Arizona Travel Agent
We’ve taken our sons Andrew and Josh all over the World on our vacations – from the glaciers of Alaska to the canals of Venice. These trips have not only been great fun, but educational, too! Here are Andrew and Josh sampling bananas right from the plant on a December 2006 visit to the Caribbean – they’ll never eat a banana again without thinking of how this fruit is harvested in St Lucia.
Josh:
“My first time snorkeling was really fun. After we looked at some different islands, we came to Bird Island. Instead of playing on the beach, we got snorkeling lessons from a crew member of the boat. It was really fun and better than I expected. I thought it was going to be hard to breath, but it was easy. We even saw a crab walking on the ocean floor next to the boat. We had a great lunch with barbeque chicken, pasta, and banana cake for desert. After we left, we came to a snorkeling spot where there was lots of fish and coral. I saw some fish swimming around in the water and it was a really enjoyable experience. I hope I get to go snorkeling again sometime!”
Our family has taken a number of Eastern and Western Caribbean cruises in recent years, but until December 2006 we had never sailed a Southern Caribbean itinerary. We were anxious to try out a Southern Caribbean cruise on the newest ship in the Princess fleet – the Crown Princess. The cruise exceeded our expectations! In this report I will describe some of the features of the Crown Princess and the ports we visited. Anne will contribute her comments on various parts of the trip preceded by the words “Anne’s take:” And we’ll get a kids view of the trip from our sons Andrew and Josh.
by Tim Larison
Recently I was planning an international trip for a client of mine and she said “this is one place I want to see before I die.” She was in her 30’s in fine health, yet had a sense that we all have only so much time to pursue our dreams in this life.
by Tim Larison
In selling cruises I often come across figures for how many tons a particular ship weighs. Both Disney ships, for example, each weigh 83,000 tons. If you are like me, it is difficult to visualize how big 83,000 tons is! But the weight of a vessel is useful when comparing one ship to another.
by Tim and Anne Larison
One activity we like to recommend to clients on cruises when visiting Ocho Rios, Jamaica is to take a climb up Dunn River Falls. This is a unique excursion – there’s nothing on a Western Caribbean cruise quite like it.
by Tim Larison
One of our favorite shore excursions to take on a cruise is a whale watching excursion. We have enjoyed whale watching in Alaska, Cabo San Lucas Mexico, and in Hawaii. Here are some tips on scheduling a whale watching excursion on your cruise:
by Tim Larison
With the recent tragic death of Steve Irwin (fatally injured by a stingray sting off the coast of Australia) some cruisers are thinking twice about doing a “swim with the stingrays” type of shore excursion that is commonly offered at some caribbean destinations (Grand Cayman for one).
by Tim Larison
When Anne and I visited Hawaii’s Big Island on a Norwegian Cruise, one of the best excursions we did was flying over the active Kilauea volcano. We arranged our short flight with Island Hoppers ( www.hawaiiislandhoppers.com ) on a small fixed wing plane with an experienced pilot. I took the picture above from our flight – we had some great views!
by Tim Larison
Alaska voters will go to the polls on August 22nd to decide if cruise passengers will pay an additional $50 per person state head tax, and also require cruise lines to make some changes in the way they operate in Alaska.