Month: February 2012

The Celebrity Century: Welcome to our suite life!

If you have taken even one cruise, it is likely (at least the statistics say so) that you will take another one.  Oddly, when we asked out 22-year-old son a few months ago about his vacation preferences, even he said that his very favorite vacations were cruises.  So, evidently cruises are not just for the boomer-and-beyond crowd!  So, as you contemplate booking that next cruise – whether you’ve been on one or ten – with respect, please permit us to give you a wee piece of advice.

If you are thinking of upgrading to a larger, nicer, better-located-and-with-more-amenities stateroom, consider the answer to this question before you do:  Are you prepared to book this level of stateroom (or above) and pay the price for every cruise you will take in the future?  If the answer is no, then step away from the upgrade.  The fact is this: once you upgrade, you will never go back!

We know this because on our 20th wedding anniversary five years ago we decided to book a Royal Suite on a Celebrity ship to travel the Mediterranean for the first time.   Since then, we have been on half a dozen cruises and we have never been able to convince ourselves that we’d enjoy anything less.  Ouch, that can be expensive – but oh how you will enjoy your cruise!  From the perspective of the discerning traveler who is judicious about that luxury spending, it his worth every penny.   In our opinion, as we’ve mentioned before, bigger is not better when it comes to cruise ships – unless you’re referring to your suite!

Before we cruised only in suites, we didn’t know what we were missing.  That was just fine.  But we find now that the lines are using photos of their suites in much of their advertising.  If you’re a bit curious about what a suite is really like, come inside our suite on a recent cruise aboard the Celebrity Century.  In later posts we’ll take you aboard Regent and Silversea.  Promise!  Click on the photo to take you to the tour…

La Mansion Inn, Costa Rica: Wonderful memories in the dead of winter

Pura vida!  That’s Costa Rica’s tag line and it truly does give you a taste of a pure life.  With its myriad outdoor sights and adventures, we thought that we’d have to spend another post on the delights that it holds.

At this very moment, we’re in Hawaii which is giving us many wonderful memories to share with you on our return.  In the meantime, we have a new YouTube channel [but don’t tell anyone!  We’ll launch on our return!].  On that channel we’ve begun to create videos for a more on-the-scene kind of information for those who are sharing these experiences with us.

So, until we return home full of stories about the Hawaiian Islands for you, welcome to La Mansion Inn in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica!

Albert’s Cars & Charlene’s Dress: Imagining a royal life

It is as if the royal couple is really there...

We are not that smitten with celebrity.  Celebrity news makes us yawn – especially if those celebrities are Hollywood royalty – and we have ignored every bona fide celebrity we’ve crossed paths with.  Michael Douglas on a street in Toronto; Judy Dench on an airplane.  So, what were we doing at the Oceanographic Institute of Monaco in December gawking at Princess Charlene’s wedding dress and then Prince Albert’s collection of vintage and modern cars?  We were being tourists.  And like any self-respecting discerning traveler, we were taking advantage of the opportunity to be tourists at a time of year when there were few others about.

We were walking in the old city of Monaco near the palace when on impulse we decided to buy a ticket for the exhibit.  Yes, the Oceanographic Institute seems an odd place for such an exhibit, but it’s one of the few large exhibition spaces in Monaco and it’s close to the palace.

The Armani dress was stunning!

We had been there before, but this time it was quiet – so quiet that we had an opportunity to get up close and personal with the myriad gigantic photos of both the civil and the religious ceremonies that took place last year.  We have never seen a bride who looked sadder, but her dress, designed by Giorgio Armani, was spectacular – in fact a work of art, and as we have discussed before, searching out works of art while traveling is a singular pleasure.

Just to balance the fashion foray, we decided to then visit the Prince’s cars.  We had walked by the door of the exhibit housed in a building above Carrefour (a humongous super-market) in Fontvieille and had never thought that it would be worth visiting.  But we were beginning to run out of things to do so decided to give it a ry.

Princess Grace's little green car

With the place all to ourselves, we had a chance to take a trip through history and imagine what it must have been like in Monaco in the late 19th and early 20th century.  We imagined what it must have been like to see Princess Grace flying along in her little green car; we could practically see Prince Rainier driving the Rolls through the streets of Monte Carlo.  And of course, there was the current Prince Albert’s Mercedes McLaren which sells for about half a million dollars (!)– it made us wonder if he ever takes it out for a spin.  We know we would!

Part of the Rolls collection
The McLaren