Tagged With "Cruising down the Nile"
Blog Post
How a super-ship manages 12-hour turnaround
Today's (Mar 22) NY Times has a fascinating article on the "backstage" operation involved in getting 6000 passengers off a ship, washing 93,000 pounds of linens, loading up all the food and water, and getting the next 6000 passengers out to...
Blog Post
MSC stre-e-e-e-tches its fleet with new midsection
If the headline is a bit puzzling, the concept is a bit amazing. MSC Cruises, having decided that some of its ships were smaller than optimal, decided to stretch them out. It's now halfway through a 4-ship refit that involves slicing the liners in...
Blog Post
Cruise lines drop Puerta Vallarta over violence
Recent street fights between armed drug gangs and Mexican police and troops in Puerta Vallarta have cancelled several cruise's port calls, and curtailed others. Royal Caribbean's Jewel of the Seas, Disney's Wonder and Celebrity's Infinity have...
Blog Post
Volendam and Edam, the Netherlands: A Historic Riverfront Adventure
AmaWaterways river cruise ship AmaCerto leaves Amsterdam heading for Volendam and Edam. Gliding north along the Markermeer and Ijsselmeer rivers, the ship arrives just after lunch for a tour of the towns now united under one municipality. ...
Blog Post
Disney Cruises return to NYC, Galveston
Disney's cruise line division made a little magic onboard Disney Magic this week, with a glitzy announcement of a series of cruises starting October 2016 from New York, and from Galveston. Complete with Minnie Mouse dressed as the Statue of Liberty...
Blog Post
Air Cancellations Cost Cruisers; Arthur Frommer's hints on how to save yours
The recent multi-day weather-based flight cancellations may have cost hundreds or thousands their cruises...If you can't get to the port, you can't get on the ship. If you bought your airfare from an airline, you get a refund--but they won't pay the...
Blog Post
United adds cruise awards for DividendMiles
Take your choice...cruise or fly. United Airlines has connected with a dozen or so cruise lines to offer cruises as awards for its loyalty program. DividendMiles members who buy cruises on some of those lines through United's website can also earn...
Blog Post
Gumbo's Pic of the Day, March 8, 2015: Bernkastel-Keus, Germany
Bernkastel-Keus is a beautiful small town situated on the banks of the Moselle in Germany. The town has a traditional marketplace with timber-frame houses and flowers decorating the facades. The district is known for its wine (mainly...
Blog Post
Couple takes 100th cruise -- on the same ship!
It's every business' dream! Customers who like your product or service so much they keep coming back again and again and again -- 100 times to be exact! Bernard and Janice Caffary from Florida are about to leave on their 100th cruise with...
Blog Post
Disney's new idea: river cruising for families
The Disney empire, which seems to be almost as much a travel and resort company as it is a studio and park operator, has another new plan: change river cruising from an older-adult activity to a family plan. Adventures by Disney, which provides...
Blog Post
Viking: How to have snow on your summer cruise
Every year the cruise-ship companies find new ways to amuse and refresh passengers—mini-amusement parks, sky-diving, Broadway shows and more—but now Viking has trumped the others by adding snow to its new ocean cruisers, starting with...
Blog Post
Concordia Sinking: Captain's trial raises question of company's responsibility
When the Costa Concordia sank off the coast of Tuscany three years ago last month, blame quickly fell on the ship's captain who was accused of causing the disaster by recklessness and compounding it by abandoning the ship while others waited for...
Blog Post
June 3, 2017: Father Nile, a long way from home
A puzzling pre-Christian sculpture outside a Naples church turns out to have a puzzling history as well.
Blog Post
The Best Thing to Order is What They’ve Got
Bob Cranwell shares an adventure into the Ethiopian highlands -- his was the first group of tourists to arrive after the rainy season and they found nothing was stocked or ready for them. What to do? Let Bob explain.
Blog Post
Egypt: Spring cleaning at the Pyramids
Taking advantage of the lull in visitors, Egypt does a thorough cleaning of the area around the Pyramids.
Blog Post
Egypt campaigns to rebuild tourism
Egypt is planning to invest millions in an advertising campaign to build tourism to 20 million visitors by 2020, more than double last year's 9.8 million. The peak was 14.7 million in 2010. The campaign will launch in August. Egypt, long a...
Blog Post
Carnival launches 'fathom' new 'voluntourism' brand
Volunteers work on water filtration system parts (Photo: Carnival Corp) Carnival, mothership of nine different cruise line brands, is launching another, with a twist: Instead of high-end entertainment and gambling, the line—named...
