Cruise lines branch out, sell other stuff too

by Chris Owen on
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 11 Best Cruise Blogs

by Chris Owen on
There are a lot of great travel blogs out there but not a lot that deal exclusively with cruise vacations. Here is a list of my favorites, in no particular order, along with the names of their writers and what they have to say about themselves. These are 10 great cruise blogs that anyone half-way interested in cruise vacations should take a look at, probably every day.Some of these writers I have met, others not but all share a passion for cruise vacations that is undeniable. For good cruise vacation information, these are the ones to read. They’re also some of the best ones to follow on Twitter so I included their Twitter handles too. In fact, if you made a list called “Cruise Experts” every one of these would make great additions.

  1. USA Today’s The Cruise Log-Gene Sloan- “I oversee USA TODAY’s Cruise Log (cruises.usatoday.com), an online site where cruise fans can blow hours at a time talking about cruising. It’s just my latest gig as a travel writer, an occupation that has kept me on the road more than 1,200 days over the past 15 years as I’ve written about everything from cruising to trekking in the Peruvian Andes” (@CruiseLog)
  2. CruiseCritic blog-Carolyn Spencer Brown and a host of others- “Sometimes the juiciest info we come across as we report on all things cruise related simply can’t make it into the “real” stories we produce on the Web site every day. But we’ve got space here to share with you outtakes, random observations, occasional glimmers of inspiration, and other stuff – so we hope you’ll not only visit often but also join in the conversation.Who’s on the Cruise Critic team? Our key bloggers will be London-based Sue Bryant (SJB), Cruise Critic’s contributing editor, and Carolyn Spencer Brown (CSB), the site’s editor in chief. Jamey Bergman (JAB), Cruise Critic’s U.K.-based web producer, Dan Askin (DA) and John Deiner (JD), our managing editor, will also be jumping onboard as will occasional guest bloggers.”
  3. John Heald’s Blog-John Heald- “I started this blog when a lady called Stephanie said “Oh John, please write a blog, it will only be for a week and won’t take up much of your time.” That was back in 1492 and here I am still writing in the same pair of underpants. I am Carnival’s Senior Cruise Director and Brand Ambassador, and I am here to share my life with you in all its boring and sometimes toilet-based glory.” (@CarnivalCruise)
  4. Avid Cruiser– Ralph Grizzle- “I began my journalistic career at the age of 32, following the conclusion of my ‘sabbatical decade.’ From 1980 through 1990, I bicycled across America, pedaled through Europe and island-hopped the South Pacific. After backpacking through Bali, bussing through Java, hopping a boat to Singapore and crossing Malaysia to Thailand, I flew into Burma, tramped to Dhaka and endured a 32-hour train ride from calamitous Calcutta to bustling Bombay. From there, I hopped a plane for Greece and traveled to Switzerland before returning home, where I settled, quite naturally, into a career of travel writing.” (@avidcruiser)
  5. Captain Greybeard– (this is the plus one- Sheesh, how could I forget?) “John Honeywell is a cruiseaholic and addicted to traveling the oceans. Any day at sea is better than a day in the office” (@CaptainGreybeard)
  6. Expert Cruiser-“Anita Dunham-Potter is a cruise journalist and consumer advocate. Her articles offer advice and insight for travelers that want all the facts to be informed. Dunham-Potter is Tripso’s and MSNBC.com’s cruise ombudsman. In addition to the aforementioned columns on MSNBC.com and Tripso she has penned numerous columns for the Boston Globe, Dallas Morning News, Miami Herald, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Princess Cruises, Fodor’s , Smarter Travel, along with numerous trade publications.” (@ExpertCruiser)
  7. About.com– Linda Garrison- “Cruises are a great vacation for almost everyone who loves to explore new places, meet new people, eat good food, and seek new horizons. My goal is to provide the About.com Cruises Web site visitor with all the information necessary to plan and enjoy the cruise experience as much as I do. In addition to general information on cruise planning, the site is rich in cruise news, cruise specials, and cruise photos and information on cruise ships and cruise destinations around the world.” (@AboutCruises)
  8. Royal Caribbean Blog-“We’re big fans of taking cruises and over the years, we’ve grown fond of cruising with Royal Caribbean and our favorite thing to do when we’re not actually on a Royal Caribbean cruise is to share our passion for cruising on Royal Caribbean with other fans.Royal Caribbean Blog offers daily coverage of news and information related to the Royal Caribbean cruise line along with other relevant topics of cruising, such as entertainment, news, photo updates and more.”
  9. Ship Critic blog– Anne Campbell- “ShipCritic Blog is a labor of love by Anne Campbell, a journalist who has been covering the cruise industry since 1993. Why a blog? This newfangled technology is the best way of interacting with cruisers, both first timers and veterans, who also share a passion for seeing the world by ship.” (@ShipCritic)
  10. 50 Essential Experiences, The Travel Bucket List– Princess Cruises- “Few people have seen more of the world than Princess Cruises’ own destination experts. In the past 45 years that Princess ships have been sailing to all seven continents, many of our longest-serving shipboard and shoreside employees have logged thousands of sea and air miles visiting hundreds of countries, cities and sites. We’re often asked, “You’ve seen it all. What places do I really need to have on my travel bucket list?” Below, on a weekly basis for the next year, many of our 15+ year employees will share their inspirational stories that make up our 50 essential travel experiences. Enjoy the journey!” (@PrincessCruises)
  11. Frommers Cruise Blog– Matt Hannafin- “Matt Hannafin is a freelance writer, editor, and musician based in Portland, Oregon. Author of Frommer’s Day by Day Vancouver & Whistler and coauthor of Frommer’s Cruises and Frommer’s European Cruises, he also freelances for numerous newspapers, magazines, and websites and was a major contributor to the recent bestseller 1,000 Places to See in the USA and Canada Before You Die. He still pines for his hometown of New York, NY, but is getting used to the Pacific Northwest now that he’s bought a good raincoat.

