family cruise vacation ideas

Seven Things You Must Know Before Your Next Cruise (to Have the Best Cruise Ever)

Filed under: cruise — Tags: activities, advantage, advice, air, allow, amp, ana, anywhere, around, art, available, Avoid, away, bars, base, beach, become, bed, before, best, board, boat, book, Border, bring, but, cabin, call, Casino, Certain, chances, Charge, Climate, clubs, come, consider, convenient, cooking, Cost, cruise, cruises, cruising, da, dancing, day, dining, direct, does, during, early, easy, eco, end, enjoy, eve, event, events, Every, Everybody, Everything, experience, experiences, Extend, facilities, fall, few, fill, find, food, forget, four, free, frequent, friends, fun, further, going, good, great, group, has, having, head, Help, here, Here's, high, hot, ice, inc, increase, information, Just, la, land, le, leave, Less, life, light, like, line, lines, long, lots, love, low, mad, made, many, may, Mean, means, Meeting, men, might, mild, minute, Minutes, must, need, next, night, not, ny, offer, offered, onboard, only, Order, pa, part, party, pass, passengers, Port, Product, protection, Proven, Purchase, put, rail, rate, Rates, real, really, recover, red, relax, relaxing, right, rise, roar, rooms, sail, sailing, same, see, self, serious, service, seven, ship, Shop, should, shows, Size, ski, skin, solo, spa, spend, Star, Start, Still, style, sun, sure, System, Tactics, ten, than, thing, things, those, through, time, tip, tips, top, tour, tours, travel, typically, up, vacation, vessel, Want, war, way, Well, where, while, why, will, win, wonderful, world — libertees @ 5:02 pm June 18, 2010

Cruising is fun, convenient, a good value … and easy. Right? Well, cruising is meant to be relaxing, but there are certain things passengers can do to get the very most out of their cruise vacation experience. Here are seven proven tips to maximize your cruise experience (and they don’t cost a thing!)

First – Travel with a like-minded partner or friends. Most cruise ships are like Noah’s Ark: people get on in pairs or in groups. While cruise lines will gladly allow you to cruise solo, it is not the best way to enjoy a cruise. Not only will you sometimes feel awkward during dining or cruise ship activities, you also get slapped with a surcharge since all cruising is based on double (or more) occupancy rates.

Furthermore, travel with compatible people. If you like to party, don’t decide to go on a cruise with a tee-totaler or a recovering drinker. Whether you are a sun bather or a casino denizen, you are going to have your best time if you travel with people who share your interests and values.

Second – Board your ship as early as you can and take any tours of the vessel or facilities that are offered. Most ships allow you to board many hours before the ship sets sail and during that time you may be offered free tours of the ship, the spa, and so on. Although they aren’t going to be the highlight of your vacation, these tours help you get oriented and can give you a glimpse of facilities on-board that you may have not known about.

If you can’t get an official tour, try to walk through the ship systematically. This will help you get your bearings plus you may find out about lounges, snack bars, clubs, meeting rooms, or other areas that you might not have known about.

On a recent cruise, I found out on the tour that the cruise ship had a guarantee program for purchases made in port. If you bought merchandise from certain recognized stores, the cruise line would guarantee them providing you filled out certain paperwork and turned it in to the onboard shopper. It was a great tip, and I never would have known about it had I not taken the pre-sailing tour of the ship.

Third – Do everything. This may sound counterintuitive to most cruise fanatics, who seek unstructured time and the opportunity to just lounge around and do nothing. Actually, most cruise directors will tell you the best cruises are those in which you really attempt to try and do everything offered.

This means you should extend yourself a bit. Sample the dancing, casinos, the pools, on-board games, art auctions, spa services, bingo, shows, and fine dining. Even if you don’t normally do those things, the more you try to take advantage of all that is offered, the more fun you’ll have.

Fourth – Don’t overeat. While some people do take cruises to gorge themselves, this is usually a rookie mistake. It may sound counter-intuitive to avoid overindulging on a cruise ship, since most cruises really emphasize the wonderful food they offer. But here’s how to handle it.

Do enjoy yourself. Order what you love. Chances are that cruise ships will offer it, whether it’s steak or lobster, ice cream or pizza, eggs benedict at sunrise, or chocolate decadence at midnight. Do, by all means, eat the foods you love.

But don’t stuff yourself. You’ll wind up feeling miserable during the cruise and fat after you get off the boat.

When in doubt, pass on food. Why? Because on a cruise ship, you’re never more than a few minutes away from the next opportunity to eat. Do try to sample what strikes your fancy, but don’t overeat and don’t be afraid to say no to many of the things that are offered to you to eat or drink. You really won’t be able to eat and drink everything on board, so don’t even try.

You’ll wind up feeling fitter and stronger and you’ll really enjoy what you do eat.

Fifth – Drink water. That’s good advice anywhere, but most of us forget about it on vacation, particularly on a cruise. Furthermore, if you drink alcohol or spend a lot of time in a hot climate, your need for water increases so you need even more water to avoid dehydration.

