TopDawg Travel

Posts Tagged ‘Cruises’

Research consistently shows that passengers go to Alaska for glaciers, mountains, wildlife, Denali Park, the Alaska railroad and Inside Passage cruising.  Princess Cruises has studied their passenger demographics and found that 35% of passengers who cruise to Alaska are first-timers.  This is 50% more than the average cruisers on Princess Cruises.  Princess Cruises also found that another 45% of cruisers to Alaska on Princess are past passengers of other cruise lines.  Alaska vacations are a great option for families and multi-generational groups because there are age-appropriate activities for all.  There are 4 types of Princess itineraries for Alaska.  Read more…  2010 Alaska itineraries on Princess Cruises take you places you want to go

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Princess Cruise Lines has just sent out a press release about the Caribbean Princess. 

 In a nutshell, here are the highlights of what it said: 

The ship has just emerged from drydock during which many of the newest signature features were added.  The Caribbean Princess now offers passengers a street-café atmosphere of the piazza-style atrium with its International Café and Vines, the wine, seafood and cheese bar; the adults-only Sanctuary; seven new suites; a more centrally located casino.  They also added the new steak & seafood restaurant, Crown Grill.  It has the new atrium that features specialty coffees, fresh baked cookies and pastries, paninis and tapas of the International Café, the Vines wine bar (offering a selection of more than 30 wines by the glass), and a selection of seafood, artisan meats and cheeses, and a wine shop where passengers can purchase their favorite bottle.  AMENITIES:  Adult passengers looking to get away from it all will be able to relax in the tranquility of The Sanctuary, Princess’ signature retreat featuring plush padded lounge chairs and the services of dedicated Serenity Stewards while enjoying refreshing beverages and light snacks, or receive a massage in one of two private cabanas.  Soon to debut will be a brand new Crown Grill restaurant featuring an open kitchen where passengers can enjoy watching as chefs prepare chops, steaks and seafood, including live lobsters.  As part of the renovation, seven new suites with ocean-view picture windows were added, and the casino was relocated to Deck 7 to bring it into the ship’s central entertainment area.  Other changes include a new location for the sports court, a new Limelight boutique, new shore excursions and Captain’s Circle desks, new Internet café and library, and the addition of flat-screen televisions in all staterooms.  Princess Cruises put up a photo stream on Flickr so we can see what the Caribbeasn Princess now looks like

Carnival Cruise Lines has some incredible ships and programs for family travel.

An example of the Carnival program is on the Carnival Conquest. This ship has an expanded Camp Carnival and O2 Teen Program. The kids’ facilites is over 4200 square feet and has all modern entertainment and a children’s pool. Even their meal menus are designed for the age category – everything from hot dogs, chicken nuggets, pizza, macaroni & cheese, hamburgers and more. There are several new programs targeted to age groups and interests. The Edu-Seas program has a variety of fun activities that are also educational. The staff have experience and education in child-care so the kids enjoy their counselor and group.

In general the children’s programs on Carnival are exceptional no matter which ship you choose to cruise on.  Here’s a little I have learned about Carnival and their family-friendly programs:

CAMP CARNIVAL:  Carnival has broken the children’s program into 3 categories: Toddlers (age 2-5 years old) with age- appropriate activites – from finger painting to cartoon time, arts and crafts to puppet shows (good news for parents: Toddlers do not have to be potty-trained to be a part of the program- just supply the youth staff with diapers and toiletries for your child);

Juniors (age 6-8 years old) will have activities like Spin Art, dodgeball, volcano making as well as themed activities like prize bingo, water colors, jewelry making, foosball, air hockey and more;

Intermediates (ages 9-11 years old) play dodgeball, and pool parties to video games and scavenger hunts, making new friends and forging bonds with others their age.

For the Intermediates and Juniors there is an “evening After Hours” services from 10PM to 12AM and after 12AM they join the younger cruisers for a Slumber Party service until 3AM.Parents can have a “date night” or quiet time just for the two of them.

CIRCLE “C”:  For the 12-14 year olds there is the Circle C program. This is where children ages 12-14 can cruise, chill, and connect to others: Cool activities, awesome facilities and lots of new friends to add to their text-mail lists. Activities include games(video arcade, air hockey, foosball, karaoke), created and supervised by friendly, experienced staff. There are dance parties & outdoor movies, and they can even have an evening of dancing at the shipboard dance club. On some ships there are special shore excursions for kids to experience and explore exciting destinations.