Blog Post
Cruise to Nowhere update: The reason why
Last week, we reported HERE that Cruises to Nowhere are being dropped because of new U.S. regulations, and that the reasons were not fully clear. But now we know. Under U.S. laws, designed to promote both the domestic shipbuilding industry and...
Blog Post
Who's Cruising? 23 million, that's who!
Over 23 million passengers for cruises this year—up over 4%—and almost-daily announcement of new ships and new routes, tell you how popular cruising has become, and the 'specialty cruise' group (super-luxury, elegant liners and some of the...
Blog Post
More river cruises cancelled, but some hopeful signs
CroisiEurope's Leonardo da Vinci on the Neckar at Heidelberg Continuing problems with low water in European rivers, as described in several recent TG NewsLinks, are disrupting more cruise plans by most operators...but at least some see hope in...
Blog Post
Good news for European river cruises: the water's back!
CroisiEurope's Leonardo da Vinci on the Neckar at Heidelberg After a spring marked by cruises canceled or modified by too much water in major rivers, and a summer marked by cancellations due to too little water in some rivers, it looks like...
Blog Post
Erika Update: Storm causes cruise changes and cancellations
Tropical Storm Erika has been downgraded, but her effect on the Caribbean cruise industry continues, bringing changes to cruise itineraries, and cancelling some port calls, although some cruises are now slated to resume their original plans. ...
Blog Post
Gumbo's Pic of the Day, Sep 1, 2015: Champagne Bar, QM2
Cruising the open seas is always a memorable experience and one of my particular favourite journeys was on the Queen Mary 2 from Southampton to New York. The good thing about cruising is you can pass the time as you please and there are...
Blog Post
Mobile, Alabama's Mayor Says Deal Close in Bringing Back Carnival Cruise Lines
Mobile's Mayor, Sandy Stimpson, announced the city is in the final stages in bringing Carnival Cruise Lines back to Mobile. The Mayor says all particulars will be revealed by the end of the month when the contract is finalized and then it will be up...
Blog Post
Gumbo's Pic of the Day, September 29, 2015: The Beauty of Alaska’s Tracy Arm Fjord
A fjord is a long, narrow inlet created by glacial erosion. Fjords can be found all over the world, but in Alaska they are especially beautiful. Tracy Arm Fjord — named for Secretary of the Navy Benjamin Franklin...
Blog Post
Barcelona cruises to a new cruise record
Barcelona, which has expressed some doubts recently about just how much tourism to promote, has scored an all-time record for a weekend's worth of cruise ship visitors, with just under 60,000 arriving. That includes over 26,000 on Sunday alone...
Blog Post
Low water puts some European river cruises on hold
Low water in the Danube, 2012 If it seems like only yesterday we were reporting on European river cruises being canceled because high waters were blocking ships from sailing under bridges...well, it was. On May 7, we reported problems on the...
Blog Post
AmaWaterways and Disney partner on family river cruising
Adventures by Disney and AmaWaterways are combining their travel expertise to create family-focused vacations with first-ever river cruising itineraries. Five sailings along the Danube River in the summer of 2016, as well as two holiday- themed...
Blog Post
Cruise lines drop Houston as a cruise port
The two cruise lines that have been sailing from Houston's cruise port have cancelled plans to use the port after the middle of next year. The port has been open since 2013, after a $100 million renovation. Local officials had hoped that it would be...
Blog Post
Another cruise line sets sail for Cuba...it hopes
Oceania's Riviera is one of the line's 684-passenger R-class ships Norwegian Cruise Lines' Oceania Cruises brand, like Carnival's Fathom, has plans to join the growing interest in travel to Cuba from the U.S., but it's taking a radically...
Blog Post
'Cruise to Nowhere' must now go 'somewhere'
New plans needed: Carnival Vista would have gone nowhere from New York in 2017. Photo: Carnival New rules issued by the U.S. mean the end of "cruises to nowhere"—ocean voyages by cruise ships that leave U.S. territorial waters for a day...
Blog Post
Carnival orders 9 new ships, including world's 4 largest
The world's-largest ship title just got a new winner. Carnival has just ordered nine new ships, and four of them, at 180,000 tons and 6,600 passengers, will be the world's largest. That beats Royal Caribbean's Oasis-class ships that hold up to 6,450....
Blog Post
Carnival's WiFi gets faster, sort-of-cheaper
Carnival Cruise Line, which has recently tried out faster internet with lower package prices on three of its ships—and gotten good marks for it from passengers—is adding it to nine more ships, and plans to include the majority of its fleet...
