Mexico Cruises on Hold or Diverted Due to Swine Flu

If you've got an upcoming cruise to Mexico, it may be canceled due to the Swine Flu breakout down there. If only some of the ports of call are in Mexico, you may be diverted to other ports (such as San Diego or Santa Catalina).

According to an article in the LA Times, Carnival, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Princess Cruises and Holland America--all major cruise lines--are all making this decision.

If you have a Mexico cruise scheduled for the next few weeks (or a Caribbean/Panama Canal cruise that is visiting one or more Mexican ports as part of its itinerary), you'll have to check with your specific cruise line to find out what their policy is going to be for cancellations, postponements, rerouting, etc.

More information:

• Health Officials Suggest You Skip Trips to Mexico


• NCL Travel Advisory (regarding Mexico stops)


• Princess Cruises Swine Flu Statement


• Carnival Cruises Statement Regarding Swine Influenza


• Royal Caribbean Swine Flu Itinerary Updates


• Holland America Travel Advisories

What Is a Cruise Tour?

If you search for cruises at Travelocity or other sites that let you book cruises, you may see something called a "cruise tour" advertised in addition to regular ocean-going vacation packages. So, what's the deal? What is a cruise tour?

Cruise Tours

A cruise tour is a vacation package that combines a ship-board cruise with an escorted land-based tour.

For example, you might book an Alaska cruise tour which would start on a ship in Vancouver or Seattle, sailing north past those stunning glaciers and stopping in several coastal ports. Then after perhaps 7 days, you'd leave the ship in Anchorage and travel by train or bus to inland sights such as the Denali National Park, the historic town of Dawson, and the city of Fairbanks.

Cruise tours are generally longer than plain old cruises, starting at 10 days or so (at least for the Alaska area) and being as long as two weeks.

For the land portion, many of your meals are included, but you'll be eating at restaurants and such instead of in a dining room that travels with you, and some meals will not be included. Lodgings and transportation are all included though, so it's still a pretty economical way to see the world.

Luxury Cruise in the South Pacific Visits Bora Bora

We've talked quite a bit about how affordable cruises can be, but if luxury is more your style, there are lots of great opportunities to get away from it all in an exclusive setting. If you like the idea of a tropical and warm destination, but find Hawaii and the Caribbean a little too passé, then consider a cruise in the South Pacific.

Bora Bora

Most people have heard of the Tahiti Polynesian island of Bora Bora, but few have visited. Its remoteness makes it less accessible from the U.S., but that remoteness also offers a lot of seclusion you can no longer find in spots such as Hawaii.

You'll find all your favorite relaxation and/or adventure activities here though: scuba diving, swimming, snorkeling, surfing, parasailing, and safari excursions to name a few. And of course you may just want to get a massage, settle into a lounge chair by the beach, or hit a few tennis balls too.

Luxury Bora Bora Cruises

As far as cruises go, you can find multi-week South Pacific cruises that leave from the mainland and include Bora Bora as one of a handful of stops, but if you'd prefer the yacht-sized experience of a luxury cruise line, you may want to check into Nomade yachting by Bora Bora Cruises.



Founded in 2003 by a young Polynesian woman with a love for her country's seas and lagoons, Nomade yachting sails weekly around four of the Leeward Islands: Bora Bora: The Supreme Island, Taha'a: The Orchid Island, Raiatea: The Sacred Island, and Huahine: The Island of Bards. For the small boutique vacation experience, choose from its two custom-built luxury super yachts, and be prepared for a unique South Pacific vacation.

Cost of Shore Excursions?

Shore excursions aren't included in the price of your cruise vacation, so you'll have to pay extra if you want to partake. You may be wondering if it's worth signing up for shore excursions or if the cost makes it better to explore on your own.

Costs vary quite a bit depending on the area you're cruising and the expedition you want to take.

In the Caribbean, for example, shore excursions are quite affordable with half-day tours averaging $25-$35. In Alaska similar tours cost twice as much.

Overall, adventure tours are more expensive than sight-seeing excursions. This is because the groups are smaller, so the tours cost more per person to operate.

Full-day shore excursions can run as much as $75 to $150 a person with pricy helicopter tours costing $200 and up. If you're paying for the whole family to go, these types of excursions can get expensive quickly!

