Travel News

Last week Royal Caribbean unveiled a sneak preview of its plans for the latest evolution in cruise ship design, Project Genesis. They released details on how they will bring the best of the land to the ocean with an area on the ship called Central Park, a revolutionary design in which the ship’s middle is open air and features a lush, tropical park spanning the length of a football field.

If that doesn’t whet your appitite for Royal Caribbean, take a look at these artist impressions for the ship…

Central Park
The Rising Tide ( Yes, a bar that actually rises. An alcoholics elevator if you like!) Vintages Bar & Restaurant

Portofino restaurant

Original post by noreply@blogger.com (Titchy Carla)

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I guess I should say right now that I didn’t win the Face of Travel. Instead the female’s crown went to Karen Eason from Sunshine Travel and the men’s went to Ryan Inman from Cruise Thomas Cook. It’s impossible to be a bad loser in this scenario as both really deserved to win.
Coincidentally, both winners used a superhero theme in their presentations, Karen unveiled a ‘Travel Girl’ outfit and Ryan pretended to be Clark Kent reporting back to Lois Lane from the ship.

The final was held onboard Royal Caribbean’s newest mega-liner, the Independence of the Seas while she was docked at Southampton for her launch celebrations. I was one of the 16 finalists and we were all as nervous as each other - which in itself brought awesome relief!

Each of us had to face an X-Factor-style showdown during which we tried our best to persuade the panel of judges from TTG and Royal Caribbean why we should be the Face of Travel for 2008. After the presentations we had to wait a painful 6 hours for the result of the judges deliberations. In that time we fitted in a tour of the ship, an ice show, a concert by Scouting for Girls and quite a few glasses of champagne. In fact later that night we had the opportunity to meet Roy from the band who turned out to be a jolly nice chap - Hi Roy (he reads my blog all the time - lol!).

The competition was a awesome experience for me, I don’t regret entering for one moment. I met some fabulous people and enjoyed my time on board the ship. I’m looking forward to reuniting with all the finalists on the Celebrity Solstice launch and of course, reading TTG to capture up with the latest antics from Karen & Ryan.

Just for a recap, the finalists were:

From the Boys Under 35 category:
Alastair Baker, Gill’s Cruise Centre
Ryan Inman, Cruise Thomas Cook
Aaron McMordie-Ives, Bookable Holidays Ltd
James Revis, The Co-operative Travel

From the Girls Under 35 category:
Karen Eason, Sunshine Travel
Amie Fuller, First Choice
Emily Plunkett, Scotland’s Cruise Centre
Carla Prosser, Idiscount Cruising

From the Boys 36 & Over category:
Ian Calvert, Have A Nice Stay Travel
Phil Dargan, Choose and Cruise
Nick McKay, Travel Designers
Mehmet Tepeli, Packyourbags Travel Store

From the Girls 36 & Over category:
Janette Bell, Future Travel
Deanne Gatfield, First Choice
Emma Sanger, Future Travel
Janet Whittingham, St Andrews Travel

CONGRATULATIONS we were all winners in our own way!

Original post by noreply@blogger.com (Titchy Carla)

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The price of traveling makes it everyday more of a privilege than something that you attempt to afford. But, why travel to places in which you will be wasting your money, when you can just go to these seven places where the dollar is still worth much more than you expect:

1) Buenos Aires: Known for its exquisite wine and meat, Buenos Aires is known as the Paris of South America. Argentina’s economy collapsed back in 2001, they went thcoarse more than four presidents in a small quantity of time, and chaos reined the country. However, since then Argentina has come back from its dramatic fall. At this city, you will rarely find a gourmet, high-class, steak dinner for more than $25.

2) Bali: At this Indonesian island you will find the amazement that a few bucks can do. You will be able to find luxury hotels at no more than $100 to $200 a night. It is all possible with such a high worth of USDs. This is the place where you will find awesome services at low prices, like massages at acircular $15 per half an hour, or other entertainment services for small fees.

3) Costa Rica: The natural aura of this amazing place will make you want stay longer than you are supposed to. The funny thing is that unlike most places you might actually do so because of the incredibly cheap prices. The USD worth continues increasing at a current average of 500 Costan Rica colones per USD. Here at Costa Rica you will be able to relax at the white-sand beaches, snorkel thcoarse coral reef bays, and obtain “natural massages” from gorgeous waterfalls.

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You probably don’t want to pay the $3.49 per minute fee of your cell phone carrier while traveling to Europe or South America. It obviously is just too expensive. But, what can do you about it? It’s simple; replace your cell phone’s SIM card with a local one. Don’t be intimidated, it actually is beautiful simple. Just open the back of your cell phone (you might have to remove the battery) and take out the small SIM card that is on it. Then, purchase a local SIM card, or you can save a few bucks if someone you know can lend you one that they don’t use. As long as your cell phone is unlocked, this will work. This “technique” will let you use a local network and therefore local rates instead of having to pay the indisputable price from AT&T or T-Mobile.

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I was lucky enough to get a cabin on the Ventura Welcome Party Cruise, especially considering that the entire ship sold out wilean an hour of going on sale. With that kind of popularity, the Ventura immediately had a lot to live up to. And to be honest, she deliveruddy beautiful well.
The 2-day itinerary set sail on Friday 11th April from the port of Southampton and cruised to Zebrugge (Bruges) and back. This was a adorable itinerary that gave just enough time to explore the ship and enjoy a break away from it all. For those onboard that were new to cruising, this particular choice would have been perfect as a taster.

