I had a goal this year of filling in some of my critical "travel gaps" -- and it turns out I get to knock of 2 of them in the same month -- Boston, and New York City! I'll be tagging along with my husband on a business trip to Boston, plus meeting up with some friends who live near there.   I hope to cover a lot of turf in 5 days: * The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum * Legal Sea Foods Restaurant * The Freedom Trail * Beacon Hill * The Public Garden and Boston Common * Cambridge, Harvard, and MIT * The waterfront * Trolley tour * Irish pubs * The sail-away of the ...

Back from their cruises and back to school!  The final reports are sailing in from families that took "last-blast-of-summer" cruises -- and a terrific time was had by all. Leading the way were the Carnival Fantasy (New Orleans) and Carnival Ecstasy (Galveston), both sailing 4 and 5 night itineraries to Mexico. "We had so much fun!" "Our room was really nice and the kids loved the "bunkbeds." "I did things I've never done before -- snorkeling and dune-buggy racing!" "The food was really good." "Thanks so much for all your help -- we really needed that vacation." "T...

Hello!  So sorry if anything looks "off" right now.  Cruise Planners' Headquarters is updating ALL  of our systems (everything from record-keeping to website administration) and some things are not fully functional yet. For example, I'm having the dickens of a time getting pictures to post properly!  Anyway, it's just appearances -- the actual functions of booking travel are fine. I'm looking forward to the whole update being finished, because I can see that some aspects of it will be easier. I've got a new post up at luv2cruz.wordpress.com, so click on over ther...

I'd like to offer a Q & A forum here -- the latest hurricanes and tropical storms have more people asking about the necessity of travel insurance and exactly what is covered. I use an independent (not associated with any cruise line or travel provider) that is affiliated with American Express, as is Cruise Planners.  They do provide coverage, but under specific conditions.  You can't just decide you don't want to go, and you can't buy it and be protected after it is determined that a hurricane is headed toward your destination. * The policy covers "Home Uninhabitable,&q...

US Adults Intend To Travel, Says Survey by Travel Trade Staff The travel intentions of US adults appear to be on the rise, according to the latest travelhorizons (TM) survey, the nationally-representative survey that is co-authored quarterly by Ypartnership and the US Travel Association. Almost two-thirds (63 percent) of US adults expect to take at least one trip for leisure purposes between August 2009 and January, 2010, up from 61 percent who expressed the same intention in July 2008. Assuming Americans act on their stated intention, this will translate into an estimated 142 million...

Although I still have a few clients on Alaska voyages yet this summer, I wanted to go ahead and present some of the impressions and feedback so far from this year's Alaska cruisers as we prepare to introduce the 2010 season! I had a nice mix of cruise lines that people selected -- NCL, Celebrity, Princess, and Holland America.  In most cases, we (the client and I working together to decide on the best cruise) didn't feel that Royal Caribbean or Carnival offered the best itineraries this year.  In cases where the itinerary wasn't the deciding factor, then it came down to...

I loved the "Travel Myths" article on MSN's front page -- click here -- and at the end the author challenges us readers to debunk our own myths, so here goes: 1.  Trains in Europe are cheaper than flights -- I agree with Eric and almost always advise my clients to fly between cities that are any distance at all. 2.  It's cheaper on the internet.  Well, the introductory offer that caught your eye might be cheap, but the dates YOU want, and the resort where YOU want to stay, and the air flights YOU need will have the same prices no matter how you purchase ...

Dang!  I was eager to write up a great report on Alaska cruises, but I ran out of time to get the opinions of one of the key clients I needed to talk to first.  Well, I should be able to get to her on Monday. Then -- I'll begin my preview of Alaska 2010, which will culminate at our Open House on September 19th.  Along with the Alaska and Europe previews, we'll have a Caribbean theme and additional focus on family reunions. My next article for publication is "How to be Awesome -- 6 Steps to the Perfect Family Reunion."  Many people think a cruise or fly-and-st...

Got the website up-to-date early for the weekend -- sometimes Royal Caribbean sends the new "Exciting Deals" out early on Friday, and sometimes not until Saturday.  Anyway, looks like the only company running behind today is Holland America, but they have a great sale going on right now with Cruise Planners, so I suppose that is enough. Princess always sends their "Top 10 Deals" with a note that "these fares may not be adverised on the internet," but believe me, they are amazing prices -- feel free to pop me a note if you're curious about any of them...

Hello! Back from Seattle-land and the record-breaking heat wave!  Spent as much time down by the water as possible.  On the hottest day, I went with my son and his family down to the Oregon coast just west of Portland. The kids splashed around in the water and made sand "castles" for a couple of hours while we cooled off.  The beach was actually foggy -- you could literally see the clash of cold air off the water with hot air over the land. In Seattle, I got to see the new cruise terminal -- looks like it will be easty to park and shuttle over, or grab a taxi to g...