As the sparkling blue waters beckon, along with the promise of luxurious dining and entertainment, how can you make the best choice in a 5-star world cruise? The appropriate answer stems from the goals you wish to achieve from the cruise.

Are you enjoying your honeymoon or renewing your vows? Is the cruise a much-needed vacation, or a time for the family to bond together over lifetime memories? The right cruise liner for you depends upon your reason for boarding a 5-star world cruise.

There are several trusted ship lines that offer 5-star world cruises. Some of the most popular ones are Celebrity Cruises, the Holland America Line, the Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises, Princess Cruises, and Regent Seven Seas Cruises.

Each of these lines has a fleet of seaworthy ships, experienced captains, diligent crew, and luxurious onboard accommodations. Yet each of them offers a unique type of cruising experience.

Celebrity Cruises

Celebrity Cruises Around the World (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfJi0-mtsTI) has nine 5-star luxury hotels that are disguised as 5-star world cruises ships. All of their ships offer star power - meaning that if you are not a Hollywood celebrity, you will still be treated like one onboard the ship.

In fact, many celebrities are known to embark upon Celebrity Cruises to enjoy several days of pure relaxation. Some celebrities provide entertainment onboard, while others will indulge guests on behind-the-scene secrets on how movies are made.

In addition, Celebrity Cruises maintains ships that offer unique features. For example, Constellation has a thalassotherapy pool within a huge AquaSpa. Using seawater for healing, their pool and AquaSpa help all guests indulgently unwind.

Holland America Line

The Holland America Line is ideal for people who wanted to see the world in style. With over 130 years of experience under its belt, Holland America Line’s fleet of 5-star world cruises ships assures a comfortable, enjoyable, and unforgettable cruise. In fact, the cabins are among the most spacious in the cruising industry, and no passenger will feel cramped or claustrophobic.

All of Holland America’s 5-star world cruises ships are designed to provide luxurious dining options. If you want to meet new friends, consider dining at the indulgent main restaurant. Or if you want privacy with your loved one, take your meals inside the intimate gourmet grill.

One of the best features of Holland America is that its cruises can take passengers to several private islands in the Caribbean - ensuring that your experience is exclusive and indulgent.

Norwegian Cruise Line

The Norwegian Cruise Line invented the concept of “freestyle cruising.” This cruising philosophy forgoes any type of predetermined schedule or seating arrangements for the passengers - which ensures that the cruise vacation will be extremely relaxing and pleasurable.

The Norwegian Cruise Line has 12 5-star world cruises ships that sail to more than a hundred ports all over the world. These 5-star world cruises ships usually have ten gourmet restaurants on board, satisfying even the most discriminating palate. Their ships also feature casinos, spas, fantastic production shows, and much more.

Oceania Cruises

The ships of Oceana Cruises take luxury to a higher level. These 5-star world cruises ships offer cabins with 5-star hotel room amenities, including a tranquility bed.

This feature is excellent for romantic cruises. And if the couple managed to win against the intimate temptation of the cabin, they can also enjoy other facilities, such as the spa, the fitness center, and the casino.

In addition, the 5-star world cruises ships of Oceania Cruises make it a point to stay overnight in ports to give the passengers more time to explore the locality.

Princess Cruises

The 14 5-star world cruises ships of the Princess Cruises Around the World (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfFDapcscS8) belong to the original fleet of love boats. In fact, for love birds, the ships’ captain officiates delightful wedding ceremonies.

Afterwards, the newlyweds will be delighted by the spectacular sceneries that the ship will find for them, including whales and glaciers. Or, for the more adventurous couple, you can embark upon helicopter rides and other exciting activities.

Regent Seven Seas Cruises

Hailed as one of the best cruise lines in the world, the 5-star world cruises ships of the Regent Cruise Lines Around the World offer a chance to visit exotic destinations. The ships will even sail to Antarctica, making this cruise line perfect for the adventure-seeker who still enjoys luxury.