Even mild dehydration can cause headaches, aches and pains, and digestive disturbances. Why ruin your vacation? Drink lots and lots of water. It’s available just about anywhere beverages are offered on a cruise ship and bottled water is typically brought every morning to your cabin.

Sixth – Protect your skin. Even if you cruise to Antarctica, you will still need sunscreen. The sun’s intensity is amplified by the water’s reflection, so ramp up your sunscreen protection for a cruise. Put on sunscreen when you go to the pool or beach or even if you’re just sitting on deck in the shade.

If you do get burned, use some of the after-burn products on the market. They should be available on board ship if you don’t bring your own. Whatever you do, protect any burned skin from further sun exposure. If you get a burn on top of an existing sunburn, you can do serious damage to your skin and may even require medical intervention.

Seventh – Don’t be cruise-stupid. That’s a term I made up for a behavior I frequently observe on cruise ships. For some reason, being on a cruise makes some people act foolishly or recklessly and do things they would never normally do. Maybe it’s the unreal experience of being on a cruise ship.

On a cruise ship, people wait on you. Everything is nice and clean. You don’t have to do any work at all. Everybody seems happy. You never have to worry about pulling out your wallet, cooking a meal, or even picking up after yourself. It doesn’t take long before the cruise experience literally becomes “another world.”

Some folks take that as a cue to start behaving irresponsibly and sometimes they get hurt. While I do not want to trivialize bad experiences or say that all bad events are deserved, we should also recognize the fact. People who start acting recklessly sometimes get hurt.

If you decide to pretend you’re a gymnast and balance on the guard rail, you just might fall off. If you leave your purse or wallet unattended in a public area, you can get robbed. If you decide to get roaring drunk in some foreign port of call and act like an idiot, you can wind up in a mess of trouble.

Observe the same good, common sense tactics you use on land or in your everyday life.

For more information on cruising, pick up a copy of Ten Things to Consider Before You Book Your Cruise, available only at http://www.thecruise-shopper.com/sign_up.html . It’s free with our compliments. This article was written by Mandy Karlik, a frequent contributor to TheCruise-Shopper.

Looking for Cruise deals? Get the best on the internet

When searching online for cruise deals, one of the advantages that you gain is that you can easily compare and get the best bargains at disposal. You can visit certain web sites and check out the prices, ambiance and facilities offered by various cruise lines for the identical destinations and eventually opt for the one which you think is the best option for you.

cruise ship travel is probably the best traveling and holidaying experience you can ever get. The joy of vacationing on a cruise is simply unmatched to anything else, but you need to be cautious while choosing your cruise ship. Though there are travel agencies, which offer to provide attractive cruise deals, but it could be a cumbersome job to make rounds of a travel agency. Moreover, since not every other travel agency has cruise packages to offer, finding your preferred cruises online is the best option available.

There are various travel websites on the internet that provide you with valuable information regarding such deals. One major advantage of searching online for your cruise ship travel is that travel agencies would advertise their deals on such travel websites and since the agency has to pay for advertisements, it would make sure that the deal they advertise is actually the best so that people opt for it. This would save you from the hassle of visiting the travel agency and would bring you the best of the deals right on your computer screen. Furthermore, if you want suggestions on deals from your friends or relatives, you can simply e-mail the page to them.

It is always better to search in a site which is exclusively for cruise deals. Since such sites deal only in cruise travels, they offer the best cruise deals with maximum facilities and affordable prices. Furthermore, such sites which are dedicated only to cruise ship travel, most of the time have special offers running, which you can avail. Usually such sites have columns, wherein you can type in your requirements and the site would find you the best deal within your budget. So, it is always better and beneficial to find cruise packages online. Follow www.cruisedirect.com at https://twitter.com/Cruise_Lines

Cruisedirect extends some of the best cruise lines to make your vacations truly enjoyable and memorable. Also, website lets the vacationers choose from a list of tempting discount cruise ship travel deals including Caribbean cruise deals, Azamara cruise, Disney cruise, Europe, Mexico & various popular destinations.

Practical Rental Car Tips For You

If you have need for a car in a place where you are a new visitor, you may want to avail of a unit from a car rental service in the locality. These rental car tips might be useful for you as you move around to pursue your business in the area. .

You should perhaps determine first where you intend to go during your stay. If you are not going too far away from the center of the city or town, it might be a more practical idea to use the taxicab service available in the locality. That way you will avoid the responsibility for the vehicle you are thinking of renting, plus the added advantage that you have a built-in guide for your trips around town in the person of the cab driver.

Using these cabs could be the more convenient way to move around town. You just go about doing your business in town without much hassle, and pay the cab driver as soon as the appropriate service for you is finished.

However, if you have added plans to go some distance away then you might want to bring your own vehicle, assuming of course that you know your way around. In case you are not so sure of your destination, see to it that you have at least a map of the place you intend to visit. Many car rental services have this information kits as part of their service to potential customers who would be renting their vehicles. The map will be your main guide as you move around, augmented maybe by information you can get by asking the people in the vicinity for the appropriate information and directions that you will need.

