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The Captain’s Log

Your Daily Cruise Industry Briefing

Cruise News Trip Planning & Advice Destinations Cruise Lines & Ships Cruising Styles Onboard Experience The Sunday Spotlight

  • The Suite Butler Is the Perk Most People Forget They Paid For

    Book a top suite on most major cruise lines and a butler comes with it. Not a cabin steward. An actual butler. Most people in those suites never figure out what the butler is for. The difference is simple. Your cabin steward keeps the room clean and the towels fresh. The butler handles everything else.…

  • The Solo Cruise Cost Problem Has an Actual Fix Now

    Cruising alone used to come with a tax. It was called the single supplement, and it hurt. Here is why it exists. A cruise fare assumes two people are paying for one cabin. When you sail solo, the line still wants that cabin to earn what two people would pay. So they charge you extra…

  • Hurtigruten Is the Cruise That Still Delivers the Mail

    Hurtigruten is not really a cruise line. It started as a mail and cargo route up the coast of Norway in 1893. It still runs that route today. Ships sail from Bergen in the south to Kirkenes near the Russian border and back. The full round trip hits 34 ports in 12 days. Some of…

  • Isafjordur Is the Iceland Port Most Cruises Skip for the Ring Road

    Most people picture Iceland and think Reykjavik. They think of the geysers and the Blue Lagoon and the crowds. Isafjordur sits in the far northwest and almost none of that applies here. This is the main town of the Westfjords. It is a thumb of land that hangs off the top corner of Iceland. Roads…

  • The Name on Your Cruise Booking Has to Match Your Passport to the Letter

    A tiny typo on your reservation can keep you off the ship. Not might. Can. Cruise lines are strict about this for a simple reason. The name on your booking has to match your travel document exactly. Celebrity puts it plainly. The name on your passport should match the name on your reservation. Royal Caribbean…

  • A Refurbished Ship Is Not the Ship You Booked

    A cruise line can change your ship without changing your booking. They send it to a shipyard, tear out a deck, and hand you something different on sailing day. The name stays the same. The ship does not. This is a refit. The industry calls it a refurbishment or a revitalization. It means an older…

  • Removing Your Auto Gratuities Is Not the Flex You Think It Is

    Every cruise adds a daily gratuity to your bill. And every cruise, someone marches to guest services to have it taken off. They think they are beating the system. They are mostly just confusing it. Here is what that charge actually is. It is a pooled tip that gets split among the people who clean…

  • The Behind the Scenes Ship Tour Is the Hour You Spend Where Guests Are Not Allowed

    There is a part of every cruise ship you are not supposed to see. The galley during a dinner rush. The bridge where someone is actually steering. The corridor the crew lives in. For a fee, a few lines will walk you right through all of it. It goes by different names. Royal Caribbean calls…

  • The Theme Cruise You Did Not Sign Up For Is Already On Your Ship

    There are two kinds of theme cruise. The one you book on purpose and the one that shows up on your sailing without asking. Both are real. Most people only know the first one. The first kind is the full-ship charter. A company buys the whole ship for a week and sells it back one…

  • Virgin Voyages Is the Adults Only Cruise Line That Dropped the Rulebook

    There are no kids on a Virgin Voyages ship. Not fewer kids. None. The whole fleet is eighteen and up, which means the pool deck sounds different than any mainstream cruise you have been on. Virgin set out to build a cruise that does not feel like a cruise. There is no main dining room…