Come Celebrate Autumn With Me!

I've always wanted to visit New England during autumn to see the beautiful fall foliage. The closest I came to actually doing it was when my friend Lew Hollerbach took me up in a small plane one afternoon while I was in Boston for a short time some five or six years ago. If my memory serves me right, we launched our flight from Minute Man Air Field in Stow, MA and flew to Laconia Municipal Airport near Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. I had a lot of fun that day and wonder why it has taken me so long to go back to this very colorful and historic Northeastern corner of our wonderful country.

I'm going back and I'm inviting you to go with me. Steve and I and my colleague, Jackie Roberts, are cruising on the Celebrity Summit from September 12-26, 2010 and believe me, we'll have the opportunity to do some serious leaf peeping on this trip including stops in Newport, Boston, Portland, Bar Harbor, Halifax, Québec City and Charlottetown.

We have a special excursion planned in Québec City exclusively for our group that begins with a lovely stroll through Québec City followed by a trip to Montmorency Falls and lunch featuring local delicacies at Auberge La Goéliche on Ile d’Orléans. On this excursion we will have a guide from Québec City, an authentic Québécois or Québécoise. However, I'm currently working hard on my French conversation skills so that you will have a second French-speaking guide who promises to make you laugh.

The Baths and Devil's Bay National Parks

As far as shore excursions go, my trek through the Baths to Devil's Bay at Virgin Gorda was the highlight of my recent cruise in the Eastern Caribbean. Rather than taking the excursion organized by MSC Cruises, this adventure was organized exclusively for our Cruise Holidays group by one of my colleagues onboard, Tim Walsh, who called D&D Boat Charters. One of the advantages of organizing your own shore excursion rather than purchasing it through the cruise line is that you are among friends when you go and you can tell the shore excursion operator what you want to do.

On this trip, our original plan was to arrive at The Baths by boat rather than by bus. However, the strong current prohibited us from docking at the The Baths so we tied up at the Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbor instead and took a bus to the The Baths and Devil's Bay National Parks.

It was a beautiful but circuitous and tricky walk through The Baths to Devil's Bay and to be honest I didn't have the best shoes for this expedition. I was wearing tennis shoes which worked fine until the water started getting deeper. I wish I had packed my aquatic shoes which are waterproof and effective when walking on slippery and wet rocks. I'm glad we allowed enough time to do this walk as we encountered many hesitant people along the trail who were slowing progress. We couldn't walk around them as the trail was narrow and surrounded by high boulders in many places.

One of my colleagues remarked that he wouldn't recommend this walk for seniors because there were too many uneven surfaces. Not long after he said this, a senior couple passed me on the trail. I couldn't resist stopping them and asking them what they thought about my colleague's remark. The gentleman laughed, told me he was 81 years old and said something to this effect, "What's the big deal? If an old guy should happen to pass out and die here, just bury him!"

At any rate, at the end of the walk we reached Devil's Bay which was a gem of a cove. The water was welcoming and warm even though the current was strong. Just be careful as you don't want the water to slam you into the rocks. And bring your own snorkel gear as there is no equipment to rent.

Dining in Old San Juan

Although I've been to San Juan, Puerto Rico many times and seen most of the ancient fortresses, I'd never taken the time to relax and savor traditional Puerto Rican cuisine. So my colleague and I, Renee Fye, decided to plop ourselves down at a table at Caficultura on Calle San Francisco in Old San Juan, enjoy the evening and get to know each other better. A coffee bar by day, Caficultura turns into quite a happening tapas bar during the evening and was an ideal place for conversation and camaraderie as we could talk to each other without shouting.

Before we actually sat down, we told the hostess that we were looking to be adventurous in the food department that night and wanted to try authentic Puerto Rican appetizers or "cucina criolla." She told us we were in the right place and recommended a tapas assortment (the Tapa Cafi sampler)that included fried catfish, plantains, creole chicken and empanadillas. They were so tasty that Renee and I decided to order more. The tapas went especially well with the local brews, one Kofresi (dark) and one Medalla (pale).

We were never rushed while we there and the waitress shared stories with us about life in Puerto Rico and how tense it was after the layoff of thousands of government workers.

Review of the MSC Poesia

A friend of mine, Garry Thompson, reminded me at an NCL presentation this week that my blog was woefully out of date. He's right. Shame on me. I'm thinking I should blog first thing in the morning instead of waiting until the end of the day when inspiration is lacking.

There's no doubt that the MSC Poesia is a gorgeous ship and the public areas are beautifully decorated. If my visit had been a ship inspection only, I would have been wowed. Unfortunately, the food and service were disappointing.

If I had spent the entire week indulging in Italian cuisine such as pasta, risotto and gelato, I would have thought I had died and gone to heaven. The pasta dishes from the different Italian regions were delicious. However, the fish, poultry and beef dishes that I had were bland and dry. And if you like strong coffee, MSC Cruises comes out on top. I particularly like coffee that's robust and I've found that most of the cruise lines serve coffee that tastes like flavored water with a touch of cardboard. Come on now -- I want to wake up and smell the coffee! There's nothing like a great cup of java to get the day going.

And another thing I should mention -- alcoholic beverages are very reasonably priced. The same could not be said for salon services, however. I went up there for a nail polish change and decided against it after they quoted me $30. After finding some $3 nail polish remover in St. Maarten I was content to do it myself.

