Cathy Cruises Blog

     The luxurious Viceroy Miami, which recently landed a spot on Travel + Leisure’s It List: Best New Hotels of 2009, has become a destination of its own in downtown Miami. Special pricing is available for travel through October. From $370 down to prices starting at $105 per night (you can’t beat it). The catch is you have to reserve by August 28, 2009.

     For business or pleasure, the Viceroy Miami is a treasure, especially at these special prices. If interested in making a reservation for this hotel, contact Cathy toll free at 1-877-435-3344 or contact the hotel directly from their website: www.viceroymiami.com

and mention rate code TVLZ2

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Royal Caribbean Executives Get a Hardhat Sneak Preview of Port Everglades’ New Cruise Terminal for Oasis-class Ships

Royal Caribbean’s senior executives donned their personalized hardhats for a sneak preview of Cruise Terminal 18 at Port Everglades, which will be the home of the new 5,400-guest Oasis of the Seas this November and Allure of the Seas in November 2010. 

Port Everglades Director Phil Allen led the tour through the construction site along with Juan Trescastro, Vice President of Guest Port Services, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.  In attendance at Port Everglades for the hardhat tour were Royal Caribbean International’s Vicki Freed, senior vice president of Sales, Trade Support and Services; Betsy O’Rourke, senior vice president of Marketing; Ken Muskat, vice president of Sales; Joanne Schimelman, associate vice president of Sales, National Accounts; along with Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.’s Diana Block, vice president of Deployment and Revenue Management; and Carlos Leyva, vice president of Trade Support and Services; and 22 Royal Caribbean International Sales directors from across the United States and Canada.

Cruise Terminal 18 is moving ahead on schedule and is expected to be fully operational by the end of October.  The terminal’s expansion and renovation is the centerpiece of preparations underway at Port Everglades for the arrival of Royal Caribbean International’s 5,400-passenger Oasis-class ships, which will be the largest cruise ships in the world.  When completed, Cruise Terminal 18 will be expanded from 67,500 square feet to a total of 240,000 square feet, which will make it the largest cruise terminal in the world built to serve a single ship.

Port Everglades is the cruise ship capital of the world with more than 3 million passengers annually and more homeported cruise ships than any cruise port worldwide.  The Port’s ever-expanding fleet of cruise ships provides guests with an array of cruise vacation choices from the sunny Greater Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood, FL, area including everything from sampler-size day cruises to around-the-world cruises. Details on Cruise Terminal 18 and cruising from Port Everglades are available on the Internet at http://www.porteverglades.net/ and www.broward.org/port.

I was last at Port Everglades in April for Cruise 360 (conference and ship inspections) for travel agents. At that time from the top deck of the Celebrity Solstice, I was able to have a birds eye view of the construction of the new terminal. It will be immence! My worry is the parking. As of this moment there is only 2 parking garages, north and south. If your ship departs midport, you have to park in the south garage and wait for the shuttle (some times it is a long wait, I have done it). With the building of the new terminal are they building a garage to handle the additional number of passengers?

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Photo : Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. executives in front of Cruise Terminal 18 at Port Everglades.  From left to right: Juan Trescastro, Vice President of Port Operations, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.; Ken Muskat, Vice President of Sales, Royal Caribbean International; Joanne Schimelman, Associate Vice President of Sales, National Accounts, Royal Caribbean International; Vicki Freed, Senior Vice President of Sales, Trade Support and Services, Royal Caribbean International; Betsy O’Rourke, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Royal Caribbean International; Diana Block, Vice President of Deployment and Revenue Management, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.; Carlos Leyva, Vice President of Trade Support and Services, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.; and Port Everglades Director Phil Allen.

Technorati Tags: Ft Lauderdale, Oasis, Oasis of the Seas, Port Everglades, Royal Caribbean

Royal Caribbean on Wednesday said the Oasis of the Seas will offer a record 24 ways to dine.

And passengers can begin making dinner plans long before the Oasis sets sail. The reservations system opens at RoyalCaribbean.com on July 7; the 5,400-passenger ship’s maiden voyage departs Fort Lauderdale on Dec. 12.

