Friday, February 11, 2011

Major Redesign coming to Crystal Serenity

CRYSTAL SERENITY TO UNDERGO MAJOR REDESIGN IN MAY


LOS ANGELES, February 9, 2011 – While Crystal Cruises’ ocean resorts have racked up countless awards since entering service, the ultra-luxury line has never been one to rest on its laurels. This spring, Crystal will be spending $25+ million dollars to keep its largest ship, Crystal Serenity, on the cutting edge of luxury style.
More than 400 expert technicians flown from around the world, working round the clock for just 14 days, are scheduled for the massive redesign of her 531 Deluxe Staterooms, Penthouses and Penthouses Suites; retail centers; expansive outdoor pool deck and other design projects during a May 8-22 dry dock at Hamburg’s Blohm + Voss shipyard.

“In the past two years, we have invested well over $50 million in our ships,” says Gregg Michel, president, Crystal Cruises. “Our guests can look forward to dazzling new spaces, which will serve as a stunning backdrop to the incomparable service and choices that always characterizes a Crystal vacation.”

Interior designer, Keith Rushbrook, principal at the Toronto-based II BY IV Design Associates, summarizes the vision: “We wanted modern classic elegance. We wanted Fifth Avenue – crème de la crème New York-inspired living and retail spaces that people love and look forward to spending time in.”

New Deluxe Stateroom and Penthouse Accommodation Décor
All of Crystal Serenity’s Deluxe Outside Staterooms, Penthouses, and Penthouse Suites will sport new, floor-to-ceiling tufted headboards, bedside cabinets, wallpaper, sofas, curtains, pillows, and custom carpets in contemporary lines and classic stone, silk, velvet, leather, and crisp linen textures. New modern lighting features and electronic “do not disturb” and doorbell system will allow guests greater personalization of their home-away-from-home.

New Shops
Serenity’s retail shops will receive a similar, sophisticated metamorphosis. The fine jewelry store will mirror a jewelry box, with mother-of-pearl feature wall, beveled chrome vitrines, and new, private sales area. The boutique will become three-shops-in-one, with a flagship Christian Dior cosmetic/skincare area showcased amongst rich Zebrano wood and herringbone rosewood, arresting black-plum-magenta carpeting, and tufted leather seating.

New Chic Pool Deck
Inspired by Crystal Symphony’s recent transformation, the Seahorse Pool teak deck will be refashioned with circular pod beds, plush sofa groups, and lounge chairs in a kaleidoscope of lime green, azure, and mango.

New Lighting and Furniture
The corridors throughout the ship will be transformed with new, custom carpeting, inspiring artwork, and mood lighting. Dramatic new lighting will also be installed in the Crystal Dining Room, as will new furniture on all stateroom verandahs.

Following the dry dock, Crystal Serenity will embark on a series of Baltic, North Cape and British Isles cruises before heading to the Mediterranean for late summer and fall cruise series, where guests cannot only enjoy the resort’s new look but exceptional value with verandah savings and a new fall fare sale.

Crystal Cruises’ ethos of warm and friendly attentiveness, proffered by top-trained service staff from around the world, has earned the line a reputation for elevating hospitality to an art form. With no guest request left untended, Crystal Cruises has been the perfect choice for luxury travelers for over two decades.

For more information and Crystal reservations, contact Diamond Point Luxury Travel Professionals at 814-682-7232, or Danton Resuta at Expedia CruiseShipCenters-Tyrone www.dantonresuta.cruiseshipcenters.com.

Enter the 7Seas Club Dream Vacation Sweepstakes!


Courtesy of Crystal Cruises, Mimi Weisband, and Susan Wichmann (310) 203-4305, mediarelations@crystalcruises.com

Saturday, February 5, 2011

What do the Super Bowl and Royalty have in common?

Coming to a Big Screen near you!!!


Royal Caribbean highlights the splendor of cruise travel in prime time style. This year's Super Bowl commercial from Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines.

Love it... Hate it... Rank it amongst the other commercials after the game!
Please post your comments here! Thanks and Happy Traveling!

