Ships to Margaritavilles Quite A Contrast

Comparing Margaritaville in Falmouth, Jamaica at four in the afternoon with Margaritaville in Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos at high noon is not exactly like comparing — as Jimmy Buffett himself would say — papayas and mangos. Nonetheless, it does beg a question… What was Jimmy thinking? In our family, which has two "parrotheads" and… Continue reading Ships to Margaritavilles Quite A Contrast

Timeline For Boarding 6,200 Passengers

ON BOARD ALLURE OF THE SEAS — Here you have the biggest cruise ship in existence. Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas. It carries 6,000-plus. On this cruise, 6,200 and change. That means in the space of about four hours, that many passengers must be processed in the cruise terminal and boarded onto the ship.… Continue reading Timeline For Boarding 6,200 Passengers

How 'Accident' Changed Cruise Doctor's Life

Ricardo Mejia's trip to becoming a doctor on a cruise ship started by accident on the beach. On his way back home to Colombia from Chicago, where he'd spent three years studying emergency care at Northwestern University, Dr. Mejia had a stopover in Miami so he visited a Colombia expat and his family. At that… Continue reading How 'Accident' Changed Cruise Doctor's Life

The Haitis of Mitch Albom & Royal Caribbean

LABADEE, Haiti — One of our heroes is a man named Mitch Albom, a Detroit sportswriter-columnist-novelist-screenwriter of immense talent who for the last four years has taken a personal interest in this Caribbean island devastated by an earthquake that killed 150,000 people and left three million homeless. Albom has made it his cause to help… Continue reading The Haitis of Mitch Albom & Royal Caribbean

Planning a Cruise After Booking One

Ways to plan a cruise. Every cruise line has them, in one form or another. One that seems to be catching some attention is Royal Caribbean's — called Cruise Planner — and, since we have a Royal Caribbean cruise on the horizon, it seemed a good idea to try it out. Cruise Planner is to be used… Continue reading Planning a Cruise After Booking One