BLOG YOUR WAY TO ANTARCTICA
One blogger and a friend will participate for free in a USD$20,000 Antarctic Cruise.
Quark Expeditions, the world leader in polar adventures, has launched a competition that will entitle one fearless adventurer and a companion to travel to Antarctica at no cost. To enter, a competitor must post one entry of no more than 300 words that captures the imagination of blog readers around the world.
The competition is open to anyone 21 years of age or over as of June 19, 2009. According to Quark Expeditions’ Vice President of Marketing, Francesco Contini, “Voters will be looking for entries that demonstrate creativity and clearly explain why the competitor should become the Quark Blogger.” Contini continued, “The entrant must be capable of communicating the excitement of an Antarctic adventure.”
The USD$20,000 expedition includes return airfare for two from the successful competitor’s closest international gateway; 1 night of hotel accommodation in Ushuaia, Argentina with breakfast; a Main Deck Twin Cabin aboard Lyubov Orlova for 11 nights, including all shipboard meals; and all excursions in the Antarctic Peninsula as described in the daily program.
In an unusual move designed to keep the competition interesting over time, voters will be allowed to change their vote throughout the competition. Only one vote is permitted at one time, but once the voter is registered, he or she may change the vote for any reason.
To enter or vote visit www.blogyourwaytoantarctica.com. Competition closes September 30, 2009 at noon eastern daylight time.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
MYSTERY OF MEDITERRANEAN CLASSIC CRUISES SOLVED
At last we have an answer to the mystery about Mediterranean Classic Cruises that we have been trying to solve for the past week.
We sent out calls for information about the cruise line that seemed to have no activity on its web site.
Today comes the answer from Al Metzger of Mediterranean Classic Cruises in New York.
He says: "Due to the unexpected non-availability of the vessel: m/v VISION STAR, Mediterranean Classic Cruises has entered into a co-operative agreement with easyCruise offering both 3 day and 4 day cruises on board its vessel: easyCruise Life from May through October 2009."
Mystery solved - well sort of!
At last we have an answer to the mystery about Mediterranean Classic Cruises that we have been trying to solve for the past week.
We sent out calls for information about the cruise line that seemed to have no activity on its web site.
Today comes the answer from Al Metzger of Mediterranean Classic Cruises in New York.
He says: "Due to the unexpected non-availability of the vessel: m/v VISION STAR, Mediterranean Classic Cruises has entered into a co-operative agreement with easyCruise offering both 3 day and 4 day cruises on board its vessel: easyCruise Life from May through October 2009."
Mystery solved - well sort of!
Thursday, June 25, 2009
“The Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of 2009”
As cruise passengers we all should be aware of “The Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of 2009” and the astonishing role Ken Carver and the International Cruise Victims Association has played in bringing the new bill this far. It is without a doubt, the most important advance in securing the safety of us all on cruise ships today.
We have all seen the headlines of "foul play" at sea, missing passengers and rape and sexual assault. And we've all seen snippets of accusations that the cruise lines were not taking responsibility for investigating these crimes at sea.
What we haven't seen is the behind the scenes efforts of people like the members of the International Cruise Victims Association, set up to support victims and families of victims, advocating for legislative reform.
It is only because of them that the “The Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of 2009” actually exists, and it is only because of them that cruising may just become a little safer for us all.
For more details of the “The Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of 2009”, take a look at http://www.prowsedge.com/cruise-vessel-security-and-safety-act-2009.html or go directly to the International Cruise Victims Association for news about the issue of safety at sea.
As cruise passengers we all should be aware of “The Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of 2009” and the astonishing role Ken Carver and the International Cruise Victims Association has played in bringing the new bill this far. It is without a doubt, the most important advance in securing the safety of us all on cruise ships today.
We have all seen the headlines of "foul play" at sea, missing passengers and rape and sexual assault. And we've all seen snippets of accusations that the cruise lines were not taking responsibility for investigating these crimes at sea.
What we haven't seen is the behind the scenes efforts of people like the members of the International Cruise Victims Association, set up to support victims and families of victims, advocating for legislative reform.
It is only because of them that the “The Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of 2009” actually exists, and it is only because of them that cruising may just become a little safer for us all.
