UPDATE: 04/29/09 12:45 pm
We've received information that some cruise ship port calls in Mexico ARE being affected by the current swine flu outbreak. As the situation is continually changing, we'll update this TravelBlog entry as needed.
Both Carnival and Royal Caribbean are canceling Mexico port calls for the time being. The most affected cruises are those that are currently underway from the West Coast (embarkation cities of Los Angeles/San Pedro, Long Beach and San Diego).
CARNIVAL CRUISE LINES
The Carnival Splendor is canceling its Wednesday, April 29 Puerto Vallarta port call and will be heading north. It will have a port call in San Francisco this Friday, May 1 prior to returning to Long Beach Sunday, May 3. It is likely that upcoming sailings will have a Western U. S. and Canada (Vancouver or Victoria) itinerary.
The Carnival Paradise is canceling its Ensenada port call Wednesday, April 29 and will spend an additional day at sea prior to returning to Long Beach Friday, May 1. It is only our guess (we'll know soon), but it's possible upcoming 3-night cruises will replace the Ensenada port call with a call in either San Diego or Catalina Island, and four-night cruises will replace the Ensenada call with one in San Diego.
For additional, updated information on Carnival Cruise Lines sailings:
http://www.carnival.com/cms/fun/cruise_control/Travel_Advisory.aspx
ROYAL CARIBBEAN INTERNATIONAL
The Mariner of the Seas will be replacing its current Mexican Riviera itinerary with one sailing the Western U. S. and Canada. We are unable to confirm if the ship stopped in Cabo San Lucas as scheduled Tuesday. The interim itinerary, for sailings through June 14, includes port calls in San Francisco, Victoria (British Columbia) and Seattle. The May 10 sailing will visit Astoria, Oregon instead of San Francisco. (This is actually an excellent itinerary.)
For additional, updated information on Royal Caribbean International sailings:
http://www.royalcaribbean.com/beforeyouboard/itineraryUpdates.do
Return to Makarma Travel Home Page: http://www.makarmatravel.com/
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
A friendly reminder 'bout Passports
As you may recall, we (Mr. Makarma) told you back in September 2006 about pending changes to U. S. Passport requirements, specifically the need to have one for travel to neighboring countries. (Passports have been required for years for travel to many other countries.) We recommended that everyone who didn't have a Passport, should take the steps necessary to apply for one.
Well, it's time for an update. We'll give a quick summary below of the current requirements, and how they're scheduled to change again in a little over a month. As regulations can be altered between now and then, we'll be updating this specific TravelBlog entry as needed, and we'll place a link on our Home Page that will take you directly here.
As of January 2007, Passports have been required for those U. S. citizens traveling by air from/to the United States. Changes to requirements for those traveling by land or sea were to be implemented at a later date.
That later date is June 1, 2009. Yes folks, in approximately five weeks, you'll need a Passport for ALL foreign travel. We know that plenty of people still don't have Passports. There's only one good excuse for not having a Passport......you'll never - under any circumstances - travel outside the United States. For anyone not planning to use that excuse, do yourself a favor and get a Passport application online or at Passport Acceptance Facility (oftentimes a "main" post office in your area), complete it and have it processed according to the provided instructions. It's very easy to do, and something you should do...right now.
Now, a preview of next week......we'll again be boring you to tears with our sushi bar trials and tribulations. In brief, top-secret sushi bar has closed. (That's sad.) An interim sushi place Mr. Makarma went to, stank/sucked big-time. (Mr. Makarma is a spoiled brat.) The interim place is interim, however, because favorite sushi chef from top-secret sushi bar will soon be working at a Japanese restaurant Mr. Makarma's been going to for years. (That's very, very, good news indeed.)
Return to Makarma Travel Home Page: http://www.makarmatravel.com/
Well, it's time for an update. We'll give a quick summary below of the current requirements, and how they're scheduled to change again in a little over a month. As regulations can be altered between now and then, we'll be updating this specific TravelBlog entry as needed, and we'll place a link on our Home Page that will take you directly here.
As of January 2007, Passports have been required for those U. S. citizens traveling by air from/to the United States. Changes to requirements for those traveling by land or sea were to be implemented at a later date.
