2006 cruises have
been announced and there are some incredibly wonderful ones.
Here are some top picks.
INTERNATIONAL
EXPEDITIONS -- They have a truly unique trip to West Africa.
In Mali, you will travel to the edge of the Sahara at Timbuktu,
see the world-renowned architecture of Djenné, the bustling
inland port of Mopti, and the country of the Dogon people. From
the Senegalese capital of Dakar, you'll embark on the 34-guest
Callisto for a seven-night cruise through Senegal and the
Gambia. With the dense forests of the Gambia River, wildlife of
the Casamance River and the great delta of the Saloum and Sine,
it's a remarkable voyage. From $9,398 per person. January
20-February 4, 2006. In another IE trip, photographer Michael
Fairchild will lead a 10-day photo journey in April to the heart
of the Amazon rainforest. You can join him and other fellow
photographers as each day they go out to photograph the
wildlife, people and landscapes of the Amazon, then on board
gather for discussions on 35 mm and digital photography and
photo editing. Fairchild is a professional photographer, known
for his love of nature travel and wildlife, who has been
published by the Sierra Club, Saturday Evening Post, Time-Life
Books, Audubon, Fortune, Travel and Leisure, and National
Geographic Books. Visit his Web site to see some examples of his
work
www.michaelfairchild.com then let us know if you want to go.
For more information on either cruise go to
http://www.ietravel.com/
QUILTING ON THE
RIVER --
A somewhat tamer cruise. Learn about the history of quilting as
both an art
and a form of storytelling as you travel along the Mississippi,
Ohio and Cumberland rivers on the Mississippi Queen. A 7-night
Memphis roundtrip cruise April 23-30 will spend two days in
Paducah for the annual Quilting Show at the Paducah Expo Center.
A 6-night St. Louis to Nashville cruise, August 21-27, will
spend two days in Nashville for the American Quilter's Society
Quilt Show. Quilt instructors will give instructions on board.
Fares begin at $1,880 per person double occupancy. The Delta
Queen and American Queen will also be cruising again in April
and May. Book
by December 31 for fares up to 35% off. See
www.deltaqueen.com for their new revised schedule and
discounts.
COUSTEAU FAMILY
CR UISE
-- Radisson Seven Seas Cruises is expanding its program for
youngsters and will feature Ocean Future Society experts,
personal appearances by Jean-Michel Cousteau and his team, and
live TV uplinks from dives conducted by them. Cousteau is
scheduled to accompany an Amazon, Falklands and Chilean Fjords
segment of a 62-night Grand Circle South America voyage starting
in January 2006. Radisson by the way has several Christmas and
New Year cruises at 40% off. And five of the eight holiday
cruises offer complimentary Club Mariner children’s programs for
youngsters aged 5 to 17. The Seven Seas Voyager’s
14-night December 27 New Year’s cruise will have lecturer
Florida Senator Bob Graham, with 50% off second guest.
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Cruise with your Kids! 
SILVERSEA CULINARY AND WINE CRUISES FOR 2006 --
Silversea Cruises will
have 15 Culinary Arts Cruises and 12 Wine Series Voyages in 2006.
It's the biggest program the line has ever offered and will feature
award-winning authors, international wine experts, winemakers, and
chefs from the world's top restaurants. On the wine voyages
experts will be on board to lecture, conduct tastings of
vintage blends and guide guests on excursions to wineries and
vineyards in ports of call. A list of the 2006 Culinary Arts and
Wine Series Voyages is available at
www.silversea.com.
Silversea has several 30-50% off voyages in 2006. Itineraries on
sale include: a 12-day January voyage from Buenos Aires with
calls in Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Falkland Islands, starting at
$3,698 per person; a March 10-day voyage from San Diego to Costa
Rica with calls in Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, Acapulco, and Puerto
Quetzal, starting at $2,997 per person; and an April 14-day
repositioning voyage from Barbados to Lisbon with calls in St.
Lucia, Antigua, Portugal and Spain, starting at $3,348 per person.
