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.

Oceania Cruises announced that they're going to be doing significant work to "re-inspire" four of the line's six vessels in a $100 million project that is just the first project in an initiative they're calling OceaniaNEXT.  The project will mean that the 684 guest R-Class ships, Insignia, Nautica, Regatta, and Sirena, will each have 342 suites and staterooms redesigned with a whole new look, custom furnishings, a refreshed color pallette of soft sea and sky tones, lush carpets, and more.  Further, they'll introduce...

Frequent visitors may have noticed that we spent a bit of time away this past month, and we wanted to share why, as well as briefly mention some of the things we missed that we look forward on circling back on. The past month has been full of change for us.  We moved our home, the CruiseHabit Shop headquarters (yet still shipped all orders within days!), started a new career, took a cruise on MSC, a line completely new to us, and took an unrelated land trip.  Life happens, and this time it happened with timing that just didn't let us keep you and the rest of the internet as up to date on the cruise world as we'd have liked.  In fact, there was some cruise news that we wanted to cover while we were still sailing on MSC Seaside - too much multi-tasking for this cruiser to endure for sure...

As much as I love visiting new places, I really love sea days.  This is especially true when on a ship that has a lot to offer, and at a point in the cruise that I’ve found my favorite spots.  What I’d not done until today was really site outside and enjoy the Caribbean.  Today’s weather was perhaps the best of the cruise, so I set out to take some of it in and then enjoy more of the wonderful entertainment on MSC Seaside.

Today we arrived in Philipsburg, which is a city on the island of Saint Martin, and a destination I’ve not visited in around fifteen years.  There are two parts of this beautiful and politically unique island: The Dutch side – Sint Maarten, and the French side – St Martin.  The border is completely open, and noted only by roadside markers.  The French side is part of the European Union, and is an overseas collectivity of the country of France, it’s largest city is Marigot.  The Dutch side is one of the four countries which make up the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and it’s largest city is Philipsburg.