We're Sailing the Newly-Enhanced Mariner of the Seas - Follow Along!
This week CruiseHabit Ric is sailing on Mariner of the Seas and you can follow along, read about his adventures, and even ask him questions. Mariner has received a ton of attention lately after undergoing loads of improvements that make her a real stand-out experience in the Royal Caribbean Fleet. Just head over to his posts on the Royal Caribbean Blog message boards to find out more and be sure to ask him to bring something nice back for Billy! Or just wish him a great cruise - whatever.
This Saturday (July 7) we'll be setting sail and enjoying seven nights in the Caribbean while bringing all the details to you. What makes this particularly exciting for us is that like our 
Saturday November 18th we'll be setting sail once again, this time on Holland America Line's ms Nieuw Amsterdam for seven nights. We're always excited to cruise, but this is particularly exciting as it will be our first time personally experiencing Holland America. In fact, while our 
Today is a sea day, and the last day of our Empress of the Seas cruise to Cuba, and we’ve got the “last day blues” in a big way. Being at sea was a welcome change, as somehow the days felt short this week and I didn't get to enjoy the ship as much as I’d have liked. This summary will be a short one though, as we worked hard to do very little but relax – a vacation within a vacation, but we did get to explore the ship some...
Day 4 on our Empress of the Seas Cuba cruise had us in Cozumel Mexico. We’ve been to Cozumel many times before and it feels a little bit like home whenever we visit. Visiting a fun and familiar destination today softened the blow of leaving Cuba yesterday, which was of course a major highlight of our journey. We’ll take a look at our arrival, where we went, and look ahead to our next day on board... 
Day 3 of our Empress of the Seas cruise took us to Havana Cuba, the highlight of the cruise for most guests, I’m sure. I’ve lived in South Florida my entire life, been lucky enough to travel much of the world, some of my closest friends were born in Cuba, and yet I was hopeful but never sure that I’d get to visit the island nation just a short distance away from my home. Summing up this trip and walking away would sell it short...
Today was our first full day on Empress of the Seas, and we spent it in Key West. The timing of our arrival was a bit odd, and we broke away from what we usually do in this port. Let's review the day and look ahead to tomorrow, which is sort of the "main event" in Cuba... 
With every embarkation day there is a feeling of "vacation is finally here", despite the fact it isn't really a full day after checking in, muster, etc. Today however was all the sweeter after a rather eventful arrival in Tampa, which you can read about over on 
This Saturday we're setting sail on Royal Caribbean's Empress of the Seas, and while we're excited to sail on Royal's smallest ship in the fleet, we're even more exited about our itinerary which takes us to Havana, Cuba! We'll also be visiting Key West and Cozumel, places we really enjoy, so this should be a treat. During our five night sailing we'll be blogging at 
Just a reminder that we're on Independence of the Seas for the next few days. Follow long on