Cruising

Norwegian continues to impress me. I had the opportunity to celebrate the launch of Norwegian Encore with them in Miami last month and it is absolutely the best ship out there for a guys weekend getaway. That isn't to say that other lines aren't good or that you can't have fun on an older NCL ship like Sky or Sun (I do) but Encore is the ultimate manifestation of Norwegian's vision for what cruising should look, feel, and taste like. Let's take a look at six reasons why Norwegian Encore is the world's best cruise ship for a guys weekend!

Opting for a cruise on the Mediterranean Sea this summer is a sure-fire way of making sure that you will have the perfect vacation experience. We've sailed often in the Caribbean and even explored Alaska and the maritime provinces of Canada but the Mediterranean is at the top of our list now. 

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.

Choosing the right cruise vacation can be complicated but thanks to the diversification among big cruise lines the decision has been made easier in recent years. The world of luxury small ship cruising though is a different equation. Instead of looking at gee-whiz features like trampoline parks and unique specialty restaurants to draw cruisers, virtually all small ship luxury cruises offer superior service, gourmet food, exotic destinations, and a more personalized experience since the ships are designed for fewer than 1,000 guests and often only a few hundred. So, how do you pick the right small ship cruise for you?

I tend to be a major advocate for a cruise lifestyle. Simply put, I LOVE the experience of being on a boat, but I know a lot of guys who aren't convinced that a cruise is for them and not every line or itinerary is. However, last fall I had the chance to explore the Rhine thanks to Viking Cruises and I still can't believe how many opportunities there are for guys to have an amazing time on this route!

While most of you think of the major lines like Celebrity, Viking, and MSC when it comes to Mediterranean Cruises, we met with the folks from Celestyal Cruises earlier this year and were impressed by the offerings that they are working on to bring a different feel to the market. They've been around for several years and as a Greek cruise operator offers an interesting perspective introducing guests to their backyard. With the introduction of Celestyal Experience - formerly Costa newRomantica - they have upped the game dramatically and this makes us even more excited.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to sneak into the exclusive Haven area on a Norwegian cruise ship? This area is designed as a private retreat complete with a private pool, bar, restaurant, and lounge area. It also has some of the most luxurious cabins available anywhere on the ship. Let's take a look at what things would look like if you booked the Owners Suite in the Haven complex on Norwegian Joy!

Last year we sailed with Norwegian Bliss for the launch of the company's biggest, fanciest and most feature filled ship ever. At the time, Bliss was everything we saw on Norwegian Joy but had to wait just a bit longer for. That wait represented refinement, learning, and further time for innovation. When it arived as the first Breakaway Plus ship in North America it truly lived up to it's name. Seizing on it's incredible popularity, the folks at Norwegian Cruise lines abruptly pulled Joy out of the Chinese market and instead of just re-positioning it, did a complete overhaul of the ship. So, was it worth it? Does Joy deliver on it's name the way Bliss did? Yes .. it absolutely did though there are a few awkward areas that reveal it's journey to this point.

Norwegian Cruise Line invited me on a seven-day cruise of the Hawaiian Islands and it changed my view of this state in a profound way that I didn't expect. While we had visited Hawaii a month earlier and had a great experience - I had no real understanding for the diversity of terrain, culture, and opportunities for adventure that would await us on this cruise. With more than 100 hours in port and no scheduled sea days, this was a profoundly different cruise experience - but one that anyone looking to truly experience Hawaii must try.

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 :)

We were on hand tonight for Viking's unveiling of their latest product - Viking Expeditions. With their incredible success with taking over the river and small-ship ocean cruise market, Viking Expedition is poised to have the same disruptive impact. Most importantly, the positioning is clearly a move away from traditional expedition offerings where the experience is secondary to the destination, Viking promises to bring a similar experience that we love from the river and ocean product to expeditions as well - including features such as large comfortable bathrooms as well as accessibility and comfort. 

