Viking River Cruises specializes in river travel with a focus on the outstanding destinations of Europe. Right now, you can take advantage of an unprecedented “2-for-1″ deal if you book between now and May 28, 2009. These offers are limited. If you call to book (866-200-5395 in the US) you may need to mention the code which is “61Echo.”

So where can you travel? The Grand European Tour runs 15 days from Amsterdam to Budapest which costs $2,162 per person. Treasures of the Rhine is 15 days, Basel to Antwerp, for $2,012. (By the way, the photo is a castle on the Rhine, which holds a record as river with the most castles per mile. Other tours include:

• Romantic Danube (8 days, Budapest-Nuremberg)
• Paris and the Heart of Normandy (8 days, Paris to Le Havre)
• Elegant Elbe (12 days, Berlin to Prague)
• Danube Holiday Delight (8 days, Passau to Vienna)
• Cities of Light (12 days, Paris to Prague)
• Rhine Getaway (8 days, Basel to Amsterdam)
• Danube Explorer (8 days, Nuremberg to Vienna)
• Portraits of Southern France (8 days, Chalon-sur-Saone to Avignon)
• Eastern European Odyssey (16 days, Bucharest to Nuremberg)
• Footsteps of the Cossacks (12 days, Odessa to Kiev)
• Waterways of the Czars (13 days, St. Petersburg to Moscow)
• Russian Rhapsody (13 days, Moscow to St. Petersburg)

This offer is based on availability and will disappear after May 28, so if you’re thinking of some river travel through Europe, act fast.

Royal Caribbean is kicking off the 2010-11 winter and spring season. This involves seven ships and a total of over 30 different itineraries and 28 ports. Here’s the run-down, ship by ship.

Enchantment of the Seas ports at Baltimore and will alternate three itineraries: 9 nights to the Bahamas, 12 nights to the Southern Caribbean and seasonal voyages to Panama.

Grandeur of the Seas has a new Western Caribbean itinerary including Colombia, Montego Bay (pictured), Grand Cayman, and Hondorus.

Jewel of the Seas is going to relocate to Port Everglades, Florida as its new homeport (down from Boston) and will then offer a 10-night and 11-night “Ultimate Caribbean & Panama” voyages.

Adventure of the Seas has been in Europe but is returning to San Juan, Puerto Rico, and offers two 7-night Southern Caribbean voyages. If you’re interested in Christmas cruises, consider this ship which is touring Grenada and Tortola on December 19 and St. Kitts on December 26 sailings.

Serenade of the Sea also ports in San Juan and it continues its regular 7-day Southern Caribbean itineraries.  The way these schedules are set up, you can now set sail on RC out of Puerto Rico on either Saturday or Sunday.

We’re very happy here in Texas to welcome Voyager of the Seas back to Galveston in November 2010 and throughout 2011. It’s offering two 7-night Western Caribbean itineraries. In 2011, the Voyager is going to call on Falmouth in Jamaica instead of Montego Bay on trips that include Jamaica.

Explorer of the Seas is going to continue offering 5 to 14 night sailings from Cape Liberty. In case you’ve never heard of Cape Liberty (and that includes me), it’s somewhere in the New York City area. Look for Southern Caribbean tours of 12 or 14 nights, including some special 2010-2011 holiday tours.

For more info on these tours or to book your tours now (early bookers can sometimes nab great deals) .. visit the RC website.

Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) has been talking a lot about its newest ship, the Epic. Don’t look for the ship to set sail until about a year from now (May 2010), but the company is already taking reservations. And in case you want to reserve the Owner’s Suite–the poshest accommodations onboard–here’s a shot. It’s not the whole suite, it’s just the part with the best view.

Actually, all of the NCL staterooms have a “New Wave” design with curved walls. And if you’re one of those luxury lovers, you can book one of the 60 suites and villas on two private decks (a “ship within a ship”).

The Epic is going to be a very large ship–it is designed to accommodate 4,200 passengers. It’s got some cool new amenities, including an ice bar. Ice bars have been popular for a while, particularly in Scaninavia. They’re facilities made entirely of ice. Here’s a look at the Epic’s ice bar. It’s one of 18 bars on board.

By the way, the Epic is set to sail year-round in the Eastern and Western Caribbean, home port in Miami.

Norwegian Cruise Lines has announced that starting May 21, 2009, it will start taking reservations for its newest and grandest ship, the Norwegian Epic, which debuts in the 2010-2011 season, based in Miami, Florida, and doing an Eastern and Western Caribbean run. If you’ve traveled with NCL before, you probably know that they’re pretty well known for some bold art on the outsides of their ships. However, no two ships look alike and the Epic art is a pretty radical departure from some of their other ships. The marketing team behind the design says that it borrows from the modern, sophisticated look of the ship’s interior and is meant to help convey the “freestyle” theme of the cruise line.

