Travel Maven Blog ... posts from The Travel Mavens.com

Cruising into 2013, ships new and renewed

Some intriguing new cruise ships are on the way, including Norwegian Breakaway, which will breakout with a major party in New York in May.

Peter Max painted the hull for Norwegian Breakaway, which will be sailing out of New York

In England in June, Royal Princess is due to debut with a long-awaited new design from Princess Cruises. After a summer in the Med, the ship will cross the pond, arriving in Fort Lauderdale in late October.

Early looks at Norwegian Breakaway and Royal Princess.

Cruising on Disney's newest Fantasy

Fourth ship in fleet offers new twists

Imagine your drawing dancing on a wall

A child's makeover fit for a princess

The 80-year-old man had not drawn a picture of himself since childhood. That’s what his son said.

Animator's Palate on Disney Fantasy

Aboard the new Disney Fantasy cruise ship, instructions made it easy: Here’s a magic marker. Imagine how you look.  On the paper placed at your table in the dining room, scribble in the white spaces, on the face, chest and tummy, shirt sleeves, trouser legs, and feet.

As his son tells the story, the old man sighed and acquiesced. He drew a simple line for a mouth, circles for eyes, some hair of which he had little, dots on the shirt, stripes on the pants. Finished quickly, he concentrated on his family in the Animator’s Palate dining room.

Then came the magic, and his eyes twinkled into a full grin.

To the music of a whimsical cartoon, the old man’s picture began to dance across the dining room walls, along with several dozen other characters from other tables.

Springing forward at Florida's Disney World

You know you're in a Disney hotel when the bedside clock magically changes time while you sleep.

Woke this morning at Disney World near Orlando, Fla., to a new time, Daylight Savings.

The clock in my room at Disney's Board Walk had handled the one-hour change forward without my help.

I asked a man at the desk: Are all the clocks wired for changing the time  in spring and fall?

"We send an elf to each room during the night," he said.

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.

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

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. The Paradise, which debuted in 1998, was ahead of its time. I remember the delights of the piano bar and dancing in the disco without the haze of second-hand smoke attacking my eyes, nasal passages and throat.

The Paradise remained smoke free for six years, taking a financial hit because fares and onboard revenue from bars and the casino were lower than on other Carnival ships; apparently non-smokers, a decade ago, also drank less alcohol and gambled less frequently. 

Disney Dream cruising with a turtle, a duck, and a celebrated rat

I spoke with a sea turtle, rode a fast duck and ate at a gourmet restaurant that celebrates the culinary skills of a gutter rat.

Encounters with these vacation animals seem rather natural on the new 4,000-passenger Disney Dream, which began cruising out of Florida to the Bahamas in January.

Typical of a Disney product, the Dream is a ship like no other.

It promises interactive, animated, imaginative vacations at sea from Port Canaveral, about an hour’s drive east of Disney World.

Riding AquaDuck on a Disney Dream cruise

Like nearly every other passenger on the new Disney Dream cruise ship, I rode the AquaDuck water coaster during a recent preview sailing.

The Duck was fun, wet, and easy. I liked it so much I did it twice.

You sit on a raft similar to an air mattress, with pockets for one or two riders, front and back.

The raft is propelled by jets of water through a tube that drops, twists, turns, and then, ingeniously, glides along a clear, enclosed path above the pool deck so you can wave to your friends and family below – and if they are quick, they can take your picture, above.

The AquaDuck is destined to be the signature activity on the 4,000-passenger Disney Dream, which begins cruising this week on a regular schedule out of Port Canaveral, Fla. The port is about an hour east of Disney World and Orlando.