Beginning in the mid 1970′s through to 1983 I spent anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months spending my winter vacation time in the Hawaiian Islands. Since I began cruising in 1994 I’ve visited the Hawaiian Islands by ship 8 or 9 times. There are limited options available for Hawaiian cruising; NCL America is the [...]

One aspect of my job at CruiseMates that I really enjoy is choosing ships and itineraries for our CruiseMates Group Cruises. And when this particular ship and itinerary were brought to my attention I couldn’t say yes to it fast enough. The choice was a Breeze. The Carnival Breeze is still under construction in the [...]

In this story (linked below), a group of 20 friends booked a group cruise to the Mediterranean, sailing from Barcelona, Spain. They did so using a Travel Agent who the leader of the group had used several times for different trips beginning in 2002. This time something went wrong and the group lost all of their deposits, [...]

I just returned from a seven-night cruise aboard Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas. Although I knew what to expect from having taken Oasis of the Seas, I was still excited as I approached the pier and could barely wait to get onboard. For any ship to evoke such emotions in an experienced cruiser like me [...]

Years ago, when I was in college, I got dumped by an American girl. Until recently that was my only reference to the term. Now, suddenly I find out it’s a brand name. A brand name that, sadly, has led us to cancel the CruiseMates Group Cruise  scheduled over Thanksgiving 2012 on the Celebrity Eclipse. [...]