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Cozumel: Paradise found in Mexico

by Chris Owen on

In the news, it seems we most often read of a Mexico that is unsafe to visit. Always with an eye on the safety of their passengers, cruise lines have modified itineraries for ships that call at Mazatlan on several occasions. While frequent visitors to Mazatlan stand up for it as a testament to it being safe, it seems the place just can’t get over the safety issue. Travelers want to go places to have fun, not to get robbed, beat up or shot at. Still, to discount the entire land of Mexico as unsafe would be wrong. There are some very safe places to visit in Mexico and Cozumel is one of them.

Cozumel is an entirely different place and to think for even a minute that it is unsafe to visit because it has a Mexico after it’s name is about as wrong as saying Martin Sheen is crazy because Charlie is.
First, let’s get our bearings straight. Cozumel is the biggest island in Mexico, located on the Yucatan Peninsula on the eastern, Caribbean side of Mexico. Mazatlan is on the west side of Mexico, way far away from Cozumel. It is separated from the Yucatan Peninsula by the Yucatan channel which is 12 miles wide.

The town of Cozumel is called San Miguel with a population of about 95,000 people. Most of the population of the island is in the town of San Miguel, on the west coast of the Island facing mainland.

On a land vacation, there are plenty of luxury hotels, first class facilities and services. Cozumel International Airport (CZM) is easily accessible from most major cities by many airlines and not far from hotels, beach and other attractions. Cozumel is world renowned for its diving because it hosts one of the largest coral reefs in the world, a big attraction for SCUBA freaks and snorkelers.

On a cruise vacation, one of the most attractive parts of the deal is that you unpack once but get to visit multiple destinations. As your floating hotel goes from place to place, you can choose to go ashore to get up close and personal with wherever it is you are visiting or stay on the ship. In most cases, it’s worth getting off the ship but if you’ve been there before there is a temptation to stay on board and enjoy the ship while most passengers are gone.

