While all that may be true, and I have no doubt that our air traffic control technology needs to be updated, there’s a great deal of speculation swirling around what might have cause the equipment to overload in the first place. One thing in particular seems to be the target for a lot of people and that’s AI, specifically, the SMART system the FAA was implementing under the direction of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.

SMART, which I covered just before it rolled out to Washington D.C. airports around two months ago, was set to go nationwide Friday, November 13^th, the day I’m recording this. There’s a sort of rule in IT, don’t roll out changes on a Friday, much less on the 13^th. Obviously, no one paid attention to that here.

I covered it in more depth previously but the high level overview of what SMART is supposed to do, is provide traffic management suggestions to air traffic controllers. The system makes the suggestions based on live flight data including weather and conveys that information to ATCs. The airline industry, reportedly, pushed back so hard on an earlier version of the system that the government curtailed the scope of the project and delayed implementation.

No one was going anywhere for much of the day on November 13. A nationwide ground stop was issued by the FAA in the aafternoon.

To be clear, at this time, there is no evidence that the issues that forced the nationwide ground stop are related to SMART. Secretary Duffy made no indications that the day’s stoppage and the rollout of SMART were connected in any way. What he did say was, “Our switches, our routers, actually got overloaded with data … and started to give us inconsistency in the data from those routers. And because of that, we shut the system down.”

Even if the two are truly completely unrelated, when rolling out a new AI system nationwide, after strong resistance to it being used at all, and then having a system outage so dire that the FAA issues a nationwide ground stop… well, it doesn’t look great. Putting this into context, there have only been three nationwide ground stops ever. One was on 9/11, another in 2023 due to pilot alert system issues, and now this one. This isn’t trivial, far from it.

The National Weather Service did say that it was aware of a national radar outage impacting radar.weather.gov, so that may be contributing to the delays, or it may be connected to the cause. Currently, we do not know. I’m going to be keeping an eye on this and I’m sure that there will be more for me to say later.

During the multi hour nationwide ground stop, thousands of flights were delayed or cancelled. We’ll be sorting this out for days.

On top of all that, Amtrak’s ticketing system went down this evening, so you couldn’t even buy a train ticket. It didn’t stop the trains from running, it just meant you couldn’t purchase a ticket.

Secretary Duffy called on congress to fund $50 billion for a “complete overhaul” of the system following these events. Regardless of whether SMART was the failure source or not, which we do not know at this time either way, the country’s AATC infrastructure does need a massive update. That’s something that we should be funding because the Secretary is correct that if we don’t invest into this, events like this will happen more often.

For all the travelers impacted by this today and into the weekend, if you booked with a travel agent, reach out to them for advice right now. None of us have the power to make the planes fly, but we can help you manage this and navigate around it. We are already doing exactly that with our clients and you can bet that travel is going to be snarled up for at least the next few days.

The post FAA Issues Nationwide Ground Stop – What We Know Right Now appeared first on Far Far Away Travels.

Virgin Voyages continually rolls out an assortment of offers and promotions—some combine, others not. Keeping track of these deals can be complicated. Here’s our up-to-date guide, designed to keep you informed.

News

Alaska 2028 Sailings Available to Book Starting November 12:

Deals

When Is the Best Time to Book?

We get asked this question often.  The best time to book is when you see a sailing you want at a price you are comfortable with. Sailings on Virgin can fill up fast as they have become very popular. Prices on some sailings rise steadily.

In all the cruise lines nowadays, the best prices tend to go to the people who book very early.  There are last-minute sales, but far more often the price of a cabin goes up or stays the same.  Millions more people are cruising nowadays and that means cruise companies feel less need to cut prices.

If a better offer comes out later for a Virgin cruise you have booked, we can get it repriced to the better offer if you book an essential or premium fare and it is more than 45 days before your sailing.

If you book with us, and you think you see a better price, just ask and we will send you an analysis (sometimes you may lose perks from a promotion that no longer exists, for example). Then you decide. We are always happy to save you money.

Sailor Loot from Us

On many sailings we can add free sailor loot on sea terrace and better cabins. Ask us for a quote here.

If you want to see which promotions might apply to you, contact us here with the voyages that interest you.

Virgin’s Standard Discounted Rates

Virgin has long-standing discounted rates for specific types of sailors. These are not offered on every voyage and usually appear only a few months or weeks before the sailing date.

Be sure to tell us if any of these apply to anyone in your cabin before we book.

1. Resident Discount Rates. For any of these rates, you will need to show proof of residency if you live in Arizona, Canada, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Mexico, Nevada, New York, New Jersey, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Texas, Washington
2. U.S. or Canadian First Responders or Active or Former Military. These include active, veteran, spouse, or surviving spouses of any branch of the military. First responders include firefighters, EMTs, paramedics, and police.
3. Solo Travelers. Solo travelers often get stuck paying double as cruise lines tend to charge per cabin. Virgin often offers Solo sailor rates at discounted prices. Read more below.

