On Jan. 26, 2012, in the United States, it became law that in the interests of public transparency, airlines publish pricing which includes all taxes. This law allows the people searching for airfares to see the total costs, rather than the airlines promoting seemingly low  fares,only for the consumer  to find the actual total cost to be considerably higher. From the consumers point [...]

Note : This blog post (below)  was written prior to the Costa Corcordia tragedy, and originally intended to run last week. I held it back a week because I felt I had to consider what, if any, hand the general topic of the blog could have had during the Concordia incident. As the cruise industry has grown, and [...]

I originally wrote a blog on a different topic for today, but due to the tragic events involving the Costa Concordia this past week, I’ve chosen to lighten the subject matter of my blog this week. So, let’s talk about the “Cruise Cult”. I think it would most certainly be wrong to have thousands of [...]

Over the years we’ve had quite a number of CruiseMates Group Cruises. They’re all great fun because of the comraderie, and the fun events that the host and groups organize. However, I believe the very best group cruise yet is coming up in 2012. It’s going to be a breeze… on the brand new Carnival Breeze. [...]

 People who have cruised previously are quite likely the #1 reason new people choose to cruise for the first time. Whether it’s family members pushing you to join them, or friends, or people in your work place, raving about how superb their cruises were, that’s likely the reason you set out on your first cruise. As devotees to the [...]

When it comes to money matters, it’s not cruise pricing that settles the equation of how much your cruise is going to cost you. One might have thought, a couple of years ago, when the cruise lines put a policy of “flat pricing” in place; basically disallowing travel agents from cutting their commissions to offer [...]

Through my unscientific research, and very questionable systemic anaylsis, we learn that only the top 1% of the population has the means, or contacts necessary, to sail in the top suites onboard a cruise ship.  And of those who have most, have done so on the backs of every other cruiser onboard. We the 99 % are [...]

Beginning with new rules, established to come into practice in the new year, most of the major cruise lines, have severely restricted or banned smoking in both public and private areas of their ships. This change in indusry policy was made pretty simple because less than 20% of the population still categorize themselves as smokers. [...]

As we in North America are just coming into the winter season, one might not be thinking of a trip to Europe. However, if Europe is on your wish list, now is the time to begin planning. While a cruise might not be the initial mode of transport one envisions when thinking about a first [...]