Internet and Phone Use Connecting at Sea
Staying in touch with fellow passengers at sea and friends and family on land is easier than ever. Most ships now have branded apps that allow cruisers to chat with each other onboard and super fast high-bandwidth Wi-Fi that makes communicating at sea much easier than it used to be. Internet speeds can vary significantly by line and ship, depending on location, available bandwidth and other factors. Most cruise lines don't offer speeds that can support streaming services like Netflix or Spotify. However, a few cruise lines are changing the at-sea connectivity game with relatively affordable high-speed services that support video and music streaming.
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You might expect loud noises, close quarters and crazy maneuvers in the dance club onboard your cruise ship -- but not in your cabin. Even if you don't plan to spend much time there, it should be a restful and private place so you can maintain that much-needed vacation stamina. To help you do so, we've compiled a list of cabins you'll want to avoid booking if closet-like dimensions or scraping chair sounds overhead aren't appealing to you. Heed our advice, and you might be feeling a bit less claustrophobic and a tad more refreshed come disembarkation.
Your cruise ship room -- or cabin -- is your personal haven at sea. You can go there to escape the pool deck and buffet crowds, or invite friends over for a lively party. Curl up on the balcony with a good book, or turn out the lights and drift to sleep rocked by the waves. You can decorate it, hack it and even expand it via interconnecting doors to the room next door.
But there are some things you just shouldn't do in your cruise room. Free. Money. Are there two more beautiful words in the English language? While money doesn't grow on trees, increasingly it can be found somewhere else -- on the high seas. Call it an incentive, call it a bonus; whatever you want to call it, onboard credit lets you spend more freely with less guilt. You've paid your cruise fare, and now you can splurge on those enticing extras -- Swedish massage, specialty restaurant, an excursion to snorkel among shipwrecks -- without busting your budget.
Not many need convincing as to why onboard credit -- money automatically deposited into your onboard account-- rocks, but finding out exactly how to get it and where you can spend it is a bit trickier. We found eight ways to hit the OBC jackpot and offer even more suggestions on how to burn through it, although you probably have your own ideas already. If your cruise departs from a port overseas, or is too far away to drive to, you'll have to face the skies and fly there.
Question is: When is the best time to fly in for a cruise? Some try to save on spending for a hotel room by flying in the morning of their cruise's departure, but is it worth the stress of facing a delay should one occur? For those on a tight budget, or with limited vacation time, deciding when to fly in for their cruise can be a tough choice. We weigh the pros and cons of flying in early for your cruise vs. flying in the day of, so you can make the most of your cruise and your vacation time. International travel often requires a visa — a document granted by a host country that authorizes a visitor to pass through, or remain within its borders, for a specified purpose and duration of time.
There once was a not-so-savvy seafarer who didn't feel right unless she took two steamer trunks crammed with outfits on every cruise. This, she learned, was not a good idea.
Besides incurring the wrath of her male traveling companion, who pointed out that he would have to wrestle with excess baggage through airport terminals and beyond, she quickly tired of cramming her belongings into tiny closets. The now savvy seafarer follows this packing rule: Thou shalt put into one's suitcase only that which will fit neatly in the allocated cabin storage space. Following that advice is getting easier because, for the most part, cruising has become a more casual vacation with relaxed dress codes. Plus, with airlines charging to check bags, it's just plain economical to pack light. To do so, you need to have a good sense of what you’re going to wear on a cruise so you don't pack your entire closet. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched a probe last year into six of the biggest online hotel booking sites, Expedia, Booking.com, Agoda, Hotels.com, ebookers and trivago over concerns that the websites were giving false impressions to customers.
The CMA's investigation discovered this to be true! At the beginning of August, the New Orleans City Council passed a ban on short term rentals of whole houses not occupied by owners. New Orleans is not alone in this measure with similar regulations in San Francisco, Santa Monica, and New York City.
Many laud these new restrictions since Airbnb-style rentals have been found to increase property taxes, have negative effects on historic neighborhoods and tend to push out working-class citizens who have long called the area home. Others are outraged by these new laws, saying that short-term rentals provide a new source of income in a gig economy and more affordable options for travelers of different financial backgrounds. When it opened earlier this year, Bungalows Key Largo, triggered excitement throughout the travel industry. Located on 12-acres just 63 miles south of Miami, the luxe property represented the first all-inclusive resort ever to set-up shop in the Florida Keys and travelers far and wide took notice.
But within months of welcoming its first guests, a fire at the resort which impacted its restaurant building caused the property's indefinite closure. Travelers have since been waiting eagerly for Bungalows Key Largo to come back online and it looks like the wait may soon be over. |
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