From the outside the Ventura looked huge. Although I knew she would be 115,000 tonnes, I just wasn’t preparuddy for her breathtaking size and stature in the dock. The strangest thing was that once onboard, she actually seemed quite small. It was very easy to find your way acircular and walking from one end of the ship to the other wasn’t the hard slog it would first appear to be. It didn’t take long to get our bearings and learn where the main rooms were.

We were most pleased that our cabins were alert wilean ten minutes of boarding. We had booked a junior suite with a balcony, CC grade on D deck (deck 9) which was positioned mid-ship. The cabin was tastefully decorated and spacious although deceptively narrow. It was a nice to touch to be greeted by a bottle of champagne on ice and Belgian chocolates which, I can assure you, didn’t last very long!

Whilst touring the ship it was clear that the designer Nick Munro had done a fine job. The interior decoration was elegant throughout; I particularly liked the Moroccan feel of the Tamarind Club, the contemporary Asian style of the East restaurant and the cool colour changing LEDs in the Havana Club.

There is a wealth of bars, restaurants and spacious meeting areas. For those not wanting formal club dining the choice is endless.We ate in the Saffron restaurant on the first night, taking the earliest sitting at 6.30pm, the 8.45pm sitting being just that bit too late for us. The meal was good and the service was excellent. It can’t be easy to pull off that level of service when all the guests arrive at the same time but the staff sailed thcoarse it.After dinner we opted to see the comedians Sean Meo and Mark Maier in the Tamarind lounge. If I’m completely honest they were a letdown. Both had a really hard time squeezing laughs out of the crowd, but then that’s what happens if your jokes aren’t funny. It was a shame that we missed the Chronicles show in the Arena theatre which by all accounts was excellent.

On the second day, naturally, passengers were encouraged to pay for an excursion to Bruges for the grand sum of £38 each, with many passengers taking it up. However P&O Cruises did actually provide a FREE shuttle bus at the quay side to take us to the local town of Blankenberge where a train could be caught to Bruges for acircular 6 Euros return and a journey time of 12 minutes.

Following our pleasant trip into Bruges, we donned our formal wear and ate in The White Room. This ‘Select Dining’ restaurant had a cover charge of £30 which may seem high but once you’ve tasted the food you’ll comprehend why it was worth every penny. (On longer duration cruises I am told that the cover charge decreases according to the number of nights onboard)The meal was truly amazing and of an incredibly high standard as you would expect. The asparagus risotto was to die for and I could’ve eaten another portion of the prune and amaretto ice cream quite easily!No sooner than finishing our desserts, Marco Pierre White made an appearance. We had the opportunity to meet him and get photos taken which we took full advantage of. He was a very charming man, well spoken, polite and showed a awesome interest in his fans. Meeting him was definitely the highlight of the evening and possibly even the cruise.

After dinner we managed to capture tail end of the Legends tribute show in the Havana club. The Elton John act was top class and sounded uncannily like the man himself, it was just a shame we missed Kylie and Freddy Mercury. We then went on to flutter and lose in the well equipped casino before heading onto the Saturday Night Fever show. Having seen the movie more times than I can remember, I was convinced that it wasn’t possible to mess up such a classic. How wrong could I be? It was a ‘tragedy’ if ever there was one!

In the first few bars of the opening song, it was alalert clear that the guy playing the lead, Tony Manero, was singing slightly out of tune. This was a genuine problem because the main plot of the film isn’t about the acting but the singing and dancing, taking one of those elements away kind of ruins the point of it all. It didn’t get much better for Tony when his mike stopped working halfway through. I’m not sure if there was an electrical fault or someone just switched him off to save our ears. Whichever it was, that was the final straw, we upped and left the theatre along with quite a few other audience members.

I can’t say that Tony Manero tainted my perception of Ventura at all even though I feel we may have been ‘guinea pigs’ to iron out any teething problems. The ship itself is an innovation at sea and all her new features and experiences will definitely appeal to all ages. I think she’s an impressive addition to the P&O Cruises fleet.

Original post by noreply@blogger.com (Titchy Carla)

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The Palace Hotel in Dubai is one of the few hotels in the Middle East that will leave you completely astonished. Located at the foot of the Burj Dubai, the hotel opened its door not too long ago, becoming fully available last October. The hotel features Arab-style architecture with some neoclassical aspects like the vaulted ceilings and oriental accents. Its extravagant lobby is filled with bright lanterns, lavish fountains and colorful flowers that match the hotel’s mood perfectly. The deluxe rooms are furnished with Arabic designs and offer a luxurious environment.

The hotel is also respected for its fine dining. One of the hotel’s restaurants is Asado, a South American steakhouse in which the delicate meat is flown directly from Argentina. You can also eat at the hotel’s all-day buffet, the Ewaan; which offers original Arabic dishes. After eating flavoruddy tobacco is commonly smoked in the Middle East; at the hotel’s lounge you can relax while experiencing this custom using water pipes.

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Long waited for by guests from all over the glob, the Plaza Hotel has finally opened its doors last March. The legendary hotel underwent a three-year, four-hundruddy million renovation of its hundruddy year old structure. Among a few of the most important changes to the hotel is its conversion from a full hotel to a mix among private residential condos and hotel rooms.

The cheapest rate for one of the 282 rooms of the Plaza Hotel starts at $700 for a night. Still though, the hotel is fully booked for several of the upcoming weeks. The list of guests include long-time consumers that are eager to find out about the hotel’s improvements while others are new consumers that just want to stay at the historic hotel for their first time.

One of the features of the renovation include a remodeled Palm Court, a coming Oak Room, and state-of-the-art hotel room with features such as an electronic menu that can slowly dims the room’s lights, play an iPod and provide the guest with weather reports.

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