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When it comes to planning the ultimate getaway, there are so many reasons why cruise vacations rank among the most popular travel options. On a cruise vacation, all the planning is taken care of by the cruise line — from the destinations you sail to and the shore excursions available at each port, to a full range of entertainment and activities happening onboard every day. If you’re not a planner, or if the only things you’re looking to focus on during your getaway is savoring great food, relaxing, and soaking up the sights, cruise vacations are the way to go.
Arriving at your embarkation port early is key to having a smooth sailing.
Before the spratt reached her table — and it was almost always a woman doing the packing — the fish would be salted and threaded onto racks by children, some no older than eight. The kids would then pass the racks to burly furnacemen, who’d hoist them over the oak-wood coals in between nips of beer. Elsewhere in the packinghouse, printers would whirr and the steam-hiss of sanitizing equipment would drone for 10 hours a day, six days a week and only rest, like the workers, on Sundays. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner is the founder of Making Sense of Cents, where she helps readers make smart decisions about how to earn, save, spend and invest. She paid off nearly $40,000 in student loan debt in just seven months and now travels as much as she can. New luxury cruise line Explora Journeys just launched Explora I, a 461-suite ship.
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How can I maximize the value of my cruise vacation?
The whole town, you might say, was wrapped up in the canning of fish, which flourished so mightily in the fjords that crease Norway’s North Sea coast. Back then, they’ll tell you, the fishermen could just scoop spratt right into the boat. Some 70 percent of the city of Stavanger was, at one time in the early 20th century, involved with the business. In a good year, a single worker could send close to 3 million tins out into the world, whether up the coast to Bergen or to the trenches along the Western Front. In the old days, a really good worker in Stavanger, Norway, could pack a tin full of spratt in just four seconds. A cruise to Caribbean is filled with exciting destinations, each with its own style and vibe.
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Once you’ve made a reservation, you’ll also receive notifications about special offers for onboard experiences — like discounts on beverage and specialty dining packages, shore excursions, spa services, and more via My Royal Cruise. If you can be flexible when it comes to your travel dates, you’ll have your pick of unbeatable savings. Popular vacation dates — like the holidays, spring break, summer vacation and week long cruises — sometimes see the highest prices (though you might get lucky with a seasonal sale).
STUMBLE INTO HISTORY
If you have the flexibility to travel during the shoulder season or off season, you’ll likely enjoy big savings on popular stateroom categories, like Balconies and even Suites. Royal Caribbean also offers deals based on departure ports and destinations, so if you’re a flexible traveler looking for great savings, you can plan your next vacation around which itineraries are on sale. Just check your email or visit RoyalCaribbean.com/cruise-deals to stay up to date on promotions, sales and special offers. You can even browse sailings and deals by homeport, destination and season, so you can rest assured you’re getting the best possible deal no matter when or where in the world you choose to set sai.
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Booking with the cruise company guarantees your return to the ship, even if your excursion runs late. Some of the major European tourist destinations have strict dress codes — typically everyone must at least cover their shoulders and knees out of respect. After taking my first Mediterranean cruise last year, here's what I think everyone should know before booking the route.
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Roughly 20% of my revenue comes from advertising, like sponsored partnerships. I team up with a company to promote its brand on my blog or social media, highlighting its products through my writing skills or sharing my experiences with its products. If the ship docks in a secondary location and you have to travel to the big tourist destinations, I always book excursions through the cruise line. For instance, the day my family and I explored Rome, the ship docked in Civitavecchia, Italy, and we had to take a two-hour bus ride into the city. There are plenty of ways to get more bang for your buck when you sail on a Royal Caribbean cruise. Every ship in the fleet offers a range of delicious complimentary dining options, but you can dig into even more crave-worthy flavor by purchasing a Specialty Dining Package for less ahead of your cruise.
Mediterranean cruises can last anywhere from seven days to two weeks, depending on the company and itinerary. Booking every excursion through the cruise line can add up, but luckily, there are typically more affordable options through third-party companies. Food tours can be booked through third-party travel operators, like TripAdvisor or Viator, and offer the chance to see some of the major landmarks of a city, try local dishes, and learn some history all in one outing. In between the extravagance, the onboard experience is as serene as you’d expect from a premium cruise line. A well-equipped spa has several treatment rooms, plus all sorts of amenities such as a sauna, hydrotherapy pool, Himalayan salt cave, and a salon. A fitness center — bustling at most hours throughout my trip — is stocked with the latest Technogym gear.