This is a big ship (4,200 passengers) and it is the line’s newest and swankiest ship. Besides the usual amenities (spa, family-friendly attractions, pools), there are some new things. Epic boasts the first “ice bar”  at sea, the only tube slide and largest bowl slide on a cruise ship, the first ever rappelling wall (for rock climbers) at sea, and lots of bowling (six lanes in two locations).

Wildlife is a big drawing card for Alaskan cruises

If you’re new to cruising, you should know that one of the premier destinations for cruise lines is Alaska. Alaska and cruise ships are a unique combination in that it brings people up close to difficult-to-access regions and allows people to observe wildlife and unbelievable natural scenery from the comfort of a cruise ship. Most cruise lines are actively working to preserve rather than negatively impact the Alaskan environment. And when it comes to Alaska, you can only cruise there in the summer months. Even at the peak of summer, it can still be a chilly destination.

Anyway, Alaskan cruising has begun. And it’s a very important time for the great state of Alaska, too. This is the 50th anniversary of Alaskan statehood.

Princess Cruises features some unique dining experiences for Alaskan cruisers including smoked salmon and Alaskan crab quiche for a “Glacier Bay Champagne Breakfast.” Since Alaskan fishing is renowned the world over, expect a lot of seafood, including crab, salmon, trout. But you can also find game on the menu, like Princess’s “Alaskan Dinner” which features seafood soup, salmon, and loin of venison. If you’re not much of a fish fan or find fish boring, wait till you get to on-deck fish barbecues and rockfish chowder cook-offs, also included on Princess cruises to Alaska.

In case you didn’t know it, Alaskans are also great fans of bear. Expect to find things like Alaskan Amber and Alaskan Summer Ale on menus.

Alaska season generally runs from May to October. It’s not too late to book! I’ve never met anyone–not one person–who cruised to Alaska and did not come home recommending the cruise to others.

Dubailand and RC forge a deal to promote tourism to Dubai and offer cruise passengers on RC an unprecedented opportunity to tour Dubai.

Dubailand is the world’s largest tourism, leisure, and entetainment destination, consisting of an autodrome, an outlet mall (in a place called “Outlet City”), The Global Village, Al Sahra Desert Resort and Sports City (which includes a premier golf course, golf school, and cricket stadium). Although still in phase 1, Dubailand already gets about 8 million visits a year. Plans are to expand Dubailand in the future to include even more leisure, sports, and entertainment options.

From January to April 2010, RC will introduce seven-night sailings on the Brilliance of the Seas, departing from Dubai. Cruise short excursions will showcase Dubailand attractions. Guests will also have the opportunity to extend their cruise with packages to stay in Dubai.

This is RC’s launch of “our first Arabian dedicated season,” according to Adam Goldstein, president and CEO of RC.  In case you don’t know much about Dubai, the city is home to the world’s tallest building (see night-time shot below) in a striking modern style, but remains committed (and is a showplace) of more traditional Middle Eastern architecture as well.

Dubai is in the midst of a building boom. In fact, it’s been estimated that one quarter of the world’s cranes can be found in this one city. But while there is a frenzy of high-rise construction and traffic, the city offers marinas and peaceful retreats. According to Mohammed Al Habbai, senior VP of Dubailand, the deal with RC will offer cruise passengers opportunity to get to know Dubai.  “As one of the premier global destinations, Dubailand is privileged to enter into this partnership with one of the globe’s leading cruise line operators,” Mr. Al Habbai commented.

Short Stuff

Book a cruise on Celebrity Cruises or Azamara Cruises in the month of May 2009, and you get price protection. That means if a lower-priced deal occurs between now and your sailing, you can get the lower price (up to 48 hours before sailng). It’s called “Azamara Assurance” or “The Celebrity Starring-You Promise.”

Carnival is debuting “Your Choice Dining,” which means three different dinner seatings. Beyond the typical “early” and “late” seatings, passengers can opt for “your time.” Your time allows a guest to pick a time between 5:45 and 9:30 p.m. and can also select the desired table size want. Most guests are seated when they arrive at the dining room, but Carnival cautions that a short wait may sometimes be required (guests are given a pager if this happens so they don’t have to stand around in the dining room). Right now, “your time” is offered on five Carnival ships but plans are to extend it to the full line by summer of next year (2010).

