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Back From a Week on the Caribbean Princess

Written by T.I. Cruiser on March 20, 2012 · Leave a Comment

Last week I had the pleasure of spending time onboard the Caribbean Princess. It really was a fantastic vacation although I would be hesitant to call it a cruise since the bulk of our time was spent in San Juan. If you are wondering what I am talking about when I say “the bulk of our time was spent in San Juan”, what I mean is our ship broke down.

Although I flew down to San Juan, Puerto Rico during the middle of the previous week, I boarded the ship Sunday March 11, for a Southern Caribbean cruise. We were to arrive in St. Martin at approximately 10 am that Monday, but didn’t actually make it there until 2:45 pm on Monday. There was something wrong with the port propeller which severely hampered the ability of the ship to make it from point A to point B. We stayed overnight in St. Martin as experts were flown in to assess the damage. Upon our return from port on our second day in St. Martin we were informed we would be returning to San Juan for the rest of our vacation week.

At first the sting of a long anticipated cruise vacation being transformed into a 3 day cruise, capped by a 4 day stay in San Juan’s newest floating resort was a bit much. However, after the Captain announced the compensation package the cruise line had put together, the sting quickly subsided. Passengers were told we would be getting a full refund of our cruise fare, as well as a cruise credit equal to 25 percent of what we paid for our modified cruise.

Now, I have been on cruises that have been impacted by hurricanes in the past but this was the first time one of my cruises has ever been cancelled. I was expecting at least a partial refund for the cruise but no additional compensation. When the announcement was made I was “blown away” by the fact that I would now be spending the remainder of my week in an incredible “hotel” in one of my favorite cities, completely free of charge. So, although I would be hesitant to say this past cruise was a success, I will say any time you get to spend a week being waited on “hand and foot” it was a successful vacation.

Princess Cruises Once Again Impresses With a New Blog For 2012

Written by T.I. Cruiser on January 5, 2012 · Leave a Comment

In 2011, Princess Cruises launched a blog entitled, “50 essential experiences”. The purpose of the website was to have their cruise experts share with the rest of us what they consider must see destinations. They asked employees that have been with the company 15-plus years which destinations and experiences whould they put on their bucket lists. In the end they ended up with “50 Essential Experiences”, a compendium spanning three dozen countries and six continents.

The website really is an interesting read one that any serious cruise buff should find interesting. So, if you get some time click over to 50 essential experiences to compare the Princess list to your bucket list.

So, you may be wondering, what is Princess doing in 2012 to follow up on the success of its award-winning blog? Well, they are creating another blog of course. Yesterday Princess Cruises launched another blog, this one called “Inspired to Cruise: A Year of Reasons to Get Away From the Everyday.” This year, over the course of the next 12 months you will be able to hear 52 stories from 52 different passengers telling you what inspired them to cruise.

But Isn’t Princess Just Rehashing Last Year’s Idea?

Well, this blog differs from the 50 essential experiences blog because that story was one where employees told you what wowed them. This year’s blog is purely passenger driven.

“Our passengers regularly share deeply personal stories with us about why they’ve cruised, and we wanted to share some of the most remarkable ones,” Jan Swartz, Princess Cruises executive vice president said in a statement.

The first blog entry posted Wednesday, January 4 is by Nancy Chamberlain-Fox is a great way to kick things off and affirmation of the statement “If you love something, let it go. If it comes back to you it’s yours forever. If it doesn’t, then it was never meant to be.”

It begins:

“He was my high-school sweetheart, my first husband for only five years and now, almost three decades later, my groom once again. After 27 long years apart, we were taking our first cruise together a second-chance honeymoon”

Do yourself a favor and visit http://inspiredtocruise.com/ to not only read the rest of Nancy’s amazing story but also many more throughout the year.

New Year Resolutions and Goals for Starting 2012 Off the Right Way

Written by T.I. Cruiser on January 2, 2012 · Leave a Comment

Now that 2011 is in the books and I have had a day to actually sit down and think about what I want to acomplish in 2012, I think I have brainstormed a solid plan. You see, on this blog from time to time, I post information that I believe is useful, but still there just isn’t nearly the amount of interaction that there should be. Sure, I do my best to answer any emails I get and I also do Mailbag Monday’s when I get questions I feel can help multiple readers of the blog, but I still believe I could do more.

Quite a while ago I created theintelligentcruiser.com Facebook page and the TICruiser twitter account, but neither of them get used as much as they should. In fact, I am just plain terrible when it comes to those social websites. It’s something I have known for a while but have failed to address. In 2012 all that is going to change.

I’m sure you have heard the saying, “admitting you have a problem is the first step”. Well, that is exactly what I am doing right now, admitting that my lack of Facebook and twitter interaction is not just a problem but also an opportunity for improvement. So, I guess my New Year resolution for this blog in 2012 is to foster a lot more interaction. My goal is to build more of community that encourages discussion amongst each other. I truly think the greatest way to derive value from any website and particularly a blog is through group discussion and sharing. So, in 2012 creating more of a community will be the focus.

Where you can find me on the internet

Obviously my cruise information blog – subscribe the blog to get updates delivered to your inbox
Theintelligentcruiser.com Facebook page – like my facebook page or just drop in to say hello
The blog twitter account – follow me @TICruiser on twitter

Now I realize, Rome wasn’t built in a day, but it is a brand new year and there i no better time to get started building than now. Here is to having a fantastic, vacation filled, New Year.