Blog Post
Virgin sails into the cruise business for 2020
Richard Branson, whose Virgin brand is slapped on everything from mobile phones to megastores and especially airlines is now launching a cruise ship line, to be called...of course...Virgin Cruises. The line will start operations in 2020 with...
Blog Post
Cruising solo just got more affordable
Being single means sometimes I travel alone. Generally speaking this means I have no one to share costs with—hotels, car rental and gas. But otherwise expenses such as airfare and restaurants are the same. One standout where...
Blog Post
MSC first to base cruise ship in Cuba
Street scene, Cuba Photo: GarryRF / TravelGumbo MSC Cruises, currently Europe's top ocean cruise line, is responding to constantly-increasing European interest in Cuba (and possibly...
Blog Post
Cruise ships to offer free limitless wifi?
Good news for cruise lovers! Regent Seven Seas Cruises will be adding free unlimited WiFi access for every passenger. The company announced that its fleet would be offering this service starting late 2016. Currently only...
Blog Post
'Fee Creep' continues in cruise industry
Norwegian Escape (above) arrives with new dining charges Photo: Arno Redenius / Wikimedia Perhaps taking a cue from the airlines, a number of cruise lines have recently added...
Blog Post
It's Official, Carnival Fantasy to Sail Out of Mobile, Alabama
Mobile Alabama's Mayor, Sandy Stimpson, announced earlier that the city was close to signing a deal to bring back Carnival Cruise Lines To Mobile. Now, it's official and the Carnival Fantasy will be sailing out of Mobile starting in the fall of...
Blog Post
Joaquin shifts cruise itineraries, may affect flights
Four cruise lines have made changes in itineraries in the Caribbean for the next few days because of Hurricane Joaquin, which is presently centered over the Bahamas, and will likely be in the area throughout Friday before moving north. The...
Blog Post
Cruise line updates: Win some, lose some
Cruise lines have announced some changes in plans and prices recently; two big ones are a trend to higher daily gratuity charges on board, and a move to more flexibility in choosing flights as part of cruise packages. Princess Cruises is raising daily...
Blog Post
Gumbo's Pic of the Day, August 26, 2015: Sunset Cruise, Aruba
For me one of the highlights while vacationing on Aruba was a Pelican Adventure sunset cruise . Couples danced, passengers chatted and laughed, strangers made new friends. The perfect way to end a perfect day on Aruba—One Happy...
Blog Post
Cuba: More cruises, Havana homeport
Lirica-class ship of MSC split for its upgrade Cuba's presence in the cruise market is growing, with Carnival's Fathom brand starting up cultural-exchange cruises open to U.S. citizens, and MSC announcing a second ship will use Havana as its homeport...
Blog Post
Cirque du Soleil sets sail on MSC cruises
Cirque du Soleil, the no-animal wonder-world circus of acrobats, contortionists and aerialists that delights audiences in multiple shows in Las Vegas and elsewhere has now signed on to create shows onboard MSC cruise ships. Starting with a new...
Blog Post
In Egypt: Luxor West Bank
PortMoresby visits 3 sites on the West Bank of the River Nile, opposite Luxor near the Valley of the Kings, the ancient Theban Necropolis.
Topic
Most Popular River Cruises in India
A river cruise provides an escape from the constant commotion surrounding our everyday lives. As you sail along the river at a leisurely pace, with lovely sights greeting your eyes, you realize there is much to appreciate in this unhurried journey. India, with its impressive inland waterways, provides wonderful opportunities for river cruising. From the backwaters of Kerala to the might waters of Brahmaputra, every cruise gifts you with a memory to be cherished or a moment to be valued.
Blog Post
In Egypt: The Sudan
Disappointed to find a cruise on a classic Nile paddle steamer beyond her means, PortMoresby is given a second chance, if only briefly, to experience the dream.
Blog Post
In Egypt: Philae Island
Arriving in Aswan, PortMoresby visits an island and its temple with an unusual history.
Blog Post
PortMoresby In Egypt
January 27, 2018: The Pyramids February 3, 2018: Islamic Cairo February 10, 2018: Three Houses February 17, 2018: The Egyptian Museum February 24, 2018: Around Luxor March 3, 2018: Luxor & Karnak March 10, 2018: Luxor West Bank March 17, 2018: Howard Carter's House March 24, 2018: Up the Nile March 31, 2018: Philae Island April 7, 2018: Around Aswan April 14, 2018: The Sudan April 21, 2018: On a Felucca April 28, 2018: An Unlikely Story May 5, 2018: Sleeping
Blog Post
February 28, 2018: Ait-Ben-Haddou, Morocco
Professor Abe visits the picturesque town of Ait-Ben-Haddou, Morocco. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site and a very photogenic destination.