National Cruise Vacation Week Kicks Off!

We are seeing many offers this week from October 17 to 23 in honor of CLIA’s promotion for National Cruise Vacation Week.  Here are just a few of the deals available.

AmaWaterways

Exclusive 2 for 1 pricing on select sailings.

Avalon Waterways

Save up to $2000 per couple on select 2012 Avon Waterways European River cruises!

Carnival Cruise Lines

Carnival is featuring Fun Select Rates and up to $150 in onboard credits per stateroom for all cruisers.  You will receive $25 per person (up to $50 per stateroom) for 3 & 4 day cruises, $50 per person (up to $100 per stateroom) for 5 day cruises, and $75 per person (up to $150 per stateroom) on cruises of 6 days or longer.

There is also a bonus onboard credit for Europe departures starting June 2012.  When you book a 12 day Europe cruise you will get up to $200 per stateroom for past guests (plus free upgrades) and up to $300 per stateroom for new Carnival cruisers.

Celebrity Cruises

Up to $400 per stateroom on all sailings 4 nights or longer between January 1, 2012 and April 30, 2013.

Crystal Cruises

Book by October 31 and receive 2-for-1 fares, up to $700 additional savings and much more!

Disney Cruise Line

Between October 17 and November 17, 2011, book a 4 or 5 night Bahamian cruise aboard the Disney Magic and receive  a $50 onboard credit per stateroom.

Holland America Line

Great pricing on select  sailings.

Norwegian Cruise Line

Cruise Like a Norwegian!  Reduced deposits, onboard credits on all three day or longer sailings in 2011 and 2012.

Oceania Cruises

2 for 1 cruise fares with free airfare plus up to $4000 bonus savings per stateroom on select sailings.

Paul Gauguin

Get up to a $100 onboard credit per person for every booking made by November 18, 2011.

Princess Cruises

PreSeason Sale from October 17 through October 23.  On Europe itineraries you can receive free balcony upgrades and up to $100 onboard credit per stateroom.  12 night sailings from as low as $2490 per person in a balcony!  On all cruises 7 days or longer, there are reduced deposits plus an onboard value booklet worth up to $325.

Royal Caribbean

For bookings departing  November 15, 2011 through January 31, 2012, you can get up to a $50 onboard credit.  There is also a offer for up to $200 onboard credit for new bookings made to Dubai, Australia and Europe with departures after November 15, 2011.

Seabourn

Save up to 50% or more to Europe, South and Central America, and Bali and the Indonesian Isles with this One Week Sale!  All-suite accommodations with ocean views, many with verandahs.  Open bars throughout the ship with fine wines at lunch and dinner.  All complementary dining venues!  Complimentary welcome champagne and in-suite bar stocked with your preferences.  Tipping is not required nor expected.  Fares start from $1,999 per person.  This is an all-inclusive opportunity not to pass up.

This is a sampling of some of the offers available during the National Cruise Vacation Week celebration.

Terms and conditional apply to all offers so contact us today for all details at Travel on a Dream.  Starting pricing examples are base cruise only.  Taxes and fees additional.

Royal Caribbean’s Annual WOW Sale!

Over the last couple weeks we have had quite a few blogs on Royal Caribbean, now we have a sale!

Royal Caribbean is having their annual WOW Sale, on Tuesday and Wednesday, Oct. 4-5! If you’re thinking of taking a Royal Caribbean cruise in 2012 or 2013, NOW is the time to book! In addition to the great onboard credit that you always get from Travel On A Dream, you will also receive an extra onboard credit from Royal Caribbean, up to $200! And, they are also offering 50% deposits!

Keep in mind — only sailings that are booked and deposited on Tuesday or Wednesday will be eligible for the additional onboard credit and half deposit.

Please contact me at Rhonda@travelonadream.com or one of our agents as soon as possible, so we can get you on our list to provide a quote!

Oasis of the Seas Review – Part Three

This is the final part of our review of Oasis of the Seas.  Today we’ll go up on deck and review the outdoor and indoor activities at the top of the ship!

There are three basic areas outside up on top of the ship – the Sports Deck, the pools and the Solarium. Inside you have the loft suites and the Crown & Anchor Lounge.  We included pictures of the lounge in yesterday’s blog.

Oasis of the Seas Review – Part Two

Yesterday we began our review of Oasis of the Seas.  This ship is so big we just can’t keep it to one or two blogs.  Believe it or not, we didn’t even see the whole ship!  We were only onboard for three hours, including a sit down lunch.

In this blog we’ll focus on the staterooms and entertainment areas on the ship.

One of the greatest additions to the Oasis classes of ships is the Wayfinder.  These handy touchscreens were available throughout the ship.  If you can’t find your room, just type in the room number and the screen will show you the way.  Don’t know what’s going on right now?  You can pull up the daily Compass.  Ready for dinner, but not sure where you want to go?  You can check out the wait at locations onboard.

Oasis of the Seas Review – Part One

We had the opportunity to tour the Oasis of the Seas recently.  This is the first of three blogs on this ship.

I must say going in I was very curious because I thought there was no chance I would want to sail on this ship or her sister ship, Allure of the Seas.  I mean, these are massive ships!  It takes three Majesty of the Seas ships to equal the size of the Oasis of the Seas!  If you put the Disney Magic and Disney Dream together, they would still be a little smaller than Oasis of the Seas.