There's a whole other world beyond just the big feature-packed cruise ships from the big-name brands you are all familiar with and that's the small ship luxury market. While I love sailing on ships like Norwegian Encore and Oasis of the Seas, the reality is that for many people the ship itself is getting in the way of enjoying a cruise. There are too many people, not enough personal attention, and the food ultimately suffers because you are cooking tens of thousands of meals each day. Plus, when you get to port there's always a long line waiting to debark and then once on shore there's more crowds to deal with. One increasingly popular alternative is small ship luxury cruises like those offered by Crystal Symphony, so we visited her in San Diego to see what all the buzz was about.

Let's just start this post by saying that I do believe in the scientific method of review and research, trusting experts but also verifying information against those things that I know are true for my personal situation. Right now, "The Media narrative" is that cruises are dangerous, covid is spreading everywhere and cruise ships are simply disease incubators. In fact, I had a friend post just that as a Facebook comment the other day. So why then did I just spend my own money booking a seven-day cruise to Mexico?

Cruise vacations are a great way to get away from it all and enjoy some time on the high seas. But if your idea of relaxation is not being able to fit into your clothing, you might want to take this post on eating right and staying fit while cruising with you. We have some tips that will help you stay in shape while enjoying your vacation!

Are you hungry for something different when it comes to food on a cruise ship? Yeah, me too. While I love the tried and true mixture of buffet, main dining room, steakhouse, and Italian restaurant... variety is nice too. Virgin Voyages is a disruptor in the cruise industry. When you take a look at the food offerings, you will see why that is going to be very exciting for guests when Scarlet Lady starts sailing this fall from Miami.

Virgin Voyages is essentially the anti-cruise. Created by Richard Branson who had, at the time anyhow, never gone on a mainstream cruise vacation but was convinced he could introduce a product that would both disrupt and revolutionize the industry. This brash hubris has resulted in an incredibly fun experience that is truly unlike any other Caribbean cruise option available.

Do you feel like you've hit a wall planning the ultimate guys getaway? A Galapagos Cruise might be the perfect destination for a bucketlist guys trip. These islands, located off the coast of Ecuador, are home to a wide variety of exotic animals found only here such as marine iguanas, Galapagos giant tortoise, and Flightless cormorants. While you can plan your adventure as an expedition tour, roughing it and getting close to nature while sleeping in tents and cooking your food on a portable grill... there's also plenty of luxury cruise options that range from charter yachts to vessels run by major cruise lines such as Celebrity Flora or Silversea cruises' Silver Origin. Of course, Uncruise Adventures also offers some of the most exciting options to explore the islands on their small expedition-style ship, La Pinta which offers a less luxury - but much more intimate opportunity to connect with the natural environment here.

I love cruise vacations. For more than a decade it has been a way for me to see parts of the world, experience new cultures, try things I wouldn't do back home, and just generally have a great time. During the more than 20 cruises that I've taken, I've also started to feel that while different lines offer unique features that might make me prefer one over the other for certain experiences, the reality is they are more similar than they are different. To change this would take some radical thinking and a brand with the confidence and tradition to be truly innovative. There is no other travel brand that could do this like Virgin and that's exactly what Richard Branson has done. They are attempting to be a disrupter in what - until the pandemic - was a thriving industry that boasted a 7% annual growth rate, the most of any leisure travel market segment.

Viking continues to be on a roll when it comes to introducing new ships and new exciting itineraries. The company has now announced that it will launch a new ship next summer for its popular Magnificent Mekong cruisetour. The vessel, currently under construction, is the 80-guest Viking Saigon℠ is scheduled to debut in August 2021, with cruise tours and the river cruise portion of the itinerary sailing between Kampong Cham, Cambodia and Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam.

The cruise industry is in the process of a massive transition from one known more for conspicuous consumption regardless of impact into one that is ultimately working to be much more socially responsible. Don't worry though, that doesn't mean it's going to be any less fun but there are some big changes ahead that we're already starting to see.