Can I afford a cruise?
Some vacations are just more fun than others!
There will be very few times in your life when you are completely free. Free from cares, responsibilities, chores, deadlines, timetables, ringing phones or demanding voices. It’s time to start planning for such a vacation and you feel overwhelmed by all the choices.
You may be looking for a place the whole family can enjoy. Perhaps a romantic vacation or a place to meet people. At the same time you want great value for your money. Seem like an impossible task? Then maybe you haven’t considered cruising.
With so many destinations and so much to do on today’s cruise ships it is becoming a very popular alternative to more traditional vacations. Hold on a minute, you might be thinking, I thought cruises were not for me.
Not anymore. Dance clubs, sports facilities, live entertainment, movies, classes, casinos and supervised children’s activities are just a few examples of how cruise ships are catering to people of all walks of life.
One of the main benefits of cruising is it’s all inclusive nature. The cost includes all the meals, 24 hour room service, cabin and entertainment just to name a few. Once you’re on board you’ll be amazed at the variety of activities and land excursions to choose from – or you can choose to do nothing but lounge on the deck.
Get ready to be pampered in a safe and relaxing environment. The high quality and worry free environment will make it a true escape from the “real world”. And what other vacation hotel lets you go to sleep at night and wake up to a new country at your front door every morning? Read the rest of this entry »
If eating fine food is your pleasure, a cruise vacation and dining at sea is for you!
If you get up early enough, go to bed late enough and catch the elevators on your ship just right – you can eat up to 13 times a day on board. And that does not count 24 hour complementary room service.
Fine cuisine and five star dining has always been a part of the cruise experience. On board, you’ll be treated to more options than ever before. As soon as one serving is ending, somewhere on the ship another is beginning.
Today the on board dining experience rivals almost any land based restaurant. Celebrity Cruise Lines cuisine, for example, is acclaimed by food experts, travel authorities and the most discriminating connoisseurs of all, their passengers.
Whether the succulent, broiled lobster tails and coquilles Saint Jacques served on the finest china or fresh pastas and omelets “made to order” from the buffet, an array of exotic dishes and familiar favorites are yours to enjoy. Read the rest of this entry »
Cheap cruise deals are commomplace these days with many holidaymakers taking advantage of the excellent facilities on board today’s cruise liners for little out of pocket expense.
What constitutes a cheap cruise deal? Well, I recently returned from a Royal Caribbean holiday through Key West and Cancun, Mexico, enjoying five days and four nights of total luxury for four hundred bucks. To me, that was a cheap cruise deal well worth the effort. more
There is so much competition among cruise lines today that finding a cheap cruise deal is easy. Magnificent ships built to carry thousands of passengers are luring a lot of first time cruisers off the land and onto the water. Cruise line competitiveness is only intensifying with the major companies getting involved in recent years in a “let’s see who can build the biggest ship” type of battle. These ships obviously need to be filled with passengers and cheap cruise deals are there to be enjoyed.
Don’t get a cheap cruise deal confused with a cheap holiday. Sure if you want to stay in one of the prime state rooms you’re going to be paying for the privilege but my experience tells me that a cruise should be enjoyed from the ships decks and wonderful amenities and not from your state room. If that’s what you’re after then you might want to consider another type of holiday.
So which cruise line do you select for a cheap cruise deal? Carnival, Celebrity, Crystal, Disney, Royal Caribbean… it depends on where you want to go in the world. Today, cruise lines are offering more of everything; more choices and simply more service. It’s all aimed at ensuring you just have more fun. Let’s face it, they want your repeat business.
There are many areas online for you to locate the best cheap cruise deals. I know of people who are total cruise junkies ( up to nine cruises a year ) who are always monitoring the latest cheap cruise deals. Cruise lines often advertise limited deals; you’ll want to be quick for these. Many people prefer to travel in groups which can reduce the overall cost of the cruise even further but for group deals, you’ll want to speak with your cruise line agent.
If you are a first timer and don’t know the process in first, locating, and then booking a cheap cruise deal then the best advice is to speak with someone who has done it before. Even better, your local travel agent will be able to answer most of your questions and if they can’t, then the alarm bells should be sounding!
Cheap cruise deals but not cheap cruise holidays. More like cheap cruise deals and luxury fun-filled holidays. That is the nature of cruising on the world’s oceans today. And your hip pocket won’t be unduly ravaged.
When was the last time you saw an eagle descend from the sky, or stood in awe as a glacier cracked and an ice berg emerged?
Imagine your sense of wonder as you glide past glacier after glacier or your first sight of a cresting whale. While we have much to be proud of in our Alberta parks, I think Alaska is mother nature’s most spectacular show piece.
This year over 30 ships are providing you the incredible delights of warm, pampering service combined with the awe of this magnificent journey.
Remember, there are no roads to Glacier Bay, nor to many other top Alaskan attractions. That’s why exploring these pristine areas by ship is such a privilege.
Cruising Alaska offers us breathtaking views of Alaska’s natural wonders, as well as nights of thrilling entertainment, fine dining, pampering service, and an endless variety of activities.
From the moment you depart the convenient port of Vancouver, this will be the vacation you have only dreamed about.
As you cruise along the Glacier route, you will experience a magical, unspoiled land where walls of ice rise up from crystal blue seas and landscapes of wild flowers give way to snow-capped peaks. more
Alaska is a mecca for lovers of wildlife and vast wilderness. It is a place where you see sea lions gathering to bathe in the sun and the bald eagles circle overhead searching the waters for salmon. And you might see humpback or orca whales as they acrobatically breach the water’s surface.
You’ll be spellbound by the beauty of the Inside Passage. You’ll pass quiet bays, wooded islands, innumerable mountains and waterfalls cascading from granite cliffs – a panorama interrupted only by sightings of sea lions and whales frolicking in the waters around you.
Even more fun can be had as you visit ports as interesting as Ketchikan, southerly most port on the Inside Passage route and known as the “salmon capital of the world”. This port is also renowned the world over for its famous totems. Enjoy a stroll down famous Creek Street, the towns “red light” district; visit Misty Fjords, America’s newest national monument or attend the “Salmon Bake” and sample the local fare.
Juneau, Alaska’s capital and your first taste of the gold rush era, is a contrast of wild, natural country and thriving city. Explore the fascinating City Museum, quaint St. Nicholas Church and stop at Juneau’s favorite watering hole, the Red Dog Saloon.
The treasures beyond the city limits will beckon you too. Tour Mendanhall Glacier by motorcoach or helicopter. This river of ice, with craggy rock sentinels 3,000 feet above sea level is a natural wonder.
Skagway, a magnet for gold-seekers in the late 1890’s, was referred to as the “roughest town on earth” with its over 80 saloons. You can relive the racy Klondike days in this colourful turn-of-the-century town where cancan dancers and other entertainers in 1890’s garb will welcome you or take an authentic horse drawn taxi into town and explore the “Trail of 98” museum.
The plank sidewalks, false front buildings and narrow-gauge White Pass and Yukon Railroad will make you feel as if you were back in the days of the Gold Rush.
On northbound cruises, you’ll also visit Sitka. When Alaska was still Russian territory, this was her glittering cultural centre in the West. Today, evidence of Russian culture can be found in the priceless icons and paintings of the onion-domed St. Michael’s Cathedral. Remnants of Sitka’s Indian culture are preserved in the National Historic Park.
A cruise to Alaska us the ideal vacation for couples, families, single people, honeymooners and fun-lovers of all ages and interests.
And there is no other way to do it with so much ease, affordability and excitement than by modern cruise ships.