That later date is June 1, 2009. Yes folks, in approximately five weeks, you'll need a Passport for ALL foreign travel. We know that plenty of people still don't have Passports. There's only one good excuse for not having a Passport......you'll never - under any circumstances - travel outside the United States. For anyone not planning to use that excuse, do yourself a favor and get a Passport application online or at Passport Acceptance Facility (oftentimes a "main" post office in your area), complete it and have it processed according to the provided instructions. It's very easy to do, and something you should do...right now.
Now, a preview of next week......we'll again be boring you to tears with our sushi bar trials and tribulations. In brief, top-secret sushi bar has closed. (That's sad.) An interim sushi place Mr. Makarma went to, stank/sucked big-time. (Mr. Makarma is a spoiled brat.) The interim place is interim, however, because favorite sushi chef from top-secret sushi bar will soon be working at a Japanese restaurant Mr. Makarma's been going to for years. (That's very, very, good news indeed.)
Return to Makarma Travel Home Page: http://www.makarmatravel.com/
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Five itineraries. From San Diego. One ship?
Most cruise ships sail one particular itinerary, and they sail it on a fairly consistent basis. Naturally, there are some exceptions to this rule. Some ships sail a Western Caribbean itinerary one week; an Eastern Caribbean the next. Ships assigned to shorter cruises typically sail a three-night cruise on weekends, and a slightly different four-night schedule during the week.
Carnival Cruise Lines is getting a little more creative with one of their two ships based in San Diego - Carnival Elation.
Many of you may remember the Elation from her days sailing seven-night Mexican Riviera cruises from Los Angeles. When she was replaced on that route by the Carnival Pride, Elation was moved to a new home port. The ship eventually returned to the West Coast with both four-night cruises to Cabo San Lucas and five-night cruises which added an Ensenada port call. We (Makarma Travel) and others liked that, as it presented additional options to our local customers.
As a result of economic conditions, the four and five-night cruise series didn't last long; they were replaced with three and four-night options similar to those currently available from Los Angeles. A benefit to this was the increase in overall passenger numbers, and its resultant increase in sail dates for local customers. The disadvantage? The same itinerary as that available from another port just a short distance away.
Well, Carnival very recently presented us with some news that should please everyone looking for additional cruise options from Southern California. It gets complicated (but interesting); here are their new itineraries, beginning this July, based on a four-week rotation:
WEEKS 1 & 2
Five-night cruise to Cabo San Lucas and Ensenada
Five-night cruise, with two days in Cabo San Lucas
Four-night cruise to Cabo San Lucas
WEEK 3
Four-night cruise to Catalina Island and Ensenada
Three-night cruise to Ensenada
WEEK 4 (same as Week 3)
Four-night cruise to Catalina Island and Ensenada
Three-night cruise to Ensenada
A little complicated, but more choices and a great compromise. We most definitely like it, and hope you will too!
Return to Makarma Travel Home Page: http://www.makarmatravel.com/
Carnival Cruise Lines is getting a little more creative with one of their two ships based in San Diego - Carnival Elation.
Many of you may remember the Elation from her days sailing seven-night Mexican Riviera cruises from Los Angeles. When she was replaced on that route by the Carnival Pride, Elation was moved to a new home port. The ship eventually returned to the West Coast with both four-night cruises to Cabo San Lucas and five-night cruises which added an Ensenada port call. We (Makarma Travel) and others liked that, as it presented additional options to our local customers.
As a result of economic conditions, the four and five-night cruise series didn't last long; they were replaced with three and four-night options similar to those currently available from Los Angeles. A benefit to this was the increase in overall passenger numbers, and its resultant increase in sail dates for local customers. The disadvantage? The same itinerary as that available from another port just a short distance away.
Well, Carnival very recently presented us with some news that should please everyone looking for additional cruise options from Southern California. It gets complicated (but interesting); here are their new itineraries, beginning this July, based on a four-week rotation:
WEEKS 1 & 2
Five-night cruise to Cabo San Lucas and Ensenada
Five-night cruise, with two days in Cabo San Lucas
Four-night cruise to Cabo San Lucas
WEEK 3
Four-night cruise to Catalina Island and Ensenada
Three-night cruise to Ensenada
WEEK 4 (same as Week 3)
Four-night cruise to Catalina Island and Ensenada
Three-night cruise to Ensenada
A little complicated, but more choices and a great compromise. We most definitely like it, and hope you will too!
Return to Makarma Travel Home Page: http://www.makarmatravel.com/
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Are we techno enough for ya?
First off, we (Mr. Makarma) need to let you know up-front that this blog update is going to be a little shorter than usual. Why? Well, we've been really busy with Easter stuff today, but we still want to check-in with you on a regular basis and, well, here we are...