Other special offers are on cruises from Athens to Barcelona with
calls in Libya and Tunisia, from Copenhagen to London, from Los
Angeles to Miami, and from Hong Kong to Bangkok with calls in Danang,
Nha Trang and Ho Chi Minh City,
SOUTH
PACIFIC AND ASIA
-- Cruise West will go to remote spots in the Pacific and to Japan
in 2006, including a series of 12- to 19-day voyages with stops in
Kiribati, French Polynesia, Cook Islands, Tonga, Fiji, Samoa,
Solomon Islands, Tuamotu islands and the Marquesas. In Japan there
are 14- to 17-day cruises along the coastline with stops in Miyajima,
Takamatsu, Taisha and Hagi and in Pusan/Kyongju, South Korea. Fares
are from $4,150 to 10,150 per person double occupancy.
SEE THE
NORTHERN LIGHTS
-- Norwegian Coastal Voyage has a four-night Northern Lights
Festival cruise
Jan. 23 on the 674-passenger Trollfjord from Bergen to Tromso, where
the ship joins the festival celebration. The Northern Lights
Festival presents more than 40 concerts of classical, jazz and
contemporary music in the city’s concert halls, cafes, cathedral and
soccer arena, including the Norwegian Broadcasting Orchestra
celebrating Mozart’s 250th birthday. Tromso, 370 miles
north of the Arctic Circle, has colorful wooden houses and museums
in a setting of fjords and snow-covered mountains. Warmed by the
Gulf Stream, the area has an average daily temperature of 24° in
January. The cruise focuses on Norway music, with concerts by Grieg
Academy students, the Nord-Norsk Visegruppe (Northern Norway Singing
Group), and Russian violinist Elena Yakovleva. There are lectures on
traditional and modern Sami music of Lapland, tours of Trondheim’s
Ringve Museum of musical instruments and medieval Nidaros Cathedral,
Bodo, and a dogsled safari with refreshments in a Sami tent.
SPECIAL FARES
ON DEUTSCHLAND -- Peter
Deilmann Cruises is enticing Americans to sail its five-star
Deutschland in 2006 with free air and 10% reductions in cabin rates
on 18 voyages of 7 to 21 nights. Discounts apply to cruises to the
Indian Ocean and southern Africa, the Mediterranean, Norwegian
Fjords, British Isles and Ireland, Baltic and Black Seas, and a
21-night cruise to Greenland. The
free air on the 18 voyages is available from New York and 15 other
eastern U.S. gateways. Mediterranean and
Western Europe cruises in April and May call at ports in Italy (the
Lipari Islands, Syracuse, Naples, Genoa, Florence and Ajaccio,
Corsica), Monaco, S pain
(Barcelona, the Costa del Sol, La Coruňa and Santander), Portugal,
Morocco and France. Norwegian Fjords, British Isles and Ireland are
highlights in May and June. The 21-night Greenland voyage goes to
the Hebrides Islands, Reykjavik, Iceland, Greenland ports and
Aberdeen, Scotland in July and August. A 13-night music cruise in
October begins in Malaga and calls at Alicante, Palma de Mallorca,
Toulon (France), Monte Carlo, Civitavecchia (Rome), Valetta (Malta),
Heraklion (Crete) and Piraeus (Athens).
Peter Deilmann Cruises
is also introducing European garden theme cruises this year on its
river boats. The cruises feature gardens in England, Ireland,
France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Morocco.
River boats dock right in the heart of town and the gardening shore
excursions have an experienced gardening escort. Prices start at
$2,409 per person for an outside twin.
SEA CLOUD
Sea Cloud will be sailing again in the Caribbean this January. Sea
Cloud will be celebrating her 75 years of history where she has
served as host to royalty, presidents, and other notables.
RIVERBARGE --
If you are looking for a family vacation, River Explorer allows
children age 12 or younger to cruise free when staying in the same
stateroom as their parents or grandparents; those under age 18 are
half price. Teachers and retired teachers are half price when
traveling with a full fare companion..
SAIL A CLIPPER
SHIP IN THE CARIBBEAN
-- Stad Amsterdam, commissioned in 2001, is a 253-foot, three-masted
clipper and this winter is sailing 7-night cruises to smaller,
less-frequented Caribbean islands. Capacity: 28 guests (twin-bed
staterooms with private facilities). It can be booked by cabin and
also is frequently used for company seminars and programs for
teambuilding and management training along with the romance of
sailing on a tall ship.
