The Lido Deck

Live From Rhapsody of the Seas: We Discover That Alaska Is Not for Wimps

What happens when you take a white-knuckle flyer and stick her in a float plane, flying low over fields of jagged ice? That’s what I set out to find out on a Rhapsody of the Seas shore tour in Juneau. Alaska‘s most touted excursions tend to involve flightseeing — viewing Alaska’s natural wonders from a [...]

Steal of the Week: Cruise the Mexican Riviera From $60 Per Night

Everyone is looking for the deal of the century. So how do you choose the one that’s right for you? Check the Lido Deck each week to get the scoop on our favorite deals — then grab the phone and pack your bags. The Deal: Carnival Cruise Lines is offering a four-night cruise aboard Carnival [...]

Live From Rhapsody of the Seas: First Impressions of the Newly Refurbished Ship

How new can you make an old ship seem? Royal Caribbean is trying to prove that even 15-year-old ships like Rhapsody of the Seas can hold their own against newer, bigger, sleeker ships — with a little plastic surgery, that is. We’re onboard Rhapsody this week in Alaska, checking out the added dining venues, entertainment [...]

Is MSC the New Norwegian?

Over on Facebook and Twitter, we had some fun discussions about MSC Cruises and its newest ship, Divina, which departed from the shipyard at St. Nazaire, France, on Saturday. One Cruise Critic poster called the Switzerland-based MSC the Carnival of Europe. It’s not. Costa, which is actually owned by Carnival Corp., gets that nod; it [...]

Cruise Critic Reader Captures ‘Ring of Fire’ Eclipse

It’s not exactly cruise-related, but it’s still cosmically cool. Cruise Critic member shootr, whose hobbies clearly transcend at-sea travel, snapped this shot of the “ring of fire” eclipse from near Phoenix’s Sky Harbor Airport. Queue the Johnny Cash tune and check out more of his pics here. Peruse thousands of ship and port images in [...]

Wanted: A Pair of Queens (or Three if You Got ‘Em)

As part of Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee celebration next month, Cunard will be amassing its own royal trio — Queen Elizabeth, Queen Victoria and Queen Mary 2. Coming at the tail end of a holiday weekend in Britain, the June 5 event promises to attract thousands to Southampton for a street festival, fireworks and a [...]

Steal of the Week: Cruise from New York to the Bahamas from $47 Per Night

Everyone is looking for the deal of the century. So how do you choose the one that’s right for you? Check the Lido Deck each week to get the scoop on our favorite deals — then grab the phone and pack your bags. THE DEAL: Carnival Cruise Lines is offering an eight-night cruise aboard Carnival [...]

Did We Find the Best Internet on a Cruise? Maybe.

If you’re one of those cruisers that can’t fathom being away from ESPN.com for more than eight hours, or twitches if you don’t check your iPhone for messages every 25 minutes, you already know the Internet on a cruise can be, to put it mildly, an exasperating experience. Your ship may have come in, however… [...]

Poll Position: Bending the Rules (or Not)

Maybe it’s just us, but as often as we hear complaints about deck chair hogs, kids infiltrating adult areas and a slew of other cruise-related gripes, we were a little surprised by the results of a recent Daily Poll in which we asked our readers to confess which cruise rules they’re prone to break. What [...]

Fees of the Future? We Think of More Ways You Could Flush Your Money Down the Toilet on a Cruise Ship

We recently spotted a suggestion on the Facebook page of Carnival’s cruise director, John Heald, that caught our eye. A passenger, Brianna P, was upset because she wasn’t allocated a window seat in the main dining room and wrote to Heald: “I am willing to bet that if Carnival started charging a fee for window [...]