Whether or not you should go it on your own depends, of course, on your preferences and to some extent on the port. In some places, there are lots of things to see and do right by where the ship docks. In other places, most of the sites are inland or otherwise far from the port. When you add in the cost of getting a cab and the aggravation of arranging things yourself, you may find the shore excursion option worth the money.

Cruise Deals That Include "on board" Credits Can Save You Money

If there's anything good about a bad economy, it's that the cruise lines are offering lots of cruise deals to entice people to book vacations.

Chances are you want to take a trip anyway, and right now, if you shop around, it's possible to get much better deals than you could a year or two ago.

One way cruise lines sweeten the pot is with "on board credits."

But is this really a good deal? Or is it like frequent flyer miles (something you'll never be able to use)? Let's take a closer look:

First off...

What Are on Board Credits?

On board credits are basically dollars that you can use while you're on the ship.

As we've talked about before, cruises are all-inclusive in that they include lodging, meals, entertainment, and of course travel to your cruise destinations, but you'll pay for extras. Extras include everything from alcohol to shore excursions to spa treatments to casino gambling to merchandise at the shops. If you partake heavily in the extras, you can end up with a pretty big bill at the end of the trip. Even if you mostly take advantage of the free stuff, you'll probably still end up spending money on some of the little things.

Because virtually everyone spends a bit of money on the ship, on board credits are likely to be used by anyone. This makes them a pretty good deal as far as cruise deal perks. There usually aren't a lot of restrictions, and there are plenty of ways to spend those on board credits.

How to Find Cruise Deals That Offer on Board Credits


As I've mentioned before, I like to watch Travelocity for cruise deals (they'll often have at least one cruise line doing a promotion that includes goodies such as free airfare or on board credits), but there are other places to find deals too.

• "Junk mail" mailings from cruise lines -- If you've cruised with a line before, chances are you're on their mailing list. Don't be so quick to throw their flyers away though, especially if you're planning another trip. You'll probably find information on their current cruise deals inside.
• Email newsletters -- The e version of junk mail. Again, being on the cruise line's mailing list can be a back door to cruise deals such as on board credits and other perks.
• Booking your next cruise while on board the first -- Cruise lines almost always offer on board credits for folks who book again while they're still on vacation. You don't have to commit to a time or a place, just to a cruise, and you've usually got a year or more to solidify your sailing.
• Ask the bigger travel agencies -- While I'm a Travelocity fan, it never hurts to ask a travel agent what's out there. Larger agencies and those that belong to major Travel Industry Consortia often have shipboard credits on select ships and sailing dates.
• Airline rewards programs -- I've never gotten much out of the frequent flyer deals, but I've read that some can include on board credits for affiliated cruise lines, so if you fly a lot, it may be worth looking into.
  

Hawaii Shore Excursion Ideas for Cruisers

When I cruised the Hawaiian Islands last year, the shore excursions were definitely my favorite part. Just being on a cruise ship is already a great vacation, but it's hard to beat the Hawaiian weather and all the activities you can partake in while visiting the islands.

Today I'll talk about a few shore excursions you may want to check out if you book a trip to the islands (a couple of these I did personally and the others are on my for-next-time list since folks I talked to on the ship had a great time doing them). Here's the list:

Hawaii Shore Excursion Ideas

Helicopter Tours

The fact that the islands were formed by volcanic activity makes for a diverse topography that is truly inspiring. The helicopter tours are expensive ($200+ per person), so if you're trying to save money on your cruise, you may not want to fork over that kind of cash for the whole family, but I think it's definitely worth doing once.

You can take a helicopter tour on different islands, but most of the folks I talked to recommended signing up for the one in Kauai, and that's just what I did.

You get to see the Waimea Canyon, which is a fantastic lush and tropical version of the Grand Canyon. It's 10 miles long, one mile wide, and more than 3,500 feet deep, and it's truly majestic. The Kauai helicopter tour also takes in the impressive NaPali Coast, much of which is inaccessible by land because of the vast cliffs with their sheer drops of thousands of feet (you'll go by them on the cruise ship if you're visiting this island, but they're even better by air!). Lastly, I think Kauai is the island to take a helicopter tour on because so much of it is undeveloped and uninhabited. You won't be looking down on housing developments here.

