Tag: carnival cruises

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The Setting for the Alvin and The Chipmunks 'Chipwrecked' Movie is a Real Ship

December 16, 2011 at 10:45 AM | by | Comments (0)

The latest Alvin and the Chipmunks movie, Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked!, opens today, and follows the characters we all got to know as kids as they embark on their first cruise vacation.

Most of the movie was filmed on the Carnival Dream cruise ship last January, on open decks and within the ship’s recreation areas.

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BYO Blue Suede Shoes: The Elvis Cruise Will Sail Again

March 18, 2011 at 2:31 PM | by | Comments (0)


Looks like these ladies also love our souvenir cup

Have you figured out where you're going for a stereotypical summer vacation yet? Maybe Cancun or Jamaica? Perhaps it's the year for Orlando or Cabo. Or—bear with us—a cruise? We're of the mind that if you're going to go all out and get on a big boat with thousands of others to drink and eat for 4 days or more, there better be some irony to it. A good example is taking a theme cruise versus a regular one, or going the super classy route on a Cunard ship.

Our current favorite option is the Elvis Cruise 2012, which happens next January, so you've got allllll summer to save up and start amassing adhesive sideburns. It's a quickie cruise—four days from Jacksonville, FL to Nassau, Bahamas—but there'll be 2,000 Elvis fanatics onboard and the idea of that blows our mind.

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What It's Like to Be Trapped Onboard a Crippled Cruise Ship: a Firsthand Account

November 10, 2010 at 3:04 PM | by | Comments (2)


Supplies being dropped to the Carnival Splendor

On Monday, the Carnival Splendor cruise ship suffered a small engine room fire, which caused the ship—while some 200 miles off the coast of San Diego—to loose power and call in tugs from the mainland. The ship is now operating on auxiliary power and its 3,299 passengers and 1,167 crew members have been subsisting on Pop Tarts, croissants, Spam and other relief groceries dropped to the ship by Navy helicopters.

With no phone signals, internet connection or even properly working toilets, the "conditions on board the ship are very challenging."

Although we can't hear the tales of misery from the Splendor guests quite yet, we do know someone who has experienced a similar situation. Kathy, who was kind enough to share her story with us, was stuck onboard a crippled cruise ship for three days as well, albeit a couple decades ago.

Kathy's three days of hell, at sea:

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A Photographic Journey through a Cruise Ship's Chocolate Buffet

September 10, 2010 at 10:45 AM | by | Comment (1)

Did you behave yourself this week and eat all of your vegetables? Good, because we've got some visual dessert for you right now, with a look at the Chocolate Buffet onboard the Carnival Glory. We sailed on the ship recently for a family function, and in between shuffleboard and waterslide time, we managed to hit a buffet or two. Or three. Regardless, chocolate buffets are a notorious perk of taking a cruise, and although many are served at midnight, this one fell right after lunch.

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Inside a Cabin Onboard Carnival Cruise Lines' 'Carnival Glory'

August 31, 2010 at 5:06 PM | by | Comment (1)

Remember last week, when we talked about giving in and buying a kitschy souvenir cup onboard a recent cruise? That was just the tip of the iceberg—pardon the mention of ship and icebergs in the same sentence. Knowing that it's almost wholly suites and balcony staterooms that get talked about online and in magazines, we wanted to give a look inside our room, a standard exterior cabin on the lowest passenger deck of the Carnival Cruises' Carnival Glory.

Room 1412 isn't anything special, unless you count the fact that it has a window. We've never known anyone to stay in one of the giant, "Owner Suites," because who does that? We're not nearly old enough to try it.

Our room encompassed three lower beds—one of which is technically a converted couch—plus an upper bunk slept four comfortably and we have to admit that we were pleasantly surprised over the size of the bathroom and room in general, considering this was one of the cheapest rooms onboard and we've stayed in plenty smaller cabins in cruises past. Take a look at the images and judge for yourself, though. Do you think you could spend a week at sea sleeping in here?

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The Time We Bought an Overpriced, Kitschy Souvenir Cup

August 25, 2010 at 5:01 PM | by | Comments (2)

When is it okay to go ahead and buy the overpriced souvenir drink? Our reply: when it promises to include the kitschiest cup imaginable, in the oddest and hardest-to-wash shape possible. This ship funnel-shaped cocktail completely fit the bill on our recent Carnival Cruise. And since our cruise was one of those have-to-go-hang-with-the-family ones, we happily handed over our shipboard charge card and paid $12 for the honor of owning it.

It's just one of those things. On other days of the cruise, you could get the "Drink of the Day" delivered in a plastic tiki cup or a carved coconut (yes, even on this cruise to Canada), but when we saw this one, it was too perfect. For one, it makes an awesome—if totally garish—bud vase, and for another thing, we relish the thought that one day when we're cold and dead, some yet-to-be-born relative of ours will pull this out of a box and wonder what the hell it is.