SOAK IN THE VITAMIN SEA
It all starts with the boldest cruise ships at sea — and ours have won awards for everything from world class dining and spectacular entertainment, to record-setting onboard thrills and groundbreaking innovation. In fact, I’d never even heard of Stavanger until a few weeks before I arrived. But there I was one gunmetal day in August, pulling into port aboard the Explora I, a just-launched cruise ship from the new brand Explora Journeys. We were sailing from Copenhagen to Hamburg, Germany, and along the way docked in the heart of Stavanger. Minutes after stepping off the ship, a small group of passengers and I were scampering through the Old Town’s cobbled streets, snapping photos of the whitewashed wooden buildings and chatting with an affable guide arranged by the cruise line. Soon enough, she was filling us in about the history of fish packing — not to mention the Norwegian oil-and-gas industry, municipal politics, and the pros and cons of living in Scandinavia.
But I only book with third-party operators if the ship docks right at the city I want to explore because I never want to miss the all-aboard time. As someone who's taken over 50 cruises all over the world, I know firsthand how popular cruising is this year. But one seabound itinerary people often forget to add to their bucket lists is a Mediterranean cruise.
The tasting-menu venue Anthology is the most ambitious, with menus designed by culinary superstars who commit to three-month rotations aboard the ship. The first partnership is with Ristorante Uliassi, the Michelin three-starred destination outside Ancona, Italy, which has created an eight-course menu that highlights Adriatic seafood and wines from Le Marche. Earn your wilderness badge as you cruise between the Alaska glaciers, pan for gold in prospecting towns, and trek across the rugged tundra on an Alaska vacation. And savor a burst of flavors throughout culture-rich ports in the Mediterranean, the British Isles, Scandinavia and beyond on an unforgettable cruise through Europe. No matter where in the world you choose to wander, cruises can take you deep into top-rated cruise ports and off-the-beaten-path gems, so you can experience each one like a local.
On the Western, dive into the crystal clear waters of Grand Cayman or explore the ruins of Tulum when arrive in Cozumel. Eastern Caribbean cruises will bring you to St. Thomas, where you can take in stunning panoramic views of the island at Government Hill or to St. Maarten, where you can dine on some of the region's best cuisine. Us Weekly has affiliate partnerships so we may receive compensation for some links to products and services.
With Royal Caribbean, your cruise fare includes access to most of the ship’s attractions, select dining venues and all of the entertainment onboard. If you want to make your experience even more all-inclusive, you can opt for beverage and specialty dining packages that cover drinks and dinner at some of the most exclusive restaurants in the fleet. On top of all that, the cruise line presents frequent limited-time offers and seasonal sales, making it easy to score big savings when booking your vacation.
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My biggest tip for any cruise — but especially for Americans traveling to Europe for a Mediterranean cruise — is to arrive at your embarkation city at least a day before your sailing starts. It's always wise to book your shore excursions in advance of your cruise to the Caribbean. Sponsored partnerships are more active income, so I didn't do many of them during the cruise. Specifically, I worked on some sponsored newsletters, spending maybe five hours on them, in total.
In Oslo, the Nordic weather gods looked on us with favor, and visitors and locals alike took to the shoreline for sunbathing, sauna sessions, and, in my case, a two-hour paddling trip around the harbor with Mad Goats, a local outfitter. In Goteborg, Sweden, I wandered blissfully from neighborhood to neighborhood, window shopping in Haga and sniffing out bakeries in Landala. There, too, I took to the water by renting an electric canal cruiser — much like the ones in Amsterdam — from Let’s Boat for an hour-long, self-guided tour of the city’s waterways.
Whether you’re looking to book a short getaway or a longer adventure to far-flung destinations, Royal Caribbean makes it easy to save big on everything from your cruise fare to special experiences onboard and onshore. The first step to making sure you get the best deals is to join the cruise line’s email list. Once you’ve signed up, you’ll receive regular updates on all the latest offers, like deals by destination, kids sail free promotions and flash sales.
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