Travel Maven blog

Favorite tables cruising on Carnival Fantasy

Nineteen years  since I last sailed on the Carnival Fantasy. And still, I found my favorite tables for breakfast and lunch. As usual, at least one was empty.

In the early 90s, Carnival built its ships with a small balcony off the lido buffet restaurant at the aft end. It's a wonderful spot for starting the day with scrambled eggs and coffee -- outdoors, with a full view of the sea.

My favorite table, right, was empty the first day of our 5-day cruise out of New Orleans. But I had company at the next table, Jim Williams, below, a bus driver from Cincinnati, Ohio.

Ships now are built without the outdoor balcony, and Carnival says its lack of use by passengers contributed to the decision to expand the lido inside for more room to accommodate passengers who wanted to eat indoors. Go figure.

You'll find the door to the balcony all the way to the back of the lido, two doors actually, as the one on the left leads to a smoking balcony, the one on the right to cleaner air. Sometimes, high winds may force you back inside.

Carnival Fantasy just came out of drydock, and she looks good for a 19-year-old ship. The Fantasy's style has been toned down a bit from early days of flash and neon. Only negative I noticed was that it's now a darker ship. The lido needs more light. So did my bathroom in cabin U52, where two little lights are not enough.

Carnival has added its signature Evolutions of Fun -- a top deck water park with a 300-foot water slide, an adults only retreat called Serenity and a new pool area with fake palm trees.

Best of all, Carnival didn't mess with my favorite tables.

A tip for cruisers:

New government regulations require cruise passengers to check in no later than 90 minutes prior to departure. The 90-minute cutoff was instituted so cruise ships could send U.S. Customs and Border Protection the ship's manifest (a list of all passengers onboard) for review before  allowing the ship to depart.

If, for instance, because of weather or other delays, travelers miss the 90-minute cutoff, they will be denied boarding -- another reason to arrive at your cruise departure city a day early

Worth clicking:
Wine cruises drawing connoisseurs to sea

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Molyneaux is editor of TravelMavens.net. CLICK for articles on cruising, golf, Florida, Europe, adventure and travel gear and gadgets.

Cruising with bloggers on Carnival's Fantasy

Some 400 men and women who blog their thoughts on the Internet are heading to sea this weekend, on a cruise on the Carnival Fantasy.

Imagine that: Choosing to join 400 other people with opinions and a desire to express them. Such an experience would be a nightmare for some folks. Not me. I am a dedicated blogger about travel, and I am excited to meet others who put their thoughts on the Internet

Host for this extravaganza is John Heald, a cruise director at Carnival who has built quite a following to his personal cruise blog. When Heald invited me to come on the 5-day cruise and join him for question and answer sessions aboard ship, I quickly said "yes."

And then there's the sunshine. I live in Ohio, and I learned a long time ago that a few days of warmth and sunshine in February is worth all the hassles of getting there. In this case, the departure port is New Orleans, reason enough to get on an airplane Saturday morning.

As the weekend unfolds toward Mexico and back, I will tell you more.

For more info on Carnival's blogger cruises.

CruiseCritic has set a forum for its bloggers on the Fantasy.

For a free subscription to Travel Maven, type your email address in the box at left, or click upper right to add an RSS feed.

Molyneaux is editor of TravelMavens.net. CLICK for articles on cruising, golf, Florida, Europe, adventure and travel gear and gadgets.

Ten romantic Valentine's Day retreats

Just in time for your Valentine, Hideaways International lists its 10 most romantic retreats in the world -- hotels and resorts from Portofino, Italy, to Bora Bora in French Polynesia.

Be forewarned: Hideaways International is a travel company that sells luxury accommodations. The Top 10, created by Hideaways president Mike Thiel, are expensive.

Valentine's Day is during the off-season on the French Riviera, so the weekend special at Chateau Eza, right, includes three nights, a romantic bath, a bottle of champagne and a Valentine's dinner for 2, starting at 580 Euros, about $750 for a couple. Now, all you have to do is get there.

For more romance, go to TravelMavens.net and click on World's 10 Most Romantic Retreats.

For a free subscription to Travel Maven, type your email address in the box at left, or click upper right to add an RSS feed.

Molyneaux is editor of TravelMavens.net. CLICK for articles on cruising, golf, Florida, Europe, adventure and travel gear and gadgets.

Travel Maven one of Top 50 travel blogs

Travel Maven makes this year's "50 Travel Blogs I can't Live without," written by Christopher Elliott, an expert on practical travel advice and National Geographic Traveler magazine’s reader advocate.

Elliott posted his list on his own blog. Elliott also writes the nationally syndicated Travel Troubleshooter column, which appears in more than 50 U.S. newspapers and Web sites.

"My methodology is simple. I looked at every travel blog I follow from my RSS reader and identified the ones I read the most," said Elliott.

For the list, CLICK

For a free subscription to Travel Maven, type your email address in the box at left, or click upper right to add an RSS feed.

Molyneaux is editor of TravelMavens.net. CLICK for articles on cruising, golf, Florida, Europe, adventure and travel gear and gadgets.

Best of travel journalism

Los Angeles Times travel blogger Jen Leo has collected some of the story links to the winning entries from the 2008 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition. Winner Catharine Hamm, L.A. Times Travel editor, described the awards as “our Pulitzer.”

You'll find some great reads, from the Boston Globe's revealing article about Alice Brock, of "Alice's Restaurant" fame in the 1966 Arlo Guthrie anti-war song, to an investigative story on "The Long Trail to Jail" in Backpacker Magazine. 

For links, CLICK

The Lowell Thomas contest awards nearly $20,000 annually to North American journalists, overseen by the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation. Contributions to the non-profit Foundation's endowment fund for the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition are welcome at the Web site or contact administrator Mary Lu Abbott, MaryLuA@satwf.com.

Transparency note: David Molyneaux is president of the SATW Foundation. 

Check out the Travel auction

From weekend getaways to cruising the Nile or brousing through the art cities of Flanders, travel packages with bargain possibilities are Up For Auction at a Website managed by the Society of American Travel Writers.

Each year, SATW, an association of travel journalists and public relations people in the travel business, invites the public to bid on a selection of trips and destinations donated to SATW.

You'll find choices from five star hotels and resorts to gift baskets. Values of the donated items range from $50 to $5,422.
 
The auction works similar to Ebay and other online auctions. Browsers and bidders will log on to SATWAuction. With a specially created ID and password, you may bid as often as you want. The auction will be updated in real time. Bidding closes at midnight EDT on Nov. 20.

From weekend getaways to cruising the Nile or brousing through the art cities of Flanders, travel packages with bargain possibilities are Up For Auction at a Website managed by the Society of American Travel Writers.

Each year, SATW, an association of travel journalists and public relations people in the travel business, invites the public to bid on a selection of trips and destinations donated to SATW.

You'll find choices from five star hotels and resorts to gift baskets. Values of the donated items range from $50 to $5,422.
 
The auction works similar to Ebay and other online auctions. Browsers and bidders will log on to SATWAuction. With a specially created ID and password, you may bid as often as you want. The auction will be updated in real time. Bidding closes at midnight EDT on Nov. 20.