Brave the hurricanes for cheap cruises this month!

by Grant Martin on

If you’re willing to risk choppy water, September is actually a decent time to snag some great prices on cruises in the Caribbean. Demand drops off pretty steeply in the fall because many people are concerned about the weather — and as a result many cruise companies drop their prices.

One of the more outstanding prices that I’ve seen lately comes from Royal Caribbean for one of their four-night Bahamas cruises. For under $150 per person, you can depart from Port Canaveral, Florida for a brief stay in the island nation then jet back to East Florida in time for the weekend in Orlando.

Check out Royal Caribbean’s promo website to get in on some of the specials going on.

Incidentally (or maybe for the same reason), plane tickets into Florida have been remarkably competitive lately. So if you’re considering taking one of these cruises from one of the other 49 states you might be able to get a deal on airfare too.

In case you’re worried about hurricanes, you have little to fear about running into a storm. Ships are often rerouted in the case of inclement weather and can easily get around any inbound trouble. Granted, you might get wet and it might be choppy — but you did pay $150 per person for a four night cruise, right?

Life at sea: 9 year cruise ship resident looking for a new home

by Anna Brones on

Some people seek out golf courses and gated communities for their retirement; others choose the ocean. That’s exactly what Beatrice Muller, an 89 year-old widow from New Jersey, did. She’s spent the last nine years living the life on the high seas, cruising around the world on the RMS Queen Elizabeth 2. Muller finds this much more pleasant than any old retirement home and she plans to keep up her worldly accommodations, except for one problem: the 41 year old QE2 is retiring in November. What is an old, sea-loving woman to do? Find another ship of course.

Muller says despite her preferred ship’s retirement, she refuses to return to land. “What would I want to do that for?” she was quoted asking The Times. Her cabin costs about $7,000 a month, and according to her estimates, that’s about the same as a retirement home in Florida, just “far more pleasant.”

Actually living on the sea isn’t as strange as it sounds. Magellan offers a Residential Cruise Line, where for $4 million and up you can buy your own on-board condo. The World is another “seagoing community” popular with the financially secure crowd.

We’ll just have to wait and see what Muller chooses as her next home. As for the QE2, it’s headed to Dubai to become a floating hotel.

That’s some weird cruise news. Click the images below to read some weird airline news:


It’s been a 1000 years – time to clean up, don’t you think?

by Abha Malpani on

A 300,000 tonne garbage mountain on the shores of the Yangtze River in South-West China is finally going to be cleared by September 2008, after a 1000-years of being there!

Since the Song Dynasty (960-1279), residents of the Chinese town Luoqi have been adding 400 kilograms of waste to the pile every day because they have no where else to dispose it.

This is just one of the environmental problems of the controversial US$70 billion Three Gorges Dam project on the Yangtze — China’s largest construction project after the Great Wall.

Away from the commotion of the country, a cruise along the Yangtze river (world’s 3rd largest river) has always been a popular tourist selection that fortunately has nothing to do with this shock-stash of trash.

Having said that, and understanding that there are many other grave problems China has to deal with, why has it taken them a 1000 years to address this one?

More U.S. passport regulations coming soon

by Justin Glow on

Are you one of the many Americans that still don’t have a passport? Shame on you. But being shamed by some random travel blog on the Internets is the least of your worries, especially if you plan on re-entering the U.S. by land, ferry, or small boat.

According to USA Today, those re-entering after January 30th “must carry either a passport or a government-issued photo ID plus proof of citizenship such as a birth or naturalization certificate.”

I’m surprised this is just now happening. You’d think having the correct documentation is common sense, but I’m sure they’ve had people show up with things like a Macy’s card and a picture of their uncle in front of the Statue of Liberty trying to get across. What? This doesn’t prove anything?

Turnaround time for passports ranges from four to six weeks, so get a move on it.

Some happy news to start your weekend

by Jerry Guo on

Earlier this week I wrote about a 78-year-old woman who spent 10 years saving up for a cruise – and ended up missing her trip of a lifetime. Now she’s got the story of a lifetime.

Dozens of netizens have stepped in to help pay for her trip after the news spread on the blogosphere and in a front-page story in the Washington Post. One woman even wrote, “I have $9 in my account right now, but after I get paid I could spare $20. But where would I send it?”

More than $700 was raised, but apparently this money was just icing on the cake. An anonymous couple has arranged to cover the woman’s entire trip. ” “I just can’t believe it. It’s just the best Christmas present ever,” Almentia McKan said.

This is a perfect example of how much of a difference we can make through the web. Now, go enjoy your weekend.