Majesty of the Seas and Miami

Last weekend, I got a chance to go to Miami for an event with Royal Caribbean International.  The plan was to learn more about Royal Caribbean and it’s different departments along with touring Majesty of the Seas and Oasis of the Seas.  I will talk about Oasis of the Seas in a later blog, but today I wanted to focus on Majesty of the Seas and Miami, including the Hyatt Regency where we stayed.

We arrived on Thursday afternoon and checked in.  My biggest problem was the parking situation.  You could valet park for $30 a night or self park for $19 a night.  The self park was in a ramp connected to the Hyatt, but a bit of a walk.  We decided to do the self parking anyway.

Allure of the Seas – Starbucks & Cupcake Cupboard

We had a few questions about the Cupcake Cupboard and Starbucks pricing onboard the Allure of the Seas.  Starbucks is only on Allure at this times, but the Cupcake Cupboard is also on Oasis of the Seas and being added to other RCCL ships.  Here are some photos of the Cupcake Cupboard, including the menu and the pricing list at Starbucks.

Nightlife on Allure of the Seas

L&R on Allure of the Seas – Focus on Nightlife (Sailing Dates 9/4/2011 – 9/11/2011) Eastern

Hello to everyone who is curious about the Nightlife on the Allure!

This is the third report of three (We have written separate reports for Allure Overview and Specialty Dining).

All cruises are not equal as it depends on who you are, what your budget is, what you like to do, etc. So in order to set expectations a bit about us (Lori & Rick) we are empty nesters 40-50 years old, like fine dining and love the nightlife. Children are a lot like kittens to us at this point, we occasionally look at them and smile but we would not want one in the pool or restaurant with us.  We have raised ours and do not want to participate in raising yours. We are platinum on Disney and quite frankly felt the Dream was a huge step backward in terms of satisfying adult cruisers. This led to our exploring other lines and RCL is one that we like quite a bit. We had a balcony room 11282 Port this trip. For us morning occurs around 10AM on a sea day and bedtime is about 3AM. Booked and paid for Diamond wine package, all specialty restaurants and excursions in advance. Total out of pocket expenses once on board $2K for the seven days at sea, in ports, gambling.

An Overview – It turns out this cruise answered the age old question of how many bars are enough for a 7 night cruise (the answer is 28 on the Allure) this is not counting the three crew bars which of course we could not get into (try as we might).  Across the board we have never met such a high quality, friendly and enthusiastic bunch of folks at sea. The staff comes from all of the RCL ships that have come before and are all selected because of their high performance and customer rating. We hated to leave but we have made several new friends who we will hunt down mercilessly on future trips!  Most of the bars start to close around 1:30 AM but usually remain open till 2:15 AM or so. The late night bars are Blaze and Dazzle and they finally close around 3:00 AM or so.  Most of the bars are open again at 10 AM for that early morning Bloody Mary (or just to start over with another Jagermister).  The bar teams on the Allure are broken into three groups; Winetenders (these folks rotate through Vintages, Champagne Bar and Back of House Dining Room); Bartenders (these folks rotate through the various bars) and Barservers (these folks are on the floor in the bars doing table service and they rotate as well).

Allure of the Seas Dining Review

L&R on Allure of the Seas –  Focus on Specialty Dining (Sailing Dates 9/4/2011 – 9/11/2011) Eastern

Hello to everyone who is curious about the Specialty Dining on the Allure!

This is the second report of three (We will write separate reports for Allure Overview and Bars).

All cruises are not equal as it depends on who you are, what your budget is, what you like to do, etc. So in order to set expectations a bit about us (L&R) we are empty nesters 40-50 years old, like fine dining and love the nightlife. We are platinum Castaway Club members on Disney and quite frankly felt the Dream was a huge step backward in terms of satisfying adult cruisers. This led to our exploring other lines and RCL is one that we like quite a bit. We had a balcony room- 11282 Port this trip. For us morning occurs around 10AM on a sea day and bedtime is about 3AM. Booked and paid for Diamond wine package, all specialty restaurants and excursions in advance. Total out of pocket expenses once on board $2K for the seven days at sea, in ports, gambling.

Overview of Allure of the Seas

Editor’s Note:  This review comes from ToaD’s friend, Rick, who recently sailed on the Allure of the Seas.  More reviews coming from Rick!  Thank you both!

Hello to everyone who is curious about the Allure!

This is the first report of three (We will write separate reports for Dining and Bars).

All cruises are not equal as it depends on who you are, what your budget is, what you like to do, etc. So in order to set expectations a bit about us (L&R) we are empty nesters 40-50 years old, like fine dining and love the nightlife. Children are a lot like kittens to us at this point, we look at them and smile but we don’t necessarily want them everywhere we go.  We are platinum Castaway Club members on Disney and quite frankly felt the Dream was a huge step backward in terms of satisfying adult cruisers. This led to our exploring other lines and RCL is one that we like quite a bit. We had a balcony room 11282 Port side this trip. For us morning occurs around 10AM on a sea day and bedtime is about 3AM. We booked and paid for Diamond wine package, all specialty restaurants and excursions in advance. Total out of pocket expenses once onboard was $2K for the seven days at sea, in ports, shopping, and gambling.