For more details of the “The Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of 2009”, take a look at http://www.prowsedge.com/cruise-vessel-security-and-safety-act-2009.html or go directly to the International Cruise Victims Association for news about the issue of safety at sea.
WITH THE BIT BETWEEN OUR TEETH - TIME TO HOOVER
The crew here aboard Prow's Edge Cruise Magazine is just wondering if there shouldn't be some kind of control over web sites that advertise products that no longer seem to exist, like cruises with Mediterranean Classic Cruises, or even over articles and news features on other sites that are more than a decade old and of no value to anyone but which consistently come up in the first page of any search.
How many times have you done a search for a cruise topic, and checked the first few results on the search engines, only to discover copyright dates, and posting dates are from more than 6 years ago.
The internet must be drowning in old articles and old web sites.
Time for some house cleaning we think!
The crew here aboard Prow's Edge Cruise Magazine is just wondering if there shouldn't be some kind of control over web sites that advertise products that no longer seem to exist, like cruises with Mediterranean Classic Cruises, or even over articles and news features on other sites that are more than a decade old and of no value to anyone but which consistently come up in the first page of any search.
How many times have you done a search for a cruise topic, and checked the first few results on the search engines, only to discover copyright dates, and posting dates are from more than 6 years ago.
The internet must be drowning in old articles and old web sites.
Time for some house cleaning we think!
PLOT THICKENS ON MYSTERY CRUISE LINE
The mystery about Mediterranean Classic Cruises continues as Prow's Edge gets no reply from contact emails and reservation emails, and there is no luck either from telephone numbers posted on the MCC website which actually don't make sense as they are presented.
We would hate to presume the cruise line has gone belly up - but how else do we explain the mystery. And if the company no longer exists ... why is the web site still live and running?
Did someone forget to sweep the floors before they left the office?
Still hoping someone can shed some light on this.
Forum is open at: http://www.prowsedge.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=78
The mystery about Mediterranean Classic Cruises continues as Prow's Edge gets no reply from contact emails and reservation emails, and there is no luck either from telephone numbers posted on the MCC website which actually don't make sense as they are presented.
We would hate to presume the cruise line has gone belly up - but how else do we explain the mystery. And if the company no longer exists ... why is the web site still live and running?
Did someone forget to sweep the floors before they left the office?
Still hoping someone can shed some light on this.
Forum is open at: http://www.prowsedge.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=78
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
DANGERS OF MAGNETIC HOTEL KEY CARD
Ever wonder what is on the magnetic key card to your hotel room where you’re overnighting before your cruise?
Here are the answers from the Metropolitan Police Service:
a. Customer's name
b. Customer's partial home address
c. Hotel room number
d. Check-in date and out dates
e. Customer's credit card number and expiration date!
When you turn them in to the front desk your personal information is there for any employee to access by simply scanning the card in the hotel scanner.
An employee can take a hand full of cards home and using a scanning device, access the information onto a laptop computer and go shopping at your expense.
Simply put, hotels do not erase the information on these cards until an employee reissues the card to the next hotel guest. At that time, the new guest's information is electronically 'overwritten' on the card and the previous guest's information is erased in the overwriting process.
But until the card is rewritten for the next guest, it usually is kept in a drawer at the front desk with YOUR INFORMATION ON IT!
The bottom line is: Keep the cards, take them home with you, or destroy them. NEVER leave them behind in the room or room wastebasket, and NEVER turn them into the front desk when you check out of a room.
They will not charge you for the card (it's illegal) and you'll be sure you are not leaving a lot of valuable personal information on it that could be easily lifted off with any simple scanning device card reader.
For the same reason, if you arrive at the airport and discover you still have the card key in your pocket, do not toss it in an airport rubbish basket. Take it home and destroy it by cutting it up, especially through the electronic information strip!
Ever wonder what is on the magnetic key card to your hotel room where you’re overnighting before your cruise?
Here are the answers from the Metropolitan Police Service:
a. Customer's name
b. Customer's partial home address
c. Hotel room number
d. Check-in date and out dates
e. Customer's credit card number and expiration date!
When you turn them in to the front desk your personal information is there for any employee to access by simply scanning the card in the hotel scanner.
