Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Seas crossing

Watch the Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Seas on her crossing to Ft. Lauderdale from Turku, Finland.

Rihanna and the Oasis of the Seas

Rihanna will be the first to perform on stage onboard the Oasis of the Seas Aqua Theater.  The concert will be held on November 19, 2009.

The Oasis and Good Morning America

Join Good Morning America on November 20 from 7:00 am to 9:00 am when they will broadcast live on the amazing Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Seas. 

St. Martins of Tours Mediterranean cruise

There's still cabins available with the St. Martins of Tours Catholic church on their Mediterranean cruise November 9, 2009.  Sail from Athens to Lisbon.

Contact Kathy Collins, 812-739-2800

Chateau de Pique Wine Cruise

Pacific Northwest Wine cruise on the Celebrity Millennium September 27, 2010.  Join other wine lovers on shore excursions to wineries in British Columbia, Seattle, San Francisco, Monterey and Catalina Island.  Contact Kathy Collins, Cruise Planners, kcollins@cruiseplanners.com, 812-739-2800 

World Largest Cruise Night Event

What's National Cruise Month?  Just the best time all year to book a cruise.  The cruise lines are offering lots of promotions during the month of October and especially during this week October 12 to 19th. 

Social Media

Do you love to cruise?  Here is a fun web site where you can share your cruise vacations, upload your pictures and make new friends who love cruising too.

Kathy Collins

Celebrity and Azamara Cruise Line coupon booklet and onboard credit sales promotions

Celebrity and Azamara Cruise Lines with Cruise Planners is offering pre-paid gratuities, onboard credits and coupon booklets on cruises booked by August 31, 2009 on sailings before December 31, 2009.  Call before 8/31 to book your Celebrity or Azamara cruise.

Summer travel deals

Wow, summer is here and it seems a lot of people are putting off making their (cruise) travel plans. Well, sometimes it pays to wait and this might be one of those times. Cruise Planners has just announced its biggest sale of the year. We asked the cruise lines to sharpen up their pencils and give us their best deals. And they came through with the hottest offers of the summer. There over 15 major cruise lines plus land and tour companies participating in this sale and more offers than we’ve ever seen. Ship board spending credits range from $50 to $400.&n...

Hairspray and Oasis of the Seas

Lights, Action, Frozen Margarita? Cruise ship entertainment continues to reach new heights so it is no surprise that when the world’s largest ship, Oasis of the Seas,  enters service this fall, the shows on board will also be “super-sized”. While the ship will feature multiple entertainment venues, the current buzz is about “Hairspray” and not the kind available in the gift shop. Royal Caribbean recently announced that it has signed an exclusive 3 year arrangement with the producers of the musical for presentation in the ship’s Grand Opal ...

Carnival Dream, Carnival's newest ship

Carnival Dream, their newest ship with warm chocolate melting cake to sushi, Dining options on Carnival Dream, debuting in September, range from a two-level casual eatery featuring a new Italian pasta station and a burrito bar to Ocean Plaza, an indoor/outdoor café and live music venue. In outlining the ship’s food selection, Carnival Cruise Lines emphasized that most choices are included in the fare. Exceptions are the reservations-recommended steak house and specialty coffees and select patisserie items. The two-level buffet restaurant’s new pasta bar giv...

Royal Caribbean Oasis photos

Amazing Views of the World’s Largest Cruise Ship   Royal Caribbean’s chairman, Richard Fain, has been a busy bee travelling back and forth from the Miami headquarters to the shipyard in Turku, Finland where the Oasis of the Seas is being fitted out. And he brought his camera with him on this last trip to share some amazing photos of the ship as it nears completion. You can see them all on his blog at http://www.oasisoftheseas.com/chairmans-blog/  Here are ...

Celebrity Newest ship, the Equinox

If you stand along the banks of the Ems river in Germany near the Papenburg shipyard you are bound to see an amazing sight.   A giant cruise ship going down the river - backwards!   Is this a prelude to a parallel parking test for the Captain’s driver’s license exam? No, but it is certainly a huge challenge. Like cars and trucks, the most efficient direction for a ship to move is forward. However, when ships are being built at Meyer Werft yard in Papenburg, the layout of the assembly buildings dictate that they enter the structure head in....

Internet travel shopping

Internet travel shopping Another “cutting edge” travel website was just announced. It leads to the question of “how many websites does a person need to visit to get information about travel offers?”   Since we focus on the cruise business, let’s take a look at this particular segment to see if we can shed some light on the question. The first thing to understand when you let your fingers do the shopping online is that virtually all cruise travel sites develop their prices from the same “feed”.   For the digitally challen...

Family Vacation and Cruising

Family Vacation     If you’ve vacationed with your children you know the look - a couple of bleary-eyed, bedraggled parents returning back to the hotel at 6 p.m.. In tow, are 2 hyper-active offspring wearing mouse hats or whale t-shirts sporting cotton candy hair extensions. Next it’s the big choice: wash them up and suffer through another dinner or collapse in the hotel room with another room service or take-out pizza meal. And today’s receipts for all this fun? Well,  let’s just say it cost more than your first car di...

Cabin location

Location, Location, Location.  Important in business, real estate and even on cruise ships. How can you make sure that you pick the best location in your chosen stateroom category? A good answer for this question is to view the ship’s deck plans in the cruise line brochure or on the web. While the plans are often not exactly to scale and cabin size is not always in proportion to the drawings there are a few things that are very helpful. First, locate your cabin on the plan and then look up, down, left, right, and forward of your cabin. What’s there...

Celebrity Cruise Lines newest ship, Equinox

Celebrity Equinox saw daylight for the first time Saturday, June 6, during her official "docking out" from Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany. The 1,425-guest ship is the second in Celebrity's widely heralded Solstice Class fleet.

Cruise Pricing

How Low Can They Go? Ask anyone who has been around the cruise business for several years about the low prices being promoted right now. They will all probably agree that we are seeing some of the lowest prices ever for some destinations that previously