Guest Post

Many families and couples have begun looking for alternatives to traditional beach vacations for their family get away this year. Cruises offer a fantastic alternative to what is typically an expensive and difficult to plan trip.

All-Inclusive
When choosing to cruise for your vacation, most of the tedious planning is eliminated altogether. You will have most of your meals aboard the ship, leaving you only to decide when and what delicious dish you would like to eat! There are several different restaurants aboard Coral Princess Cruises, ranging from grill-style, relaxed dining to extravagant steakhouse quality dinners. Room service is even available twenty-four hours a day if you prefer a more personal meal in your quarters.

There are also multiple bars and activities aboard the ship, so you will never be bored for lack of things to do. Most activities are included with your cruise fare and nothing more than showing up is required. This is a favorite aspect of cruises for many families who find planning individual activities on traditional vacations to be both expensive and complicated.

See More Places
Another wonderful element of cruising is the many places you will visit while on board. Most cruise plans make multiple stops along your journey, allowing you to experience several destinations. This gives you an opportunity to find new places you might visit again at a later date, or simply to see more of the world than staying stuck in a hotel in one city on a traditional vacation.

More for Your Money
Cruising is not only enjoyable and relaxing, it’s economical as well! The beautiful décor of the Coral Princess appears more as a five-star resort than a ship. Most meals and activities are included in the total price of your trip, reducing the amount of unexpected expenses you might incur planning meals and activities on a standard vacation.

Food aboard cruise ships is well-known for being high-quality. You can choose to eat at the pizzeria for dinner, or have a lavish dinner in the main dining hall – something that might have cost you several hundred dollars at a land-bound restaurant!

The entertainment on cruises is also notoriously fantastic. There is never a cover charge at the martini bar or cigar lounge. You may also choose to take part in ship-coordinated activities that are typically free of charge. The Coral Princess even hosts a world-class art collection and museum on board!

Fun for Kids and Adults
Whether you are cruising alone or as a family with children, there are activities and facilities to suit your needs. For kids, there is both a kids and teens club aboard where children can interact and participate in fun activities. These can include just-kids swimming hours, scavenger hunts, and special late-night movies.

For adults, there are multiple bars and lounges, as well as a full-service spa, to interact with other cruise goers or just simply relax and enjoy! Parents can leave children at the kids club for a few hours, knowing the little ones are in good hands so they can also enjoy all the ship has to offer!

Cruises are a great option to consider if you’re looking for something a little different to do this year for vacation. The Coral Princess offers something for everyone at an affordable rate for a no-fuss get away.

By: Zoe Sedlak

I’ve always felt that understanding a city’s past is important to understanding a city’s present, especially if that city boasts such a crazy impressive history as Florence, Italy does.  True, you may be walking around the city in 2011 and not 1312, but when a city is called the “birthplace of the Renaissance”, the place that literally reinvented money during the 1400s, history might be a good place to start.  We may not have had one of the Florence apartments next to Michelangelo, but we can visit some of his stomping grounds and feel the history around us.  So now, allow me to take you on a virtual tour through Florence, with the city’s historical contributions as landmarks.

The Duomo
The Duomo, as well as being a beautiful gothic cathedral, is also a Florentine symbol.  Anyone who’s played Assassin’s Creed understands the dramatic significance of The Duomo as the place of the infamous Giuliano de’ Medici’s murder, but the cathedral’s creator, Fillipo Brunelleschi, has made important contributions of his own as well.  He revolutionized our idea of architecture, and became a teacher for those who did such things as make the map that Columbus – as in the Columbus – used on his first voyage.  This place weaves a tangled net of historical importance.

The Palazzo Medici-Riccardi
This is another symbol in Florence, one of the Medici family’s contributions to the Renaissance and how we know the world to be today.  The Medicis, who came to hold a lot of the power in Florence, started the Bank of Medici, an important cog in Florence’s machine.  The family also encouraged Florence’s rich art and literary culture, which produced a powerhouse of artists.  I mean, Dante, Macchiavelli, Da Vinci, Michelangelo.  These guys were big, and they all came out of Florence during the time of the Medici rule.  The Palazzo itself, although it passed through many hands over the years, remains standing today, to remind us of what the Medicis meant to Florence’s success.

Basilica of Santa Croce
We’ve all heard of Galileo.  His discoveries basically shaped how we see the world today.  He was one of the original badasses of history who got in trouble because he refused to compromise his badass ideals.  The fact that he was convicted of heresy – later recanted – and still in death, despite his rocky history with the government, received a nice golden tomb in this cathedral tells you how important he really was.  He’s the reason we know the earth moves around the sun, he’s the reason we have telescopes, he’s the reason modern science is the way it is today.  This tomb is an important site not just for the history of Florence, but for the history of the world.

So I ran out of space. There are too many important historical symbols in Florence to fit in this article.  These landmarks have been instrumental in shaping how we understand our own lives today, and seeing so many of them packed into one single city is kind of mind-blowing.  The art we consume, the technology we enjoy, even the money we trade, it all has historical ties to this Italian city if we look back far enough.  The Renaissance was way back, and we may live in a time that’s inclined to always be looking forward, but I think visiting Florence and visiting these sites, seeing these apartments in Florence that may have once housed such influential minds is important to understanding our own lives, no matter where we come from.

By: Maria Climent Huguet
Maria Climent is a 26-year-old Catalan lady. After studying translation, she decided her life was odd enough to became a humor scriptwriter and by default, a blogger. This is how she’s now a mother of no one and a better person. She also likes to cook!

Despite the wonders of travelling, Margyle’s lastest post put a rather obvious fact out on the table: Travelling can be uncomfortable sometimes.
Let’s look at the main things that prevent us from travelling, then everyone can assess if these are really that critical or not:

Family responsibilities: Many people who have children don’t want to make them move all the time. Or you may have a partner you are so in love with, that you just cannot be separated from them… (which usually means leaving it for later until you see yourself sharing a flat or settling down and getting married). Also, our parents might prevent us from travelling, if their physical or mental health is weak. We must assess our current situation in order to be able to enjoy our travels, otherwise, a bad conscience can spoil our travelling experience.

Money: It’s no secret, money is needed to travel and if you’re a nomad, earning money is not always that easy. Being a professional blogger is an option, but not for everyone, what do you think?

Fear: Current world situations might make us feel scared. This insecurity sensation transmitted by the media and world governments: global crisis and terrorism may prevent us from traveling to certain destinations. But, who knows if the information we receive is the full truth or not. A good way to face this insecurity might be by taking some action instead of remaining immobile, perhaps getting a plane ticket and any of the apartments in Rome and exploring to realize this world is not as bad as they say it is.

I’ve thought a lot of times about renting one of the Rome apartments. Although, I have come across some of these handicaps to travel, I’ve reached the conclusion that most of it is in our heads. Our attitude towards a situation is important and one of the only things we can control. Learning to gain consciousness of who we are, what we want and where we are going helps clear the fog.