Free Bar Tab

Is this your first time sailing Virgin? Get Free Bar Tab!

Virgin Voyages has a referral program which can get you extra free Bar Tab on your first sailing. Ask us for a referral code BEFORE you book, and you can qualify for a free $150 bar tab on any cabin except for a lock-it-in rate or Mega Rock Star.

This offer does not combine with many other offers.

If you have sailed Virgin before, you can get a referral code link to share with your friends.

Extra Bar Tab

Bar Tab can be purchased in several ‘chunks’ each with a corresponding bonus if you buy it before the cruise. Once you are onboard the bonuses are not available.

• $200 Bar Tab: Bonus $25 (12.5% extra)
• $300 Bar Tab: Bonus $50 (16.7% extra)
• $500 Bar Tab: Bonus $100 (20% extra)
• $750 Bar Tab: Bonus $175 (23.3% extra)
• $1000 Bar Tab: Bonus $250 (25% extra)

If you would like to look at bar menus to get an idea of prices, we have put this together (dinner menus too).

My Next Virgin Voyage Certificates (MNVVs)

The rules around usage were changed significantly on August 6, 2026.  If you have purchased one before then, don’t worry, nothing has changed for those.

If you purchase one now, please know that you cannot transfer it to others.

My Next Virgin Voyages (MNVVs) can only be purchased while sailing on Virgin. It is what other cruise lines call a future voyage deposit, but Virgin’s is more generous than most.

If you book a cruise of 4-5 days with your MNVV: You get $150 discount off the price of your cabin and $150 Sailor Loot (On Board Credit)

• If you book a cruise of 6-8 days with your MNVV: You get $200 discount off the price of your cabin and $200 Sailor Loot (On Board Credit)
• If you book a cruise of 9 days or more with your MNVV: You get $250 discount off the price of your cabin and $250 Sailor Loot (On Board Credit)

These only work on a sea terrace (balcony) or better, not a lock-it-in rate. They expire after 2 years and are non-refundable.

Important: Buy these while on board. If you buy them after you sail, they will have the loot but not the discount.

Lock-It-In Rates

The lowest prices but they come with restrictions. Be sure you understand them before you book one.

Read this before booking one.

Reduced Single Supplement Rates

Solo travelers love Virgin Voyages as the Virgin provides many opportunities for solo meetups and activities. Here is the current list of sailings that have the solo discount:

More information

If you’re still wondering about Virgin Voyages or have specific questions, some of our most popular articles might help.

• Alaska Virgin Review
• Virgin Voyages Dining Guide
• Splash of Romance
• Virgin Voyages Fitness
• Scarlet Lady Lucky Lotus
• Sailing as a Mega Rockstar

The post Virgin Voyages News and Current Deals Early November 2026 appeared first on Far Far Away Travels.

That’s not something that I’m being hyperbolic about either, really. There was not a scenario that I could imagine where I would find these things helpful. I knew people who used them, but I didn’t understand what good they would do. Seeing them in action just made them seem like an extra step that I could safely skip.

Oh. How wrong I was. At least… how wrong I was about some of it. Now you get to learn what I’ve learned and, hopefully, you’ll soon understand which is the best packing cube for you.

At this point, you might notice the length of the article. If you just want to know what cube I like the most, skip to the end. However, if you are interested in learning why these things are useful and how they might help you, read on because you might find these cubes more desirable than you think.

What Are Packing Cubes?

If you’ve never heard of these things, then let me introduce them. This is a packing cube.

As you can see, the word cube is a bit of a lie. Cubes are equal on all sides and these are not, making it a cuboid. What name would describe them better, though, I’m unsure of since cuboid is decidedly challenging to market. Regardless, these are packing cubes and they come in two broad categories: compression and non-compression.

The first category, compression, describes the design and functionality of the cube. They are typically double zippered with one zipper being the top flap to open the cube and the second zipper giving the compression.

The second category, non-compression, has only one zipper. The only thing it does is keep the items inside it. That makes it slightly simpler to use and gives an option for rigidity. If you aren’t trying to compress the items inside, then you can make a stiffer container to hold them all.  That means that with some of these models they will stand on their own and hold a shape. I want to be careful to mention that this doesn’t mean that they somehow protect the items inside, they aren’t some sort of shock absorbing material. All it means is that the walls of the cube stay up while you use it.

Outside of those two broad categories, the differences in packing cubes mostly come down to features for specific uses and materials. Some packing cubes, for example, have a window in them to see what’s inside. Others eschew a window in favor of completely covering the items inside. Without a window, it allows for various features to appear, like being waterproof.

Not all packing cubes are for clothes, there are also more specialized packing cubes for things like toiletries and makeup. These types of cubes are usually sealed fully because they are meant to contain liquids and protect against spills or leaks.

