Cruise ship Aurora

Cruising is now considered to be one of the most popular and quick growing sectors in the tourism industry. There are no issues of non-availability of connecting airlines, there are hassles of selecting the right place to stay, or the food to eat in an alien country, and above all, there is uncertainty about expenses to be incurred on a tour. On payment of a certain amount when you book the cruise, a traveler is assured of everything, and can wake up each morning to view a new country, a new port of call, and there’s the assurance of a comfortable cabin to relax, and there’s excellent food and beverage whenever needed. There is a lot of entertainment option too.

People running the P&O cruises since 1932 are well aware of these, and have left no stone unturned to see to it that their cruise passengers get the best of everything. In that respect, the P&O Aurora may be considered to be a world-class liner that is abundantly appointed with contemporary style and fitments. The impressive as well as diverse options in accommodation, dining and entertainment on board the Aurora are in keeping with the age-old British tradition that guides the cruise from start to finish.

As sea voyages are known to whet the appetite more, the Café Bordeaux, which is an inviting multi-cuisine bistro is kept open all the twenty-four hours on board the ship. Care and privilege is written large in every aspect of P&O management. For instance, a sliding crystal canopy protects one of the three on-deck pools from the vagaries of nature.

The ship can accommodate 1,878 passengers, occupying 939 cabins. Most of them are located outside, which means that, most passengers can always look out at the sea.

Here is Aurora’s total breakdown of onboard accommodation.

• 10 suits can accommodate 20 passengers
• 20 deluxe cabins can accommodate 40 passengers
• 96 staterooms can comfortably provide accommodation for 192 passengers
• 272 outside cabins with balcony can have 544 passengers
• 239 outside cabins without balcony can accommodate 478 passengers
• 280 inside cabins will take 560 passengers while
• 22 Disabled cabins are meant for disabled persons needing wheelchair

A total of 936 officers and crew members on board the ship look after the needs and whims of all the passengers in a round-the-clock manner. Also, as it is a British ship that is run by P&O, most of the on-board venues appear in British or colonial style as displayed under.

• The Dining Rooms Medina and the Alexandria are both located on Deck 6, and can accommodate 550 and 520 diners respectively.
• The Champion’s Sports Bar on Deck 7 can serve drinks to 120 guests at a time.
• The Anderson’s Bar can serve 130 guests.
• Charlie’s Champagne Bar with its grand piano can take care of 150 people easily.

Aurora is a family friendly mid-sized vessel that has certainly been rated very highly.

Adventure of the Seas

The Royal Caribbean 138,000 ton cruise ship Adventure of the Seas is not just a fashionable floating city all by itself, but is also a modern engineering marvel, even to the last detail. It can accommodate a staggering 3,000 odd passengers and a crew that numbers more than 1100 skilled hands at any time. It boasts of a 125 feet in-line skating rink, the adventure dunes 9-hole mini golf course, and a rock climbing wall at one of its 14 decks. There’s the Casino Royale too, which is a hot favorite among a lot of cruisers aboard this wonderful vessel. There is a full-size basketball court too.

It is a super quality Voyager class ship that offers the highest space-per-guest accommodation, huge state rooms, expanded dining areas, and out-of-the-world recreational facilities. Adventures of the Seas sails the Southern Caribbean itinerary.

Here are some of the exclusive features on board the Royal Caribbean Adventure of the Seas,

• Fully equipped Fitness Center with state-0f-the-art gym and aerobics room accentuated by daily changing health and fitness programs.
• Shopping galleria with duty free shops, jewelry boutique, all-purpose stores and logo stores.
• Beauty salon with exclusive treatments.
• Sauna/ steam rooms; full service spa with massage.
• Royal Promenade lined with fabulous bars offering the best of liquors.
• Especial deck that provides area for basketball, volleyball, shuffleboard and jogging track.
• 3 outdoor pools with swim up bar and 6 whirlpool spa.
• Shore excursions plus trip advise
• Active Ice skating rink with regular performances
• 900-seat studio-cum-auditorium.

Late night entertainment on board the Adventure of the Seas include,

• Viking Crown Lounge where there are 5 separate lounges for cocktails with friends.
• Imperial Lounge offers dancing and cabaret shows.
• Casino Royale offers blackjack, roulette, Electronic Slot machines and Video Poker.
• Connoisseur Club Cigar Club provides finest cigars and cognacs.
• Jester’s Night Club has DJ and whole night dancing.
• Schooner Bar is the right place to meet friends and enjoy a late night drinking session.

So, wait no longer. Book the cruise today – it’s available online too.