Cozumel, Mexico is one of those places that no matter how many times you have been there, the order of the day is to get off the ship. If you cruise much, odds are you will be seeing Cozumel from time to time and that is a very good thing.

That said, let me introduce you to a place I found in Cozumel years ago and return to almost every time we visit.

Paradise Beach is a short cab ride from the cruise terminal and a must-do destination when visiting either by land or sea. It’s a day at the beach like no other with crystal clear water and some of the best food and drink on the island.

Located 5 miles from the International Cruise Ship Pier, it’s about a $10 cab ride each way and there are plenty of cabs available. Once there, one of the first things you notice is how very clean the place is. From the parking lot to pretty much every square inch of the 300 foot-wide sandy beach, the place is spotless, much like you might find in a 5 star beach resort.

The next thing you’ll notice is that it is free. There is no admission here like many other beaches and prices for optional services, food and beverage are reasonable. You could probably just come here and sit in the sand on the beach for free but that would be a mistake. They have some of the best food and beverages on the island which really add to the whole experience.

Chairs are available to rent for only $2 (I paid $15 on Miami Beach not long ago) and the array of toys they have to play with is considerable. A trampoline, 14 foot-tall climbing iceberg, full snorkel gear, floating mats , kayaks, 10ft water slide, a Jungle Joe floating multi-tiered climbing structure, paddle boards, coconut trees to climb or a spacewalker bungee can be had for $12, unlimited use, all day.

It’s a good idea to get there early but only because more time at Paradise Beach is just a good idea. Once settled in, someone will be by to attend to your every need. They will bring you food from an extensive menu that does not get any more authentic than this. Try the Chicken Quesadillas or Guacamole and Chips. You will thank me later. Everyone does.

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Cruise prices rise but bargains are out there, nevermind the view

by Chris Owen on

As promised, cruise lines have raised prices in reaction to increasing demand. It seems the all-inclusive nature and higher-than-other-things safety level of a cruise vacation is once again filling up ships. But there are still a few bargains out there, if you don’t mind the view.

Royal Caribbean International, who eternally vowed to never discount new Oasis and Allure of the seas is doing the next best thing. In what they call a summertime “family-friendly” promotion running through the 13th of April, the line is offering $200 onboard credit for sailings during June, July or August 2011.

Vacationers booking two or more Central Park- or Boardwalk-view balcony staterooms, that are grouped together, will receive a $200 onboard credit per stateroom, up to a maximum of three staterooms for a total of $600 onboard credits per group.

Here’s the catch: Nobody wants those cabins.

When most people think “balcony” they think “overlooking the ocean”. These don’t. Your view will be of whoever is across the interior Central Park Neighborhood if you look straight ahead or of the Central Park landscaping below. Look up and you will see the sky but not much of it.

The Boardwalk-view location is better or worse depending on how you look at it. The aft location does provide a view of the ocean. Sort of. If you look past the Aqua-theater and there is a lot going on back there. The down-side is that there is a lot going on back there. Someone who wants a lazy day on the balcony watching the ocean roll by will be disappointed if not angry.

I was on the ship with a bunch of really loud people who we put out on the balcony, hoping they would fall off. They didn’t fall off but when the balcony door was closed and I was standing inside the cabin looking at them it was like putting them on mute setting.

Still, this is a great promotion if you don’t have plans to relax, fool around, smoke or otherwise misbehave on your balcony. Concerns over noise from the area below are more true in the bustling Boardwalk area than the serene Central Park but not very well founded.

Don’t get me wrong, Oasis and Allure of the Seas are great ships. The cupcakes from the Cupcake Cupboard alone are reason enough to sail on either one. Take Royal Caribbean up on this deal and you’ll have plenty of cash for them.

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Photo: Whitney Owen

The Cougar Cruise is back!

by Chris Owen on

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.

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Flickr photo by KRO-media