Nov 2, 2009 by Amber Nolan - comment
Amber Nolan is on deck with the latest cruise deals, industry news, ship reviews, and advice on finding the perfect voyage to suit your personality.
On Friday Royal Caribbean’s latest masterpiece, the Oasis of the Seas, set sail from Finland on its maiden voyage to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The massive ship is five times larger than the Titanic and twenty stories high, which made sailing under a low bridge in Denmark a bit too close for comfort. Even after the smokestacks were lowered, Oasis cleared the Great Belt Fixed Link with less than two feet to spare.
Carrying a $1.5 billion price tag, the new ship is loaded with innovative entertainment options like an outdoor theater featuring acrobatics and high diving acts, a boardwalk, zip line, carousel, and – in the middle of it all – rests a living garden appropriately named “Central Park”.
The ship is expected to arrive in its home port of Port Everglades on Wednesday, November 12 and will embark on a series of inaugural voyages before settling in to its routine schedule in the Eastern Caribbean.
For an up-to-date status of ship’s transatlantic journey, visit www.oasisoftheseas.com.
Spending time with family this Thanksgiving doesn’t have to mean visiting that wacky aunt’s house again for some of her homemade pumpkin pie. Instead, start a new holiday tradition by rounding up the troops and spending Turkey Day in the Southwest. Forever Houseboats is offering an amazing deal on boat rentals at numerous locations including Lake Mead, a scenic man-made reservoir located just 45 minutes from Las Vegas. The Thanksgiving Bird and Boat Package includes a houseboat rental for five days for the price of three – that’s a total of savings of 40 percent!
The waters of the Caribbean are home to a number of large cruise ships that offer popular itineraries, rock-bottom rates, and family-friendly features. However, for a more elegant, romantic voyage many travelers look to luxury cruise lines for intimate sailings with unusual ports of call – although the price tag will be significantly higher. This November, the British-based cruise line P & O is drastically reducing rates aboard the adults-only Artemis by as much as 71 percent.
Located off the northwestern coast of Africa, the Canary Islands have been attracting visitors for years, with its near-perfect climate and alluring beaches. Luxury cruise line Fred Olsen specializes in voyages to this Spanish-owned island chain and right now the company is drastically reducing rates on a number of its cruises. This 12-night voyage aboard the Boudicca is our top pick with rates starting from just $95/night.
When it comes to Thanksgiving, what’s not to love? It means time off from work, a chance to catch up with relatives, and of course, ridiculous amounts of delicious food (that someone else prepared). However, if Thanksgiving is scheduled at your house this year, the warm holiday glow may not be shining as bright. Before you start firing up the oven there’s another tempting option: This 7-night cruise aboard the brand new Carnival Dream will have you relaxing on a beach in the Bahamas instead of packaging up leftovers and cleaning dishes. With rates starting as low as $499, that guilt about ditching the in-laws will disappear the moment you step on the ship.
Despite romantic sentiment, major motion pictures, and irretrievably tight pants, pirates are still getting a bad rap.
Luxury cruise line, The Yachts of Seabourn has canceled a five-month series of cruises in the Indian Ocean and Africa due to increasing incidents of piracy. The 208-passenger Seabourn Legend would have delivered guests to Kenya and the islands of Seychelles, Madagascar, and Zanzibar on a series of 15 sailings in 2010 and 2011.
Despite these cancellations, the Seabourn Spirit is still set to depart from the Mediterranean in November 2010 and will sail through the Gulf of Aden to Dubai and Oman. Controlled zones – such as the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Aden – have driven pirates south and east to the Indian Ocean. According to Seabourn spokesman, Bruce Good, the risk of danger is much less in the Gulf of Aden than it has been in previous months.
Seabourn Cruises will not cancel the Legend’s 2010-2011 season altogether and will instead station the ship in the safer shores of the Caribbean. Guests are discouraged from bringing any pirate paraphernalia due to poor taste.
Italian-based Costa Cruises, operator of Europe’s largest cruise fleet (and a subsidiary of the Carnival Corporation since 2000), has just wrapped up its very first stint sailing the New England / Canada circuit. The inaugural fall 2009 cruises between New York City and Quebec onboard Costa Atlantica (pictured here on NYC’s Hudson River yesterday), fell surprisingly under the radar of American travelers, with an estimated three quarters of the ship’s clientele touting European passports. Still, in-the-know American cruisers were privy to an exceptional chance to mingle with European travelers in a delightful Italian-inspired atmosphere, right here stateside. While the last ship has sailed on the New England/Canada season, the Costa Atlantic has one more stateside sailing left before moving onto her Caribbean-cruise-season perch in Fort Lauderdale – at bargain rates to boot. Snag a cabin on the 13-night October 25 repositioning sailing from Quebec to Fort Lauderdale (with stops in Boston, NYC, Bermuda, and more) for as little as $449, or just $35/night! Read the rest of this post »
After years of planning and endless public updates announcing each stage of development, the long-awaited Carnival Dream will soon embark on the last of her series of inaugural sailings in the Mediterranean. While a handful of lucky cruisers have already experienced Carnival’s latest addition, many others are anxiously waiting for the “dream ship” to make its initial appearance in the United States this November.
Hurtigruten, the Norway-based expedition cruise line known for its adrenalin-inducing, off-the-beaten-path itineraries (plying the waters to destinations like Greenland and Spitsbergen), has announced three itineraries for the coming Antarctic cruise season that will venture further south into the White Continent than most of its competitors. Setting out on the MS Fram – the cruise line’s newest ship (it debuted in 2007) – the sailings will trace the same route to Antarctica first followed by Norwegian explorers to the South Pole back in 1912 (the first successful party to reach the pole, the crew had in fact traveled onboard a ship touting the very same name). 
The month of October marks the end of the cruising season for Bermuda, and although temperatures on this Atlantic island won’t reach the tropical heights found in the Caribbean, Bermuda is downright pleasant in the fall. Not to mention, rates are the lowest they’ve been all year on sailings from East Coast cities. Our editors have hunted down a 7-night voyage leaving from Philadelphia priced from just $299 – that’s up to 81 percent off rack rates!