Restaurants will include typical choices such as a casual Italian eatery as well as Royal Caribbean signatures like Vintages wine bar and Chops Grille.

It will also introduce new dining concepts like the indoor/outdoor Seafood Shack in the ship’s Boardwalk neighborhood. The Seafood Shack will serve seafood and over-sized desserts, with cover charges of $7.95 for lunch and $9.95 for dinner.

Also on the Boardwalk, the Donut Shop and Ice Cream Parlor will serve snacks all day.

Royal Caribbean International CEO Adam Goldstein said he is most excited about 150 Central Park, the Oasis’ “most exclusive dining venue.” The restaurant will provide an intimate ambience and offer a tasting menu with wine pairings, for a $35 cover charge for dinner.

In the Royal Promenade, the Mondo Café will offer coffee, sandwiches and pastries from countries such as Italy, Spain and Cuba. Mondo Café will be open late at night.

New in the Solarium will be a bistro by that name. Solarium will offer “health-conscious” fare for breakfast and lunch in a casual setting, said Royal Caribbean. At night, the restaurant will serve dinner and offer dancing under the stars, for a $20 cover charge.

Also for the health-conscious, the Vitality Café will feature healthy snacks, sandwiches, wraps and fruit for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The restaurant will be situated at the entrance to the Vitality at Sea Spa and Fitness Center.

Oasis’ main dining room, the three-level Opus, will have a 1920s theme and feature French art deco design.

An Asian restaurant, Izumi, will have a sushi bar and hot-rock cooking. Izumi will be open for lunch and dinner at a la carte pricing.

Technorati Tags: Cruise, Oasis, Royal Caribbean

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The dog days of summer have started. Are you and the family taking a vacation this summer? If not have you thought about looking in your own neighborhood for fun, inexpensive things to do? If you don’t have a pool at home check out your local hotels and see what specials they are running. You can hang out at their pool. It has been years since I have visited my local museum and it is offering discounts also. If you are a member of AAA, visit your local office and find out what kind of discount tickets they are offering. You can always call and ask me to look. Cathy Inness, Tours and Cruises Unlimited 1-877-435-3344

I know we are all worried about spending money this year, but summer get a ways and family time go together. You don’t have to break the bank. Do your homework. If the kids are old enough have them search out things to do in the community and give them a budget. The best way to save money is to plan.

More and more condos are rentable. Renting a condo saves on food costs, your family is with you but not on top of you and some have washers and dryers. I love coming home with clean clothes that I just have to put away when unpacking. Having a kitchen means you can leave in the morning after having a healthy breakfast and pack lunch with your own drinks instead of having to buy everything. It also can’t be beat if you have picky eaters. Several hotel chains have a large room with a compact kitchen; Extended Stay, some Best Western’s, Courtyard by Marriott and there are more. Talk to your local travel agent, Chamber of Commerce or the yellow pages. I have found my local news websites highlight a lot of deals going on in my area that I didn’t even know about.

Please, play tourist in your own backyard. Besides staying locally and saving money, you are boosting your community’s economy. Help keep your neighbors working.

Technorati Tags: Best Western, Courtyard, Extended Stay, Family, Hotel, Marriott, Tours and Cruises Unlimited, vacation

It is not often that cruise ships get a perfect 100 on their inspections from the US Public Health Service. One Carnival Cruise Line ship did.

Carnival Cruise Lines’ 113,300-ton Carnival Splendor, which launched year-round seven-day service from Long Beach, Calif., in April, received a perfect 100 score on its most recent inspection by the United States Public Health Service.         

The largest ship in the Carnival fleet, the 3,006-passenger vessel received perfect marks on all 42 items that comprise the U.S. Public Health Service’s comprehensive Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP) checklist. 

The unannounced inspections, which are conducted twice a year and required for any cruise ship with an international itinerary calling at a U.S. port, evaluate vessels in a wide variety of areas, including adherence to proper food handling, preparation and storage procedures, and overall galley cleanliness.  Ships’ potable water supplies used in spas and pools are evaluated, as well.

Keep up the good work Carnival Cruises!

