After years of traveling, I’ve stayed in many different accommodations. But my cabin aboard the Celestyal Crystal has a feature I have never seen before.

My room has twin beds. Across from the beds is a large full-length mirror. Next to the mirror is a curtain on an aluminum rod to pull across the mirror to hide it. Read more...

Eisenhower was president. The New York Yankees won their fifth world series in a row. Frank Sinatra was drawing movie goers with his film “From Here to Eternity.”

A 26-year-old Fidel Castro launched his failed attempt to overthrow Cuban dictator Batista on July 26. The first Corvette went on sale. Read more...

When the new Carnival Horizon debuts in Europe in April 2018, the atrium sculpture will feature artwork created by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital patients.

The massive LED “Dreamscape” atrium sculpture will offer 33 different artistic creations from St. Jude patients, one of Carnival’s largest charitable partners. Read more...

I don’t know where they sat. Probably not where I did. But such rich and famous folks as Jack Nicholson, Marlon Brando, Rita Hayworth, JFK, Ernest Hemingway and Lucky Luciano once attended the famous Tropicana show in Havana.

Now I have, too, on a late-night excursion from my Celestyal Crystal cruise. The optional four-hour activity cost $149 for adults. Children under 18 not allowed. Read more...

The godmother of Viking’s fifth ocean ship – the Orion – is appropriately a retired NASA astronaut. Dr. Anna Fisher will be honored as godmother for the Orion which will debut in July 2018.

“Vikings were the original long-distance explorers and the first to use the stars and constellations as a way to navigate uncharted territory,” Torstein Hagen, chairman of Viking, said in a news release. Read more...

The dreaded Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The terrifying Beast with Seven Heads. The scary opening of the Seven Seals. The Final Judgement with its brimstone vision of hell.

How could all these horrific things detailed in the Book of Revelation have been written in such a beautiful place? Read more...

Her frozen face seems to have a permanent perplexed look.

At the National Museum of Scotland, I saw the famous animal that captured my imagination. The museum itself – all Scottish museums have free admission – could well take a day to tour. It is huge and well organized. Read more...

In olden days “fisherfolk” would live in these teeny houses in this tiny two-square village named Footdee, called “Fittee” by locals.

Today, it is mostly inhabited by people who want to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city.
“Footdee is a little hidden gem in Aberdeen,” said local tour guide Darryl. Read more...

By Jackie Sheckler Finch

The island of Raiatea is home to a five-petal flower so rare that it grows nowhere else on earth except here. Named Tiare Apetahi, the blossom rising out of a bed of dagger-shaped leaves has an equally lovely legend.

The story goes that a beautiful Tahitian woman named Apetahi fell in love with the son of a king. Devastated that as a commoner she could not marry him, Apetahi fled to Mount Temehani on Raiatea where she died of a broken heart. Read more...

By Jackie Sheckler Finch

If Captain Cook hadn’t misunderstood what the French Polynesians were calling their home, the island of Bora Bora might have a different name today.

That’s a tidbit I learned from tour guide Sandra as we bounced around the popular island in our open-air “Le Truck” vehicle. Read more...