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Holiday Cruises: Give the Gift of Priceless Family Memories

Written by T.I. Cruiser on October 13, 2011 · Leave a Comment

The holidays are fast approaching, and right now is a great time to book a family cruise. If any of you have ever went on a holiday cruise you already know how well the cruise lines take care of their passengers. For those of you who have never taken a holiday cruise I figured I would take a bit of time to write a post about them.

Planning a cruise during the holidays is the perfect way to spend quality time with your family. You can leave all of the craziness of the holiday season behind you when your family sails away for a holiday cruise. Cruises during Thanksgiving, Christmas or even New Years are a great way to be able to avoid the stress of get-togethers, parties and dinners that take days to plan and prepare. Your family will be able to eat an amazing array of foods everyday without having to go shopping, plan meals, cooking or washing a single dish.

Your family can spend the holidays on a beautiful floating city, on the open ocean, sailing to exotic destinations and enjoying the warm weather and beautiful scenery while others are still landlocked, frantically looking for parking spaces in crowded malls. A cruise can be a wonderful bonding experience for your family where you are all together with all of your needs taken care of so the only thing you have to worry about doing is to figure out what fun activity that you want to do next.

Your days will be filled with exotic destinations, shopping ports and excursions on shore to explore or they can be spent at sea sailing to the next destination while you relax in lounge chairs by the pool. Cruise ships also offer so many activities on board that you are guaranteed never to hear the phrase “I’m bored” coming from your children. Your children will be happily engaged in activities with you or they can also take part in supervised activities that give parents a chance to spend time together relaxing, enjoying a intimate evening together, complete with a world class dining experience.

Food is always good on cruises but Thanksgiving is celebrated in an even more sumptuous array of food. There will be every possible holiday treat imaginable and quite a few that you may have never dreamed of but will certainly never forget. Forget about having to spend Thanksgiving complimenting Aunt Edna on her gelatin salad that you have always secretly hated. You will be eating foods that will make your taste buds dance with delight.

Cruise lines treat the Christmas season with special care. The ships are festooned with beautiful greenery, twinkling lights, holiday displays, gingerbread villages, caroling and decorations that will delight your children and even adults will gaze in wonder at the decorations. There are special shows, holiday favorites in the ship’s movie theaters and even special appearances by Santa and his elves. Children can take part in special activities such as ornament making or decorating holiday cookies.

Hanukkah is not to be forgotten either. The cruise lines observe the holiday by displaying Menorahs and hosting other traditional Hanukkah activities. Most cruise ships will offer Hanukkah services each day during Hanukkah. The world class chefs and their staff will be busy preparing kosher culinary offerings and treats to help your family celebrate the season together while you cruise in style.

New Years is also a great time to plan a cruise for the family. The cruise ships furnish everything you could possibly need to celebrate in an unforgettable way and you aren’t left to clean up the mess the next morning. You can celebrate in style at a black tie affair with champagne and fine foods while your children attend an event planned for the kids or you can choose to celebrate in a family friendly event that includes everyone in the family. However you decide to celebrate, music, confetti, horns, New Year’s hats and champagne (or sparkling grape juice for the kids) for the traditional New Year’s toast is provided for your celebration.

Anytime from Thanksgiving through New Years is the perfect time for a holiday cruise. You might want to spend the actual day of the holiday on land with your extended family but that doesn’t mean that your immediate family won’t enjoy a special time to spend together right before the big day relaxing in preparation for the hectic holiday on land or even a getaway afterwards to help wind down from the holiday season.

There is no wrong time to plan your cruise during the holiday season. You will be creating memories that will last and be remembered long after your children grow up and have children of their own. A holiday cruise is a priceless gift for your family because it gives you the gift of uninterrupted time together as a family and memories for a lifetime.

Be Creative When Presenting a Cruise as a Present

Written by T.I. Cruiser on December 2, 2010 · Leave a Comment

So you’ve booked a cruise for someone as a surprise Christmas present. The problem is you can’t wrap up a cruise to put under the tree. So, what is the best way to present a cruise to its recipient on Christmas morning. The first time I gave a cruise to someone I came across this very problem, here is what I did.

We had never taken a real vacation together but I knew she had always wanted “blue water” so I figured I would make her dream a reality, with a cruise. I couldn’t book the actual cruise until after she was informed being that she would need to take time off from work, so I had to come up with a plan.

