My Upcoming Cruises
Here are the details on all of the cruises I currently have booked
and speculation on what others might get added to the list
My Upcoming Cruises
Here are the details on all of the cruises I currently have booked
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My next cruise will be a Florida
coastal cruise with American Cruise Lines towards the end of this year.
It's the newest ship in the ACL fleet, and they've asked me to come to Florida
(at their expense) to shoot photos and videos of her.
American Patriot is the first in an
entirely new class of ships for ACL, so I'm excited to see what new tweaks
they've made. I've been impressed with the significant improvements on
each new class of ships they've introduced over the years, so it's going to be a
lot of fun for me to analyze this new ship and to make a video explaining the
improvements.
Another cruise I have scheduled for this year will be on Royal Caribbean's Quantum Of The Seas. I cruised on a sister ship in 2016 and really liked that ship... so, when my friends, Jeff & Michelle, asked if Kellyn and I would like to sail with them on Quantum Of The Seas, it was an easy "yes".
There's a special theater (known
as "Two Seventy") at the back of these Quantum-class ships, and it's one of the
coolest things I've ever seen on a cruise ship... so, I'm looking forward
to seeing a show or two there. I also remember this class of ship as
having one of the best buffet restaurants out of all the ships I've sailed on.
This cruise will begin and end at the port of Los Angeles, and visits just one
port of call: Cabo San Lucas. In fact, the ship is scheduled to
spend a full 24 hours in Cabo, which is quite unusual.
Kellyn and I had such a great cruise on Sun Princess this February that we've decided to cruise on her brand new sister ship, Star Princess, in January of 2026.
Our favorite thing about our time on Sun Princess was spending many warm days relaxing at The Sanctuary Club, an un-crowded area that most passengers don't have access to... and this time we figured out how to do it much less expensively than we did it the last time.
Incredibly, we'll be saving over two thousand dollars by staying in a Sanctuary mini-suite next time, rather than staying in a Sanctuary Suite like we did this year. The two cabins are the exact same size and share most of the same features and perks, with a few notable exceptions:
We won't have access to the
Signature Lounge.
We won't be able to use the services of the "suite experience manager", who
actually was very helpful to us on our cruise on Sun Princess.
There won't be a Lavazza coffee machine in our mini-suite. (We couldn't care less!)
To save a couple of thousand dollars, we can definitely live without those things!
Cruises I'd Like To Take
A few cruises I would love to do:
A cruise with Holland America.
That's probably the biggest cruise line that I've never sailed with. I
think I should try it sometime. The reason I've never sailed with Holland
America before is that I view it as a cruise line for old people. Well,
now that I am one, I guess I should give HAL a try.
Any cruise that could get me to
the Caribbean island of Jost Van Dyke. As far as I know, cruise ships
don't stop there... but they do stop at the neighboring island of Tortola,
and from there you can do an excursion over to White Bay on Jost Van Dyke.
The beach at White Bay is one of the best I've ever been to, and we love having
lunch at the Soggy Dollar Bar there at the beach on White Bay. I'll be
keeping my eye out for the right opportunity to get back there sometime!
A cruise in the South Pacific, visiting places like Tahiti and Bora Bora... but not with the Paul Gauguin cruise line. I've looked in to that cruise line, and I just don't think it's for me. To get to Tahiti on a more mainstream cruise line (like Princess, for example) I'd have to do a 30-day roundtrip cruise out of Los Angeles that goes all the way down to Tahiti. Kellyn would never agree to be away from our dog for that long... so, for now, a Tahiti cruise is probably not going to happen. But maybe someday after the dog is no longer with us?
Need A Travel Agent?
Booking a cruise can be confusing, especially if you haven't been on many cruises before. There are lots of first-time cruiser mistakes that a travel agent can keep you from making. Also, the call centers of some of the big cruise lines are severely understaffed these days... creating extremely long wait times to talk to a customer service representative. When you book a cruise through a travel agent, you'll never have to get stuck on hold with the cruise line... your travel agent does all that kind of stuff for you.
If you're interested in booking a cruise with any cruise line... please feel free to use the services of my travel agent, Caitlin Gallagher. She's extremely pleasant to deal with, easy to talk to since she lives in the United States and speaks without any kind of an accent, and quite experienced and knowledgeable about different types of cruising. Caitlin is the owner of Ambren Travel. Visit her web site, check out the Ambren Travel Facebook page, or contact her using the information below.
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