Jetsettersblog

Setting sail from Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas the idyllic capital of the US Virgin Islands, you will find yourself in shopping heaven before embarking upon a 5 night journey around the Caribbean. Widely known as the duty free shopping capital of the world – Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas combines rich history with some of the world’s best shopping.

SeaDream I is an exclusive & intimate mega-yacht which hosts just 56 couples who are serviced by a team of 95 crew, providing a truly 5 star luxury experience.

Leading cruise holiday specialists ecruising Asia Pacific are providing you with this dream opportunity at a saving of up to 65%. Through ecruising you can enjoy 5 nights aboard luxury mega-yacht SeaDream I for only HK$19,249.00 usually HK$61,000.00

ecruising Asia Pacific is a fully registered and licensed travel agency who are specialists in cruise holidays. Recently launching their regional centre for Asia Pacific in Hong Kong, their team of dedicated customer service agents are providing Asia with a gateway to the world of cruising.

This exclusive package on SeaDream I includes all main meals, complimentary beverages, personal refreshment bar and entertainment. The mega-yacht also features an Award-winning Thai certified Spa (massage rooms, steam shower and sauna), Fitness center with state-of-the-art equipment, Outdoor whirlpool, pool and spa facilities.

Caribbean Itinerary

18 Jan - Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

19 Jan - Cruz Bay, St. John

20 Jan - Anguilla, British West Indies

21 Jan - Gustavia, St. Barthelemy

22 Jan - Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands

23 Jan San Juan, Puerto Rico

Details
For sale until: 16 January 2009
Destinations: Caribbean
Ship: SeaDream I
Embarkation Port: Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas
Duration: 5 Nights
Departure Dates: 18 Jan 2009

Other great cruise holidays available through ecruising Asia Pacific include:

China, Vietnam & Thailand HK$13,499.00
14 nights on board Costa Allegra from Hong Kong to Singapore. Departing 21 Feb 2009
For sale until: 21 February 2009
Destinations: Asia
Cruise Line: Costa
Ship: Costa Allegra
Embarkation Port: Hong Kong, China
Duration: 14 nights
Departure Dates: 21 February 2009

ecruising Asia Pacific can be contacted for information about cruise holiday products here and world-wide by simply visiting

 www.ecruising.travel/hk

or phoning (852) 3711 3238.

Marriott and Renaissance Caribbean & Mexico Resorts announced the Winter 2008 Partners in Paradise Award recipients: Richard Poitras, strategic planner and founder of Horizons.com, and Carrie Plato, Caribbean strategy and buying leader of the Mark Travel Corporation.

Poitras was recognized with the Meeting Planner Partner Award and Plato received the Travel Industry Partner Award. The highly esteemed Partners in Paradise Awards are presented to the most extraordinary meeting and travel industry partners, recognizing their overall contributions to Marriott and Renaissance Caribbean & Mexico Resorts.

“These two, dynamic professionals have been selected to receive Marriott’s top industry honor for displaying qualities that exemplify the ideal Marriott partner — organization, leadership, flexibility, creativity and enthusiasm,” said Steve Cook, area director of sales and marketing for Marriott and Renaissance Caribbean & Mexico Resorts.

Launched in 2006, the bi-annual Partners in Paradise Award program is a way of recognizing individuals whose contributions to Marriott and Renaissance Caribbean & Mexico Resorts properties go above and beyond the financial opportunities alone.

Twice a year, the sales team nominates one meeting planner and one travel industry partner to receive this prestigious award. Winners are not only featured on ParadiseByMarriott.com and in a newsletter that is distributed to travel and meeting trades, but they also receive a personal letter, an engraved plaque and a $500 American Express gift certificate.

MLT Vacations added three popular island destinations in the Caribbean through the company’s NWA WorldVacations and Continental Airlines Vacations brands. The tour operator began offering Antigua, Turks & Caicos, and St. Lucia vacation packages Dec. 18.

NWA WorldVacations will offer all three island getaways while Continental Airlines Vacations will offer the islands of Antigua and Turks & Caicos. Vacations package components will include round-trip air, accommodations at a Sandals or Beaches Resort, and ground transportation.

Rental car options and more lodging selections will be announced in the spring of 2009, and optional car rental. More accommodation options are coming in spring 2009.

MLT Vacations, one of the largest providers of vacation packages in the United States, manages multiple package vacation brands, including NWA WorldVacations, Worry-Free Vacations, and Continental Airlines Vacations.

NWA WorldVacations offers vacation packages via scheduled air service on Northwest Airlines, Delta Air Lines and other airline partners, with convenient connections from many U.S. and Canadian cities, to destinations in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Europe and Asia, including luxury vacation packages and destination weddings and honeymoons.

