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Greetings, Cruise Enthusiasts!
Welcome to another edition of the 7 Seas
Cruise News. A hearty welcome to all of our
subscribers, especially to you rookies who
joined us in the last couple of weeks. It
has always been our dream to have more than
1000 newsletter subscribers and, at last,
we do! So thank you all for making a little
dream come true. Pat is delighted that our
little cruise family now has so many
branches--in so many cities, towns,
territories, states and provinces. And a few
shires, too.
We'll try to keep the commercials to a
minimum. Except I do want to remind you that
Pat is standing by, waiting to help all of
you with a great quote on a great cruise. If
you want to go there, and you can get there
by ship, talk to Pat. His prices are terrific.
Because, after all, that's how you take care
of "family." Call him toll-free anytime(even
during the Super Bowl!) at 1-866-424-1090 or
drop him an e-mail at
cruiseplanners7seascruises@msn.com
I want to talk about the ports of call on the
Carnival Jubilee today, because we want to
encourage anyone who's interested to join us
aboard this venerable old ship (relatively
speaking) for Thanksgiving in the southern
Caribbean. But, before we talk ports, let's
take a gander at this week's cruise news...
A $1 Million Hole-in-One Contest and Golf
Tournament is set for Jamaica's Legendary
White Witch Golf Club. It's the highlight of
a 7-Day Caribbean Cruise aboard the Carnival
Conquest - The 7-day western Caribbean
cruise, which features visits to Montego Bay,
Grand Cayman and Cozumel, will sail round-
trip from New Orleans Nov. 2-9, 2003.
Norwegian Cruise Line has decided to make
New York the permanent home of its newest
ship, the Norwegian Dawn. NCL will be the
only cruise line to offer year-round cruises
from New York. The Dawn was scheduled to
offer seven- day cruises seasonally from New
York, beginning in May, and would have been
based in New York and Miami. But the line
said the Dawn's "tremendous reception" by
agents in New York last month drove
executives to consider having the ship brave
the region's chilly winter temperatures on
an ongoing basis. On its seven-day
itinerary, the Dawn calls in Miami and Port
Canaveral, Fla., Nassau, and NCL's private
Bahamian island.
Meanwhile, the Norwegian Sea is getting
scrubbed up in a two-week, multi- million
dollar refurbishment. The 1,518- passenger
ship entered dry-dock in Grand Bahama Jan.
16 for the renovation, which includes new
upholstery and flooring. In addition, a 40-
seat Italian restaurant -- Pasta Cafe --
will be added to the ship's Freestyle Dining
rotation. This fall, the Norwegian Sea will
return to Houston after a two-year hiatus.
Royal Caribbean and Celebrity have made $20
million worth of renovations, including the
addition of activities to their 140-acre
island in the Bahamas. New snorkeling and
scuba diving facilities, expanded docks,
additional restaurants, bars and shops have
all been added. A new Snorkel Shack was
built, where visitors can sign up for
snorkeling and rent equipment; and the new
Diver's Den offers certified divers the
equipment for a one-tank, shallow-water
beach dive that takes them to 40 feet below,
where a PADI scuba instructor will be on
hand.
And there's news from Oceania, cruise-dom's
newest line: the company has named its
second ship, Regatta, and outlined some
initial itineraries for each of its two
vessels. Regatta, which debuts first on July
5 with a two-week Barcelona-London voyage,
will spend the summer sailing a variety of
Baltic-influenced trips that range from 10-
14 nights. In September, the ship will shift
southward and offer 12-to 14-night
Mediterranean itineraries (Barcelona to
Venice and back) until heading across the
Atlantic from Lisbon for its winter
repositioning. The newly-named Insignia,
which debuts October 4, will also offer a
variety of southern European itineraries,
ranging from 10-to 14-nights. Of particular
interest is a Barcelona-to Istanbul two-week
voyage and a Rome-to Venice 10-nighter. That
ship will make its Atlantic crossing over
the Thanksgiving holiday, a 16-night
Barcelona- to Barbados trip. Regatta and
Insignia, the first two ships in the Oceania
fleet, were formerly known as Renaissance's
R1 and R2.
Celebrity invites you to drop by Ebay to bid
on a celebrity-autographed cruise line t-
shirt. The auction runs through January 30,
features a wide range of willing
participants, from "Frasier's" Kelsey
Grammar to "Seinfeld's" Jason Alexander.