Being in the cruise business, I feel the need to keep in touch with my clients while I'm gone. Unfortunately, the Internet service on board the MSC Poesia was intermittent and slow compared to what I've experienced on other lines. My bill for wireless Internet service made me cringe. I don't expect the Internet service on board ship to be any where near as fast as my broadband connection at home but I don't expect it to be an experience akin to watching grass grow either. Of course, if you're not a workaholic and are cruising to get away from it all you won't care about the speed of the Internet connection.

Although we had a very attentive, friendly and humorous Italian waiter from Calabria in the dining room, he was the exception rather than the rule. I was rarely greeted with a smile or a "Good Morning" by any of the staff as I wandered around the ship. Most would not acknowledge me until I acknowledged them. I spoke about this with my colleagues on board and some of them thought this was perhaps a cultural thing as Europeans prefer staff to remain in the background. I realize that MSC is an Italian cruise line with mainly a European clientele, but over 90% of the passengers aboard the MSC Poesia on this Eastern Caribbean cruise were from North America and we generally like cheerful, outgoing staff.

The conference facility was small, which is fine for a cohesive group of around 20-30. However, it's important to bring transformers and/or adapters as the room had only one outlet for an American-style plug.

MSC Cruises also plays by a different set of rules than most American cruise lines. Most cruise lines don't allow women on board who are past their 24th week of pregnancy and infants under the age of six months. I saw infants who were obviously less than six months old and a woman on board actually gave birth in the casino one night which caused an unexpected stop in Freeport.

Pictures of the MSC Poesia

The MSC Poesia is a New Cruising Experience for Me

I've been on a lot of cruise ships but this Saturday, I will be boarding the MSC Poesia, one of MSC Cruises' newest ships, in Fort Lauderdale. This is the first time I will be cruising with MSC Cruises and I'm looking forward to finding out first hand if all the company hype about Italian charm is really true. When it comes right down to it, is Italian charm really different from Scandinavian charm, British charm or Greek charm? Given that my maiden name is Colombi, you would think I should already know the answer to this question!

I know you'll laugh when I tell you that this cruise is truly a working cruise for me as I will be involved in a series of seminars about organizing group cruises. Although I've planned, organized, and promoted many group cruises, it seems that you can never know enough as it's becoming increasing difficult to stay abreast of the cruise lines' ever-changing group policies. A few years ago, it was easy to sell a group cruise because group prices were lower than the prevailing cruise rates. However, it is a totally different animal when group prices are higher than the prevailing rates and the prevailing rates get even lower as the sailing date approaches. In this economic environment, it seems that the cruise lines are encouraging passengers to wait until the last minute to book. I suppose it works as long as you don't care where you are on the ship and you're not looking for a stateroom that accommodates more than two people.

Oh well. As a diva in the cruise business, I'm looking to stay afloat (no pun intended) no matter what the economy happens to be doing. If you're feeling flush, why not cruise to celebrate your success? If you're staring into the economic abyss, why not cruise to forget about it for a few days and perhaps get inspired at sea?

Getting back to the MSC Poesia and Italian charm --I'll report back while at sea in between seminars.

Rock 'n' Roll Celebration Cruise

As a Cruise Diva, I particularly enjoy planning and organizing cruises that offer something different and special. That's why I'm thrilled to be involved with the Rock 'n' Roll Celebration Cruise. If you happen to be running in the Rock 'n' Roll Seattle Marathon & 1/2 Marathon on June 26, then why not celebrate your success and join us on a 7-day cruise to Alaska on board the Sapphire Princess? Finish the race on June 26 and get on board at Pier 91 in Seattle on June 27!

The Rock 'n' Roll Celebration cruise features Frank Shorter, America's greatest distance runner and the last to win a gold medal in the Olympics which he did in Munich in 1972. Frank will be offering clinics on board that you don't want to miss.

You are welcome to join us even if you're not up to a marathon or 1/2 marathon. After all, when was the last time you had the chance to mingle with and get inspired by a Gold Medal Olympian?

My New Year's Resolution

Happy New Year! It's a great time to put my New Year's Resolution in writing.

This is the year that Cruise Holidays of Bellevue is going to evolve from a brick-and-mortal old world retail travel agency into a successful virtual cruise travel agency with the ability to serve our clients effectively whether we're tasting fine French wines on a river cruise on the Rhône or trying to dazzle the Québécois with our French on a pre-cruise tour in Montreal.

Booking cruises is a labor intensive business that can generate tons of paper including various iterations of cruise confirmations from the cruise lines and God knows how many renditions of printed invoices from the agency. Rather than filling up file drawers full of printed reservation details, I'm committed to establishing electronic files with the same information so that I can access it anywhere at any time. Mailing paper cruise documents isn't much of an issue anymore as most of the cruise lines have migrated to electronic cruise documents or eDocs.

What are you looking for when you book a cruise with a travel agent rather than booking it on-line? Aren't you looking for someone who has a passion for cruising, who knows a thing a two about cruise lines, cruise ships and the cruising experience and who just might be able to provide some advice on how to make the ports of call come alive for you?

If so, I can tell you that a travel agent doesn't gain that experience shuffling paper in the office.

So in 2010, I'm going to get organized so that I spend less time in the office and more time discovering the remarkable world we live in and sharing it with you.