Mr Papa’s World

Well, as mentioned here before, we currently don’t have a cruise booked yet for 2009. We have been planning on waiting until around the September time frame to see if prices were any better due to being inside 90 days for the cruise. That all sounded good and well, until this weekend when we decided to start researching now.

A couple of things have driven us to ‘consider’ booking a cruise now. One, the economy seems to have quit bottoming out and the cruise prices may have hit rock bottom already. Cruise occupancy rates seem to be inching back up. And two, but more importantly, I am planning on using frequent flier miles for any required air fare to and from the cruise. I have been periodically checking availability of free air fare just to make sure that is doable. Over the past month … READ MORE

In June, we will be cruising to Alaska on board the Celebrity Mercury. It’s been 14 years since we have cruise to Alaska, so it will be nice to go back. When we last cruised to Alaska, I don’t think we ever had more than our ship in port. A cruise to Alaska was not nearly as popular back then as it is now. We are expecting much more jam packed ports than our previous cruise. Several of my family will also be on the cruise, so it’s a mini-reunion of sorts.

When we cruised on Mercury to Mexico last Thanksgiving, word of a Mercury refurbishment was just making the rounds. At that time, it was unclear whether only public areas would be getting an upgrade. During the recent refurbishment of the Celebrity Century, they also replaced all the family ocean view staterooms on … READ MORE