Some celebs got creative: Kevin Bacon, Rhea
Perlman and Jay Leno drew caricatures of
themselves, Susan Lucci sketched a map of
All My Children houses, and Jackie Chan
stamped his own handprints in sparkling
paint. Early on, the hottest t-shirt
belonged to George Clooney, whose monikered
tee had received 11 bids and was going for $
26. The cast of "Friends" is close behind,
with 9 bids raising the stakes to $17. Alas,
Dustin Hoffman's contribution is getting a
slow warm-up with just one $ 1 bid. To check
out the offerings, go to Ebay.com then use
the search engine to type in "autographed
Celebrity t-shirt." As of the middle of the
week, Jackie Chan's t-shirt had jumped to a
high bid of $200! Same with Jason Alexander'
s. (oh well, I'd prefer Dustin Hoffman
anyway!) In return for their scrawl, the
stars get to denote a charity-of-choice,
which will not only receive the proceeds
from the sale of each shirt, but also a
Celebrity cruise-of- choice that they can
themselves auction off as a fund-raiser.
Meanwhile, Celebrity plans to stock its
onboard stores with the unsigned Celebrity t-
shirts this spring.
Pat ran across this joke this week and hasn'
t stopped laughing yet. He means no offense
to any blonde, real or imagined. Substitute
brunette or redhead if it makes you feel
better.
A blonde walks by a travel agency and
notices a sign in the window, "Cruise
Special --$99!". She goes inside, lays her
money on the counter and says, "I'd like the
$99 cruise special, please." The agent
grabs her, drags her into the back room,
ties her to a large inner tube, then drags
her out the back door and downhill to the
river, where he pushes her in and sends her
floating. A second blonde comes by a few
minutes later, sees the sign, goes inside,
lays her money on the counter, and asks for
the $99 special. She too is tied to an inner
tube and sent floating down the river.
Drifting into stronger current, she
eventually catches up with the first blonde.
They float side by side for a while before
the first blonde asks, "Do they serve
refreshments on this cruise? The second
blonde replies, "They didn't last year."
And now, some thoughts about the ports of
call on the Jubilee. If you like ports, you
really need to look into this cruise! It is
the most port-intensive Caribbean itinerary
out there. Years ago, when I first sailed, we
did a Southern Caribbean on Costa (the
ancient Carla Costa, as a matter of fact) and
we stopped at 5 ports in 7 days. We always
thought that was something! Not. This little
ship manages 6 port calls in 7 days.
Sailing from San Juan on Saturday night at
10, you'll spend Sunday in St. Thomas and/or
St. John. St. Thomas is about shopping for
jewelry, going to the beach (Magen's Bay is
one of the top 10 beaches in the world), or
for nature lovers, there's breath-taking St.
John. Daughter #2 loves the SCUBA-diving
here and snorkelers love it, too. On Monday,
you' re in Antigua where they claim to have
365 beaches--some in pink like Bermuda. On
Tuesday, drive into a volcano or sail on one
of those legendary party boats in the shadow
of the enormous Pitons--those giant green
mountains that jut out of the sea and give
St. Lucia its portcard perfection! Daughter #
1 has fond memories of horseback riding
there. Next stop is Dominica on Wednesday.
This is one gorgeous and largely
undiscovered island. If Antigua has beaches,
this island has waterfalls! Everything
seems to grow in abundance here--lemongrass
and cashews, coffee and flowers. On
Thursday, the lovely island of St. Kitts
beckons. Fluffy clouds float above rolling
green hills on this island that is shaped,
they say, like a chicken leg. Sitting next
to it is tiny Nevis which the locals say
looks like the mashed potatoes next to the
chicken. Next stop is Tortola in the
British Virgin Islands. A sidetrip to the
Baths at Virgin Gorda is my plan. I want to
see those amazing huge rock formations
along the beach.
On Saturday, it's back to San Juan--a
fantastic port in its own right! Old Town
San Juan is gorgeous. If there's time
before the flight home, grab a cab and look
around!
If you'd like to come along with us, you are
welcome. Friends and family are sailing with
us--and there's always room for more! As of
now, Pat can get inside accommodations for $
520 per person, double occupancy, or $615
per person for oceanview cabins. There are
no balconies on this ship. These prices
include all taxes and port charges. Call
Pat for more information!
Thanks for reading and for your patience
with our on-going formatting trials and
tribulations. We'll get it right one of
these days!
Until next week, see you in the line-dancing
class and then we'll hit the hot tub!
Teri
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