Win a Free Cruise with Carnival

Carnival Cruise Lines today kicked off the “Carnival Breeze-A-Thon,” a fun on-line sweepstakes awarding a free cruise for two as well as a variety of prizes inspired by Carnival Breeze’s innovative dining, bar and entertainment options in the week leading up to the ship’s official naming ceremony.

Carnival Breeze recently arrived in Miami to kick off a year-round program of six- and eight-day cruises to the Caribbean, becoming the largest Carnival Cruise Lines ship ever based in South Florida.

Hurry now to take part before the sweepstakes entry period at Carnival’s Facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/carnival comes to a close on the 6th December this week.

On the 8th December, the day of Carnival Breeze’s official naming ceremony, prizes will be awarded each hour between 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., interspersed with a series of videos showcasing many of the ship’s fun and fantastic features.  The final video of the day will feature highlights from the naming ceremony.

Entering the sweepstakes is easy: “like” Carnival on Facebook, visit the “Carnival Breeze-A-Thon” tab and enter to be eligible to win a wide range of fun and memorable prizes.

For more information about Carnival Cruise Lines visit www.prowsedge.com/cruise-lines-carnival-cruise-lines.html at Prow's Edge Cruise Magazine where you can find information on over 80 different cruise lines.

Reasons to Cruise

Taking a cruise is not just a way to take time off work or to spend your vacation.  There are all sorts of reasons why people take cruises, and Princess Cruises has recently published several more such reasons on their blog at http://inspiredtocruise.com/.

One good reason is to grant someone a last wish, as was the case of John Hedley of North Carolina who traveled to Alaska with one of his former comrades-in-arms on a final cruise before his friend succumbed to cancer.

Another great reason is to bond with your family, as Bob Taylor of Ohio did to know the sisters he’d only recently met when they spent time together on a Caribbean cruise, and as Naomi Cornelius of Texas did when after a lifetime of distance from her father, she reconnected with him on a Panama Canal cruise .

Still more reasons exist such as Jessie Work and her husband of Connecticut,  used their time at sea to revive their floundering marriage, and Sheryl Tarkoff of Chicago who connected with nephews, cousins, siblings and her children during her cruise up the Eastern Seaboard.

Princess Cruises is a proud member of World's Leading Cruise Lines, an exclusive alliance that also includes Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America, Cunard Line, Costa Cruises and Seabourn.

Winning a free Carnival Cruise for Two

A great chance to win a seven-day Caribbean cruise with Carnival Cruise Lines is now on offer by visiting http://www.carnival.com/pinterest.

Begin the contest by choosing one of four cruise destinations – the Caribbean, Europe, Alaska or Hawaii – then describe what your dream cruise to that location would look like by pinning various images to the newly created contest board.
           
Participants need to pin at least five images or videos from any of Carnival’s social media sites or carnival.com, while the rest of the board can feature any other images of their choice.  Consumers can enter the contest up to four times by simply re-visiting the contest page, choosing a new destination, and entering again.

This fun competition runs through October 14, 2012.

At the end of the contest period, judges from Carnival will select the top 10 boards based on beauty, creativity and originality and the grand prize winner will be chosen by guest judge and “pinning rock star” Mike Dew who has more than three million followers on Pinterest .  To inspire participants, Dew will also be creating his own board specifically for the contest.

“Pinterest is a terrific social media platform for discovering different vacation choices and this contest allows consumers to create and share their idea of the perfect Carnival vacation,” said Jordan Corredera, vice president - digital for Carnival Cruise Lines.

In addition to a grand prize Caribbean cruise for two, the participant whose board has the most followers will win a $250 Fun Ship Dollars gift certificate.

For insights and examples of Caribbean cruises take a look at 12 articles and experiences of such cruises at Prow's Edge Cruise Magazine at  www.prowsedge.com/cruise-articles-reviews.html
           

CLIA National Cruise Vacation Week

An annual cruise event coming up again soon is CLIA’s National Cruise Vacation Week.

Planned to take place from October 21 to October 27, this special event offers the cruise industry’s most  exclusive promotions and features a wide array of special events and offers from twenty-five CLIA member cruise lines representing more than 200 cruise ships.

Planned special deals include up to $13,000 in bonus savings on a luxury cruise, $1,500 per couple savings on a river cruise in Europe, two-for-one pricing, free airfare, complimentary shore excursions, and up to $500 in shipboard credits.

Visit CLIA’s special NCVW page, www.cruising.org/vacation/welcome to find impressive potential savings as well as credits for shipboard spending valued at up to $500, upgrades to suites, or other incentives such as complimentary shore excursions, free airfare, free hotel packages, deposit waivers and more. 

