For most people, taking a Caribbean cruise is an opportunity to simply lay back and relax. There’s free food, entertainment, and interesting conversations from people from nearly every part of the world. There’s something else though that everyone does on vacation … but few people think about. Taking great photos. After all, nearly every ship has amazing sights on board plus takes you to beautiful locations nearly every day.

When you think of going on a cruise, you probably think about departing from South Florida or Port Canaveral, but today there are many more options than that. The cool thing about taking a mancation cruise is that you really get three destinations in one experience - the ship, the departure port, and a buffet of other experiences along the way at different stops. While we LOVE the major cruise ports like Miami, Ft Lauderdale, and Port Canaveral, here are some of our top picks that you might not already think about.

Alaska cruises offer a vast opportunity for guys to explore the last frontier but honestly, the ships that cruise there aren't the newest, fanciest, or most exciting. That's OK though because the adventure is out your window - not just on the ship like you might expect in the Caribbean. Well, that's about to change with the launch of Norwegian Cruise Line's newest ship - Norwegian Bliss, launching in 2018!

Alaska is a land of incredible potential and a legacy of brave men seeing fortune and adventure here. Luckily, today we don't need to pack up a years worth of food and walk for thousands of miles through the wilderness to experience this. All we need to do is hop on a cruise ship and relax as we are pampered on board and seek adventure on shore. An Alaska cruisetour though is something that still needs research to make sure you select the right ship, ports, and activities that match what you and your friends are looking to do. Don't worry though, we've got some advice to help make it easy for you!

Take away some of the "home" features like a refrigerator that knows when you need more milk and instead, let's focus on the core system that we've all dreamed about. Despite our homes being stuff with IoT devices today, what still separates our "smart homes" from what we see in the movies is the system that runs it all and unifies the hardware, the software, and the brains. No matter if you're using Zigby of Z-wave, no consumer-level smart home today can genuinely call itself smart. For that experience, we're going to have to take a cruise. When Princess rolls out it's OCEAN system later this year, powering the Ocean Medallion, we're finally going to see the potential for smart home technology... it's just going to be on a cruise ship with waiters and crew instead of robots. In fact, this smart ship is so smart it knows that it doesn't even has to use that label :)

I've enjoyed my share of ocean cruises on a few different lines to different hot and cold destinations so I consider myself a pretty experienced cruiser. However, despite this I found river cruising a completely unique and wonderful experience that I wish more people would consider. After being hosted on an amazing experience by Viking River Cruises, I wanted to share my thoughts so you can better understand the experience.

For the past few years I've watched Holland America ships sit in port here in San Diego but I've never actually pulled the trigger and cruised with them till last month when they invited us to sail with them. While the experience is dramatically different from warm-weather cruising in the Caribbean and Mexico, I found a lot of stuff to like about cruising on the Holland America Line Maasdam. 

This is a departure from my normal posts here, but I think it's important to share my thoughts about why I'm looking forward to sailing with Fathom in June. For those of you who don't know yet, Fathom is a new type of cruise experience that combines visiting exotic destinations with giving back and learning about new cultures. To disclose completely, I was interested in this opportunity long before I was invited. While they are paying for Heather and I - we are investing our own money to fly to Miami where we will meet the ship. I'm not really sure what sparked the discussion today but in a couple different places I saw very negative posts about Fathom.

For many people, the Caribbean is an exotic land that is as a place for only the rich and famous. But it doesn't have to be that way and today there are many affordable ways to explore this beautiful part of the world, it's exotic islands and amazing food and friendly people. For me personally, cruising is one of my favorite ways to do this since I get a "sampler" of different islands so I know where I want to come back to in the future. Ironically, I started this way but now I really enjoy the experience of cruising itself since I never get bored and get to see somewhere new each and every day!

Last fall I had the chance to take an 8-day Southern Caribbean Cruise with Carnival as part of one of our #MenWhoBlog cruises. This was the first time I've had a chance to really enjoy a cruise with a bunch of my guy friends as well as my wife so it was a bit of a different experience. Similarly, this was the longest cruise I've taken to date - and while it has been completely overhauled a couple years ago I was a bit nervous that it would feel dated. Luckily all those fears were unfounded and we had an amazing time that confirmed my premise that a group of guys can have an amazing time sailing together for a Carnival Cruise Mancation!

