The SXSW Of Cruise Travel Starts Monday

Considered by many as the SXSW of cruise travel, Cruise Shipping Miami is an annual mega-convention that starts Monday in Miami, Florida. On hand will be cruise line executives and travel experts participating in panel discussions, workshops and more during the four-day event, on track to draw record attendance this year.

The four-day trade show highlights all the latest and greatest would-be cruise ship features that we might see in the future. Press conferences, including a “State of the Industry” panel, will surely address the ongoing issue of safety at sea as well as new, upcoming trends.

As cruise lines focus on differentiating themselves from one another, seminars on everything from expedition cruising to social media, environmental issues and refurbishing older ships. Gadling will be on hand, looking for answers to questions readers have raised since last year’s show.At the 2011 Cruise Shipping Miami conference, we investigated new things you might see on a cruise ship in the future, some of which made it – others not so much. Last year we saw a focus on new ports, top-deck features and safety issues in the wake of the Costa Concordia grounding. Gadling will be on hand this year as well, reporting back with a roundup of the conference and answers to your questions.

Have something you’re dying to know about cruise travel? Now is the time to ask with a comment below. Follow @CruiseShipping and the hashtag #CSM2013 on Twitter for live updates throughout the event.

Cruise Shipping Miami also features exhibits and demonstrations from destinations around the world. At last year’s show, Japanese Taiko Drumming was one such event as we see in this video.




[Photo credit – Flickr user Trondheim Havn]

Flight To Comet Sold Out But There Are Other Options

Astronomers are calling 2013 “the year of the comet” as the first of two comets set to swing by Earth comes within view of the naked eye. Some avid sky watchers may be viewing with binoculars. Others may get an even closer view, thanks to a German travel agency.

On March 16, Eclipse Travel of Bonn, Germany, will have Air Berlin’s flight 1000 full of stargazers, giving them two hours closer to the comet than anyone else on the planet.

The company will fill just 88 of the 144 seats on board the Boeing 737-700, allowing everyone to have a window view at an average ticket price of $500 per person, reports TravelMole.

Wish you had booked a seat? Is astronomy your passion? You have options.

Closer to home, Spears Travel of Tulsa, Oklahoma, has a Sky & Telescope’s Iceland Aurora Adventure set for April 7. Currently, the event is also sold out, but they are accepting names for a waiting list. The seven-night astronomy adventure to view the northern lights in Iceland sold for $2995 per person.Eclipse Tours of Houston, Texas, has more options, planning trips through 2015. Providing guided expeditions of astronomical events throughout the world, Eclipse Tours is the home of Ring of Fire Expeditions (ROFE), the longest consecutive astronomical tour organization in the United States.

This year, Eclipse will visit the island of Tarawa, Kiribati, for its 41st Annular Solar Eclipse Tour in May and space is still available. Another tour heads to Guadalcanal in the South Pacific’s Solomon Islands for a post-eclipse tour.

Even more exotic, Melitatrips, a Travel + Leisure world’s best-award winner, takes the road less traveled for stargazing excursions from Argentina to Zimbabwe. This year, Melitatrips has a Kenya Total Solar Eclipse Safari promising unrivaled views “from the place where man was born,” according to its website. An English Astronomers Tour returns to where the greatest scientific researchers once lived and worked, with stops in London and surrounding towns of Bath, Cambridge and Oxford, with a special visit to Greenwich Observatory and the Maritime Museum.

Sound interesting but not in the budget?

Northern hemisphere stargazers who look to the west as the sun sets should note that just to the left of the horizon they should be able to see the comet Pan-STARRS over the next few days.

“Comets visible to the naked eye are a rare delicacy in the celestial smorgasbord of objects in the nighttime sky,” says NASA on its Asteroid and Comet watch page that offers viewing tips and more information about asteroids and other near-Earth objects.

Another option? Google Sky.



[Photo credit – Flickr user ϟStormLoverSwin93ϟ]

Photo Of The Day: Bicycles In Batavia


Sometimes on our travels, we come across a scene so perfectly photogenic, we have to wonder if it was staged. Today’s Photo of the Day was taken by Flickr user thetravelingteacher in Jakarta‘s Old Batavia, or Kota, area. The line of rented bicycles with matching helmets is so beautifully colorful and unusual, it almost looks painted, and I bet she wasn’t the only passerby who took a photo. Not sure those helmets would pass many safety tests, but they sure are fashionable. Why shouldn’t we match our accessories to our transportation?

Share your favorite travel photography in the Gadling Flickr pool, we may choose one for the Photo of the Day series.

[Photo credit: Lauren Irons]

Conservatives, Pack Your Bags! Liberal-Free Travel Has Arrived

Some people like risks when they travel. Others don’t want to take any chances that their entire hard-earned vacation will be ruined by angry, bitter, close-minded companions – you know, liberals.

That’s the philosophy behind Conservative Tours, a Boston-based company not to be confused with conservation-related tourism. It’s led by political pundit Ken Chase, a 2006 Republican candidate for the Senate who lost to Ted Kennedy. Chase really can’t stand what he calls “Cambridge democrats.” He certainly doesn’t want to travel with them and figured there was money to be made by making sure people aren’t forced to do so.

In an interview with Outside magazine, Chase describes his demographic as “Americans who are easy going, affable, nice, better with their time and money, and of good humor. So, they’re kind of the opposite of the Cambridge democrat.” An avid traveler who speaks French, Chase organizes escorted tours of Western Europe for people of his political persuasion. “I wanna spend four- or five-thousand dollars on a luxury tour to be with somebody who’s pleasant,” he tells the author after combatively badgering him to say that liberals assume gay-marriage opponents are homophobes.

“You’re pretending to be dumb because you don’t want to answer the question because you know what the answer is,” Chase tells him, pleasantly.Chase assumes conservatives (and only conservatives) are interested in landmarks related to the U.S. military, so he works in visits to D-Day beaches in France and an American military cemetery in Italy. After all, he says, “You know what [liberals] think of the military.” And he avoids places that are “not the kind of destination that conservatives are attracted to,” such as Cannes. Don’t worry; his trips are more fun than they sound. “Once in a while we lighten up and have a good-old pizza night,” the company’s website says of its Italy itinerary.

Otherwise, Chase tells Outside, politics have nothing to do with the company’s travel experience, which always includes first-class airfare. It’s simply about being with “people who are like-minded politically.” Based on the interview, that means if you like to refer to our sitting president as “Barack Hussein Obama,” you’re the kind of “tolerant… normal… pleasant… thoughtful… traditional” person welcome to book with Conservative Tours.

Have an enlightening time!

[Photo credit: Flickr user Chiaralily]

Photo Of The Day: Melbourne Alleyway

This Photo of the Day, titled “Melbourne Alleyway,” comes from Gadling Flickr pool member Peter Rood (aka pkorsmok) and was captured using a Sony NEX-5N.

The image appears as part of Rood’s Melbourne set on Flickr accompanied by the caption:
“Found this cool alley while exploring central Melbourne. The amazing color covers the walls up at least 30′ as well as the ground.”

Upload your best shots to the Gadling Group Pool on Flickr. Several times a week we choose our favorite images from the pool as a Photo of the Day. Now, you can also submit photos through Instagram; just mention @GadlingTravel and use the hashtag #gadling when posting your images.

[Photo Credit- Flickr user pkorsmok]