Remember to sign up here for more Award Winning Travel News and your chance to Win a Free Cruise for Two with Airfare!!!

Danton Resuta
Diamond Point Luxury Travel Professionals
Expedia CruisShipCenters- Tyrone
814-682-7232
www.dantonresuta.cruiseshipcenters.com

Friday, February 4, 2011

The Finest in Luxury Cruise Travel

The Yachts of Seabourn

Imagine a cruise line that imparts a more intimate means to discover extraordinarily striking destinations. Embark on a journey and behold wondrous continents in the comfort and elegance of Seabourn’s yacht-like vessels offering decadent all-suite accommodations and luxurious Signature Delights.

Tantalize your senses aboard the Yachts of Seabourn, offering luxurious and elegant surroundings for the ultimate pampering. Go kayaking off Seabourn’s marina, take part in an exclusive Seabourn shore excursion, shop with a chef and get insider information and tips, or be whisked away by limousine with Seabourn’s Personal Shopper program. Delight in the shimmer of sunsets at sea and indulge yourself in Seabourn’s yachting life where you’ll be pampered from head to toe.

Experience the world from a uniquely personal point of view and relish in your gracious getaway to a tantalizing world aboard Seabourn. Experience a treasure-trove of exciting destinations in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic or travel to the farthest corners of the world in Asia, India and Arabia. Allow the seductive energy of South America to draw you in or experience nature’s most bountiful side in Central America. Indulge yourself with an extravagant expanse of pure relaxation in the Transatlantic or bask under the sun on white sand beaches in the Caribbean. Wherever your sense of adventure wanders, you’re sure to experience fascinating sights you’ve always wanted to see, alive with people, culture and memories to be cherished forever. Experience the world in Seabourn yachting life style.

**Enter to Win the 7Seas Club Dream Vacation Getaway. Click below to enter!**



Accommodations
Your suite aboard a Seabourn cruise is the ideal haven. In order to ensure you have the most luxurious vacation aboard The Yachts of Seabourn, all the staterooms are suites. The sea is always in view, framed by the expanse of a five-foot picture window, or (in many suites) the doors of your balcony. A complimentary bottle of champagne greets you as your stewardess offers you a selection of bath products by Molton Brown, London and introduces you to your suite’s amenities. You will also enjoy the plush cotton robes, slippers, fluffy duvet cover and fine Egyptian cotton linens.

Seabourn Pride, Spirit and Legend
Surprising in both design and size, Seabourn suites are a retreat of classic luxury. Measuring a generous 277 to 575 square feet, these suites offer modern conveniences that will allow you to fully relax and enjoy your cruise experience.

Each suite is equipped with two twin beds or a queen-sized bed, a refrigerator and bar stocked daily, personalized stationery, flat-screen television and DVD player, Bose Wave Stereo CD player, three channels of closed circuit radio, direct dial telephone, Wi-Fi, cell phone access and a hair dryer.

Suites
Relish in all the comforts and amenities of a Seabourn Suite, featuring a living area and bedroom with picture window.

Balcony Suites
These suites are inspired by the resorts of the Riviera; guests can open up their veranda doors to fresh sea breezes and take in the sights and sounds of the ocean from the privacy of their own room.

Double Suites
These suites provide spaciousness and flexibility for family or friends travelling together. The living room has two picture windows, the dining room converts to a second bedroom with a fold out queen-size bed and the two full bathrooms will enhance convenience for all guests in the suite.

Classic Suites
Seabourn’s Classic Suites provide the ultimate in luxury with French doors leading out to your private veranda giving you views of the amazing seascape right from the comfort of your own room. These suites feature a living room with a forward-facing window, a bedroom with a queen size bed, a generous bathroom with tub, shower, a large vanity, and spacious alcove closets.

Owner’s Suites
Pamper yourself in Seabourn’s Owner’s Suites featuring a living room with semi-circular couch and expansive ocean views, a dining area, bedroom with queen size bed, spacious alcove closets, one bathroom with tub, shower, and large vanity, and one guest bath with vanity. Seabourn’s Owner Suites also boast floor-to-ceiling glass doors leading out to your own private veranda where you can catch breathtaking scenery from the comfort of your own suite.

