Take your cruise ship home, part of it anyway

by Chris Owen on

Did you have a good time on your cruise, so much fun that you would like to take your cruise ship home? Now you can.

Not to be confused with stealing towels or silverware, some cruise lines are allowing passengers to enjoy some of the luxury they experience at sea right in their own homes. No, they’re not sending a masseur over for a little session on the night of your choice or shipping you Lobster-Night-In-A-Box. But they are offering a service that even those who have never been on a cruise can take advantage of.

The topic comes up because this week, Royal Caribbean International announced the new Royal Caribbean Bedding Collection available for sale to anyone.

“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.

Thinking about just stuffing that pillow in your suitcase before leaving the ship? Think again.

Bed bugs, even a few, attached to that pillow can infest your home and multiply quickly. Odds are you don’t make your bed and perform an informal inspection for bed bugs twice daily or disinfect foundation pieces each week like they do on cruise ships.

Those bed bugs are going to love your home.

Suddenly, after spending a lot of money with an exterminator to get rid of your little friends from the cruise ship, that $105.95 price tag for a pillow doesn’t sound so bad. I’m still not sure how they get $26.95 to ship a pillow. Maybe the captain delivers it, tucks you in and tells a tale of great wonder about life at sea and giant octopi.

But bedding is just one item for sale from the cruise lines.

Let’s go back to 2005 and another cruise line at-home program. Carnival Cruise Line’s Presidential Wine Club. It was a mail-order program where members were shipped two bottles of wine each month, selected by the line’s then president, Bob Dickinson, a noted wine connoisseur and collector. That program really never took off the way the cruise line had hoped and was canceled after a very short life. Buying into pretty much anything cruise-related at the time, I joined that club but was kind of relieved once it was over, the wine was really stacking up. These things happen to beer drinkers.

Royal Caribbean also offers would-be passengers/imposter’s the ability to look all cruisey without even going to sea with their Gifts and Gear Ashore program. This one lets us visit the cruise ship gift shop from home ordering a wide variety of clothing and other items we might find on the ships.

Want to freak out your friends at the next WeHateCruises.org meeting? Buy a Royal Caribbean t-shirt and tell them “I kinda liked it”.

Related Stories

Flickr photo by ceemarie

Photo of the Day- Mickey’s Forest

by Chris Owen on
Brian Searl, President and CEO of InsiderPerks sends us this photo of a hidden Mickey so big it can only be seen from the air:

Seeking out something unique on your vacations has to be one of the most enjoyable experiences of all. You can do what everyone else does or you can go for that story that no one else knows.

In my case, I was along for a ride in a hot-air balloon over Central Florida, with a company called Bob’s Balloons. I had no idea this forest, shaped like the head of Mickey Mouse, even existed until Bob told me to look down.

Turns out Disney has been growing this forest for well over a decade now and grooming it into the shape of Mickey Mouse. It’s never been publicized to my knowledge and I couldn’t even begin to tell you how to get there from the ground. What I do know is that it made my 6yo daughter’s day and gave her a story to tell all her friends.

After all, the stories we come back with are what make the vacation memorable right?

Photo: Insider Perks

Drunken pilots delay flight

by Chris Owen on

We’re used to waiting on the tarmac for luggage to be loaded. Some people make a game out of looking for their bags. Sitting at the end of the runway too is to be expected. We don’t want the planes colliding in mid-air. But a flight delayed because the pilot is drunk is hard to anticipate.

A Boeing 737-700 full of passengers is nothing to be flying drunk but that’s exactly what would have happened on a charter plane in Costa Rica. Apparently the pilots had been partying for seven hours at a hotel before they were to take to the air

“The assistant captain underwent an examination of alcohol (which) turned out to be positive, while the skipper refused to blow in the balloon.” Alvaro Vargas, Assistant Director of the Civil Aviation Authority of Costa Rica told TravelMonitor

The flight was delayed by 24 hours to allow time for the pilots to sober up. No word on if passengers were allowed off the aircraft.

The charter company was sorry though. “They were not in the right condition to lead the plane. They were relieved of their duties” at least until the end of the investigation” the company said in a statement.

Related Stories

Flickr photo by rekay22

Bed bugs in hotels and on cruise ships? What about my backpack?

by Chris Owen on

The questions come and go for hotel managers, cruise ship cabin stewards, even sporting goods store workers but the bugs themselves, stay behind. It seems that infestations of bed bugs, the hematophagous (bloodsucking) insects of urban legend-quality mania are here to stay. Experts agree, the only thing to do is prevent them from dropping by in the first place.

One scary thought about bed bugs is that they can infect you with a disease they may have picked up from the last person they took a bite out of.No, those people are thinking of a vocal member of whatever political party you don’t care for. In the U.S. that could be Sarah Palin for some or Keith Oberman for others.