NEW
ITINERARIES FOR CARNIVAL SHIPS --
Carnival has several new
itineraries in their program to provide close-to-home ports you can
drive to. Some of those available now: from Galveston, 7-day cruises
to Montego Bay, Grand Cayman and Cozumel; from Port Canaveral, 4 and
5-day Bahamas cruises to Nassau, Half Moon Cay, Grand Turk (or Key
West) and Cozumel; and from Miami 7-day cruises to St. Thomas, San
Juan, Half Moon Cay and Grand Turk. The fares we were given started
at $319 per person for 4-day cruises to the Bahamas and started at
$429 for 7-day cruises to the Caribbean.
Note
that fares quoted come from the cruise companies and are for limited
times and certain dates.
BOOK SHORE TOURS AHEAD
!
You can make arrangements ahead of time for the shore excursions you
want to take.
Go to
http://www.shoretrips.com/agents/linkhome.asp?linkid=st4529
CHARTER A SHIP
NOW FOR WORLD CRICKET
2007 -- The
dates have just been released for World Cricket in the Caribbean in
2007.
Now is the time to contact us if you want to charter a ship, large
or small, for housing for your company or other group.
Call 727-551-0971 to arrange a charter.
Sponsored
Links:
AirportHotelGuide.com -- Information on airports, hotels,
attractions and other useful information for more than 70 airport
cities.
Aruba411.com --
Offers information about restaurants, as well as guide to Aruba's
nightlife.
Bareboatsbvi.com
-- Sailing and motor yachts, both bareboat and crewed, in the
British Virgin Islands.
BoatersDream.com -- Information about boating and fishing
on the Great Lakes.
Boatcaribbean.com --
A great selection of yachts and boats for chartering in Caribbean.
Curacao-tourism.com
-- Curacao in the southern Caribbean; accommodations, things to do;
a special section on arriving by cruise ship.
Florida-travel-guide.com
-- Information on Florida travel, hotels, rental cars.
Canada-hotels-online.com
-- Selection of hotels in Canada.
Cancuntraveler.com -- Cancun website with many
guides, including vacation packages, hotels & resorts plus travel &
tourism information.
Egypthotelstours.com -- Egypt tours and hotels in Cairo,
Alexandria, Hurghada, Sharm al Shaikh and Luxor. Car rentals in
Egypt and transfers.
Festivals.com -- Find out about events on your pre and post
cruise activities.
Florida-travel-guide.com
-- Information on Florida travel, hotels, rental cars.
Gimp on the Go -- Resource for disable travel information.
Links for any special needs travelers.
Greece-Athens.com -- A virtual tour of city; information
about hotels, transfers, accommodation, museums, dining, nightlife.
IBBP.Com -- International Bed and Breakfasts Pages. A
travel guide dedicated to the bed and breakfast industry around the
world.
Kusadasionline.com -- Private tours from Kusadasi, including
Ephesus, Priene, Didyma, Miletos, St John, Ephesus Museum in
air-conditioned van (English, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian,
Japanese).
MedicalTravel.org -- Travel agency that caters to people
with special medical needs; oxygen and 3-wheel scooters available
for trips worldwide.
Miami-Ft. Lauderdale.com -- Links to travel sites in South
Florida & Ft. Lauderdale, as well as links to area attractions,
water sports & dining.
Mileagelink.com -- Sell your airline miles, redeem your
frequent flyer points for cash.
Nice Hotels
-- Hotel
accommodations in Nice, France.
OceanConservancy.org -- Worldwide effort to clean up
beaches and waterways; tracing sources of pollution and educating
toward prevention.
Porthole.com -- The online version of the travel magazine.
Railrocket.com --
Eurail pass & other Europe train tickets.
VirginTraders.com -- Motor
yacht charters in the Virgin Islands.
VIYachts.com -- Virgin Island Sailing has been arranging
bareboat and crewed yacht charters in the Virgin Islands since
1978. Sailboats, Catamarans, Motor Yachts.
West Caribou Air - Northern Ontario -- A fly-in fishing and
charter service North of 50 to obscure lakes.
The Working Vacation -- A cruise consulting company that
places dance hosts on cruise ships.
[For
listing at Sponsored Links or to place ads, contact Editor at ShirlLinde@aol.com
or Marketing Director at
GHanna@tampabay.rr.com]
******************
TO BOOK A CRUISE, CLICK
HERE
TO
ARRANGE MEETINGS AT SEA, FLOATING HOTELS, WEDDINGS, CLICK HERE
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