Make an extra effort to check thoroughly the condition of the car you are renting, especially if your destinations are far from the center of town or city from which you intend to start your trips. Get the help of the car rental personnel to make things easier for you in this preparation. They will certainly extend this assistance as part of their service to you. This is just to ensure your smooth trip when you go out of town.

Before leaving for your destination, it will be helpful that you have the phone numbers of the car rental service in case you have to contact them for any problem that may arise during your stay. If you have a cell phone with you, be sure also to let the car rental firm know how to get in touch with you, if needed.

Try to get the phone numbers of police and other law enforcement authorities in the area in case you need to contact them for any kind of assistance. It will be also good to have the phone numbers of hospitals around. It will definitely be for your own good that detailed information like this is in your hands prior to leaving on your out of town trip.

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Extend the reach of your travel advice using the Dopplr blog badge

Filed under: travel — Tags: advice, badge, blog, Dopplr, Extend, reach, travel, using — libertees @ 4:02 pm March 23, 2010

Dopplr is an excellent source of travel tips and a good way of doing travel planning, but not all of your friends, colleagues and contacts will be fellow travellers, or regularly viewing your Dopplr profile. That’s why we created the Dopplr blog badge – a simple tool that displays your Dopplr travel plans on other web sites you own or manage, such as blogs and personal home pages. The blog badge works on almost any web site. You will need to have access to the management system of the site, so that you can paste in a short snippet of HTML. Most blogging services make this an easy task. The badge is easy to set up. From your Dopplr home page, click “Your account”. Under the “Using Dopplr elsewhere” heading, you’ll see a link saying “Blog badge”. Click this to get started. The first step is simply to activate the badge. One click and this is done. Click “Save changes” to move on to the second step. Now you can customise some aspects of the badge. You can choose to only display the badge to fellow travellers. It doesn’t matter which site or blog you put it on, it will only be displayed to people visiting who are also simultaneously logged in to Dopplr. You can choose whether or not the badge displays your future trips (if not, it will only display your current location). You can also tell the badge to display either the month of each trip, or the exact date. Using the badge is also easy. Most sites and weblogging services give you the chance to paste in HTML. After selecting your preferences for what the badge should display, you’ll see a box containing HTML characters. Simply copy these and paste them into your blog at the position where you’d like the badge to appear. It’s been designed to fit nicely into most blog sidebars. There’s also an option to display it as an image, rather than as HTML. The blog badge is a useful service for the smart traveller who wants to make the most of the web. Using it means your Dopplr trips are shared more widely. It is especially useful if you have a blog that’s already popular among the people you like to stay in touch with. Whether you use Dopplr for business travel or tourism, the blog badge can be added to a corporate web site or a personal blog in a few minutes, and is a useful way of extending the reach of your travel advice for others.

Dopplr is an excellent source of travel tips and a good way of doing travel planning, but not all of your friends, colleagues and contacts will be fellow travellers, or regularly viewing your Dopplr profile.

That’s why we created the Dopplr blog badge – a simple tool that displays your Dopplr travel plans on other web sites you own or manage, such as blogs and personal home pages.

The blog badge works on almost any web site. You will need to have access to the management system of the site, so that you can paste in a short snippet of HTML. Most blogging services make this an easy task.

The badge is easy to set up. From your Dopplr home page, click “Your account”. Under the “Using Dopplr elsewhere” heading, you’ll see a link saying “Blog badge”. Click this to get started.

The first step is simply to activate the badge. One click and this is done. Click “Save changes” to move on to the second step.

Now you can customise some aspects of the badge. You can choose to only display the badge to fellow travellers. It doesn’t matter which site or blog you put it on, it will only be displayed to people visiting who are also simultaneously logged in to Dopplr. You can choose whether or not the badge displays your future trips (if not, it will only display your current location). You can also tell the badge to display either the month of each trip, or the exact date.

Using the badge is also easy. Most sites and weblogging services give you the chance to paste in HTML. After selecting your preferences for what the badge should display, you’ll see a box containing HTML characters. Simply copy these and paste them into your blog at the position where you’d like the badge to appear. It’s been designed to fit nicely into most blog sidebars. There’s also an option to display it as an image, rather than as HTML.

The blog badge is a useful service for the smart traveller who wants to make the most of the web. Using it means your Dopplr trips are shared more widely. It is especially useful if you have a blog that’s already popular among the people you like to stay in touch with.

Whether you use Dopplr for business travel or tourism, the blog badge can be added to a corporate web site or a personal blog in a few minutes, and is a useful way of extending the reach of your travel advice for others.

Dopplr is a service for smart travellers. Dopplr members share travel plans and travel tips privately with people they trust, and exchange advice on places to stay, eat and explore in cities around the world. Dopplr aggregates this collective intelligence – travel advice from world?s most frequent travellers – as the Social Atlas.

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