Technorati Tags: Carnival Cruises, Carnival Splendor, Cruising, Public health, ship inspections

Wikipedia defines cookies as: a cookie (also browser cookie, computer cookie, tracking cookie, web cookie, Internet cookie, and HTTP cookie) is a small string of text stored on a user’s computer by a web browser. A cookie consists of one or more name-value pairs containing bits of information such as user preferences, shopping cart contents, the identifier for a server-based session, or other data used by Web site.

In these hard economic times all businesses are trying to make money anyway possible. One of the ways is to sell advertisers your buying habits. This form of advertising is called online behavioral advertising (OBA). This purchased cookie data enables the sales company to send you highly targeted ads as you visit Web sites across the Internet. Before selling your cookies the cookies are supposed to be sanitized of name, address, credit card number and contact number. Call me paranoid, but if the selling of the information is kept secret, how do I know they are not selling my personal information as well.

Tripso has an interesting, more in depth article about cookies being sold at their website

Technorati Tags: Computer cookie, OBA, Online Travel Agency, Personal Information, Tracking Cookies

That is the question for land and sea boarder crossings. The answer is no, but I don’t recommend you travel without a passport when leaving the country. The reason why you ask? I will give you an example of what happened to a client a few years ago. Clients took a 7 night Western Caribbean cruise on Princess from Ft. Lauderdale to return the following week back to Ft. Lauderdale. That sailing was altered due to a fire that destroyed parts of the ship. Everyone was evacuated from the ship in Jamaica, made comfortable till Princess could fly everyone home. As a side note, the wife has a fear of flying, but had to fly as that was the ONLY way to get home. Back to topic. When the plane landed in Atlanta, my clients and everyone else without a passport were taken to a seperate security area. It took hours to go through everyones ID and luggage. The moral of the story is: you don’t know what can happen to change your travel plans. If you want to return to the United States with the least amount of problems, get a passport. Don’t leave home without one. Here is the website with passport information: www.travel.state.gov

Air France flight 447 Rio De Janeiro to Paris departed Sunday at 7pm. Last communication was at 8:33pm, about 2 hours after take off. Since then there has been no communication from anyone. The Air France flight just dropped from redar over the Atlantic Ocean. It is assumed the plane has crashed. Total passenger and crew is 228. A search for wreckage is currently underway over the Atlantice Ocean. This is the worst air disater since 911.

Technorati Tags: Air France, crash, flight 447

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. (May 28, 2009) – Five years after revolutionizing movie-going at sea with its innovative Movies Under the Stars screens, Princess Cruises has teamed with celebrated film critic and historian Leonard Maltin to bring passengers yet another new way to experience movies onboard — an exclusive Leonard Maltin Movie Club. Debuting fleetwide, the new club gives passengers the opportunity to join fellow film buffs to discuss specially selected motion pictures during their cruise.

With this program, Princess will showcase a new film chosen by Mr. Maltin each month. Passengers will not only be able to enjoy the open-air poolside Movies Under the Stars viewing experience, but will also be able to gather for a thought-provoking discussion to gain greater perspective on the film.

In addition, passengers can catch up on many popular and classic films with a new Leonard Maltin Movie Channel available in staterooms.

The new partnership celebrates the fifth anniversary of Movies Under the Stars, which first debuted on Caribbean Princess. The giant Times Square-style movie screens are now available on eight ships, and will be added to most other ships in the Princess fleet by 2011.

“For many people in this country, there’s no more recognizable movie expert than Leonard Maltin,” said Jan Swartz, Princess Cruises executive vice president. “Given the popularity of Movies Under the Stars, we know our passengers love watching films, so it’s a great opportunity to enhance the experience by featuring Mr. Maltin’s expertise with this new movie club and dedicated movie channel.”

The Leonard Maltin Movie Club invites passengers to view a specially selected film on Movies Under the Stars or in the Princess Theater. Each month, a new movie will be featured, with a special video introduction from Mr. Maltin. Soon, films will be announced on www.princess.com prior to the sailing, so passengers will know what Movie Club selection will be presented on their cruise. Upcoming films include titles such as “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “Slumdog Millionaire” and “The Wrestler.”