An employee can take a hand full of cards home and using a scanning device, access the information onto a laptop computer and go shopping at your expense.
Simply put, hotels do not erase the information on these cards until an employee reissues the card to the next hotel guest. At that time, the new guest's information is electronically 'overwritten' on the card and the previous guest's information is erased in the overwriting process.
But until the card is rewritten for the next guest, it usually is kept in a drawer at the front desk with YOUR INFORMATION ON IT!
The bottom line is: Keep the cards, take them home with you, or destroy them. NEVER leave them behind in the room or room wastebasket, and NEVER turn them into the front desk when you check out of a room.
They will not charge you for the card (it's illegal) and you'll be sure you are not leaving a lot of valuable personal information on it that could be easily lifted off with any simple scanning device card reader.
For the same reason, if you arrive at the airport and discover you still have the card key in your pocket, do not toss it in an airport rubbish basket. Take it home and destroy it by cutting it up, especially through the electronic information strip!
DO MEDITERRANEAN CLASSIC CRUISES STILL EXIST
If anyone has news of Mediterranean Classic Cruises (once known as Monarch) operating in Greece - we'd really like to hear from you.
There has been a query about the cruise line at our new forum at http://www.prowsedge.com/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=52 but we can find no conclusive information ourselves to try and answer the member post.
Launched in 2006, Mediterranean Classic Cruises has a very nice website with a copyright date of 2007 but there are some things that are odd about the site - most particularly - a reluctance to name their ships. There is also no response from their contact us pages or their reservation e-mail.
We can find no conclusive information about them on the internet
Perhaps there is no mystery at all! But if anyone does have news of this cruise line, we would happy to hear from you at info@prowsedge.com, or better still, join our forum at http://www.prowsedge.com/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=52 and interact with our members.
If anyone has news of Mediterranean Classic Cruises (once known as Monarch) operating in Greece - we'd really like to hear from you.
There has been a query about the cruise line at our new forum at http://www.prowsedge.com/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=52 but we can find no conclusive information ourselves to try and answer the member post.
Launched in 2006, Mediterranean Classic Cruises has a very nice website with a copyright date of 2007 but there are some things that are odd about the site - most particularly - a reluctance to name their ships. There is also no response from their contact us pages or their reservation e-mail.
We can find no conclusive information about them on the internet
Perhaps there is no mystery at all! But if anyone does have news of this cruise line, we would happy to hear from you at info@prowsedge.com, or better still, join our forum at http://www.prowsedge.com/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=52 and interact with our members.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
OPRAH MYSTERY CRUISE
In these tough economic times it ‘s good to hear of something apart from layoffs and wage reductions and unemployment. Oprah Winfrey is reportedly treating her staff of over 100 (and their families) to an all-espenses-paid cruise in the Mediterranean.
At approximately $5,000 per person, the cruise will visit ports in Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey and Malta.
Four years ago, the TV diva splashed out on a similar “thank you” when she footed the bill for an all-expenses cruise to Hawaii.
Though it is generally believed that this current vacation bonus has cost the Oprah Winfrey almost a million dollars, there is some confusion as to the exact details of the itinerary.
Sources don’t seem to know which cruise line is involved, but contactmusic.com reports that this particular Mediterranean cruise starts in Chicago, Illinois ?????
If you know more than we do, please feel free to keep us up to date in our comment boxes here, or e-mail us at info@prowsedge.com
In these tough economic times it ‘s good to hear of something apart from layoffs and wage reductions and unemployment. Oprah Winfrey is reportedly treating her staff of over 100 (and their families) to an all-espenses-paid cruise in the Mediterranean.
At approximately $5,000 per person, the cruise will visit ports in Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey and Malta.
Four years ago, the TV diva splashed out on a similar “thank you” when she footed the bill for an all-expenses cruise to Hawaii.
Though it is generally believed that this current vacation bonus has cost the Oprah Winfrey almost a million dollars, there is some confusion as to the exact details of the itinerary.
Sources don’t seem to know which cruise line is involved, but contactmusic.com reports that this particular Mediterranean cruise starts in Chicago, Illinois ?????
If you know more than we do, please feel free to keep us up to date in our comment boxes here, or e-mail us at info@prowsedge.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)