Contest: Win a Parrot; Cruise Without Leaving Home

If you’re desperate for a cruise fix, try our 10-step guide to turning your home into a ship. Too many steps? Slurping a frozen drink from a parrot’s head works, too. Carnival sent us a sampling of its whimsical Drink of the Day souvenir glasses, available for a fee onboard it ships … but free [...]

The Incredible Floating Cruise Dock (Photos)

The SeaWalk is a motorized, floating pier that saw its first primetime action Saturday when Cunard’s 2,068-passenger Queen Elizabeth anchored in Skjokden, Norway. The 720-foot-long, 15-foot wide mobile dock looks like a piece from an industrial erector set, its three segments unlatched and unfolded into flamboyant “Z.”

The 6 Stages of Eating During a Cruise

Day one — Resolution: “I’ll avoid greasy, bacon- and sausage-laden breakfasts, I’ll only have salad for lunch and I’ll go to the gym every day.” Sign up for exercise classes. Sometime around day two or three -– Denial: “I’m too tired/hungover/sunburnt. I’ll take a day off from the gym today. I’m on a vacation and [...]

Take THAT, Deck Chair Hogs

We’ve covered the topic of deck chair hogs quite a bit. They came in second in our poll about the worst onboard evildoers, and there are countless threads on the Cruise Critic message boards lamenting their very existence. But, really, what’s being done about it?

Video: Time Lapse Cruising

If the Original Trinidad Tropicana Steel Band playing “Jamaica Farewell” doesn’t get you on tglig‘s time lapse video of their Western Caribbean cruise — viewed by 2,255 and counting, the first of several gorgeous Gulf of Mexico sunsets will. Taken from the window of their rear-facing cabin aboard Royal Caribbean’s Mariner of the Seas, the [...]

Onboard Olympics: A Seaworthy Interpretation of the Summer Games

On the eve of the 2012 London Olympics, we got to thinking: what if cruise ships hosted their own Summer Games onboard? The event possibilities are virtually endless, and we’ve listed a few of our winning ideas below.

At-Sea Flexible Dining: Take It Away

Freedom dining, my time dining, your time dining, personal choice dining — call it what you will. Most of the big cruise lines introduced this alternative to first or second sitting because passengers said they wanted more flexibility. People wanted to feel they had a choice of when they’d have dinner, just as those on [...]

Rainbow Coke? ‘Freestyle Machine’ Gives Royal Caribbean Cruisers 125 Soda Options

Soda junkies take note. Whether you’re a fan of obscure Coca-Cola products like Fanta Zero and Mellow Yellow or you love funky flavored drinks like orange Coke, grape Sprite or cherry-vanilla Diet Dr. Pepper, Royal Caribbean may soon be the cruise line for you.