Tours And Travel – Beachchannel.net

We were on the Radiance of the Seas for the western Caribbean cruise on November 28/04. This was our second cruise with Royal Caribbean with our first last year on the larger Adventure of the Seas. After one cruise with RCI, I expected roughly the same standards with the Radiance and in general, I wasn’t disappointed.

Staterooms:

Our stateroom was an inside aft cabin and we were not disappointed. It was roomy enough and the lighting was adequate. Closet space and drawers were also sufficient for our use. We noticed that the double beds here were actually a bit better than the one we had on the Adventure since we couldn’t really feel the split between the two separate beds like we did last time. If there’s one thing that can be improved is the shower curtain. The one installed was not adequate in keeping in all the water from the shower. The shower on the Adventure utilized a double glass door system which was far superior. Otherwise, the cabin was nice and dark for sleeping at night. Although we heard a little noise from the cabins next to us, it was minimal. We didn’t miss having any window or balcony at all since we were hardly ever in our stateroom. We were either at port or elsewhere on the ship and went back to our cabins just to relax or sleep. We would definitely book an inside cabin again with RCI unless we had a free upgrade.

Dining:

The main Cascades dining room was nice and meals were good. Breakfasts had the same menu every morning. Lunch at the dining room was okay. The dinners were good but not every meal item was a winner. There was the odd appetizer and dessert that was not up to par. One thing that my partner noticed was that the portions of the main courses seemed to be smaller than those served on the Adventure. We usually went upstairs to the Windjammer to get more food after dining at the Cascades. In some parts of the Cascades room, the tables were placed too cramp so walking to out own table was tricky at times. The self serve Windjammer was good. It usually had more variety of food than served downstairs at the Cascades. Breakfast and lunch were busy at the Windjammer but during evenings, most people chose to dine at the Cascades. The two other optional restaurants onboard Portafino and Choppe House were available at $20 US per person but we never tried them since the meals already included at the Cascades and Windjammer were fine by us. Other passengers who did go to these optional rooms told us that they were nothing special. There was another cafe available during late evenings called the Seaview and they provided fare such as sandwiches, salads and burgers. This was a nice feature. One thing we did object to was that they charged for the coffee and tea there. There was also a specialty coffee place on the main centrum of the ship and they also charged. We had more availability of free beverages on the Adventure.
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You’ll find that with each travel excursion you’ll need checklists. And more checklists. Each trip gets a standard checklist & a relative one.

A short weekend trip to Niagra falls doesn’t require a passport, or does it. You may want to go into Canada to see the Falls from the other side. You checklist would have covered this.

You want to fly to vegas for the weekend. break out the checklists. First, book a flight. You live in a time when you can now book flight from the comfort of you own home. Book online. Try every site at least once throughout the year. I like to find out of the way consolidator sites. They tend to have cheaper fares because the buy in bulk. the beauty of these sites is, not only are they cheap, they are like have a hidden travel treasure. Sites like http://lowairfares.com or http://aironsale.com have great names that say exactly what they do.

This is an example of why you need to use multiple sites to find airfare. Fares vary from hour to hour and it’s a competative business. That’s good for us.

So here’s my cheap airfare checklist:

* Choose a destination.
* Get to a computer & get online.
* Go to any search engine & type in “cheap airfare.”
* look through the results & choose 10 sites. Bookmark all 10, organize in travel folder. You don’t have to use all ten right away. Just have the reference available for future use.
* get 5 quotes for your proposed flight from 5 different sites. (3 major names, and 2 minor consolidators)
* choose your best fare.
* if you are not in rush, keep looking. Fares change hourly.

Below is a generic Travel checklist. Modify this list to your pesonal needs. Modify it to your types of travel.
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Houston, Texas, is probably most famous for its featured role in space travel movies as NASA’s Mission Control Center is based here inside the Johnson Space Center. However, there are hundreds more reasons to book your airfare to Houston, the 4th largest city in the United States. Come get a taste of southern rodeo, America’s gulf coast, some Spanish history, and one of the most medically and technologically advanced cities in the country.

Houston: Mecca for Science and Technology

One of the most visited places in Houston is Clear Lake, the site of NASA’s Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. Space Center Houston is open to tourists, offering educational exhibits and hands-on displays highlighting Mission Control’s long history of success and tragedy. Do not miss out on the tram tour through the actual Johnson Space Center facility. Clear Lake is also a popular recreation retreat for the city, positioned on a bay just off the coast of the Gulf, offering a variety of outdoor activities.

The Texas Medical Center is located near downtown Houston and happens to be the world’s largest medical district, servicing over five million patient appointments annually. The campus grounds feel like a city within a city, hosting residential towers for employees and all the necessities of daily life. Notably, the Medical Center provides the largest proton therapy clinic for cancer treatment and the Cancer Prevention Center, established by the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.
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In fact, in June there is the famous Writers Festival and, during the same week, the World Festival of Puppet Art in Prague, more precisely from 1 to 8 of June 2008. There will be all kinds of theatre shows and puppet films, for children and adults, in competition with each other, from traditional Puppetry, to the new and more innovate works. Puppeteers, as every year, come from all over the world, included companies from the Far East, South America and Europe.

An international Jury will award a prize for: Best performance, Best artistic creation, Best Scenery and Puppet Design, Best Animation, Best Director, Best Actor, Best original performance, Best scenario, Best puppet film and some other special awards. To get the complete program and any variation on the calendar, please check the official Festival website: puppetart.com. So do not miss spending a magnificent week in Prague in June. And if you love literature too, you can always immerse yourself at the International Writers Festival held in the same days and visit Kafkas’ House and museum!! Last but not least, if you are seriously thinking to visit Prague on those days, keep in mind that the city can be overbooked quite soon and it’s a good thing to book in advance. Nevertheless, there are plenty of accommodation options in Prague for different travellers, backpackers and families budgets! Depending on who are your travelling mates you can choose to stay in a private apartment, hotel, guest house or youth hostel.
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