Cute Bon Voyage Gift Idea

Wish Your Favorite Cruiser a Sweet Bon Voyage

Red Anchor Jelly Belly Candy Tin

Need an idea for a cute little bon voyage gift for your favorite cruiser?

Zazzle has added custom Jelly Belly tins to their line up of products.  They come filled with your choice of mints, or any one of more than a dozen varieties of Jelly Belly candies.  The candy is gluten free and soy free/  It's kosher, too.

Not only that, they are available in half a dozen shapes and sizes, including rectangular, round, bean shaped, and an old fashioned candy jar shape.

There are a couple of color choices, too.  For instance, the rectangular shape (which has a hinged lid) comes in either white, or a metal color, and the round tin even has a peek-a-boo lid option.

Sea Princess Candy Tins

On the Lido 

Of course, you don't have to wait until someone you know is about to set sail, and your favorite cruiser just may be yourself!

Blue Sea Anchor

     

Upgrade Fairy 

See more nautical candy tins

iPhone and other Cases for Cruisers

These have been the four most popular iPhone cases this month at CruiseReady on Zazzle:

Those shown above are for the iPhone 4.  Designs also available for the iPhone 3, the iPad,  the iPod touch, all by Speck and Doodle Speakers.  
Take your personal favorite along with you on your cruise, and cruise in style.

Win a Cruise on Radiance of the Seas

Here's another opportunity to win a free cruise. This one is a four nighter on the Radiance of the Seas, a real favorite of many Royal Caribbean fans. The contest for the free cruise is from Cruise Elite, Inc. of Ormand Beach, FL, and you need to do two simple things to enter:

1 - Go to Cruise Elite's Facebook page, and click on the LIKE button at the top of the page.  According to the rules, the winner must ". . . be a 'fan' of Cruise Elite, Inc. on facebook at time of drawing ."

2 - Fill out the entry form on the Cruise Elite Website.

The drawing will be held at noon on September 28, aso enter by the 27th!

PRIZE:  Cruise for two on the Radiance of the Seas  (cruise only)
CRUISE DATE:  January 13, 2011 (Sailing from Tampa)
See website for additional details and complete rules.

I'm betting these folks will get a good number of entries, given the popularity of the Radiance of the Seas.  She's a well-loved ship!

BTW- The solarium on the Radiance is the photo for one of the months on my 2010 - 2011 Cruise Lover's Calendar, available at CruiseReady on Zazzle. 

Swimming with Stingrays Excursions

Stingrays are magnificent creatures... gracefully gliding through the sea much like huge birds glide aloft on air currents. Oh, they are truly are fascinating! As are Eeagle Rays and Manta Rays.

So far, I've been fortunate to "swin with rays" in at least five different locations. If you've never done it, it's a real thrill, and I hope I can help you decide where's the best location for you.

First- Grand Turk. I'd recommend this one for the faint of heart - those who are not really sure they want to actually swim with the creatures, but would like to see and touch them in a fairly safe environment. The stingray encounter portion of the excursion was just that. The group stood shallow water at a beach on Gibb's Cay, while theh guide 'summomed' rays. He then held one, and allowed each participant who desired to do so to touch, feed, and kiss it. A very tame time was had by all.

At Grand Cayman, the experience is a bit more intreactive, but still closely supervised. A really GOOD one for first-timers! I recommend Native Way excursions. On a sandbar, the water depth varies, but is shallow enough for an adult to stand. Activities include supervised feeding, holding and kissing the rays, as well as a group 'back massage' from a ray, quite a tactile experience. There is a little opportunity to swim around, if you take the initiative on your own. This "Swim" is the best known. It's been going on for so long that rays there associate the 'sound' of boat motors with food, flocking to the sandbar when a boat approaches.

In Antigua, there's a very diferent swim... way out in the water, but in a very large area contained by a fence. As in Grand Cayman, you are taken there by boat,and you can also participate in a supervised encounter, but there is also ample opportunity for you to freely swim and snorkel within the large, fenced area. this was the location wher I first watched rays go through the process of burying themselves in the sand... fascinating!

Head to Nassau, in The Bahamas for the best of all worlds. (my humble opinion) There, you'll also find an extremely large enclosed area at the edge of an island. Water depth starts off very shallow, and graduate to maybe 15 feet. The rays, which are captive and de-barbed, get the whole area, but the humans are given 'markers' beyond which they may NOT swim. You can freely swim and snorkel up to the markers. The rays will go beyond those markers when they are tired of you! There's also opportunity for (very) shallow water touching and feeding, which is supervissd.

On your own with Rays in the Wild.... OH! this one is a true thrill. If you are adventurouus to snorkel in the right places on your own, you might just encounter Stingrays, Manta Rays, and EagleRays. Really the best if you are an excerinced snorkeler, a strong swimmer, and love adventure. At the top of this post is a photo of an Eagle Ray that I encountered while solo snorkling off Royal Caribbean's CocoCay. Boy, was she beautiful... and FAST.

