Starshine Travel, Inc.

Last week, due to impending hurricane Irene, two cruise ships that home-ported in San Juan were ordered by port officials to depart several hours early, stranding hundreds of guests. Those that booked their flights through the cruise lines were put up in hotels and flown to their ship’s next port, but the vast majority had booked their own flights to save money.

But what about the others? While one cruise line chose to pay for hotels and airfare to the next port for all stranded g...

     Royal Caribbean recently announced that it is increasing some charges, and changing the pricing structure, in some of its onboard specialty restaurants. There have been a lot of social media postings complaining about these increases, so I wanted to comment on the situation in this blog.

     I have always been against additional onboard charges, especially for dining. When I started cruising, back in 1980, all food - including sodas in the ...