Colorado Springs, CO.  Red Carpet Cruises, Cruise Vacation Specialists.

1) Solstice Here We Come!
2) FREE airfare and upgrade offer on Alaska Cruise/Tours booked by Feb. 28.

1) I wanted to get a quick post out before Crystal and I head off this Saturday for our 7-day Caribbean cruise on the ship I’ve been talking about for a while, Celebrity’s brand new Solstice (www.celebritysolstice.com).  We can’t wait!

Among other things, I’ll be testing out the technology on this ship and will hopefully be blogging and posting some pictures during the cruise.  As a certified cruise agent I’ll have more ability to inspect the ship and try out as many of the on board amenities as possible so I can report on them.

We’ve already got reservations at the four specialty restaurants on board the Solstice

1) Blu
2) Murano
3) Tuscan Grill
4) Silk Harvest

Of all the varied entertainment venues on the Solstice, one I’m really interested in seeing is the Corning Museum of Glass’s Hot Glass show, a live demonstration every night by master glass blowers from Corning Glass Works.

The nightly stage shows in Solstice theatres are near Broadway caliber from what I’m told.  I’ll let you know shortly.

Here’s a beautiful picture of the ship and a gallery of shots that will give you a better idea of how stunning this ship really is.

Now aside form all there is do ON the ship, don’t forget we’ve got four island ports of call to explore off the ship during our seven-day trip.  There are multiple shore excursion adventures at each port and of course I wouldn’t be doing my job of reporting to you if I didn’t try out a few, right?

Did you know the world’s largest rum distillery is in San Juan?  Neither did I!  So I’m going to take a tour through the Bacardi Museum during our stop at San Juan and get a free sample of the goods at the end of the tour.

I figure I’m going to need a little liquid fortification for my adventure the following day during our stop at St. Marteen; the Loterie Farm Tree Top adventure.  Just think, very tall trees, zip line, a mixture of adrenaline and terror at ninety feet!  I’ll get pictures of this one for sure to post!

The Solstice finishes her Caribbean cruise season in mid April and then makes the transatlantic crossing to spend the rest of the season in the Mediterranean.  We’ll be joining her a second time in July on a 10-day cruise embarking from Rome that will take us to ports in Italy, Greece and Turkey.

This cruise will be my second ‘Vacation of a Lifetime’ (Alaska was the first) cruise and my first trip to Europe.  I’ll be talking more about this trip in the next couple of months but we have reserved a number of AquaClass staterooms and we’re hoping a few of you may want to join Crystal and me for this escorted tour.  If you’d like more information on this July cruise you can contact us at our Red Carpet Cruises number, 719 578-3329.  You’ll also find us in the store Tuesday and Thursday.

So that’s it for now.  We’ll be cruising from the 15th through the 21st, so check our blog during the week for the updates I’ll try to post.

2) One of the advantages of the Cruise Planners franchise that Crystal and I purchased is that we instantly got the leverage of a $40,000,000+ cruise company with long established relationships with all of the major cruise lines.

Cruise Planners recently sent us a notice that they had negotiated an exclusive, short term deal with Princess Cruise Lines for their signature Alaska cruise/tour that is hard to believe. The cruise code for this deal will not be found in any booking engine.  It is only available through Cruise Planner agents and is only available for bookings taken through February 28th. 

Here’s the deal;

You can choose an 11 or 12 day cruise tour, with round trip airfare to and from Seattle and Princess will pick up the airfare costs to or from Alaska  (depending on whether you do the land portion of your vacation before or after your 7 day cruise).

This cruise tour is a seven day cruise through the inside passage route (the most beautiful), combined with a three or four night land vacation deep in the heart of Alaska.

Private Princess rail transportation is provided to the beautiful Princess Denali Lodge for two nights, then rail transportation to McKinley lodge for one or two nights.  Princess will then fly you back to Seattle (or from Seattle if you do land first) for your final leg home.

It just keeps getting better: 

A) Cruise fares for this exclusive offer start at just $1,099 per person
B) This offer also includes a FREE upgrade (buy an Oceanview stateroom and get upgraded to a Balcony stateroom at no extra charge!

It really is a fantastic offer and reflects the lengths that cruise lines are going to in order to fill their ships in this current economic environment.  So yes the economy is in the toilet right now but the silver lining is the incredible deals being offered now that will never be seen in better times.

So if you have a few dollars stashed away in the vacation fund and have always wanted to see the last true American frontier, you have three weeks left to take advantage of this fantastic offer from Princess, a premier cruise line.

Crystal and I have very special memories of our Alaska cruise with Princess back in 2005.  So will you.

Ric/Red Carpet Cruises

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