So...this is going to be one of those "reminder" blog entries. Today, we'll remind you of the various ways you can keep in touch with us, or we can keep in-touch with you.
There's that old-fashioned thing called the telephone; we're at... (562) 732-4465.
There's that email thing, where we're at... customerservice@makarmatravel.com
There's the TravelBlog by Makarma but, that's where we're at right now so, you already know how to reach us there.
How about Twitter? We hooked-up with that service a few short weeks ago, and already over 150 of you are following us. We send out about a message a day through that method. You can sign-up for our Twitter updates at:
http://twitter.com/MakarmaTravel
Huh, that wasn't so bad after all. We weren't able to give you the full blog, but were still able to stop by, say hello, and hopefully still give you some relatively useful information.
See you again next week. Until then, happy traveling.
Return to Makarma Travel Home Page: http://www.makarmatravel.com/
So...this is going to be one of those "reminder" blog entries. Today, we'll remind you of the various ways you can keep in touch with us, or we can keep in-touch with you.
There's that old-fashioned thing called the telephone; we're at... (562) 732-4465.
There's that email thing, where we're at... customerservice@makarmatravel.com
There's the TravelBlog by Makarma but, that's where we're at right now so, you already know how to reach us there.
How about Twitter? We hooked-up with that service a few short weeks ago, and already over 150 of you are following us. We send out about a message a day through that method. You can sign-up for our Twitter updates at:
http://twitter.com/MakarmaTravel
Huh, that wasn't so bad after all. We weren't able to give you the full blog, but were still able to stop by, say hello, and hopefully still give you some relatively useful information.
See you again next week. Until then, happy traveling.
Return to Makarma Travel Home Page: http://www.makarmatravel.com/
Sunday, April 05, 2009
It's better in the Bahamas...especially at those prices
Television news anchors are an interesting bunch; when rain is in the forecast, they'll remind the weather forecaster that the rain is much needed. As soon as any measurable amount of rain is detected, those same folks will ask the same weather forecaster to let them know when there will be a "break in the wet weather."
Though not exactly the same, we can find certain parallels in the travel industry. Understandably, many people are approaching travel cautiously this year, stating the economy has them concerned. Show them a great deal, though, and the credit card miraculously appears.
We (Mr. Makarma) think that's a good thing; people do need to be careful with their spending, but they also need to travel. Match them with a good value, and they're on their way.
There are a number of great values today, many better than what we've seen in a long time. There are some unbelievable deals on cruises right now; the values are also there with certain land vacations. As our title hints at, there's an amazing deal right now in the Bahamas.
If you've spent any time following the world's top resorts, you've no doubt learned of the Atlantis Resort in Nassau. One thing you've probably heard about the place is that it's incredible; another thing you've possibly heard is that it's very expensive. Many people choose less-expensive lodging elsewhere, and settle for a simple visit to Atlantis. That may no longer be necessary, as a promotional rate that's currently available for the resort's Beach Tower is, in many cases, pricing out for less than some traditionally cheaper places in the area.
How to get these deals? Contact your favorite travel professional (hopefully, that's us) and start packing.
Return to Makarma Travel Home Page: http://www.makarmatravel.com/
Though not exactly the same, we can find certain parallels in the travel industry. Understandably, many people are approaching travel cautiously this year, stating the economy has them concerned. Show them a great deal, though, and the credit card miraculously appears.
We (Mr. Makarma) think that's a good thing; people do need to be careful with their spending, but they also need to travel. Match them with a good value, and they're on their way.
There are a number of great values today, many better than what we've seen in a long time. There are some unbelievable deals on cruises right now; the values are also there with certain land vacations. As our title hints at, there's an amazing deal right now in the Bahamas.
If you've spent any time following the world's top resorts, you've no doubt learned of the Atlantis Resort in Nassau. One thing you've probably heard about the place is that it's incredible; another thing you've possibly heard is that it's very expensive. Many people choose less-expensive lodging elsewhere, and settle for a simple visit to Atlantis. That may no longer be necessary, as a promotional rate that's currently available for the resort's Beach Tower is, in many cases, pricing out for less than some traditionally cheaper places in the area.
How to get these deals? Contact your favorite travel professional (hopefully, that's us) and start packing.
Return to Makarma Travel Home Page: http://www.makarmatravel.com/
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