The first part of my unveiling would be a clear acrylic container I picked up from a crafts store. In the container I put water and food coloring to give it a nice turquoise blue color. This container would of course signify the water we would be seeing. In addition I made a presentation on power-point detailing the ship, ports of call and the excursions I had planned out for us. This would give her a clear picture of exactly what the trip would entail. I burned all of it to a disc and printed up a classified information envelope entitled “Operation Blue Water”. All of this was put into a box and placed under a tree. She really appreciated the thoughtfulness that went into the present and it all went over extremely well.

Every year since then we have gone on a cruise and even though it is no longer a surprise I still attempt to come up with a unique way to present the gift. Some of the other things I have done over the years were; poems, a captains wheel, a looking glass, etc. While you could always print out your confirmation email, package up a pamphlet or present some cruise docs I’d be willing to bet if you go that extra mile to come up with something unique it would be greatly appreciated.

I know some of you may struggle with ideas on how to present a cruise present so feel free to steal any of my ideas if you like. In fact if you decide to get a little creative I would love for you to let me know what you decided to go with, it may help others down the line.

5 High Tech Gift Ideas For Cruisers

Written by T.I. Cruiser on December 3, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Now that the Christmas shopping season is in full swing, its time to take a look at some ideas for finding the perfect present. Although my second love is cruising (my first is the Pittsburgh Steelers), I have to say that high tech gadgets are way up there on my list. So, I decided to make a list of high tech gifts that go hand in hand with cruising.

A Netbook

When I go on vacation I like to take a lot of pictures. In fact, its pretty normal for me to arrive back home with close to 20 gigabytes of picture and video. Shooting that many pictures means that you have to carry a lot of memory cards around. My solution to all of this is to get a Netbook. If you are not familiar with what a netbook is, basically it is a miniature laptop. Although there are various sizes to netbooks most of them weigh in at under 3 pounds. Yeah, they are really small and also the perfect size for bringing along on a cruise where space is at a premium. Having a netbook allows you to snap as many pictures as you want and then uploading them as space is needed, because netbooks come with hard drives 120 gigabytes or larger you can basically take as many pictures or shoot as many movies as you desire.
Flip Mino HD

The Flip Mino HD is the high definition version of the pocket camcorder which shares the same name. The Flip Mino HDis a miniature camcorder complete with onboard memory, 2 inch display screen, a built in USB connector and rechargable battery. In other words it is a complete video recording solution, which happens to be smaller than a pack of cigarettes. The Flip Mino HD has enough onboard memory to capture 120 minutes of high definition video which can easily be uploaded (via the flip-out usb arm) to your PC or Mac. The Flip Mino HD even comes with custom software which allows you to easily email videos, make custom movies, capture still images or upload your video to Facebook, Youtube, Myspace and other social networking sites. With all of these features it is no wonder the Flip Mino was named Time Magazine’s gadget of the year.
Ipod Touch

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last decade the Ipod has no need for any explanation. Introduced a few years ago the Ipod Touchis and updated version of the revolutionary device. The newest generation of the Ipod Touch also comes with the same operating system which powers the iPhone allowing you to access over 75,000 different applications in categories such as social, educational or games. In fact, there are so many uses for the Ipod Touch that I could never do this gadget justice if I tried to explain them all.
The Kindle Wireless Reading Device

This is the (relatively) new reading device made by amazon.com which allows you to carry a whole library of reading material with you wherever you go. Each Kindlecan hold roughly 1,500 books which are downloaded from a freely accessible service called amazon whispercast (however, most books do cost). The whispercast service is available nearly anywhere in the world, so if you are on a cruise down the Amazon and need to read the newest bestseller its available for you to download (in less than 60 seconds). So, if you are serious about reading this is a must have device. Much like how the Ipod has revolutionized the way we listen to music “the Kindle” is changing the way books are being read.
Digital Picture Frame

I received one of these a few years ago and it may be one of the best presents I have ever received. I routinely find myself zoning out staring at pictures from vacations past. The Digital picture frame I have holds roughly 500 different pictures, although I have never tried I could watch it for a couple of hours straight and never see the same picture twice. There is no bigger stress reliever than knowing I can get away anytime I choose if only for a couple of minutes by simply staring at my digital picture frame.