The Grande Caribe small ship wins major points for its unusual drink system.

The 96-passenger Grand Caribe, part of Blount Small Ship Adventures, has a very practical system that worked very well on my recent cruise.

It always irks me when a cruise ship charges extra for fountain soft drinks and the price is usually terribly inflated for a small cup of flat cola. Read more...

Our dining table aboard the Wilderness Explorer had no dinner menu. Must be misplaced, I thought. Then I discovered that the ship does not print daily menus because of its efforts to be “green.”

“We take our commitment to conserve and protect the environment very seriously,” said Debi Heins, hotel manager for the Wilderness Explorer. “We do everything we can to be ‘green.’” Read more...