Way south in the Caribbean Sea are a couple islands that don't get as much love as their northern sisters but for those willing to take the trek south, there's a world of awesome and unique things waiting for you. Last fall, we visited Bonaire during a port day on the Carnival Sunshine. Here's some of the cool things that await you on your next visit.

Earlier this month I spent eight days in the middle of the Caribbean Sea with some of my friends exploring Carnival Sunshine. This ship is literally packed with activities and entertainment in every nook and cranny, but one area that seemed to be consistently drawing us back for more is SportsSquare. During the course of the week, we gathered here to play (mini) golf, shoot pool, play chess, corn hole, basketball, dodgeball, and shuffleboard with one of the best views you can ever ask for of the ocean as it passed by 14 decks below us.

In less than a week I'll be getting on Carnival Sunshine along with a group of other male bloggers. Before any cruise though, I always love to do research to prepare but this one's a bit different since not only is it the "newest" ship in the Carnival fleet but it's an experiment of sorts with some new venues that aren't available on any other ship. Plus, while Heather is joining me on this trip as part of a romantic getaway, it's also a mancation at sea with some of my best friends.

So, stay tuned to our adventure using #MWBcarnival on Twitter and Instagram. We're setting sail on November 13 and headed to Aruba, Bonaire, and Grand Turk before heading back to Port Canaveral on Florida's "Space Coast".

We're heading to Drai's Beachclub / Drai's Nightclub at The Cromwell next week, so we'll have more on this incredible club and one of the newer resorts on the strip. However, if you want to combine the high-energy EDM scene with an awesome cruise on one of my favorite ships (Carnival Inspiration) then you gotta check out The Groove Cruise. It's not for everyone, but this quote from the website about sums it up: "There’s no 2am curfew on this vessel! With nightly after-hours going into the early afternoon, there is no better way to leave the world behind."

In many respects, the Mediterranean Sea is the ultimate cruise ship destination, although you can journey all over the globe. Despite the fact that other regions around the world like the South Pacific, the Caribbean and the Far East will also claim they are deserving of such an accolade, there is something truly special about this body of water, which links Europe to Africa and Asia.

OMG guys - I am a HUGE FAN of the Carnival Live program and it just keeps getting better. As you know, last year we joined Carnival for Styx, followed by Jewel and both were amazing experiences. Now, they are adding The Band Perry, BOSTON, Lionel Richie, and Heart to their already awesome lineup. that has included Journey, Styx, Rascal Flatts, Little Big Town, and Smokey Robinson earlier this year.

We've been waiting for this since the moment the ship was hinted at a couple years ago but now it's just a year away and Carnival just unveiled a ton of new details including the SkyRide - a pedal-powered attraction to take you around the top of the boat more than a 150 feet up in the air!

By now you know that I am a HUGE fan of cruising but frankly my experience has been limited to the shores of the United States and the Caribbean and we're sailing in mostly warm waters and tropical breezes. However there is a whole other world of cruising that I haven't yet been able to explore but can’t wait to do so at some point in the future - Once in a Lifetime Adventures.

Most of you probably remember Jewel from the mid/late 90s - yeah, that’s Alaskan folk singer-songwriter and many of you probably even still are aware of her for some of her later music but what I didn't realize until this week was how utterly amazing she is in concert. Jewel is a true artist and that means you are going to see and hear things you weren't expecting such as yodeling, opera, and requests by the audience that were so obscure (even to her) that she had to flip through a book the size of an encyclopedia to get the lyrics.

In a market that is nearly saturated but at the same time working feverishly to expand its reach, the cruise lines are in a fight to find a way to fill their ships and bring in new cruisers. While other lines are building ever bigger boats with features unheard of at sea, Carnival decided to focus on entertainment and creating once-in-a-lifetime experiences that are surprisingly affordable. Earlier this month we had the opportunity to spend a week on the brand new Carnival Breeze and experience it for ourselves.

Unlike "themed cruises" the band isn't actually on the ship during the voyage, so that means that you can still have a "normal" cruise experience but on concert night things turn up a notch. On this cruise, we started in Miami followed by stops in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, Georgetown, Grand Cayman, and then during our stop at Cozumel, Mexico the band loaded their equipment on the ship and we stayed in port till about 1 a.m.