Day.

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Cruise lines branch out, sell other stuff too

Looking to be the best-dressed passenger on your next cruise? No? How about looking like you went on a particular ship but didn’t really make it? No? Hmm, well how about you want a cool gag gift to give your friend who hates even the idea of a cruise? Oh, that might work? Well now there is no need to sail anymore just to get all the cool cruise line swag that makes your friends green with envy (or about to be sick) because cruise lines are branching out and sell most all that stuff in advance, online.

Just this week, Norwegian Cruise Line set up shop online offering everything from ball caps to coffee mugs for sale. At the new Norwegian Cruise Line shop, you can order and have those hard-to-get items that would normally cost the price of a cruise vacation to get delivered to your home. Some real thought went into these items too. I like the Solar Powered Battery Charger as a cool bit of cruise gear. It’s kind of pricey at $43.75 but the 60″ Golf Umbrella for $15.85 is a steal.

Other lines do this too. Check Royal Caribbean’s Gifts and Gear pages where they offer a wide variety of products for at home or on the road. A Royal Caribbean Dual Sports Bottle/Thermos is a good deal at $15.00. Royal Caribbean breaks down their products into categories too like Luxurious Lounge Wear, Adventure Gear and Travel Essentials.

Surely, these are no SkyMall Monday offerings but there is some good stuff here.Royal Caribbean International announced not long ago the new Royal Caribbean Bedding Collection available for sale to anyone. You might never sail on one of their ships but can get these fine linens delivered to your home.

“In line with our Royal Advantage program, the Royal Caribbean Bedding Collection was chosen with care to offer the indulgent sleep experience that they enjoy onboard and longed and requested to bring home,” said Lisa Bauer, senior vice president of Hotel Operations.

Royal Caribbean’s collection offers not just sheets and pillows but full-size ma tresses as well made in Italy by Matermoll and Emmebiesse. The popular Royal Memory Pillows start at $79 (with $26.95 shipping make that $105.95. Kinda pricey. Remember that number, we’ll be coming back to it shortly.

Rival lines Carnival and Holland America also offer bedding for sale. I have a bunch of the Carnival Comfort Collection pillows that have done well over the 4 years we have used them. It makes sense too; this stuff is made both for durability and comfort. To make it to luxury-status in a commercial setting, they have to hit both marks.

The other cruise line products available online tend to be well-made too, especially the logo items. Cruise lines want you wearing that ball cap for years to come. Free advertising is pretty hard to beat.

As cruise lines branch out, we’re hoping for Royal Caribbean to open a Cupcake Cupboard right down the street. That would be…well…sweet!

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Flickr photo by brianholsclaw

The Cougar Cruise is back!

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to sea, here they come again. The Cougar Cruise is back and it’s a cruise to the Bahamas, December 2-5, 2011, aboard Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Sky, departing from Miami.

“Adult Cougars (older women) and Cubs (younger men) of all ages” says The Society of Single Professionals and SinglesTravelCompany.com, co-sponsors of the event, are invited to cruise to Nassau and also NCL’s private island, Great Stirrup Cay.

“Last year’s Cougar Cruise to the Bahamas was so much fun,” says Rich Gosse, Executive Producer of cougarevents.com, “we are doing it again”. The Cruise will be one of two grand prizes that will be awarded to the winner of the title of Miss Cougar America at the National Cougar Convention, April 29, 2011, at Greenhouse Nightclub in New York City.

The cost is $331 per person, cougar or cub, cruise only, inside cabin, based on double occupancy. The price includes port charges and taxes. We’re not sure who buys the drinks.





