Caribbean

Carnival Ecstasy – three’s a charm at Port Canaveral

by Cruise Maven (Sherry Laskin) March 4, 2012

If you wanted to take a Carnival cruise from Port Canaveral, your only options were limited. Until recently, the choices were either a three or four night cruise to Nassau and/or Freeport aboard the Carnival Sensation or a seven night option to the Eastern or Western Caribbean aboard the new-ish Carnival Dream.

2 comments Read the full article →

Holland America Ryndam – First Impressions

by Cruise Maven (Sherry Laskin) February 24, 2012

First Impressions It’s a small ship afterall. Really. At only 55,000 tons, Holland America’s petit Ryndam harkens back to the ships of yesteryear. Actually, yesteryear is barely twenty or so years ago when that size of ship was the norm. I was looking forward to a non-mega ship cruise.

3 comments Read the full article →

Aboard the Norwegian Epic

by Cruise Maven (Sherry Laskin) February 2, 2012

Ahhh. Our first of three relaxing sea days. I can try to revisit as much as possible from my last two cruises on the Epic and see if anything has changed…or looks familiar…or try somethings completely different. I can so get into the Freestyle cruising concept that Norwegian Cruise Lines pioneered over a decade ago.

1 comment Read the full article →

Norwegian Cruise Line – Norwegian Epic first impressions

by Cruise Maven (Sherry Laskin) February 1, 2012

First Impressions. If the saying, “Three’s a charm” is true, this would be my best cruise yet aboard the Norwegian Epic. My first experience aboard the Norwegian Epic was the fun-filled Inaugural cruise from Southampton in June 2010. Afterwards. I stayed onboard (I actually had to exit and reboard) and cruised the seven night transatlantic [...]

1 comment Read the full article →

Celebrity Millennium – a winner in all kinds of weather – Postscript

by Cruise Maven (Sherry Laskin) November 19, 2011

Five nights later, one hurricane missed and setting the record for most ships in Nassau, we docked in Ft. Lauderdale before dawn. I chose to wheel my small suitcase and carry-on bag with me, so I could leave wheneven I chose. They do request that you vacate your stateroom by 8am so that the room [...]

4 comments Read the full article →

Hurricane Rina sends us off course – Days four and five

by Cruise Maven (Sherry Laskin) November 18, 2011

As you can see from the photo, the weather in Falmouth, Jamaica was about to change. So were our plans for a visit tomorrow to Grand Cayman. Rather than make his familiar departure announcement as we sailed away, the Captain instead chose to tell us mid-afternoon, that due to tropical storm Rina, we weren’t going [...]

1 comment Read the full article →

Falmouth Jamaica and the “Jamaica for a Day” shore experience – Day Three

by Cruise Maven (Sherry Laskin) November 15, 2011

Instead of opting for a cruise line’s shore excursion, try a relaxing beach break at an all-inclusive resort. Falmouth, Jamaica is the “new” port of this popular Caribbean island. Recently, a collaboration between the government of Jamaica and Royal Caribbean began a revitalization construction project to the tune of $250 million. So what to do [...]

8 comments Read the full article →

Celebrity Cruises Millennium – Day Two

by Cruise Maven (Sherry Laskin) November 1, 2011

Day two. At sea. 8:30am. Time to check out Michael’s Club for the Continental Breakfast offered to the highest level (Elite) of the repeat passengers club, the Captain’s Club. Melissa, the Captain’s Club hostess, greeted everyone as they arrived. Although she said that there were about 100 Elite level members on this cruise, there were [...]

1 comment Read the full article →

Celebrity Millennium – First Impressions

by Cruise Maven (Sherry Laskin) October 31, 2011

Celebrity Cruises is like an old friend. I’ve probably logged nearly four months of sea days on their ships. Considering that there is a definite similarity of theme across the entire fleet, if you’ve cruised Celebrity once, you’ll feel right at home again and again. As soon as I stepped off of the metal gangway [...]