The right price………………..$349
January 14, 2011: 7 nights
Ship: Costa Atlantica
Departure: Miami return
Bonus: Balconies just $549, Suite for $999
Contact: iCruise.com or 1-800-427-8473
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In the latest issue of her monthly magazine, O, TV super star Oprah Winfrey named her favorite things, and one of them — first identified on her show — is Allure of the Seas. Tomorrow, it’s expected a full load of 6,000 or so passengers will feel the same way on the Royal Caribbean mega ship’s inaugural voyage.
Seven members from Oprah’s TV audience were given a 7-day cruise for two on 
the Allure. Tomorrow’s trip leaves Fort Lauderdale at 5 p.m. (EDT) and makes three stops — Labadee (Royal’s private island in Haiti), Costa Maya and Cozumel in Mexico. When it goes west, Oasis of the Seas goes east. The ships alternate this itineraries every week, always from Fort Lauderdale on Saturday (Oasis) and Sunday (Allure).
That means today is the last time the two will be in port together. Their combined presence is already having an impact on what other lines do, initially at least in the summer, a slower time for Caribbean cruises. Norwegian sends its Epic to Europe for the summer, and joins Princess, Celebrity and Holland America as lines with no ships anywhere in Florida next summer.
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It was probably just a matter of time until cruising became a subject for Undercover Boss, the popular CBS reality show that sends an executive to work undercover in his or her company to find out what life at the bottom is really like. The cruise executive was Kevin Sheehan, the No. 1 guy at Norwegian Cruise Lines, and the show is due “in the next few weeks.”
Sheehan went undercover on two NCL ships, the Epic and the Pride of America, which sails around the Hawaiian Islands. Without giving anything away prior to the show’s airing, Sheehan simply says: “It was an eye-opening experience.”
Undercover Boss airs at 9 p.m. on Sundays.
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Strangest thing we saw during our 4-hour visit on the Allure in Fort Lauderdale, between its two-day promotional cruises: a woman walking into a bar in her bathrobe.
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Some of the nicest people you meet work on cruise ships, and it’s not always because they’re taught to smile and say hello to the customers. When you hear what a group of Carnival employees did, you’ll know what we mean…
After Hurricane Tomas ripped through St. Lucia last month, there was a need for emergency supplies. A group of employees from the Carnival Miracle — which stops in St. Lucia — delivered clothing, mattresses and other much-needed items on behalf of the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association, a not-for-profit trade organization composed of 15 member cruise lines.
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That’s it, we’re done.