CLUB O2: Teens, ages 15-17,  make new friends, hang together to watch movies, listen to music, play video games or join karaoke jam sessions.  On some cruises there are even teen-only shore excursions. They can play basketball or volleyball, ping-pong or participate in high energy dance and pool parties.  There is the Club O2′s dedicated lounge area onboard. This is a hot spot with cool colors, comfy seating, video monitors, and a state-of-the-art dance floor.  Teens can enjoy Coca-Cola products and other non-alcoholic specialty drinks as they watch movies, play video games and participate in this activity driven club.

And all this equals a great time for Mom and Dad, grandparents or friends. When the children have fun, the family has fun! (That is a Carnival Motto!)

If you found this interesting you might also want to read about the NCL Pearl with all the fun things to do on board there.

I usually do not try to talk about “Good Deals”, but these are extraordinary times and maybe starting to talk about what constitutes a “good deal” is appropriate – not only for my business (afterall, I, like so many others writing blogs, am in business) but for the consumer.

Take for example Regent Seven Seas Cruises. Now, I will grant you, these are not “cheap” cruises. But value? Definitely a good value. And a good value is a “good deal”!

So as an example: booking between now and March 31, 2009, if a couple want to go to Alaska this summer, and leave from Vancouver, BC for a 7 night cruise to Seward, they can get up to 2-for-1 savings with free air from selected cities and selected cruises and free unlimited shore excursions. NOTE: The shore excursions can frequently cost nearly as much as the cruise cabin when one decides to fully experience the ports of call. This is a huge value-added. And, if you have never sailed with Regent before, you may even qualify for some on-board credit.

The other really cool thing about Regent Seven Seas is this an “all-inclusive” cruise line: complimentary beverages, including fine wines and premium spirits, in-suite mini-bar replenished daily & onboard gratuities included (don’t you just “love” getting your bill at the end of a cruise and seeing anywhere from $10 to $25 per person per day in a gratuity charge?) Now I happen to think that the gratuity charge is a value and really ok – most of the time the wait staff, cabin stewards and all the other service people on the ship do a bang-up stellar job! However, it is the method of presenting this at the time of check out that can be a challenge for people to digest onto their charge cards. I love the concept of paying the gratuity up front.

So while there is a lot of fine print attached to the offerings, there is a lot of value-added to the “good deal”. And these kinds of offering come across my inbox every day, many times a day and from all the different vendors. If someone has cruised with a cruiseline before, they may get all kinds of special offers in the snail mail or their inbox. One of the value-adds of a travel consultant is that they can book these specials for you, be your advocate if necessary and possibly either beat the price you are offered, or get you additional “good deals” in shore excursions, on-board credit, gifts and the like.

As I see “good deals” and “value-added” opportunities over the next couple of months I am going to address them here. Regardless of whether you are in the market for a vacation in the immediate future or somewhere way down the road, watching the good deals come by us can be entertaining reading and certainly food for thought.

So the WORLD’S LARGEST CRUISE NIGHT 2007 (WLCN ‘07)was held this past Wednesday night.  What, you may ask, is the World’s Largest Cruise Night?  It is a promotional opportunity for travel agents/agencies and cruise lines to promote cruising.  It happend every year on the middle Wednesday of the month of October.  There are deals galore to be had, onboard ship credits to be given, cabin upgrades with the bookings made on that day.  So now it is past and there are no more deals, credits or upgrades but now I am writing about it. 

What  I found the most interesting this year was that the sponsoring organization, Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), which is made up of 24 cruise lines, also offered a “virtual” cruise night.  That really got my attention.  I signed up as an agent to have my own website, I got to hand pick the videos shown on the website, and all my information is listed on it. 

I sent out an invitation to my closest friends, family, acquaintance, business associates and clients.  The invitation had a link for viewing the videos.  No pressure, no one looking over the shoulder of the viewer seeing what is being watched, no sales pitch.  Just an opportunity to view 5 different cruise lines: the itineraries, the destinations, what life is like on board each one of these lines.  I love it!  TopDawg Travel’s own virtual WLCN ’07 ! 

If anyone wants to check it out just click that link!  The only catch is that the link will only stay “live” until October 31, 2007.  Then CLIA will “knock it down” and it will be no more.  If anyone goes and looks at the videos, I invite you to come back here and leave a comment.