Flickr photo by KRO-media

Old cruise ships get new features


When a new cruise ship comes out, it has all the latest features and what cruise ship designers hope will provide the best, most relevant experience for today’s cruise passenger. Later, after those new features turn out to be of an enduring nature, cruise lines often add them to older ships. Sometimes this process adds value to older ships that would otherwise be lacking in features by comparison. Other times when old cruise ships get new features it only makes a good ship better.
Royal Caribbean’s (@RoyalCaribbean) Freedom of the Seas, one of the most popular ships in the fleet, just completed a series of upgrades at the Grand Bahama Shipyard. This is a ship that was already popular and selling well so new features, many made popular on the newest Oasis-class ships, will be a welcome addition to an already successful operation. Here is what has been added:
  • Royal Babies and Tots Nursery
  • Large 18.5-foot video screen overlooking family pool area
  • LCD wayfinder system
  • Cupcake Cupboard restaurant
  • Vintages lounge will be redone
  • DreamWorks Experience
  • 3D movie screen
  • Imaginocean! puppet show
  • Outdoor LED video walls

It’s not like Royal Caribbean got a special deal on giant TV screens so they needed someplace to put them either. Fueled by passenger response, the line is giving them what they want. Called the Royal Advantage program, the line is investing $70 million to keep older ships current.

“The outdoor video screen installed aboard Liberty of the Seas in January has already been so well received that we have decided to deploy it aboard all the ships scheduled to undergo the Royal Advantage revitalization in 2011.” said Royal Caribbean vice president of hotel operations Lisa Bauer said Royal Caribbean blog. (@theRCLblog)

Sometimes a bit of tweaking is done after that new ship launches but cruise lines know their passengers well and most often they get it right. Still, there are always some people who just don’t like change.

Princess Cruises
(@PrincessCruises) found that out when they invented Movies Under The Stars several years ago when Caribbean Princess debuted. The new feature was wildly popular with most guests but some did not care for the new feature. When the line (logically) announced it would be added to other ships in the fleet, tempers flared and cruise message boards were afire with heated debates.

Occasionally, cruise lines do get it wrong though and have to figure out what to do with/about features that don’t pan out to be everything they dreamed or are what they dreamed but just did not catch on.

In their ongoing efforts to be innovative, Norwegian Cruise Line (@NCLFreestyle) tried adding a mock-ice skating feature to new Norwegian Epic. When CEO Kevin Sheehan looked at shipboard operations from a different angle on the CBS television program Undercover Boss it was clear: this is not a good idea. That idea did not make it and was scrapped but you have to give them credit for trying something different. Still, popular features like Cirque Dreams and Dinner (the best at-sea entertainment I have ever seen), Blue Man Group, Legends in Concert and more get rave reviews on Norwegian Epic. The first-of-their-kind solo studios are the answer to solo traveler’s prayers.

Sometimes cruise lines take spaces already on existing ships that may under-utilized and do something different as multi-use spaces become more popular on new ships.

Carnival Cruise Lines (@CarnivalCruise) recently added Punchliner Comedy Clubs to every ship in the fleet after testing revealed them to be wildly popular with guests. Located in the ship’s aft lounge, each Punchliner Comedy Club offers guests loads of laughs with five 35-minute shows on multiple nights during each voyage, with at least two comedians performing each night. The two early-evening shows offer fun for the whole family while the later performances will feature adult-oriented comedy.

Cruise passengers are finding out that older ships can be some of the very best values too. With new ships demanding the premium “I wanna be on the newest ship” price, older ships which may indeed have some of the newest features, are almost always less expensive.

Flickr photo by Monica R

Cruise lines give back


Cruise lines are often in the news for a variety of reasons these days, some good, some not so good. The not-so-good stories touch topics like a passenger or crew member lost at sea, attacks on their record as a friend (or foe) of the environment and more. Good news includes a focus on safety in an unsafe travel world, the great value a cruise vacation represents and every once in a while a story or two about cruise lines giving back through charitable efforts.

Just this month, Carnival Cruise Lines launched a “Build a Ship” contest that invites anyone 13 years or older to build a model Carnival ship out of everyday items and submit a photo of it to win a free Carnival cruise. The contest, which benefits St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, is the latest in a series of contests and other activities in anticipation of the May 1, 2011 launch of the line’s newest ship, Carnival Magic. Carnival will donate $1 to St. Jude, up to $10,000, for each entry.

