The Captain's Xpressions

I love cruising because I unpack once upon embarkation, I'm able to visit worldly places each day and my hotel travels with me. As an added bonus, my shipboard amenities, meals & entertainment are mainly included. Cruising can be as busy or relaxing as I want it. Why wouldn't I use my valuable vacation time to cruise and simply love it?

CRUISE FACT: Cruises give travelers the convenience of packing and unpacking once, the comfort of a “home away from home” for the duration of the trip, but also the opportunity to visit a multitude of destinations on one vacation.

When I recently looked at planning a trip to Italy with a group of friends, we discovered that a cruise in the Mediterranean was not only the most cost effective way to see Italy, but it was the most time effective.

Through our time study while planning, it didn't take us long to realize that while cruising the Mediterranean, traveling from port-of-call to port-of-call, our floating hotel traveled while we slept.

In twelve days, of our cruise, we were able to visit a majority of the popular coastal cities of Italy. We left from and returned to Civitavecchia. Italy. We were able to visit Naples, Pompeii, Positano and ride along the Almafi coast, two days in Venice (overnight there was a treat), Livorno, Pisa, Florence, Rome & Vatican City on the mainland. On Sicily, we were able to visit Messina, Syracuse, Tiromina and the volcano Mt. Aetna.

Then, there were bonus cities in countries that we hadn't planned, nor would we have seen if we would not have opted for the cruise as a way to visit Italy. We visited Dubrovinik in Croatia. What a lovely country and the people were marvelous. Barcelona, Spain found us grabbing a taxi and toured the entire city. While stopping at Cannes, France, we were able to visit the area of the film festival. From there, we visited Nice & the ancient walled city of Eze in France and the country of Monaco.

We even had three entire days at sea to relax on this cruise to enjoy our ship and regroup from the hurried tour pace that we had planned.

Although most of us were fairly comfortable visiting a foreign country, it was still nice to come back to our safe haven. Our "home away from home."

With all of the places that we visited, our luggage had gained a good bit of weight. But then, because of the good food available around the clock, so did we.

Enjoy you cruise!

Oh and for your excursion planning, contact us R&R Xcursions (rrxcursions.com). We can hook you up with a wonderful person to book your cruise as well.

And to think it all started with the Love Boat.

About 1 in 4 Americans -- 78 million of us -- has taken a cruise, a new survey by Cruise Lines International Association finds.

Our favorite cruise itineraries? The Caribbean is still No. 1, followed by Alaska, the Bahamas, Hawaii, Bermuda and the Mediterranean.

One other interesting tidbit: People who plan cruises tend to use a travel agent; about 68% of us did.

That's wise because cruise lines pay the travel agents' commissions, not the customers. And agents know where the good rooms are.

1. If walking and cycling is good for your health, the postman would be immortal.
2. A whale swims all day, only eats fish, drinks water and is fat!
3. A rabbit runs and hops and only lives 15 years.
4. A tortoise doesn't run, does nothing, yet lives for 450 years.

And you tell me to exercise?

I'M RETIRED, GO AROUND ME!

You've returned from that memorable cruise and you're already counting down the days until your next one. However, it's quite some time until that next sail-away. You already miss the feel and smell of the salty air. Missed is the view of salt water and the big ships. You're asking yourself, will I ever see that wonderful ship we were on? I NEED A CRUISE FIX!

If you haven't made the discovery on your own, there is now a place on the web where you are able to view all ship traffic coming and going, 24 hours each and every day. There are currently three port areas where a HDTV video is streamed to your computer or internet device. The cameras show a clear view of marine traffic coming into and departing from the port area. Cruise ships docked here are viewed throughout the day. The camera will follow cruise ships and others as they arrive and follow them out of the port as they sail away. Your cruise fix is now just a few clicks away.

The three locations are Port Canaveral, Port Everglades and New York Harbor.

Port Canaveral is home to most of the Disney cruise ships and provide for great cruise ship viewing while in port. Dolphins and manatees are seen here from time to time. The HDTV cam is located at a favorite inlet restaurant where one can sit and enjoy the same view while having a great meal and beverage, should they be in the area.

Port Everglades, my personal favorite, is probably the busiest during peak cruise ship season on the East coast. I've seen as many as seven cruise ships docked on the heaviest days. For true cruise enthusiasts, live sound is available during sail-away. The cam follows the cruise ships as they leave port and the cruise ship horn is quite audible upon departure of the inlet. During the non sail away times, Port Authority and Coast Guard radio traffic is heard. Ships and boats of all types and sizes move about this port daily.

NY Harbor is the newest of the three cams. Visible at times are Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty and the NY skyline. Quite a few ships, yachts, sailboats and boats of all sizes come and go throughout the day. One of the best features of this cam is that a cruise ship arrival or sail away covers around six miles. Sail away is followed the entire time, from the time they depart dockside until they pass under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.

Watch for information of a fourth camera coming our way at Port Miami. The link will take you to their Facebook page. Click the "Like" button and you will be provided with updates.

From the HDTV cam sites, other information is available. Below the streaming cam area, you will find a Google satellite view of the respective port area, with the ship location of those traveling and docked in the port area, supplied by MarineTraffic.com. Place your cursor over the color coded icon and the ship name will appear. Click on the icon and descriptive information and perhaps a photo of the vessel will appear. Around the edges of both discussed areas are links to things like cruise ship cams, port maps, cruise schedules and port schedules. I'll let you discover them and explore for yourself.

Before your cruise departs on that wonderful sail away from one of these ports, check to see if you can request-a-wave. Coordinate a close up of you, or you and your group, as you are leaving port. You may even want to purchase a photo of that memorable wave. When you arrive back home, you can get back online and do that as well. You don't like having your photo taken, but you would like to have a photo of your ship as it departed that day? Well, you can do that, too. There are links to help you with the memories that you would like to document. See the links for InletPhotos.com and PortFever.com.

The place to watch when you can't be there.

Enjoy your cruise fix. I do daily.