Crown Princess

Owned and operated by Princess Cruises, the cruise ship Crown Princess is not only considered as a Grand Class ship, but it is also regarded as the gemstone of the Princess fleet. The 113,000 ton, 951 feet long floating city having accommodation facility for 3080 passengers sails the Caribbean during the winter season, and Europe for the rest of the year. So no matter which cruise you choose, you are sure to enjoy an amazing cruise ship vacation.

The awe-inspiring luxury liner is loaded with features that are quite amazing among the many cruise ships that sail the seas. Its superb piazza-style Atrium housing the International Café and Vines wine and seafood bar are acclaimed as the most striking extravaganza ever created in a contemporary sea-going vessel. Also, the innovative dining arrangement provided in the Crown Princess goes beyond the customary food venues like its Crown GrillSM or Sabatini’s SM, reaching the passenger’s own private balcony, being part of the ship’s ultimate balcony dining.

Here is what the Crown Princess provides for its valued guests.

• Art auctions for buying paintings made by renowned artists
• Scholarship@Sea® courses for brilliant students
• Movies Under the Stars® on deck movie theater
• Wedding-at-sea event officiated by the ship’s captain
• Nine-hole putting course and golf simulators
• 4 pools that include one that provides ‘swim-against-current’.
• Wrap-around Promenade Deck
• Sports Court and jogging track
• Asian-themed Lotus Spa® with ocean-view gym
• One of the decks dedicated to mini-suits
• Around 900 staterooms having private balconies
• Conference room with wireless Internet connectivity, PC with all peripheries and part time secretarial service
• Caribbean-themed Café Caribe specializing in local delicacies
• Two Specialty Restaurants – an extended Sabatini’s and the newly established Crown Grill famed for steak and seafood.
• One of the most lavishly appointed casinos afloat
• Skywalker’s Night Club-cum-Observatory

Carnival Legend

If you feel tired, worn-out and exhausted, it is time to take a 7-day roundtrip Caribbean cruise on board the legendary cruise ship Carnival Legend and forget about everything else.

The 88,500-ton luxury liner sails from Tampa in Florida, and visits the Cayman Islands, Mexico, Belize, Isla Roatan and Honduras before bringing you back to Florida. But by the time you are back home, you have regained all your vitality and verve – thanks to the exotic food served in the ship, and the relaxing environment provided onboard the fabulous ocean liner. Take, for example, the Carnival Legend’s Atlantis Lounge, an ideal setting for meeting co-passengers who may turn out to be equally eager to meet you. And as for creature comforts, its luxury galore! There are five different styles of rooms to choose from while the options include Ocean view, Interior, Balcony, Jr. Ocean & vista suits and, of course, the majestic Grand Suite, complete with deep pile wall to wall carpeting and swanky décor.

Feeling lucky? Why not try your hand at blackjack, poker, roulette and many more exciting games at the Carnival Legend’s Club Merlin Casino for a change? Chances are that you may win. Or check out the ship’s Piano Bar for ultimate relaxation. Sit back and do nothing but listen to the live music, request a song or else hum a tune that you like most.

And when you feel hungry, stroll around to any of the ship’s elegant dining rooms. Flexible time dining routine for which is the ship is famous for, will not disappoint you. Explore the special quality food menu that ranges from sushi to chicken cream sandwiches. As for ice creams, there are endless varieties and tastes. By the way, there is also an excellent steak house on board the Carnival Legend. Order your steak as you like – Done, well-done or under-done.

On board the Carnival Legend the central theme revolves round the great legends of the world. This spirit is carried out throughout the ship’s 16 Lounges, 12 Passenger Decks as well as the indoor and outdoor promenades. The Spirit-Class “Fun Ship” also has a 9-deck high Atrium, duty-free shopping mall, on board golf program, video arcade and an amazing 1,800 square feet children’s play area.

Enchantment Of The Seas

From Victor Hugo’s Toilers of the Sea to more contemporary Con Tiki expedition, people appear to have always been fascinated by sea voyages, especially when it is more oriented to fun than real life adventures. In the case of Royal Caribbean’s Enchantment Of The Seas however, the passengers can probably savor both. As a person enters the Enchantment, he/she is immediately confronted with the Centrum, a soaring seven-deck atrium that is studded with priceless art collections – a rare display for a cruise ship solely devoted to pleasure and pastime.

The Enchantment cabins, particularly the low-end ones measuring around 150 sq. ft. promise reasonable creature comfort, featuring a TV run through intra-ship channels mostly showing professionally produced promotional videos, a telephone, safe and toiletries. Hair dryers have recently been added for the benefit of the ladies. Storage space within the cabin is more or less OK while robes are provided to certain category of cabins only. Almost half of the ‘outside’ cabins of the Enchantment have balconies at different decks. As the liner travels through the open ocean, sitting in one of these balconies is sure to be an amazing feeling.