Carnival has an ongoing program that helps this and a variety of charitable and arts-related organizations. The company and its employees support .

In the past five years alone, Carnival and its employees have contributed more than $30 million in financial contributions and in-kind donations to a variety of local and national charities. Following the example set forth by Carnival’s founder, the late Ted Arison, and continued by his son Micky, chairman and CEO of Carnival Cruise Lines’ parent company, Carnival Corporation & plc, Carnival and its employees endeavor to make South Florida and its other homeport communities better places to live and work.

Other cruise lines give back as well.

Norwegian Cruise Line is known in the cruise industry as an innovator. Inventing what they call Freestyle Cruising, the line broke new ground offering their “guests” the ability to skip the formal wear and time restrictions for dining as it had been, years before many other lines loosened up the onboard experience. Answering the call from solo cruisers, the line added single accommodations on their new Norwegian Epic.

Norwegian recently announced a $5 million donation to the Camillus House, a shelter in Miami, Florida that has served the homeless for half a century. Norwegian Cruise Line CEO Kevin Sheehan told the Miami Herald of the line’s commitment saying “it’s critically important that as an organization, we have a charitable side to us.”

Camillus House is expanding and the donation from Norwegian Cruise Line could not have come at a better time. Expansion plans are in progress and the Norwegian donation helps the organization meet a goal to raise almost half of the $84 million tab for its new complex from private funds.

Cruise lines set competition aside for the greater good in what seems a natural fit

Camillus House has Bob Dickinson, former CEO of competitor Carnival Cruise Lines before retiring in 2007 as chairman of the board of directors. Norwegian’s Sheehan said the donation had been discussed over a few years between him and Dickinson.

Dr. Paul Ahr, president and CEO of Camillus House draws an accurate parallel between giving and cruise lines:

“On a ship, I am treated with tremendous hospitality, I can set aside my daily struggles or challenges,” he said. “When people come to stay with us at Camillus House, people who have been on the street a long time, they recognize our own sense of hospitality. We are here to serve them.”

Three different companies, one solid goal.

I don’t have numbers on what the cruise lines have given back in total but I bet it is a generous amount in not just money but time and resources as well.

Relief to Haiti is an ongoing effort at Royal Caribbean International. Highlighted by opening one of the first schools to be built after the earthquake in October 2010 and company blogs that helped keep the world informed, relief efforts started just three days after the earthquake.

The efforts continue too as company lets those with Royal Caribbean Visa cards help by donating their points to help in aide programs. Guests aboard sister-lines Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Club Cruises can donate to Food for the Poor’s Haiti Relief Fund via their onboard charge accounts while sailing.

Cruise lines help raise funds while their guests are on vacation.

One of the biggest and most widespread programs cruise lines offer in giving back is through group cruises. By designating onboard perks and bonus amenities not as onboard credit or a bottle of wine but as a donation for their cause, charitable organizations have been raising funds through group cruises for years. That adds up fast too, even with small groups.

A recent fund-raising cruise hosted by the Temple Shalom in Florida paired over 150 senior ladies for a Temple Shalom Sisterhood Fun-raiser cruise on Royal Caribbean that raised over $6000 for the Villages Hospice and Temple Building Fund.

Norwegian CEO Kevin Sheehan put it well when he told the Miami Herald that although Norwegian Cruise Line is a privately held company, “it’s critically important that as an organization, we have a charitable side to us.”

It seems they all do.

In fact, Norwegian’s Sheehan, recently featured in an episode of CBS’s Undercover Boss television program, took it a step further, looking inside his organization and gave $100,000 to supplement the Crew Enrichment Program to ensure the entire crew across our fleet feels appreciated.

Like they say, “charity starts at home.”

Flickr photo by puuikibeach