The Carnival Destiny is about to get a very major transformation. So major, in fact, that Carnival has even decided to change the name of the ship – so come April of next year, say hello to the Carnival Sunshine! This $155 million top to bottom refurbishment will change virtually every aspect of this ship from top to bottom. Here are some of the highlights! Read more...

There’s finally a new answer to one of the most common cruising questions. We get a lot of guests asking us if they can bring their own alcohol aboard ship to enjoy in the room without having to pay the mark-up of bar prices. The answer has almost always been, no. There have been some exceptions, of course, but they often involved corking fees that cost as much as buying the bottle of wine on the ship to begin with. Read more...

It has been a busy week for corporate offices across the cruise industry this week. Earlier this week, Norwegian Cruise Line announced its plans to build another Norwegian Breakaway type-ship in the near future. Royal Caribbean announced its plans to build another Oasis type ship for 2016, and today Carnival announced another Breeze-type ship for delivery in 2016, and a new Holland America ship in 2015. Read more...

Art is always a focus on cruises. In fact, many ships might as well be art museums with the hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of orginal works that hang throughout cruise ships today. Add in the art auction, and sometimes a ship can almost feel like an episode of Gallery Girls. Read more...

It’s all about the outdoors on the new Royal Princess coming this June. With some really incredible new features, the top deck is where everyone is going to want to be on Princess’ new megaship, improving on their signature “Movies Under The Stars” feature and also adding some new features that are both a first for the industry and will create some really amazing passenger experiences. Read more...

This is the first in an irregular series on our blog about some of our favorite hotels around the world. We start in London with the Andaz Liverpool Street.

We love the Andaz Liverpool Street. The first hotel in Hyatt’s upscale, very modern Andaz brand, Liverpool Street takes classic Victorian architecture and melds it with impecable modern design in a very convenient location. Just off Liverpool Street station, the hotel is walking distance from the London Tower, St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Tate Modern, and its just steps away from the Tube. Read more...

Everyone knows plans for the future can change, and often its for unplanned circumstances. Travel and vacations are no exceptions, and the unforeseen can end up being extremely costly. Fortunately, there is a tool can make you whole financially when the worst happens to prevent, or cut short a vacation. It’s called travel insurance, and its something that not enough people take. Read more...

As the Magic Kingdom starts opening more and more of the New Fantasyland portion of the park, one huge standout is the “Be Our Guest” restaurant which offers both quick service and table dining service in a setting modeled after the Beast’s castle from the movie “Beauty and the Beast.” Read more...

The following is an excerpt from Roger’s travel journal. He went to Rio de Janeiro in 2006.

The thing about traveling in a great group of people is that it takes forever to get moving. Planning for an early morning start meant that we finally got rolling out of here at about 11:30. About two hours after the plan. One of the things about being in a hostel is that when you find people to gang around with, it can take a while to get us all ready to do the same thing. Once we finally got out and ready to go, we took a bus to Corcovado and instead of the tram, the five of us split with a private driver. He took us to a couple lookout spots on the way up. (Corcovado is in an urban forest – a remnant of the rainforest that was around Rio years ago and some of which is still there to the north and south of the city). The views were stunning, you could see everything and the planes which were landing in the local airport (jet planes, mind you) are just about at eye level. It’s a little nuts. After we got to the base of Corcovado, you have two options. Stairs (which give you more opportunity to pay ridiculously expensive prices for cheap looking souvenirs) or the elevator. I was all about the stairs, all about being the fit, healthy me that I’ve always wanted to be. About half way up the stairs, I changed my mind, but it was too late to stop. Before long, I was at the top, with the same view that Jesus has. Read more...

The Celebrity Reflection hits the seas this week on its inaugural passenger voyages. It does a short schedule in Europe before crossing the Atlantic down to Florida in December. New features on Celebrity’s latest and greatest include art classes on the Lawn Club from Art Center South Florida, the addition of Aqua Class suites and a unique to Celebrity spa which includes a hammam, sensory showers and an infrared sauna. Guests can even book their own private cabana space on the lawn with the addition of the Alcoves. Read more...