Seabourn Odyssey and Seabourn Sojourn
Seabourn Odyssey offers unequalled choice in accommodations. Choose from 225 ocean view suites measuring 295 to 1,682 square feet, 90% with private verandas. These spacious suites with exceptional amenities will allow you to enjoy luxury at its finest.

Each suite has two twin beds or queen-size bed, a walk-in closet, and a granite-topped private bathroom with a full bathtub and a separate shower. You can relax in a comfortable living area which includes a writing desk, a mirrored vanity, a personal refrigerator, a bar stocked daily, a sofa, wireless internet access and an entertainment center with an interactive flat-screen satellite TV featuring a range of music and movie options.

Seabourn Suite
Seabourn Suites feature a picture window providing panoramic ocean views.

Veranda Suite
Enjoy the amenities offered in these suites with a full-length glass door that opens up to your own private veranda.

Penthouse Suite
Relax in these suites featuring a full-length window and glass door leading to your private veranda. Penthouse Suites also offer a separate bedroom.

Owner’s Suite
Enjoy the comfort and space that these suites provide with full-length windows and a glass door leading to your private veranda. Feel at home in your separate bedroom and granite-topped private bathroom with a whirlpool tub and a separate shower. If you wish to host guests, the Owner's Suites feature a guest bathroom, a dining area with a four-top table and a comfortable living area with butler pantry.

Signature Suite and Grand Signature Suite
These luxurious suites feature full-length windows and a glass door leading to your private veranda, a separate bedroom and a granite-topped private bathroom with a whirlpool tub and a separate shower. For your convenience, these suites have an extra storage closet, and a dining room with a six-top table and a butler pantry. The Grand Signature Suite offers the same layout as the Signature Suite but with the added space of a connecting Veranda Suite.

Wintergarden Suite and Grand Wintergarden Suite
These spacious suites offer the finest in luxury with full-length windows and a glass door leading to your private veranda. You’ll feel right at home in the separate bedroom and a granite-topped private bathroom with a whirlpool tub and a separate shower. For extra convenience and comfort, these suites offer an extra storage closet, a glass-enclosed solarium with tub and day bed, a dining room with six-top table and a comfortable living room with a butler pantry. The Grand Wintergarden Suite offers the same layout as the Wintergarden Suite but with the added space of a connecting Veranda Suite.

**Enter to Win the 7Seas Club Dream Vacation Getaway. Click below to enter!**




TOP Seabourn Signature Delights
Complimentary Beverages

Enjoy complimentary wine, spirits, fine French champagne, soft drinks, and mineral water. Your in-suite bar is stocked daily to your personal specifications. Fine wines are poured with lunch and dinner. And, in all shipboard lounges, premium spirits and champagne are available.

Seabourn Destinations
Seabourn Destinations SM complimentary planning services will help you organize custom experiences ashore. These experts have a wealth of personal knowledge about each port of call. They will help you feel right at home with the local culture, people and places so you can make the most of every port.

Shopping with the Chef
At select ports around the world, enjoy an insider’s look at local markets where enticing, regional ingredients abound. You’ll get the chance to discover authentic ingredients in historic markets in the company of Seabourn’s knowledgeable chefs.

Caviar in the Surf(SM)
As you take in the waves of the ocean on a Seabourn tropical cruise, imagine a steward wading in to serve you chilled caviar and fine French champagne.

Seabourn’s Personal Shopper
Be whisked away by limousine to exclusive shopping destinations with this optional service. Designer boutiques such as Gucci, Bvlgari and Chanel await.

Personal Valet (SM) Luggage Service
Forget about customs and long airport check-in lines. Instead, conveniently ship your luggage directly to your shipboard suite, and home again with this optional service.

TOP Activities and Amenities
Onboard Classes
Seabourn offers a multitude of enrichment programs to keep you feeling sharp and learning new things. Seabourn’s Chefs’ Circle gathers some of the brightest culinary stars from around the world to provide cooking demonstrations and tastings. Seabourn’s Dress Circle, an onboard enrichment program affords guests a privileged proximity to outstanding personalities during their cruise. Seabourn invites luminaries from far-flung fields of human endeavour to add their insights to your journey. Each speaker brings a wealth of fascinating information to offer you new insights on current events and local culture.