Thanks to Sarah Martin for contributing this article to our Cruises blog:

How to Make Money Online

As great as taking a vacation on cruise ships may seem, you still need to know how to plan a cruise ship vacation properly so you have the perfect cruise experience. You need to know about the different types of packages the cruise lines offer.

When planning a cruise ship vacation you need to know how to choose one that will meet your expectation or tailor to your needs. Here are some guidelines that you can follow to plan your cruise travel and enjoy the perfect cruise experience:

Think of who you want to take with you on your cruise vacation. There are many different packages offered by cruise lines. There are packages for the whole family and there are packages for single travelers.

Will you be taking the cruise vacation with children? Maybe you will take your significant other for a romantic getaway. There are cruise ships that are tailored for children and there are cruise lines that cater to single cruisers and honeymooners. There are even some ships that offer wedding services. What could be better than to get married on the ship and have your honeymoon built in?

Decide how long you want to cruise. If you just want to try it out, opt for a three day cruise. Normally, cruises start at three nights and can go anywhere from seven to fourteen days. But there are also world cruises that can last as long as three months. My advice is if you are going to cruise in Europe you should pick a fourteen day cruise because of the expense and long plane rides to get to your port of embarkation. If you live near a port and you just want to take a long weekend choose of three or four day cruise. Decide what cruise travel is best for you.

Choose the perfect destination for you and your family. Alaska is beautiful but can only be cruised in the summer months. If you live in the colder climes you may want to take a mid winter cruise to the Caribbean or even South America. If you want your cruise travel to be in the Caribbean and you want to spend two weeks on your cruise vacation, choose a line that alternates between the Eastern and Western Caribbean. This cruise vacation takes you to many different islands.

The cruise lines have a variety of destinations to choose from. Visit your cruise travel agent to go over the different itineraries or check out the individual websites of the cruise lines.

Consider the port of departure. Since 9/11 cruises have been emphasizing home port cruising. Now there are many cruises that depart from Bayonne, New Jersey, Galveston, Texas, or Seattle, Washington, not just Miami and Fort Lauderdale.. Depart from the one closest to you and you will save money on expensive airfare.

Speak to a knowledgeable cruise travel agent. Make sure they have personally sailed on many different cruise ships so they can give you an honest opinion on what each cruise line has to offer and which would give you the perfect cruise experience.

A cruise travel agent will also be able to supply you with cruise tips. Scour the cruise reviews for additional cruise tips.

Large cruise lines have a variety of activities and facilities that you can use on the ship. If you like to gamble then choosing a cruise ship with casinos is probably right for you. Or if you are taking your kids with you, a cruise ship that offers activities and facilities for children would be the best choice for your cruise travel. For instance, Disney is, of course, geared toward children but they do not have casinos. So if you are taking the family but you want to gamble steer away from Disney and choose one of the other major cruise lines. Almost all of them have children’s programs. If you don’t want to be on a ship with children sail on one of the fancier lines that don’t cater to children. Here, again, it pays to read as many cruise reviews as you can to pick up additional cruise tips.

Cruise vacations do not necessarily mean that you have to spend all your vacation time onboard. All the cruise ships offer land and shore excursions. The cruise lines offer pre and post cruise land vacations usually for two or three days.



Thanks to Zark Barker for contributing this article to our Cruises blog:

Get a Money-making Website

The first day of your Caribbean cruise vacation is here. Most of the day will be spent getting to know your cruise ship, making spa appointments, booking tours on the Caribbean Islands and trying to get cruise tips from your fellow passengers.

The first night of your Caribbean cruise vacation is always a casual night since most people have traveled a good portion of the day. It’s also the night you meet your table mates. Here is another cruise tip, be a few minutes late on the first night (only on the first night-be prompt from then on). There is usually a crush of people when the dinner bell rings and everyone is trying to find their table.

