Today Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd, parent company to Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises had their first quarter earnings call, and in case your wondering, it seemed good news for shareholders.  For cruisers there earnings calls don't generally offer much, so there wasn't any huge news, but interestingly, most non-financial comments were about onboard technology and Celebrity Edge...

As mentioned in the previous post my parents have embarked on a 17 night sailing through the Southern Pacific on the Oceania Sirena.  Recently they enjoyed a sea day before arriving just hours ago in the French territory of New Caledonia.  Below I've shared just a couple photos, though napping the library, as beautiful as it is, doesn't make for amazing photojournalism, so we'll keep today's update short and look forward to more tomorrow.  Oh, plus you'll want to keep your eyes peeled for a post on another Oceania ship coming out in the next day or so, which means we didn't want to show too much here...

This weekend we were lucky enough to enjoy several hours on Carnival Vista, Carnival's newest ship.  There will be lots to digest here, but I'll tell you this much - we are truly impressed.  In last week's post we pointed to seven things we were looking forward to on the Vista, and they all delivered.  This 133.5K gross ton cruise ship offers up many great options not found on other Carnival ships and it's hard to try and take it all in on a three hour visit but we sure tried.  In this review, which we're guessing will take us three rounds, we'll share some of what we saw, experienced, and tasted.  Just typing this made us hungry, so we're going to start off talking about dining on the Carnival Vista...

We've answered some of your questions about cruise documentation in the past when covering passport requirements but you've probably heard confusing and conflicting information on cruising to Cuba as a US citizen.  Let's clarify passport and visa requirements, as well as how the United States' travel restrictions to Cuba affect cruising to this tropical island.

One benefit of cruising is getting away from it all and disconnecting, but more and more we have internet connections on board, WiFi in port, and often mobile phone service wherever we travel.  While you might have mixed feelings about staying tethered it's also important to know that staying in touch while visiting Cuba will likely be quite a bit different than you're used to.  Let's look at where you'll be able to get online and how useful your smartphone will be on your visit to the island nation...