On my Blog last week I answered one of the questions I’m most often asked. I thought I’d continue in that vein this week with the question I hear all the time…What’s Your Favorite Cruise Line?
No doubt the only reason anyone cares to hear my opinion is they see that I write for CruiseMates. Honestly, [...]

Updated with more information on travel insurance and its appilcability to Swine Flu. No cases of Swine Flu contracted by people traveling on cruise ships have been reported or even suggested, including crew members. However, with news of the Swine Flu outbreaks dominating the news Monday morning cruise line stocks are tumbling on worries people [...]

We originally ran this editorial just two weeks ago. Now we want to say “congratulations” to MSC Cruises for taking the initiative to protect their passengers.
The Easter piracy event showed us one thing - the use of power works when dealing with Somali “pirates.” But why aren’t we taking any steps to prevent these acts [...]

If you ever want to stir up some controversy, just start a “tipping thread” on any one of the cruise message boards.  You are almost guaranteed to have one of the longest, most contentious threads on the board.
But let’s examine this issue in depth and share our feelings on it in a healthy spirit of [...]

In the past 15 years I’ve sailed on about 54 or so cruises. Unlike many I haven’t actually kept track, and don’t have the brain cells or the will to back track to create a list. For 10 of those years I’ve been writing about those cruises for CruiseMates, so people’s perception is that I [...]

These days, in most cases when boarding a ship you’ll find over 60% of the passengers onboard are repeat customers of that cruise line. I had always considered cruisers to be somewhat of an adventurous breed, and this seemingly high percentage of passengers returning over and over to the same cruise line seems to belie [...]

The latest catch phrase in the cruise industry seems to be “a ship within a ship”. The phrase is used to describe more upscale cabin categories and amenities the cruise lines are trying to develop to attract those who are willing to pay extra for not only larger chunks of the real estate available in [...]

I have seen and heard more negative comments about Royal Caribbean than any other cruise line lately, and frankly I just don’t get it. Royal Caribbean has been getting knocked by stock market analysts, the cruise media, message board posters and even loyal cruisers. Just two days ago our own Kuki blasted them for some [...]