Library
An excellent selection of books, magazines and newspapers may be borrowed from the onboard library. In addition, a wide variety of music CDs and unabridged books on CD are available for your enjoyment on board.

Movies
Catch up on all the movies you missed back home with Seabourn’s Movies Under the Stars SM, where you can enjoy the latest Hollywood flicks out on the deck. Kick back in a lounge chair as waiters serve you fresh popcorn and chocolate desserts, and settle in for the most pampering movie experience.

Water Sports Marina
During select cruises, dive into water sports from the unique Marina – complete with a soft drink and ice cream station. Complimentary activities include snorkelling, wind surfing, kayaking, banana boat rides, and water skiing from the ship’s motor boat.

Fitness Facility
Keep yourself feeling and looking your best in Seabourn’s lavish ocean view gym, equipped with an array of LifeFitness equipment including treadmills, recumbent and upright stationary bicycles, bicep curl, chest pressure, pectoral fly, lat pulldown, back extension, seated leg extension, seated leg press, hip adductor, abdominal crunch and free weights. The gym is also complete with men’s and women’s saunas and steam rooms, and offers personal training for those looking for a fitness program. Or if you’re looking for a little variation in your workout, try one of Seabourn’s fitness classes like step or circuit training to get your heart pumping.

Spa
Succumb to serenity. Leave your concept of time at the door as you enter the Spa at Seabourn. Breathe and center yourself; transcend to another dimension where relaxation is made to order as the staff at Seabourn’s spa pamper and indulge you. For your pleasure, Seabourn has included Elemis spa-therapies combining the touches of ten exotic cultures. Indulge your senses with a Swedish massage, ocean wrap, facial, stone therapy, reflexology and Japanese shiatsu. The Spa at Seabourn also offers full salon treatments including manicures, pedicures, and hairstyling. Seabourn also brings the spa to you right on deck with their Massage Moments where certified massage therapists are at your disposal; complimentary of course.

**Enter to Win the 7Seas Club Dream Vacation Getaway. Click below to enter!**




Spa Villas**
Enjoy a half-day of pure, opulent indulgence in one of the 750-square foot villas at The Spa at Seabourn. Relax in an airy, palatial private retreat featuring separate seating and dining areas, an indoor double bed lounger, two treatment beds, an oversized bathtub and separate shower, as wellas a private wraparound terrace with sun loungers in the open air. Unwind while Seabourn’s skilled spa staff provides you with a range of services that are sure to leave you feeling relaxed and rejuvenated.

**Available for Seabourn Odyssey and Seabourn Sojourn only

Casino
Seabourn’s onboard casino offers guests the chance to flirt with lady luck. Try you’re your hand at favourites such as blackjack and roulette or choose from a wide range of tables and slot machines.

Nightlife
With a number of bars and lounges your evenings will be as luxurious as the day that precedes it. Head to the Show Lounge to enjoy Dress Circle presentations, the evening’s variety show, first-run films and dancing to the Seabourn quartet. The Observation Lounge with a commanding 300-degree view offers a wonderful setting to enjoy after-dinner music while you sip your favourite drink. Or prepare to dance the night away in The Club. And, for your convenience, complimentary bar service is available in all lounges. Looking for something a little different? Seabourn presents an Evening Under the Stars. It begins with a sumptuous barbeque on deck featuring everything from lobster tails to spare ribs. After dinner, let the deck become your dance floor as a band entertains you with rock and roll hits.

Shopping
Head to Seabourn’s boutiques where a fine selection of clothing and souvenir items await. Fragrances, giftware and fine jewellery are also among the fine items available for purchase.

Wireless at Sea
Stay connected to those back home in Seabourn’s computer center featuring personal computers and printers. Every computer is equipped with Microsoft Office software and Internet browsers with email capability. In addition, all suites and most public areas are wired for wireless access for use from your laptop.