If you are eating in the traditional cruise style, always ask for a large table for several reasons. You have a better chance of meeting a mix of people, and the more people you meet during your cruise travel, the merrier. One thing to do is change seats every night at the table so everyone gets to talk to everyone else during the course of your cruise vacation. It’s much more fun. And a round table is ideal since rectangular ones make it difficult to talk to the guy at the other end. However, if you find that you are unhappy with your table, absolutely go to the maitre d’ and asked to be moved. He or she will accommodate you as best they can. There are people who chose to dine alone and the ships have tables for two but they fill up fast.

Freestyle Dining and Choice Dining are available on some Cruise Lines for those who want to eat on their own or don’t want to be delegated to a specific dining time. Your travel agent will be able to set this up when booking your Caribbean cruise vacation.

Now you are on day two, and usually that means it’s a day at sea. You are just itching to put into your bathing suit and get out in the sun. Listen to this, it is the most valuable of all the cruises tips here, do not try to get a tan on your first day of your Caribbean cruise vacation. You will spend days of your precious cruise trying to recover from very bad sunburn. The Caribbean sun is very intense and is even more so in the summer months.

Get waterproof sun block and use it liberally if you are swimming or snorkeling. Don’t forget the tops of your feet, your ears and lips, this can be extremely painful. Wear a hat so you don’t burn your scalp.

To avoid injury follow these tips. Be careful if the decks are wet, they become very slippery. Watch for the raised lips in some doorways especially between your cabins sleeping area and the bathroom. Never sit on the railings as you may fall. Wearing high heels could be hazardous in bumpy weather. When tendering to shore keep your arms and legs within the tender. These are all very good cruise tips

All of the newer cruise ships have an internet café; some even have an internet connection in your room. So if you want to bring your lap top with you, by all means do. There are some small luxury cruise ships that have lap tops available for your use. Check with your cruise travel agent, he or she will know. Most people won’t want to be bothered with their computers, but it is nice to check your email if you are going to be away for awhile, and ship to shore phone calls are very expensive on the cruise lines.

The last evening will also be a casual night since you have packed your bags and put them outside your cruise cabin. Tomorrow will be an early morning and the end of your enchanting Caribbean cruise vacation.

There always seem to be many questions about tipping while taking a Caribbean cruise vacation. These questions come up on European cruise vacations too, but we’ll stick to the Caribbean. Some cruise lines will absolutely not let you tip. These are the very high end cruise lines. Some automatically add it to your bill. If you do not like this arrangement tell the purser that you will tip on your own. Tipping on a cruise ship is very important since the room steward, waiter and busboy all make their living on tips. They work very hard to keep you happy during your Caribbean cruise vacation so please tip them. You may want to figure out the amount of tips you will be paying at the beginning of the cruise vacation and separate that from your spending money. You won’t get caught short.

If a Maitre d’ does something special, like crepe suzettes at your table, you should tip him. When you order wine or drinks there is already a 15% tip on the charge, so it is not necessary to tip here. If you find a special bar and frequent it, give the bartender a bit extra on the last night. As I said tipping policies are different on all ships so find out ahead of time. Holland American has changed their tipping policy. It used to be “no tipping necessary”. That policy is no longer in place. On NCL Hawaii a $10.00 per day per person is added to your bill and it is not optional.

A nice gesture on a two week cruise is to give half the tip after the first week, the cruise staff will appreciate this. On almost all of the cruise ships, the general rule for tipping is $3.00 per day, per person for the waiter and the room steward and $1.50 per person per day for the bus boy. If you’re not sure the Cruise Line will usually give you guidelines. If your room steward or waiter showed you excellent services tip them more.

Alcoholic beverages on board are expensive. All cruise ships have there own policy if you bring your own, some confiscate it and return at the end of the cruise, others allow you to buy bottles on board, and others will allow you to purchase it but won’t deliver it until the end of the cruise. Each cruise line has different policies so check with your cruise travel agent. In many cases you can bring wine and champagne on board.

Here’s just a small note about seasickness. On the really huge ships it should not be a problem. If you are prone to it and are taking a smaller ship, there are over the counter remedies. Dramamine and Bonine are in tablet forms and can make some people drowsy. Because of the size and the stability of the current fleet of cruise ships only 3% of cruise passengers are affected by this.