Breakfast and lunch is served in the ship’s Windjammer Café that also serves as an alternate casual dinner place - no reservation is compulsory. 24 hour room service can also be ordered by passengers. But there is a limited menu in this. The ship’s Solarium is famed for its hot dog and hamburger grill. The Royal Caribbean, nevertheless, prepares Ship Shape selection lists every night for the next day’s lunch and dinner menu which includes special items for the veggies.

The Enchantment’s prime enchantment venue is centered round its Orpheum Theater-Show Lounge which happens to be the most functional and intelligently designed structure ever created by the RCI. Since the seating arrangement is of the fixed type, adequate space has been left for enter and exit rows. The lounge also looks more neat and compact since peg tables have been replaced by beautifully designed peg holders inbuilt within the arm rests. In course of a week-long cruise, passengers are likely to view at least one show performed by a renowned entertainer, a couple of production shows, several evening time variety acts and, of course, a farewell feat.

Majesty Of The Seas

Majesty Of The Seas is a sovereign-class cruise ship that is owned and operated by Royal Caribbean International and it was placed in service in April, 1992. However since then, the ship has been extensively renovated to change most of her innate features and several new features. As a matter of fact, the 73,941-ton Majesty Of The Seas was taken to a dry dock on January 12, 2007 for a multi-million dollar refurbishment program. The restoration process covered the ship’s public areas, pool decks, restaurants, shops, centrums and cabins while the additions included Johnny Rockets, the Compass Deli, Seattle’s best coffee, Freeze Ice cream, Latin Night dancing venue as well as other customary Royal Caribbean electrical and mechanical thingamajigs.

When the Majesty Of The Seas was finally pressed into service (3-Night Bahamas roundtrip Miami, Florida or 4-Night Bahamas roundtrip Miami, Florida), she was practically a new ship with tastefully refurbished staterooms, newly remodeled pool deck, enhanced Day Spa and Fitness Center and many more. To be precise, her current features include the renowned Viking Crown Lounge overlooking the pool and sun decks, an onboard fully equipped Casino, 11-passenger elevators, two of which are glass-lined and two major swimming pools.

As for onboard bars and drinking dens, Majesty of the seas have the usual marine-oriented Schooner Bar, A Touch of Class Champagne Bar, Boleros Latin Bar, Windjammer Café, Poolside Bar and On Your Toes Nightclub. Apart from these wonderful watering holes, this newly decorated ship boasts of a full-size Basketball Court and an adventurous rock-climbing wall. Also, the ship’s comfortable staterooms have been provided with luxurious bedspreads, flat screen TVs and 110 V/220 V plug points plus wireless Broadband connectivity for Laptop users.

Majesty of the Seas is currently commissioned by the Royal Caribbean on a 7-day cycle that covers two weekly voyages to the Port of Miami, stopping at Nassau (birthplace of the internationally famous black celluloid star, Sidney Poitier), Coco Cay, a private island owned by the Royal Caribbean and Key West, where the renowned American novelist and Nobel Laureate, “Papa” Hemingway completed the manuscript for his legendary work entitled “Farewell to Arms”. Surprisingly enough, even though another equally famous American writer, Tennessee Williams, author of yet another fictional masterpiece, “A streetcar Named Desire” lived in Key West during the same period, these two literary giants never met each other.

Island Princess

The Island Princess, as also her sister ship, Coral Princess have been especially designed to get through the Panama Canal (they usually traverse the Canal and the Gulf of Alaska) and hence, are comparatively smaller than the fleet’s bigger ships. However, these ships are still bigger than the mid-sized Princess-class ships that were so common during the nineties. But as a result, they enjoy the privileges of both, losing nothing in return. As a matter of fact, passengers feel more comfortable in navigating within the ship due to the re-sizing, which allows them better confidence in reaching their desired destinations than fumbling along oversize atriums.

92,000-ton Island Princess provides better facilities to its guests by shifting the public rooms to the lower decks and putting cabin decks higher up, which has allowed addition of more balconies to outside staterooms. This, incidentally, has also resulted in increasing cabin space on one hand and improving passenger flow on the other.

The food served in the Dining room and in the Lido Cafeteria featured in the Island Princess is typically Continental Ship variety comprising mostly Broiled lobster tail, Beef Wellington and the like. Passengers not used to such bland dishes prefer the Bayou Café to try spicy shrimp gumbo, grilled jumbo prawns, fried catfish or chicken and chorizo jambalaya amidst woody ambience. Those who feel still not very satisfied usually head for Sabatini’s for ultimate palate pleasure. But for those who insist on out-of-the-world savories, the Lotus Spa menu offers Chilled yogurt and Tamarind Soup sprinkled with grated lemon rind.