TOP Dining
Dining aboard a Seabourn cruise is just as luxurious and memorable as every other aspect on board. With four venues for your convenience and dining pleasure, you’re sure to find something to suit your palate anytime. Dinner service aboard Seabourn offers guests complimentary wine, and tables glistened with Porsgund china and Schott Zwiesel crystal. Head to The Restaurant for stylish open-seating dining, or try out The Veranda* café and The Colonnade**, a breezy, indoor-outdoor venue that offers the perfect setting for breakfast and lunch. At night, this café turns into “2”. Still offering a casual setting, “2”offers innovative tasting menus and themed bistro dinners by reservation. The Sky Grill* and The Patio Grill** serve a tantalizing selection of grilled specialities with low key music and views of the far horizon. Looking for a pick me up in the afternoon? Refresh and restore your mind and body at afternoon tea where you can sip your favourite brew or sample Seabourn’s exclusive collection of rare estate teas complimented by sandwiches, pastries, and many other treats. Seabourn also offers in-suite dining where waiters will serve you course by course from The Restaurant’s menu in the privacy of your own suite. And of course, room service is available 24 hours a day so you can eat whenever you like.

*Available on Seabourn Pride, Spirit and Legend
**Available on Seabourn Odyssey and Seabourn Sojourn

TOP Cruising with Family
While Seabourn caters more to adults than kids, on shorter cruises and summer cruises there may be a few families onboard. Seabourn is committed to providing a relaxing and enjoyable cruise vacation experience for all of their guests, and as such the crew may add some children’s activities to keep the youngsters happy and occupied throughout the cruise.

TOP Meetings at Sea
Seabourn offers programs for corporate meetings, incentive rewards for top producers and sales executives, fund-raising events for arts and charitable organizations, alumni associations and private functions for individuals or families.

Corporate meetings and incentive programs on board a Seabourn cruise offer distinct advantages over land-based venues. You can arrange everything so that you and your attendees are the only guests on board. The itinerary, onboard programming and even the masthead on the daily program can all be customized to declare that this is your event.

**Enter to Win the 7Seas Club Dream Vacation Getaway. Click below to enter!**




DANTON RESUTA
DIAMOND POINT LUXURY TRAVEL PROFESSIONALS
EXPEDIA CRUISESHIPCENTERS- TYRONE
(814) 862-7232

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Cruise For FREE! Travel the world the least expensive way ever!

If you're a member of a team, organization, group or family that wants to take a holiday, why not suggest a cruise and save with the incredible group rates available. Take the initiative today and become a cruise tour conductor.

Tour conductors work with CruiseShipCenters to make travel arrangements for large groups in exchange for a discounted rate. They're responsible for reserving a group of staterooms and recruiting enough people to occupy them.

Whether for a corporate retreat, family reunion, team event or just plain fun, it's most efficient and cost effective to book everyone together and take advantage of the exceptional rates.

As a tour conductor you can travel on the cruise of your dreams for free or for a significantly reduced price. You may also receive additional compensation for your efforts. The exact compensation will depend on the size of the group, duration of the trip, the destination and other factors. Tour conductor compensation may be kept as a reward for your effort, shared with members of your group to reduce everyone's cost (common with family reunions, or friends and family groups) or used as a prize giveaway.


Most cruise lines, including Carnival Cruise Lines, Celebrity Cruises, Holland America Line, Norwegian Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean
and Princess Cruises, require that a minimum of eight staterooms and 16 guests are booked to constitute a group rate. Please refer to the individual cruise line, as each will have their own set of conditions.

As a tour conductor, it's your job to round up the troops and to do a thorough job ensuring everyone is onboard. Once you've established a committed group, the rest is up to us. We'll do our best to find you the best sailings and negotiate the best deals. Groups are often eligible for special perks including hosted cocktail parties, stateroom upgrades and shipboard credits.

If you've got a group in need of a vacation, contact us for further information and save on your cruise today. Don't forget to ENTER TO WIN A FREE CRUISE FOR TWO WITH AIRFARE at our 7Seas Club!