There are wrist bands that you can purchase that act on the theory of acupuncture. Then there is also the Patch that you wear behind your ear. If you do not purchase one of these before the cruise and find yourself getting a little green, the purser’s office will provide you with them. Go out on the open decks, eat saltines, green apples and drink ginger ale. Do not do anything that requires you to look down, like reading or writing.

In health food stores you can buy powdered ginger caplets which are the natural remedy. That should take care of it. Stay away from greasy foods. This is no longer a huge problem since most ships today have stabilizers that keep the ship from pitching to and fro. If you do have a problem with “mal de mar”, it is not wise to take a sailing cruise or a small ship in notoriously rough seas like the South China Sea. It is so shallow it is always a little rough. The waves bounce off the seabed and come back up making it a bit choppy. Here again the size of the ship matters and having a little information will be helpful. This is where a really knowledgeable cruise travel agent comes in.

All cruise ships have a policy on smoking. On one ship they had an absolutely no smoking policy anywhere, they have since changed that rule. There is never any smoking allowed in the showrooms or the dining rooms. In many cases they designate one side of the ship in the bars as the smoking section while the other side is smoke free.

You can smoke in the bars and in the casino. Never, ever, toss a lit cigarette overboard, it can blow back on deck and start a fire. Please be considerate of the other passengers and follow the rules. And be aware that you will encounter many more smokers on a European cruise vacation and on European cruise ships that winter in the USA.

These are just some sensible cruise tips for you to follow on you Caribbean cruise vacation.

Happy Cruising!

Copyright © Mary Hanna, All Rights Reserved.

This article may be distributed freely on your website and in your ezines, as long as this entire article, copyright notice, links and the resource box are unchanged.



Thanks to Mary Hanna for contributing this article to our Cruises blog:

Cheap Mediterranean Cruises

If you’re planning to take a cruise you want to make sure you get the best cruise deal bargain offered. And there are many ways to save a bunch of money on your next cruise if you know what to do. It isn’t hard to learn the secrets travel agents know when you’re looking for the best cruise deal. You can save as much as 65% scouting on your own or from 15-30% from the cruise line brokers and the cruise consolidators as they’re called.

There are many sites that offer clearance specials and last minute cruise deals. Then there are the possibly cheaper but much riskier last minute cruise auctions and classifieds which I won’t go into here. The last minute cruise deals are not hard to find because the cruise lines don’t want to have any empty cabins when they leave port and they make every effort to fill them.

Note that the offers you find on the cruise line sites are NOT going to be as good as those you find elsewhere or from cruise line brokers or the consolidators. So make sure you go to the other sites. Of course you can compare the prices you find with the cruise line’s site.

First of all to get the best cruise deal online you want to look for cruise sites that use the Revelex or OVS cruise reservation systems. This way you can easily compare prices on staterooms for many of the cruise ships at one time. Some of these sites have time limits on their offers so be ready but don’t buy on impulse either. Last minute deals can save you a bundle.

Once you find what you think is a bargain or a good deal you can contact your local cruise travel agent and see if they can meet it or beat it. Some of the cruise lines forbid travel agents to discount their cruises but it doesn’t mean the agents don’t know about already-discounted cruises.

Once you’ve found some good travel websites, sign up for their email alerts so you’ll get fast notice on last minute cruise deals, package deals or clearance cruise deals or any other special offers that might be floating around out there. Sign up at several sites because you want the ones that are going to email you soon and often with the alerts and some of them may be too slow.

You can ask for a discount even on the final price for any cruise. Ask if they have a senior discount, business discount, student discount, health professional discount or AARP discount or AAA for example. There are also resident discounts or special offers if you live in a particular state.

Make sure to visit several sites and compare, don’t just settle on the first one No matter what low rate you find keep searching for a lower rate. The sites that compare several cruise lines at once will often bring up comparisons that make it easy for you to find the best rate.