An expert on bed bugs (not politics) Richard J Pollack PhD says no way;

“The bites can cause distress, a few people have allergic reactions, and scratching can lead to secondary infection, but bed bugs are not known to transmit infectious diseases to humans,” says Pollack. “You don’t have to worry about who the bed bug fed on earlier. You’re not going to get hepatitis B or C, malaria, or HIV.”

On the contrary, we can often be harmed more by trying to get rid of bed bugs in the first place.

“Many people, whether they think they have bed bugs or truly do, will attempt to apply insecticides in their homes and on their beds. They don’t know what they’re doing, they don’t read the labels, and they can overexpose themselves to something, which, if used properly, would pose minimal risk.” adds Pollack.


These are really icky creatures

Some people think bed bugs are caused by poor hygiene…like people that don’t bathe frequently are more apt to foster an environment good for bed bugs to thrive. Again, not so much says BadBedBugs.com;

“Finding bed bugs in your home has nothing to do with poor hygiene! It takes only one bed bug to hitch a ride on your clothing (furniture, suitcase, etc) and infest your residence. What’s worse is that they can live up to one year without drinking a drop of your blood.”

Others think bed bugs hitch a ride on luggage and wind up anywhere that luggage might go including cruise ships.

I talked to bed bug specialists from Avoid-A-Bug told this week at Cruise Shipping Miami, a week-long trade show where cruise line executives and buyers stop by to sample the wares of vendors looking to get their business. They say bed bugs are not a big problem on cruise lines and that hotels are much worse. Avoid-A-Bug uses bug-sniffing dogs to find them.

“Cost-effectively locating these elusive insects can be a challenge especially in large multi-room structures. Pest control professionals are realizing the time and cost savings of enlisting bed bug sniffing dogs to help conduct preliminary inspections.” said Bill Cowley of Cowleys Termite and Pest Control.

What has more of a bed bug problem than cruise ships and hotels?

Airlines.

British Airways grounded two jumbo jets earlier this month not because of unrest in the world, earthquakes or tsunami’s, because of an infestation of bed bugs so bad that one passenger was badly bitten on two separate occasions reports Time.

BedBugs.com has some tips to protect against bed bugs when flying. You, not the bed bugs. Bed bugs don’t fly. Bed bugs don’t really even run much.

The tips we probably won’t do include calling ahead to the airline and asking “What steps do you take to keep bed bugs out of the passenger areas?” Somehow I can’t imagine myself making that call. They also suggest personally inspecting the area your seat is in for signs of bed bugs. That one might be good on full flights. We’ve sure heard stranger ways to get that upgrade to first class.

That leaves us with backpacks and sporting equipment of all kinds.

Tips for backpackers include water-proofing your tent and keeping it sealed whenever possible, putting your shoes in bed bug-proof bags when not using them and killing any visible bed bugs with alcohol.

Gadling has been seriously (?) covering this topic for quite some time, providing video on how to find and attack them and also an informative video about the top cities for infestations.

Related Stories

Photos courtesy BuzzKill Pest Control


$30 million ranch for sale near Zion National Park

by Kraig Becker on

Are you in the market for some real estate with a scenic view? Are you looking for a place that will let you get away from it all? If so, then I’ve got just the deal for you. The beautiful Trees Ranch, located right next to Zion National Park in Utah is on the market, and can be yours for just $30 million.

The ranch, which consists of nearly 2200 acres of land, is bordered on two sides by Zion, but the other two neighbors aren’t bad either. One of the other boundaries is the Canaan Mountain Wilderness and a fourth border sits next to acreage that is overseen by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. I think it is safe to say that this prime piece or real estate has the “scenic view” covered quite nicely.

And what exactly do you get for your $30 million? Glad you asked! Trees Ranch comes with 2066 acres of pristine land, 200 of which are dedicated to an organic apple orchard which provides inventory for the the Springdale Fruit Company. There is also several ranch houses, an on site vineyard, a stable and corral, and even a lake complete with a dock for launching boats. There are several historic sites on the premises as well, including an old pioneer homestead and cemetery, as well as ruins from the Anasazi Indian tribes that once lived in the area.

Best of all, the natural landscapes that surround the ranch are amongst the most beautiful in the entire western United States. Zion is well known for its towering rock spires and walls, while Canaan Mountain Wilderness is nearly 45,000 acres of public land, bounded by wind swept sandstone cliffs. The ranch exhibits much of the same scenery, giving the buyer of the property their very own personal national park to explore.

Seems like the perfect haven after a long day at the office. Now if only I could come up with down payment.

[Photo credit: Diliff via WikiMedia Commons]