Where was YOUR most enjoyable Stingray swim? Or are you still looking forward to your first? If you are, this is something you really MUST make sure is on your official LIST, in my opinion!

NOTE: The "Swimming with Stingrays" products pictured in this post (and other stingray products) are available at CruiseReady on Zazzle.

Good Morning, Alex

As of 5 am, we have the first named storm of the 2010 Atlantic Basin Hurricane Season.

Tropical Storm Alex is storming through the Western Caribbean on his way to the Yucatan Peninsula, where he is expected to arrive tomorrow. A Hurricane Hunter aircraft is enroute to the system now, and everyone is hoping they WON'T find a strengthing system, but those hopes will likely be dashed, given the conditions in the vacinity...

AHOY THERE, ALEX!
How about playing nice with those favorite cruise ports of mine whilel you'rein the area. Those folks don't need any of your grief. But, even more importantly, keep it down, will ya! Easy on the intensification... especially after you get across the Yucatan and into the GoM. We surely don't need you messing with that oil.

So, please play nice, and play out, won't you?
Just thought it wouldn't hurt to ask nicely...

This plea brought to you by the word AHOY

at CruiseReady on Zazzle

We Sail Today!

Some persnal notes for today - Sailaway day! It's been SO long since we curised that I hardly know how to act, but today's the day!

We'll be on the Monarch of the Seas, with our good friends Sue and Dickie, and it will be three days of relaxing and catching up. Everything's ready. Bob and Marilyn are here to mind the house and Walker, and I've got my Bon Voyage to Me T shirt ready to wear.

Dickie informed me he brought his nautical tie clip - the one from my store with the cruise ship on it - but doesn't intend to dress up. Does THAT make sense??? Why bring it if you don't intend to wear it? We'll see. And Sue brought everything but the kitchen sink, as usual. The two of them are such fun. It's going to be great to cruise with them again.

They were really pleased with the way our little magnet door markers turned out. These come in handy for my guy, too, who can never remember his cabin number. Since all the doors on those long hallways look pretty much alike, I 'mark' ours for him with a pretty magnet. Here's a pic of the ones I did for this trip ... one for each of our two cabin doors. They'll be a nice little keepsake afterwards, too. This is just one of several designs available for personalization in my Zazzle Gallery. (There's buttons and shirts, hats, bags, and other things, too)

Well - time to get in gear... first, breakfast at our favorite pre-cruise spot - The Sunrise Diner. So, now IT BEGINS.

Caribbean Cruising Cruise Gear

Caribbean Cruising

Cruise Gear & Gifts

by

Cruise Ready on Zazzle

If you love Cruising the Caribbean, you're sure to like this new line of persosnalizable "Caribbean Cruising" cruise gear from Cruise Ready on Zazzle. Shown above are the magnets and buttons ready for you to customize with your name, and cruise information. Both come in either round or square. -OR- if you're a TA, take advantage of bulk pricing, and customize with your agency and contact information instead - they would make great advertising give aways!

Two more products in the line include tote bags you can put your name on (with several styles of totes to choose from), and coordinating Tropical Isle keds deck shoes.

There are mpre Caribbean Cruising Cruise Gear amd Gifts, too - including a hat, stickers, a mousepad, and mugs. See them all, along with other cruise geag and cruise themed gifts at Cruise Ready on Zazzle.

Do You Believe in the Upgrade Fairy?

If you're a long-time cruiser, you probably know all about the mythical Upgrade Fairy. If you're scratching your head, here's a quick primer:

She's an elusive creature. Some cruisers scoff at the existance of such a being. But many others fervently believe, and earnestly petition her to grace them with a visit prior to their cruise.

What does a visit from the Upgrade Fairy mean? It means the cabin you paid for is unexpectedly upgraded to one of a higher category. This often means that your basic inside cabin as become an oceanview cabin. (No extra charge!) Or, though you paid for a small bacony cabin, the good fairy has waved her wand and turned it into a mini-suite.

Do such things really happen? Yes, but rarely. Very rarely. And when they do, it's such a 'magical' experience, that some cruisers are convinced there surely must have been extra-human intervention. Thus, . . . the Upgrade Fairy.

Do you believe? I do.

It happened to me once. Yes, ONCE, out of thirty-plus cruises. But it DID happen, and it was a good one... a SIX category upgrade! Now, this phenominal strike by the Upgrade Fairy did involve some unuual circumnstances, AND the involvement of my excellent TA. But even circumstances and TAs don't usually net upgrades of six categories. So, I think the good fairy must have a little hand in aligning those circumstances in such a way as to pave the way for the multi-category nature of the event.

FOR BELIEVERS - In tribute to the capricious wand waver, here's my just-designed fun little line of Upgrade Fairy products that includes pins, magnets, a mouse pad, mugs, and shirts. (More to come? We''ll see . .) All are available at Cruise Ready on Zazzle.

Now, the opening question remains - Do YOU believe? Do you want to?

This "Fairy Tale" brought to you by

www.CruiseReadyStore.com