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Long Live Geeky Travel Statistics

August 20, 2010 at 2:31 PM | by | Comments (0)

What do you do when you're on a long flight with your own seatback TV and there's just nothing good playing? You turn on the "Airshow" channel, of course. The Airshow is the station that alternates displaying your flight's route map with other geeky information like speed, altitude, miles to destination and outside temperature. Tell us you love Airshow too?

Well, we recently went on a Carnival cruise with some family and were so thrilled to find that not only does the cabin television have the usual bow and pool cams, but they also have a channel just like Airshow ("Seashow?"). At any given moment, without having to call Guest Services or check a TV in the main atrium, we could see our ship's location plotted on the ocean, check sunrise and sunset times, view how many nautical miles we've chugged through, and—our favorite feature—discover the sea's depth below us (usually between 250-150').

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Yes, The New Kids on the Block Do a Cruise and Yes, It Sells Out

August 19, 2010 at 1:31 PM | by | Comments (0)

Those of you who plastered posters of New Kids on the Block's Joey, Jordan and Donnie on their walls—you know who you are—can hang tough with your favorite boy band on the NKOTB Cruise 2010.

That's right, you'll be stuck on a boat with the not-so-New Kids. Carnival is hosting an NKOTB cruise from the port of Miami to Half Moon Cay and Nassau in the Bahamas from May 12 to 16. Tickets just went on sale and will likely sell out.

This marks the third voyage for the New Kids, and this year they are going bigger, setting sail on the Carnival Destiny with 2,600 rabid 30-something fans. Last year, the NKTOB cruise sold out in just a couple of hours, so this year the group got a larger boat.

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Comic-Con Hits the High Seas with the First Ever CruiseCon

August 17, 2010 at 1:31 PM | by | Comments (0)

If you're a fan of Comic-Cons but aren't a fan of spending three or four days in a stuffy convention center, we have just the thing for you. CruiseCons has just announced their first Celebrity Cruise Convention which will bring all of the best elements of conventional Comic-Cons out to sea.

The cruise will include guest talks, Q & A's, autograph signings, comic vendors and fan parties. So far, Star Trek's George Takei, Jewel Staite (Stargate: Atlantis), Julie Benz (Dexter), Connor Trinneer (Star Trek: Enterprise/Stargate: Atlantis), Aaron Douglas (Battlestar Galactica/Smallville/Stargate), Bianca Kajlich (Rules of Engagement/Halloween), Keith Szarabajka (Angel/The Dark Knight/24), Jerry Doyle (Babylon 5/The Jerry Doyle Show) and Clare Kramer (Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Bring It On/House) have all signed on to join fans on the ship.

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Wish You Were Here: Somewhere on the Atlantic Ocean

August 16, 2010 at 1:31 PM | by | Comments (0)

Yea, that's right; we're on a cruise.

Rest assured that it's not a press trip; we've sailed out of New York City on the Carnival Glory to Canada with some family to celebrate some birthdays and whatnot, and of course we're already half-way through our recommended caloric intake for the week in only two days.

So today, as we continue the cruise experience at dock at the exotic port of Halifax, Nova Scotia, we'll roll out onto land with thousands of sunburnt cruisers for a little local flavor. Which is to say beer and seafood.

The photo above we took not too long after departing New York Harbor on Saturday evening. Looking back down the aft deck over the hotttubs and to the Verrazano Narrows bridge, we're realizing that we're finally free of the city...if only for a little while.

[Photo: Jaunted]

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Carnival Cruise Lines Will Solve All Your Problems on Twitter

August 12, 2010 at 10:31 AM | by | Comments (0)

Gone are the days of writing a complaint letter to a travel company and then waiting weeks and weeks to hear back, if you hear back. Twitter is doing magical things for customer support, and it's the travel brands who are jumping in with both feet.

Early in July, Delta—the world's largest airline—introduced a Twitter account above and beyond their usual @Delta one. With @DeltaAssist, the airline's customer service reps could weed out the passengers with problems from those just talking about the airline on Twitter. It was a brilliant move, and it's still going full throttle a month later.

Someone else was listening when Delta announced their new assistance Twitter; it was Carnival Cruise Line, who've just launched their own dedicated customer service Twitter, @CCLSupport.

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Behind-the-Scenes Cruise Ship Tours Are The New Hot Excursion

July 29, 2009 at 8:59 AM | by | Comments (0)

Cruise ships today are much more than just hotels on water. They’ve got on-board waterparks, golf courses, gyms, spas, and well ... just about everything you can find on land in addition to beds for thousands.

But just how do they manage running all that stuff while the boat’s at sea? It's something we've always wondered, and fortunately cruise lines are starting to realize that we’re curious.

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