David Molyneaux’s Blog

So, are the larger Seabourn ships a clear improvement over the smaller ones?

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If you were to design the ideal new luxury ship from scratch, it might look a lot like Seabourn Odyssey, though not necessarily from the outside. Cruise ships these days are more chubby than sleek, what with the need for big balcony cabins and more interior space for expanded spas, entertainment, and dining. Inside, however, the classically elegant Seabourn Odyssey shines. Size matters. The cruise line’s first three highly-rated luxury ships, designed some 20 years ago, are …

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David Molyneaux’s Bio

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David Molyneaux is blogger and editor at TheTravelMavens.com. David, who has cruised on more than 50 ships and visited six continents, writes a monthly cruise column for U.S. newspapers. He is president of the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation and lives on the south shore of Lake Erie. He is a long-time member of the SATW Editors Council, made up of travel editors and representatives from major North American newspapers, magazines, broadcasting and the Internet. For …

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Cruising to fish in the Turks and Caicos

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Off Grand Turk, in the Turks and Caicos islands, south of the Bahamas, I went fishing. Anybody who knows me might wonder about that decision, but the simple truth is that I saw “Light Tackle Fishing” on the shore excursion list during a Caribbean cruise on Holland America’s new Nieuw Amsterdam. I thought, why not? I can tackle some light fishing. I had fun, thanks partly to the luck of the draw. Six men from a ship …

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New pirate ship bar greets cruisers to Holland America’s Half Moon Cay

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Half Moon Cay, Bahamas Make no mistake: The new bar on Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas may look like a pirate ship, but it has never been to sea, and it’s not going anywhere. The Captain Morgan on the Rocks Island Bar was built from scratch on bedrock, 9 feet below the sand, and those wood planks on the ship’s hull were nailed together – in the fall of 2010. Still, it’s a pirate ship in form, …

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Riding AquaDuck on a Disney Dream cruise…fun, wet and easy

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Like nearly every other passenger on the new Disney Dream cruise ship, I rode the AquaDuck water coaster during a recent preview sailing. The Duck was fun, wet, and easy. I liked it so much I did it twice. You sit on a raft similar to an air mattress, with pockets for one or two riders, front and back. The raft is propelled by jets of water through a tube that drops, twists, turns, and then, ingeniously, glides along a clear, …

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