Later, the cruise staff will host a gathering for passengers featuring a group discussion of the film, guided by questions and trivia from Mr. Maltin. The one-hour club meeting is open to all passengers.

For passengers who want to further enjoy films in their stateroom, the Leonard Maltin Movie Channel on the ship’s television system will feature a selection of contemporary, classic and animated movies specially selected by Mr. Maltin.

As part of this new relationship with Princess, Leonard Maltin himself will be traveling aboard a Princess ship to share his movie insights with passengers in a series of onboard presentations, and to host the Movie Club. Mr. Maltin’s sailing will be announced at a later date.

Leonard Maltin is one of the country’s most recognized and respected film critics and historians. He may be best known as the resident film buff on the popular syndicated program “Entertainment Tonight,” where he has appeared since 1982. However, long before he became a familiar face on television, his annual paperback “Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide” established his reputation; he was 18 when the first edition was published. He has also published numerous other books and articles, and teaches at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. In addition, Mr. Maltin has created television specials and DVDs on film topics, currently hosts the weekly program “Secret’s Out” on ReelzChannel, and introduces movies on DirecTV.

Movies Under the Stars poolside screens have been a signature feature on Princess ships since first debuting on Caribbean Princess in 2004. They are now featured on Crown Princess, Emerald Princess, Ruby Princess, Grand Princess, Star Princess, Golden Princess and Sea Princess. The giant LED screens are more than 300 square feet in size with 69,000-watt sound systems and sufficient lighting power to be seen clearly at mid-day and heard even while the ship is moving at full speed – offering cruise passengers a movie experience comparable to the best shoreside movie theater. Other special programs presented on the giant screens include sporting events such as the Super Bowl, the college football Bowl Championship Series, video game contests with Nintendo’s Wii, a variety of concert events with artists such as Christina Aguilera and Matchbox Twenty, and even midnight showings of cult films such as “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”

Additional information about Princess Cruises is available through a professional travel agent, by calling 1-800-PRINCESS, or by visiting the company’s website at www.princess.com.

Princess can also be found on:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Princess-Cruises/19788524059

Twitter: http://twitter.com/PrincessCruises

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/princesscruises/

Technorati Tags: Leonard Maltin, movies, Princess Cruises

Where are you going this summer with the family? Did you think an amusement park vacation would cost you a government bailout? Think again.

Kids free vacation.

With this special offer, when your family stays 4 nights or longer at one of the AAA Four Diamond award-winning on-site hotels* at Universal Orlando your Kids (ages 3-9) get FREE** theme park admission! Plus, they can SAVE up to 30%* on their on-site hotel room rates! You’ll enjoy admission to Orlando’s most exciting thrills and entertainment PLUS hotel accommodations, all for one great price. Book by July 31 to take advantage of this incredible deal with savings up to $838 on a 7-night family of four vacation!

* Accommodations at one of three on-site hotels; Loews Royal Pacific Resort, Hard Rock Hotel or Loews Portofino Bay Hotel - the longer you stay the more you save!
o Stay 4 nights - save up to 20% per night
o Stay 5 or 6 nights - save up to 25% per night
o Stay 7 nights - save up to 30% per night

** Get one FREE Kids 2-Park Unlimited Admission Ticket* (ages 3-9) with each paid Adult 2-Park Unlimited Admission Ticket valid for Universal Studios® AND Islands of Adventure® theme parks (maximum of 2 Free Kids admission tickets per room)

* FREE UNIVERSAL EXPRESS ride access to SKIP THE REGULAR LINES all day at both Universal Orlando® theme parks

 Plus, Kids Eat Free at Lunch & Dinner Now – Jun 10 and Aug 17 – Sept 30, 2009 with each paid adult entrée!

 Family of four, 4 night package starting from $986♦ - That’s less than $62 per person, per night!

Staying off site is even cheaper. If this interests you and your family, call Tours and Cruises Unlimited toll free 1-877-435-3344 and we will set you up.

Technorati Tags: Summer, Universal Resorts and Parks, vacation