Worry-Free Vacations offers charter vacation packages from several U.S. cities to destinations in Mexico and the Caribbean. Continental Airlines Vacations offers vacation packages via scheduled air service on Continental Airlines with convenient connections from many U.S. and Canadian cities, to destinations in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Europe and Asia.

For more information, visit www.worldagentdirect.com

Ferry service between Antigua and Montserrat will return on Dec. 11 after a three-year hiatus with the help of the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development.

 “We are delighted that we are able to provide visitors with an additional travel option,” said Montserrat’s Ernestine Cassell, director of tourism. “It is our hope that with the convenience of the reintroduced service, international and regional travelers will be encouraged to visit our unique island.” The 107-seat Diamond I will offer passengers daily round-trip service from Monday through Saturday.

The commuter boat will depart Montserrat at 7:30 a.m. and arrive in Antigua at 8:50 a.m. On the return, travelers will depart Antigua at 5:30 p.m. and arrive in Montserrat at 6:50 p.m. On Jan. 1, a schedule and equipment change will take effect. The service will be operated by the 149-seat Provincetown III and will offer two daily roundtrip service four days a week. This ferry service will be available to travelers through April 24. Roundtrip fares are approximately $135.

 For more information, visit www.visitmontserrat.com

Certified Vacations Group entered into a partnership with CaribbeanWeddings.com, the largest site on the web dedicated to destination weddings in the Caribbean, to launch a new CaribbeanWeddings.com brand offering complete travel and destination wedding planning and booking services to the Caribbean.

The partnership provides CaribbeanWeddings.com professional travel industry expertise to back up its web marketing prowess. Roberta Backus Turner, chairwoman and founder of CaribbeanWeddings.com, said, “We worked with our visitors this way for many years, but our call volume and email requests became so enormous that we needed to find an experienced travel partner. Certified’s 28-year track record of excellence in developing packaged leisure travel, combined with our wedding expertise makes a perfect marriage. We interviewed some excellent firms and found the right relationship with Certified Vacations.”

CaribbeanWeddings.com, with more than 1.3 million page views a year, claims to be the leading Internet site dedicated exclusively to the Caribbean wedding and honeymoon market. The Internet company is ranked number one in over 5,000 first page rankings on the major search engines and continues to establish itself as a major Internet player in the Caribbean. Destination weddings are not only popular but they continue to increase each year according to most industry research, and wedding, honeymoon and romance packages sales remain solid year-round, despite a down economy.

According to the most recent “American Wedding Study” conducted by Condé Nast Bridal Media, an estimated 2.3 million Americans got married in 2006, with approximately 16 percent of couples enjoying a destination wedding. This represents an increase of 400 percent since 1996. Destination weddings and honeymoons generate an estimated $5.4 billion in annual revenue for the Caribbean.

To better serve brides and grooms-to-be, Certified Vacations has established a dedicated Caribbean Weddings call center staffed with destination wedding reservations specialists.

CaribbeanWeddings.com was launched in 1999 and is the largest site on the web dedicated exclusively to providing information about destination weddings in the Caribbean.

Before entering into its arrangement with Certified, CaribbeanWeddings.com provided information about weddings and honeymoons in the Caribbean to its visitors and sent leads from those visitors to participating hotels. Now, its visitors will be able to contact Certified directly to handle all or any part of their travel, wedding and honeymoon needs. For reservations on CaribbeanWeddings.com, call 877-312-LOVE (5683).

For more information on Certified Vacations, visit www.certifiedvacations.com

The Montserrat Tourist Board is launching a monthly, online newsletter.

The newsletter serves as one of tourist board’s many initiatives that are targeted at promoting the island. “We are delighted to provide interested parties with highlights of the island’s unique attractions and dynamic cultural events,” said Ernestine Cassell, director of tourism.

“The newsletter allows both industry contributors and visitors to learn more about the destination’s happenings on a monthly basis.” Each issue will have articles that offer details on the island’s featured attractions, upcoming events and news commentary by clicking on the headline of interest.

In addition, recurring categories such as Getting Here, Where to Stay, Diving Adventures and Festivals & Events are designed to supply readers with the latest reports and developments taking place on the island. For additional activity information not available in the newsletter, the More to Do Take Me There icon is formatted to automatically direct viewers to a Things to Do page on the tourist board website. Non-subscribers can also review the newsletter through the tourist board’s website.