A note on the helicopter tours... if you get even mildly car sick you probably get helicopter sick (I'm usually fine on airplanes, but this was the air version of driving along a twisty mountain road!). Take some Dramamine before you go. ;)

Zip Line Adventure Tours

If you're an athletic adventurous type (who isn't afraid of heights!), you'll enjoy the zip line adventures. All of them involve getting into a harness and sliding down a rope at top speed, through jungle canopies and the like. Some of them also have you climbing, swimming, and enjoying other adventures while you're at it.

One of the great things about the rigorous adventure tours is a lot fewer people go on them than the more sedentary sight seeing tours. (While cruises appeal to folks of all ages and lifestyles, physically fit adventure-seeking types are on the rarer side.) You won't have to wait for head counts and slow pokes, and the transportation isn't likely to be crowded.

Zip line adventures are common cruise shore excursions, but the beauty of Hawaii's treetops make it a particularly spectacular place for this type of adventure.

Volcano Hikes & Sight Seeing Tours

One of the unique things about Hawaii (as opposed to other popular cruise destinations) is not only that the islands were formed from volcanic eruptions but that land is actually increasing each year because the lava continues to flow!

There are quite a few shore excursion opportunities that allow you to hike out to the edge and see live lava plopping into the ocean.

Distances vary, so find a hike that's just at your level. There are opportunities for just about everyone to get up close and personal with the lava.

Kona Coffee Tours

Hawaii likes to boast about its Kona coffee, and if you're a fan of the stuff (or you're just looking for an alternative to all these "active" tours), then you'll enjoy touring the coffee plantations.

An example shore excursion takes you to the Holualoa Kona Coffee Estate where you can wander the grounds, tour the processing facility, watch (and smell) the coffee being roasted, and--of course!--sample the products.

Packages of Kona coffee also make nice gifts to bring home to the coffee fans in your life.

If you're looking for other island foods to see in their original growing habitat, look into pineapple plantation tours (Oahu) and the Hawaiian Vanilla Company (the vanilla farm is often packaged with the Holualoa coffee tour).

That's all I have time to write about right now. Some other Hawaii classics you may want to look into are surfing (duh!), snorkeling, and the Polynesian Cultural Center on Oahu.

If you've already visited Hawaii, feel free to list some of your favorite spots in the comments below!

Is Cruising Only for the Wealthy?

Before I took my first cruise, I had the notion in my head that cruising was a real luxury vacation (AKA something only wealthy and/or retired folks can afford). I'd heard of months-long around-the-world cruises and didn't know about all the very affordable week-long (and sometimes even shorter) cruise options there are.

There are even two-week and longer cruises that aren't out of the realm of affordability for many of us (of course, it can be harder to get away for more than a week when you're a regular, working stiff).

What I've since learned is that cruising can be a very affordable vacation, and it can actually cost a lot less than many other excursions. Certainly there are luxury cruise lines that cater to higher paying clientele (these ships are less crowded and less commercialized and mainstream), and if that's what you can afford and what you want, enjoy it!

But if you're just looking for a low-stress way to get a vacation, a cruise on one of the mainstream ships can be just the ticket. We had a bowling team cruising together on my last trip. It doesn't get any more "Middle America" than that. Maybe I should say "Middle Globe" because, depending on where you're traveling, you'll often be hanging out with guests from numerous countries.

Because meals, room and board, and transportation are all included, cruises make quite affordable vacations. In fact, the cruise lines are banking on you spending extra money on things that aren't included (alcohol, gambling in the casino, art auctions, exotic shore excursions, etc.), but if you don't go crazy on the extras, your trip can stay affordable.

Getting the best deals on cruises

While there are still travel agents who can help you book cruises, you can get great deals just by browsing about online. I booked my first cruise with a travel agent, but have since just used Travelocity. The last time I booked with them (late 2008), their rates ran about $30 cheaper per person than the rates posted on the cruise line's site (you can book online with your specific cruise line too).

The downside is that they didn't offer to create a package linking my flight, cruise, and transportation to and from the airport (something an agent will do for you). It's more of a barebones situation where you get to piece things together yourself. Still, it's possible to get exactly what you want this way (my parents did a package deal cruise to Hawaii and ended up with a layover halfway the opposite direction across the U.S., so it was a really long flight).

You can browse Travelocity for cruises more than a year out (though if you can get away "last minute," that can be a great way to get deals):

Visit Travelocity for Cruise Deals