Your First Cruise

According to CLIA, over 75% of Americans have never cruised. Surprisingly, despite a down economy, that means another 10% of Americans were first time cruisers over the last couple of years.

The consistent growth in the popularity of cruising is amazing. The problem for me is how to get novice cruisers to book with me.

A few nights ago, I watched an amusing movie called Roger Dodger on cable. The movie's protagonist has risen to the pinnacle of copywriting by exploiting the advertising gimmick of making people feel bad about themselves and then offering his magic elixer as a solution. Wayne Dyer once said, referring to one of these types of ads, that it was no longer enough to just please other people; we now must be concerned with what our dogs think about us.

While I understand this concept and believe it does work, I prefer the Coca Cola approach of simply associating so many good memories to cruising and my service that you will want to take a cruise yourself.

For most people, the quintessential cruise takes us to tropical destinations, so why not start there?

We can enjoy sunny days on the sandy beaches of exotic islands or cruising the turquoise and deep blue waters of the Caribbean, Mexican Riviera or South Pacific by day and becoming accustomed to the joys of the dining and entertainment onboard at night while effortlessly gliding between destinations.

In non-holiday periods between fall and spring, prices are always the lowest, so for empty nesters, young couples and singles, this is an outstanding time to try cruising. If you are slaves to the school schedules, of course, you have to expect to pay a bit more, but it is still well worth it.

Visit http://www.CruisePlanners1.com to see a few specials and do a little research, but be sure to phone the number you find there to be sure you get on the perfect cruise for you. All cruises are not the same, and you have a friend in the cruise industry to help guide you to the right one for your next dream vacation. "Better service leads to better trips."

Personal Choice Dining

Traditional cruise lines feature a choice of early or late seating for dinner in the main dining room. The casual buffet is available for those who want more flexibility on any given night. While most cruise aficionados love getting to know their wait staff and dining companions over the course of the cruise, others find it too constricting, preferring the more open choices of a land resort.

Norwegian Cruise Lines introduced the concept of Freestyle Dining to mainstream cruises, with no specifically fixed dining time for dinner, but Princess has found a way to improve upon it. Because some people want to have that traditional dining room experience, Princess offers both early and late dining times for many guests. This relieves pressure from the Personal Choice diners, who arrive when they please.

We never had any trouble being seated for a meal aboard Caribbean Princess. In fairness, I should say that we never had any trouble being seated for a meal on Norwegian, as long as we arrived for dinner at approximately the standard times of fixed seatings on most cruise lines, namely around 6:00 PM or 8:30 PM. At 7:00 PM, which is a time not generally offered as an option by traditional cruises, there seemed to be a lot of passengers on Norwegian who wanted to be seated immediately, "like on other cruises." On Princess, the dining room never seemed to be full for Personal Choice diners at any time during our Eastern Caribbean cruise.

The alternative restaurants were also handled more efficiently on Princess than we have experienced on NCL thus far. We had no trouble making reservations for Sterling Steak House, whereas on NCL we have found it necessary to make reservations for specialty restaurants immediately upon boarding. The food at Sterling was excellent, with an enormous cut of fillet mignon following huge and delicious appetizers like clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl and shrimp cocktail made with jumbo shrimp. We were embarrassed by how much steak we left uneaten. I should add that when we did eat at Cagney's Steakhouse on NCL's Pride of Hawaii, we also enjoyed wonderful meals. Both steakhouses charge $15 per person as a reservation fee.

Whereas on NCL ships the excellent Italian restaurant is a free alternative, on Princess, Sabatini's Italian Restaurant is more expensive than the steak house, charging $20 per person reservation fee. We didn't dine at Sabatini's. There is also an a la carte ice cream parlor on Caribbean Princess, and I have to admit that I personally find this trend to more and more extra-cost alternatives to the free food a bit disconcerting. Then again, no one is being forced to snub the delicious free dinners and desserts in favor of additional cost items, and if anyone goes hungry on a ship, they obviously have lost use of all of their senses (including common sense), because there is always something tasty nearby. On Caribbean Princess, we found delicious meals and excellent service in the casual buffet as well as in the dining rooms.

Would you like to forget about doing the dishes for a week or so? Would you like to enjoy great food while on vacation? You need to take a cruise.

P.S. Holland America has recently introduced Personal Choice Dining, too.

St. Thomas/St. John: August, 2006

The Eastern Caribbean may not feature the most ports per cruise, but the overall trip proves to be quite satisfying for several reasons, not the least of which is the excellence of the ports.

On a recent Caribbean Princess cruise, we visited St. Thomas, St. Maarten and Princess Cays. Because we had plenty of time to enjoy the ship on the sea days, we didn't find ourselves rushing back, instead making the most of each port.

Featured in many Southern Caribbean itineraries and essentially every Eastern Caribbean cruise, St. Thomas is a repeat destination for many cruisers, including us. This time, we elected to take the ferry to nearby St. John. Our good friends Mike and Linda, who joined us on this cruise, probably had a better idea: take a shore excursion on a boat from the cruise port over to St. John to visit a couple of great snorkeling spots. That is apparently too simple for our family. Instead, we caught a taxi to Red Hook, where we caught the ferry to St. John, where we then took a taxi to Trunk Bay.

Someone wrote that visiting St. John without visiting Trunk Bay was equivalent to visiting France without seeing Paris. I'm not sure I would go that far, but it certainly is a beautiful beach with great snorkeling. The population of colorful tropical fish isn't as diverse and plentiful as in the South Pacific, but it definitely is quite a satisfying swim.

In the early afternoon, we caught another cab over to nearby Cinamon Bay. With fewer people to enjoy the beautiful beach, this is another excellent destination, though the snorkeling is not quite as good as at Trunk Bay. Soon we were hot and ready to head back to the ferry station at Cruz Bay, where we were supposed to have lunch in the little town at a restaurant regularly frequented by actor Kelsey Grammar of “Cheers” and “Frasier” fame, but somehow we ended up with a Subway sandwich on the ferry headed back to St. Thomas.

We lucked out, finding a Lincoln Town Car to take us up the hill for a scenic view of Magen's Bay on our way back to the ship, and the driver charged only a few dollars more than the price of the regular taxi directly back to Charlotte Amalie. I guess we saved a couple of Jacksons by traveling as we did rather than on a shore excursion boat, and we were in complete control of our own day, which is extremely important to my wife. We had taxi rides instead of a fun boat ride, but the ride to see Magen’s Bay was a nice bonus.. You can decide what works best for you.