Travel Maven blog

Oasis of the Seas rescues stalled fishing boat

Oasis of the Seas has resumed cruising toward Cozumel Wednesday afternoon after rescuing a fishing boat from the Caymans that was dead in the water with an engine that would not start.

Captain Trym Selvag stopped the Oasis, sent two engineers to fix the problem (after a security team checked out the fishing boat). The Captain said Oasis crew provided the fishing boat with a fresh battery, fresh water, and got the engine working again.

That’s what we do at sea, said Captain Selvag, in an announcement to the passengers, who lined the starboard decks to watch the rescue.

The rescue will not impact a Thursday arrival to Cozumel, as Wednesday is an easy sea day, between Falmouth, Jamaica, and Cozumel, Mexico, on Oasis’ western-Caribbean run, which is the Royal Caribbean itinerary every other week out of Fort Lauderdale.


 

New smoking rules clear the air aboard cruise ships

Travelers who loved vacationing on the Carnival Paradise, which once was a cruise ship entirely cigarette smoke free among passengers and crew, have reason to cheer. As 2011 draws toward a close, second-hand smoke at sea is dissipating.

With this year’s trend toward prohibiting smoking in cabins and in most gathering spots aboard ships, cruise lines slowly are catching up to the lifestyles of their passengers at home, where work places, public areas, restaurants, and bars are smoke free over much of North America.

As the number of smokers at sea decreases --  Carnival says that only 5 percent of its passengers say they want to smoke in their cabins – places to puff diminish.

Picture above: This outdoor section on the new Oceania Marina is one of only two places on the 1,250-passenger ship where smoking is allowed.

"Puss in Boots" is this week's Allure of the Seas

Passengers aboard Allure of the Seas are getting a sneak peek with their cruise this week at the new "Puss in Boots," an animated 3-D movie from DreamWorks that stars the voices of Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek.

Royal Caribbean has an early copy of the movie that debuts nationally on Oct. 28 and will be showing it all week to passengers who left on Allure on Sunday for a week’s voyage into the Caribbean.

A red carpet premiere of "Puss in Boots" was held Sunday aboard the massive Allure, world's largest cruise ship and Royal Caribbean’s newest vessel.

Spray me with a little cruise ship sunscreen, and hurry

One item from the Norwegian Dawn renovation of 2011 caught me by surprise. It’s a machine on the pool deck that dispenses suntan lotion from a spray nozzle. You get a minute’s worth of sunscreen for $1.

The best part of this new cruise toy, called the Sunscreen Spray Station, is that you won’t have to worry if you forget to pack the suntan lotion at home.

I asked Ivan, the man handing out towels on the Dawn, whether one minute of spray would be enough to protect me from the sun.

How many minutes does a passenger need to buy?

“Depends on how fast you do it,” said Ivan. He said two guys managed to spray each other in a minute, but one woman barely finished her arms in the same period of time.

I’d say that a safe covering of your skin is worth more than saving a dollar. If it takes you two minutes, go for it. As the machine on the deck of Norwegian Dawn says: Apply Early! Apply Enough! Apply Often!

New suites debut on Norwegian Dawn, cruising out of Boston

This week is an inaugural, of sorts, for the Norwegian Dawn, which currently is dodging winds from Hurricane Katia on its return to Boston Friday morning from Bermuda.

The 2,224-passenger ship debuted in 2002. In a spring renovation in drydock, the Spinnaker Lounge and some other public rooms were moved from Deck 12 at the bow to make way for new Owner’s Suites and Family Suites. The suites, similar to those on renovated Norwegian Star, were finished in late August, and this week passengers began sleeping in them.

When I was aboard the Dawn in August, I snapped pictures of the almost-ready suites.

Cruising on Costa Favolosa, a slice of Italy

When chunks of parmesan grace the buffet lines in bowls the size of washtubs.

When dining room tables each burn a red candle for the evening meal.

When a multi-cultural group of cabin attendants greets you in the morning with a chorus of “Buon giorno.”

Then, you know you are cruising on a Costa ship.

If you are looking at a Mediterranean cruise out of Venice yet this summer or a 2011-2012 winter sojourn in the waters near Dubai, you might consider Costa’s newest ship, the 3,800-passenger Favolosa.

The vessel, Costa's largest, is an exhibition of design, materials and ingredients with a “Made in Italy” stamp.

Each time I picked out a chunk from the parmesan bowl, pictured above, I could only imagine the price tag for such an extravagance in the United States.

Read more about Costa and the Favolosa at TheTravelMavens.com.