Royal Carribean Cruises reported better-than-expected earnings for the first quarter of 2009.

Princess Cruise Lines is adding two more ships to the Carribean starting in summer 2010, which will expand Princess Carribean options to a total of five itineraries. Princess will port these cruises out of New York and Florida.

Swine flu concerns change porting plans for Mexico

Late in the day on Apl 28, Royal Carribean Cruises and Celebrity Cruises both announced that they will temporarily suspend calling on ports in Mexico in the wake of the recent swine flu outbreak.

Royal Carribean (RC) has four ships that regularly travel to Mexico: Enchantment of the Seas, Freedom of the Seas, Liberty of the Seas, and Mariner of the Seas. There were also plans for two other ships (Serenade of thye Seas and Radiance of the Seas) to port in Mexico, but they have been repositioned and will not land in Mexico.

Celebrity Cruises had planned on Celebrity Infinity visiting Mexico on an upcoming repositioning voyage.

These voyages will still take place, either with alternative port(s) of call or additional days at sea. Mariner of the Seas is getting a whole new itinerary, visiting Canada and the West Coast of the U.S.

This change goes into effect immediately and will be maintained until further notice.

The chief medical officer at RC, Dr. Art Diskin, said, “Authorities have not raised specific concerns regarding the ports we visit in Mexico, but we want to err on the side of caution. We’re taking proactive steps onboard our ships to help ensure the health and well-being of our guests and crew members, nd this is just one more step in that process.”

Both cruise lines have apologized for the inconvenience and disruption these changes have caused, and both hope the cruising public understands that these changes were not made lightly.

Swine flu outbreaks continue around the world. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta currently report that 64 U.S. citizens have confirmed cases of swine flu and more outbreaks are reported at various countries around the world, including New Zealand and Spain. The hardest hit area to date is around Mexico City, Mexico.

The  CDC currently advises U.S. citizens to avoid all non-essential travel to Mexico. For the latest and most accurate information on cruises going to Mexico, please contact the cruise line directly. This kind of news can change very quickly.

Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Cruises have a 2-for-1 deal going till month’s end. The idea is that a selected number of cruises on certain Alaska and European sailings will go for 2-for-1 rates based on the published brochure rates (the “rack rates”).  This translates into some cruises that will work out for $75/day per person.

Azamara has the deal of up to 50% off brochure rate on 21 cruises that set sail between May and December 2009. Among the destinations: Russia, Scandinavia, Greece, Black Sea, and Europe. Cruise lengths range from 7 to 15 nights. Here’s how it would work. Let’s say you wanted to try Azamara’s 14-night “Best of Italy’ cruise on the August 9, 2009 sailing. The rack rate on that is $3,999 per person, double occupancy. You can nab that now for $1,999.

Celebrity (which by the way is the sister line to Azamara) is running the same deal but it offers 51% off brochure rates on 53 cruises to Alaska and Europe that sail between May and September 2009. You can get Alaskan cruises on Celebrity for around $500 a person.

There’s also a price protection feature which means that if you book now and some other even better discount is available, you can get the lower rate providing you request it (to the cruise line or your travel agent) no later than 48 hours prior to sailing. (In other words, you can’t get it retroactively.)

To take advantage of this, you must act before April 30 … which is coming right at us. Contact Celebrity or Azamara cruise lines or your travel agent to learn more. But you have to act fast.

Casinos on cruise ships are nothing new. Royal Caribbean cruise passengers on tours of four days or more in 2009 can participate in the Royal Poker Tour. The poker kitty includes cash prizes and a free cruise. The pool is expected to be around $100,000.

If slot machines are more your speed, passengers in 2009 can join in the Club Royale Slot Tournaments for cash awards from $6,000 to $15,000. Slot tournaments will be on selected voyages starting with the May 30, 2009 Grandeur of the Seas five-day journey to the Bahamas (sailing from Norfolk, Virginia).

Other voyages can be found on the website and include trips to the Bahamas, Canada and New England, and several Caribbean trips. The top 100 players have the option of joining the invitational 2009 Master Tournaments on August 15, 2998 (Liberty of the Seas, out of Miami, Eastern Caribbean).

If blackjack is your game, the blackjack masters tournmanets are May 9 and October 24 aboard the Liberty of the Seas (Eastern Caribbean, out of Miami).

Qualified players can get onboard comps, will receive RC’s Casino Royale newsletter with updates on the tournaments, and may get some special offers for casino-type tours. More specifics are at the company website (royalcaribbean.com), just search out Club Royale.