You want to compare the cruise lines, cruise ships and the itineraries besides the price. You’re looking for a bargain - the cheapest cruise rates. Make sure to read the fine print on any site so there are no surprises later. It’s absolutely necessary.

Remember that some offers may be for the second-rate cabins. This means the cabins that are near noisy service doors or elevators or under the ballroom floor or near children’s activity areas. You don’t want to find out later that the reason your cabin was cheap was due to the location on the ship. Be aware that the last minute cruise deals or clearance cruise specials may be non-refundable. Read the contract closely.

It doesn’t matter if you’re looking for a Carnival cruise deal, Disney cruise deal. Royal Caribbean cruise deal, Crystal cruise deal or any other cruise line, or if you and a partner and/or your family plan to go to Mexico, the Caribbean, Alaska, Hawaii or the Bahamas or cruise with celebrities; if you spend a little extra time learning the ropes you’ll not only save yourself a lot of money but you’ll get the best cruise deal online.



Thanks to Helen Hecker for contributing this article to our Cruises blog:

Western Caribbean Cruise

Repositioning cruises are not a new phenomenon, they‘re just the best kept secret in the cruising industry.  Just like migrating birds, many cruise ships leave for warmer climates in the Autumn and return in the Spring.  Some sail south to the Southern Hemisphere for the winter months and then sail back to the Northern Hemisphere for the summer months, while other cruise ships sail cross the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans to “reposition” themselves in warmer weather.  Just like most vacationers, these fleets of ships are seeking seasons in the sun.

These specific one-way cruise holidays are offered at incredible discounts to attract new and seasoned cruise lovers alike.  No cruise line wants to ever have the expense of moving a huge ship across hundreds or thousands of miles of ocean without having any paying cruise passengers onboard.  This is an opportunity for vacationers to get a luxury dream cruise for a bargain basement price.

A repositioning cruise is not a stripped down version of a luxury cruise.  It is a luxury cruise!  All passengers enjoy the same meals, the same entertainment, and have the same onboard privileges.  And your deeply discounted ticket, sometimes costing as low as fifty dollars per day, entitles you to everything that is usually included in a luxury cruise.  

The main difference between a standard cruise and a repositioning cruise is that the latter is longer, usually lasting from two to four weeks, with more time spent at sea and fewer, or possibly no ports of call.  This means more relaxing days at sea and a less hectic itinerary. 

And on certain repositioning cruises some ships will drop anchor in very unique ports of call that are usually reserved for very expensive world cruise itineraries.

Usually these repositioning cruises take place in the months of September and October, and in March and April.  Some of the destinations in the Winter are Hawaii, the Caribbean, Mexico, South America including the Panama Canal, and Asia.  The destinations in the Summer are Alaska, Canada and New England, and Europe and the Mediterranean.

Depending on the season, vacationers can sail to or from Europe and North America; Alaska and British Columbia, and the United States southwest coast including destinations in Mexico; the East coast of Canada and northern United States, and a number of southern U.S. as well Caribbean destinations.  Some repositioning cruises sail to and from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

There are a few important things that you should consider if you want to go on a repositioning cruise.  First is booking an “open jaw” flight where you fly to the departure port of call and then fly home from the cruise ship’s destination port.  These air flights can be pricey compared to the usual return airfares that most travelers are familiar with.  Sometimes it is possible to book your flight through the cruise line, but not always.  Even with the usual extra cost for an open jaw ticket over a regular airline return ticket, a repositioning cruise is still an incredible value for your travel dollar.  However, if you are fortunate to live close by, or within driving distance of your departure port, then you would only have to book a one-way air flight back to your departure port and then drive back home.

If you think you would enjoy a long, relaxing, luxury cruise then you‘ll love a repositioning cruise which usually is not filled to capacity with passengers and spends more time at sea. 

P.S.  Don’t forget your camera and a wardrobe to reflect the possible weather conditions on your cruise. 



Thanks to Dorothy Yamich for contributing this article to our Cruises blog:

Disney Cruise Specials