Interestingly enough, there is no dearth of invitingly intimate lounges on board the Island Princess, some with live music. Crooners, a Martini Bar mirrors the halcyon days of Rat Pack while the Churchill’s, a snug cigar lounge may remind one of early English country manors. The chunky nautical-themed Wheelhouse Bar (for no apparent rhyme or reason) holds many expensive original oil paintings.

The ship's Internet cafe, card room and library are mostly busy during days at sea. In fact, one may find himself/herself lucky in finding a place to sit. Because there are entrances from both the atrium and the midship elevators/stair tower, the locations are often used as passageways, not exactly ideal either for compute use or for reading.

As in other similar vessels, the captain of the Island Princes is empowered to marry intending couples in the ship’s Wedding Chapel while children are lovingly entertained at the Pelican Playhouse Children’s Center aboard the ship.

Caribbean Princess

Gone are the days when the legendary Nat King Cole hummed, “Take my way; hit the highway”. Today, people are more prone to leave their automobiles back home and explore the pleasures of the sea voyage aboard a cruise ship. Princess cruise liners appear to satisfy that craze to the fullest extent and something more. Among some of the Princess class of vessels that include Emerald, Crown, Ruby and a few others, the Caribbean Princess surely ranks apart in all respects. With astounding Atriums and spellbounding Skywalker’s Disco, the luxury liner is nothing but a super-size version of the earlier Grand-class of ships that sailed the seven seas decades ago.

Having an astounding onboard carrying capacity of more than 3000 passengers in its fabulous staterooms (881) and numerous full deck mini-suits, the Caribbean Princess can be compared to an island city that provides all forms of comforts right within its enormous bulk. On a dark night, she is a glittering jewel cruising through the phosphorescent sea.

Here a few of the special features of the ship that may prompt many to book a voyage today. Her destinations include Eastern Caribbean & Bermuda, Southern Caribbean, Canada & New England.

And here are the hot spots.

• Traditional Dining is provided at several dining rooms aboard the ship in true cruise tradition with caring entourage paying special attention to each passenger. The Island Dining Room is where you get the best of service in an oceanic ambience.
• Anytime Dining spares the hassle of reaching the dinner table at the sound of the gong. While aboard the Caribbean Princess, it’s the passenger’s choice of the dining hour and not otherwise. At the Cora Dining Room or the Da Vinci Dining Room you can walk in anytime in the day or night and ask for food, and it will be served with a smile.
• Specialty Restaurants on board the ship serve exquisite local (whichever water the ship passes by) dishes and gourmet favorites, if ordered earlier. This includes the famed Trattoria Sabatini Restaurant and the Sterling Steakhouse.
• The Hearts and Minds Wedding Chapel housed within the ship is the first of its kind that provides the industry’s singular Wedding-at-Sea program where the passengers can be married by the ship’s captain. A truly innovative approach towards an otherwise conventional social procedure.

Explorer of the Seas

Royal Caribbean International’s MS Explorer of the Seas happens to be one of their largest cruise ships that can accommodate more than 3000 passengers, boasting the highest space-per-guest ratio in the cruise business line. The 142,000-ton Voyager-class cruise ship Explorer has a built-in Atmospheric & Oceanographic Laboratory that is used by scientists researching for the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. In shape, size and dimensions it is only second to Cunard Line’s Queen Mary 2.

As a matter of fact, there has never been a ship like this, featuring so many fabulous things of interest. Imagine a rock-climbing precipice aboard a floating vessel, a skating rink and a street fair going in full swing right above the rolling seas. Fascinating, isn’t it? The mighty ship’s destination includes the Caribbean, Bermuda, Canada and New England. The Explorer is also often chartered for holiday cruises.

It is therefore no wonder that world-class food is served aboard this world-class ship amidst world-class ambience. However, here is a listing of the Explorer’s fascinating features that are soon going to lure you to book your voyage. Talk to your nearest agent; he may offer you a discounted price too.

• Main dining room in the ship serves world-class food only. From out of the world appetizers and starters to delectable desserts, every food item in the Main Dining Room is simply superb.
• The Portofino restaurant aboard the Explorer is the gourmet’s best refuge. Chefs at the Portofino are ever busy tackling international cuisine.
• The Johnny Rockets restaurant sporting the authentic fifty’s décor is known for all-American eatables with shipside sauces.
• The Champagne Bar is the ideal spot to celebrate your opening night aboard the Explorer. The beauty of this quiet cozy bar lies in the fact that it offers a wide variety of sparkling wines with an assortment of canapés for your pleasure.
• Windjammer Café is ideally suited for a casual dinner for the family after a day of adventure, scaling the virtual rock.
• Sport Deck aboard the ship features a full-size basketball court. Play the game whenever you can form a team but don’t let the ball go out of bounds.

Do whatever you like but do not forget to visit the Virtual Submarine Room, the Casino, and the Arcade Room before the cruise is over.