For more information, email info@montserrattourism.ms  or visit www.visitmontserrat.com

The Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association (CHTA) has unveiled its new website, which is which is designed to streamline pertinent information to the organization’s hotel and affiliate members, while allowing for new capabilities such as an online membership directory, access to CHTA publications, and the ability to register online for conferences and events.

Through the website, members can access their profile in the CHTA membership directory at any time to update company profiles and records as well as employee contact information. The site also features CHTA manuals, publications, committee minutes and presentations.

The new website will provide information on conferences and events, as well as the ability to register online. Registrations processed online will receive immediate confirmation.

A new feature CHTA expects to have in place shortly is the ability for members to renew their membership dues online. Online purchases such as membership dues and conference registration will require credit card payment through PayPal, a secured credit card transaction company.

For more information, email marketing@caribbeanhotelandtourism.com  or visit www.caribbeanhotelandtourism.com

In anticipation of increased holiday travel to and from certain cities in Latin America, Mexico and the Caribbean, American Airlines and American Eagle are implementing their customary policy limiting the size and number of checked bags, as well as prohibiting checked boxes. “American and American Eagle’s intent is to provide the best customer service possible and to consider the needs of all passengers,” said Peter Dolara, senior vice president for Miami, the Caribbean and Latin America.

“There are limits on the amount of baggage that can be carried in the cabin and cargo areas based on the size of the aircraft.” The baggage and box embargo applies to Cali, Colombia;

Tegucigalpa, Honduras; Medellin, Colombia; Kingston, Jamaica; Maracaibo, Venezuela; Port-au-Prince, Haiti; La Paz, Bolivia; Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic; Santa Cruz, Bolivia; Santiago, Dominican Republic; Quito, Ecuador; Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; San Salvador, El Salvador; Guadalajara, Mexico; San Pedro Sula, Honduras; and Mexico City, Mexico.

All American Eagle flights to and from San Juan, Puerto Rico, in the Caribbean are also included. In addition, there is a year-round box embargo for passengers traveling from or through New York’s Kennedy Airport to all Caribbean and Latin American destinations.

Excess, oversize, and overweight baggage will not be accepted for flights to the destinations covered by the bag embargo. Passengers will be limited to a maximum of two checked bags, with each not exceeding 50 pounds and 62 linear inches (computed by adding the length, width and height of the bag). One carry-on bag will be allowed with a maximum weight of 40 pounds and a maximum size of 45 linear inches. In addition, one personal item such as a purse or briefcase is also allowed.

Sports equipment, such as golf bags, bikes and surfboards, may be checked as part of the total checked-bag allowance, although additional charges may apply.

United Vacations is offering reductions on winter escapes to Mexico or the Caribbean. Recent rate reductions and discounts at select hotels and resorts, combined with the savings from bundling flight, hotel and in-destination activities will save clients hundreds of dollars. They need to book their vacation by Nov. 30 and travel by April 30, 2009.

United Vacations’ America, Canada, Caribbean, Europe, Hawaii, Mexico and Ski programs are operated by The Mark Travel Corporation in Milwaukee, one of the largest vacation companies and operators of private-label brands in the United States.

F

A brand new sailing trip from Antigua to Montserrat is providing travellers with an exciting new way to twin-centre their Caribbean holiday.

From December 1st 2008, Antiguan-based company Ondeck will be providing sailing trips to Montserrat on an Ocean Racing Yacht. Guests will be encouraged to take an active part in all aspects of sailing the yacht, with full instruction given for novices.

The yacht departs Falmouth Harbour in Antigua at 8am on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, with the trip to Little Bay in Montserrat taking approximately four hours. The return journey to Antigua will depart at 1pm on those same days, taking approximately five hours.

The trips have been designed to be flexible, so yacht passengers can choose to return to Antigua the same day or spend longer in Montserrat to experience its attractions. Stay-over visitors will be offered sight-seeing options in Montserrat including island tours, rainforest trekking, scuba diving or snorkelling, horse riding, a visit to the Montserrat Volcano Observatory, a boat tour around the island to see the buried remains of the capital Plymouth, or simply time to relax and enjoy the island’s warm and welcoming atmosphere.

Ondeck’s yacht trips can accommodate a maximum of 15 guests in addition to its professional crew. The trips are open to guests of all sailing abilities, from novices to the more advanced.

The vessels used are Farr 65s, round-the-world racing yachts with wide cockpits that offer the perfect platform to enjoy the scenic crossing.

The return trip costs US$189.00 (approx. £108.70) and is fully flexible.

For more information on Ondeck’s sailing trips, plus online bookings, visit www.ondeckoceanracing.com/antigua/montserrat-adventure.htm

For further details on visiting Montserrat, see www.visitmontserrat.com