Some of the cruise lines involved are AmaWaterways, American Cruise Lines, Avalon Waterways, Azamara Club Cruises, Carnival Cruise Lines, Celebrity Cruises, Costa Cruises, Crystal Cruises, Cunard Line, Disney Cruise Line, Holland America Line, Hurtigruten, Louis Cruises, MSC Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises, Paul Gauguin Cruises, Princess Cruises, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Royal Caribbean International, SeaDream Yacht Club, Silversea Cruises, Seabourn Cruise Line, Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection and Windstar Cruises.

Keep track of the Prow's Edge blog here for actual details of the special cruise deals.

Carnival is Cruising with the Stars

Dancing With The Stars Celebrity Dance Pro and Season 13 Champion Karina Smirnoff (shown here) has a new gig – Cruising With The Stars™, a new dance-focused fan cruise.

Cruising With The Stars™ launches from Los Angeles on June 3 on a 7-day excursion to the Mexican Riviera, aboard Carnival Cruise Line’s ship The Splendor. Ports of call are Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta.

This inaugural cruise headlines Karina who will be offering all levels of dance and fitness classes on board the ship and inviting both dancers and fans to join her for a full week of celebration following the upcoming DWTS Season 14.

There will be nightly Cruising With The Stars™ cocktail and dance parties, personal Q&A and celeb photo sessions, excursions on shore, all culminating with a spectacular professional dance show.

On Cruising With The Stars™, Karina joins six of America’s champion professional dance instructors and performers – Sharon Savoy and Mike Tuttle, Jamie Bayard and Bonnie Marie, and Enio Cordoba and Terryl Jones.

In addition to the unprecedented nearly 60 hours of dance instruction offered on board Carnival’s The Splendor, there will be a limited opportunity to take private lessons with Karina, as well as the other master level instructors.

For your chance to dance with the stars visit www.cruisingwiththestars.net.

For more fun on Carnival Cruise Lines take a look at Prow’s Edge Cruise Magazine

Cunard Royal Rendezvous in New York

Exactly three years to the day after Cunard welcomed a trio of its Queens in New York, this history-making event takes place again today when Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth call on New York for another spectacular Cunard Royal Rendezvous that includes sail-away fireworks at the Statue of Liberty.

Queen Mary 2 offers 14 spacious decks of opulent public areas, extravagant dining rooms, ballrooms, theatres, lounges, and even the only Planetarium at sea.

Combining the best of a luxury Cunard ocean liner, Queen Victoria, also known as QV, is famous for the dramatic three-tier Grand Lobby with a magnificent grand staircase and eye-catching artwork.

The newest luxury ocean liner, Queen Elizabeth, or QE as she is affectionately known, recalls the rich heritage of the first Cunard ship to bear the name.

This rare maritime event is only the second time in Cunard’s 170-year history that three regal Queens have docked together in New York Harbour. Then, just three days later, on January 16, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth rendezvous again in Fort Lauderdale during Queen Elizabeth’s Maiden World Voyage and Queen Victoria’s debut Americas Season.

For brief overview of Cunard Line visit the updated Prow’s Edge Cruise Magazine Cruise Line Profiles - Cunard Line, or visit the official Cunard web site at www.cunard.com

Official Confetti Sponsor of Times Square New Year’s Eve Lets Visitors Add Personal Wishes for 2011 to the Celebration

For the first time ever, Carnival Cruise Lines is infusing its fun spirit into the world’s largest New Year’s Eve celebration in New York’s Times Square. Carnival today announced it is the official confetti sponsor of the Times Square New Year’s Eve 2011 celebration, bringing its signature fun and popular brand to the annual gathering of more than a million revelers. The sponsorship includes multiple opportunities to associate the “Fun Ship” brand with the annual excitement and engage Times Square visitors and Carnival fans online with the option to have their wishes for 2011 added to the celebration’s confetti.

Carnival’s Senior Cruise Director John Heald will lead the official confetti air-worthiness test in Times Square in late December. He will then grace the main event stage on December 31 to lead the New Year’s Eve celebrants in a practice countdown, complete with 500 pounds of Carnival-colored red, white and blue confetti, the first confetti drop of the New Year’s Eve 2011 party. At the stroke of midnight on January 1, 2011, a ton of colorful Carnival Confetti, hand-tossed by approximately 100 “confetti dispersal engineers,” including a number of lucky Carnival employees, will fill the New York City skyline. Carnival will also engage the crowd through billboard advertisements and a text to win cruise giveaway on New Year’s Eve.

“Carnival is thrilled to be part of New York City’s New Year’s Eve celebration and add our brand of participatory fun to the festivities,” said Jim Berra, senior vice president and chief marketing officer for Carnival Cruise Lines. “There is no place more iconic and energetic than Times Square on New Year’s Eve, so the opportunity to be the official confetti sponsor of this celebration is a great way for us to reinforce the fun our guests experience and to kick off the New Year for our brand. We’ll also be sending warm thoughts of Caribbean climes and tropical breezes to the revelers braving the cold by giving away a Carnival cruise vacation to one lucky person.”

For an overview of Carnival Cruises see the Prow's Edge Cruise Magazine profile of Carnival Cruises.