When looking for a packing cube, you’ll need to determine what you want it to do since these things aren’t meant to be all-rounders.

Why Would You Use One?

My biggest hurdle to investing in these products was always that I couldn’t see what made it worth having. The proposition of packing cubes is that you can put all your clothes and toiletries or anything else you travel with into a tidy pouch and then unpack it when you arrive. Upon departing again, you repack the cube and the cycle repeats.

I observed others partake in this ritual of delicately folding things into a bag to put it into… a different bag. The ritual struck me as an unnecessary enterprise into organization. It is, essentially, double packing your clothes. Or is it?

I’ve learned that assessment is not entirely accurate and I’ve reassessed the usefulness of packing cubes.

The change in thinking came from a trip that I wrote about, my journey to the Galapagos. I had to pack differently than I usually do. I needed to pack tighter, with fewer things, fewer bags, and multiple stops along the way. My usual way of packing is to keep things separated by bag, but that system depends on having just one or even no stops before I reach my final destination. This works well enough for a lot of trips, but even in those cases, I’ve become frustrated by it when I have that single overnight stop.

The best packing alleviates problems, like packing and unpacking repeatedly in hotels.

What I typically do when I have that single overnight is pack a separate selection of clothes in my carry-on to have one, just one, change of clothes for the following day. Doing that would mean I would have a loose pile of clothes shoved into the bottom of my roller bag or backpack. Every time I open the bag, I’m making sure that clothes don’t fall out.

That problem isn’t really much to surmount, though. The real problem is 2-3 night stays, especially with more stops afterward. Let’s lay out two different, short, multi-night stays in a hotel that illuminates why I’ve changed my tune on these floppy containers.

Spending 1-3 nights in a hotel is a common scenario on a business trip and that means you’ll need a few changes of clothes. You’ll definitely bring 1-3 changes of clothes to wear for the work portion. Many of us in these scenarios (in my old job I did a lot of these trips), wear business or business casual outfits. You really don’t want them to be wrinkled, so you can’t just cram them into a bag. You also are likely to want at least 1 change of casual clothes for the traveling days and, if you’re like me, some exercise clothes.

When traveling for this length of time, many of us try to avoid checking bags. If we can get away with ju st carry-on, it makes it so much easier. Fitting all your travel needs into a backpack or roller-bag means you can skip the headache of baggage claim and the worry of your bag being lost by the airline.

When doing some simple overnights, I always try to travel light.

In this example, keeping those business outfits folded nicely and separate from the workout clothes is essential. The packing cubes make sure that your outfits stay neatly pressed and clean. They also help keep your clothes organized inside the bag so, if you’re using a backpack, you can still get into the bag without your clothes falling out onto the airport or airplane floor.

A more enjoyable situation to ponder is when you are traveling for leisure, sometimes called a vacation. Many people take trips where they stay for a night or two in one city and then move on to somewhere else. Sometimes that’s a cruise, sometimes that’s another town, no matter the reason, there’s multiple packing and unpacking sessions.

Packing cubes can alleviate several irritating problems when in this situation. If you want to only use carryon, similar to the business travel scenario, it keeps things from falling out onto the floor. In the case you do have a larger checked bag, it means that you can keep a change of clothes for an overnight or two in your carryon so you don’t have to go in your checked bag. Should the nightmare scenario of the airline losing your luggage happen, if you pack a change or two in your carryon, you can have some buffer to dress yourself with.

If we’re being honest, it’s nnot just kids that will spill stuff on the shirts… The best packing cubes make finding your clothes easier.

If you do have a multi stop itinerary with overnights between, you can plan ahead to put the clothes you want into specific cubes so you don’t have to go through your whole suitcase each stop. I’ve used this several times now and it save so much time when I arrive. All I need to do is think through what I’ll want to wear and put that into a cube to use. Then, when I get to the next stop, I only unpack that and then I close my luggage up.

Additionally, many of us go on vacations with kids, and packing cubes can help here as well. When you pack for your kids, especially young ones, you’re picking out all the clothes and packing the bags for them. Their clothes are often mixing in with yours and, when they inevitably make a mess on their shirt, you’ve got to get a replacement out. If your kid’s clothes are in their own cube, it’s going to take a lot less time to find than fishing through the whole suitcase.

Even if they insist on having the own suitcase, the cubes can help organize their clothes into individual pieces, like pants or shirts. The less time you spend searching for the replacement piece the better. You don’t even need to pack the clothes neatly, go ahead and just shove them in if you want. The neat folding isn’t the part that saves you time, it’s knowing where the clean shirt is.

These aren’t the only scenarios where packing cubes help though.

More Specific Use Cases

Ask yourself, how many times have you forgotten to bring a charging cable with you? I’m guessing that the answer is more times than you care to admit. I’ve done it, you’ve done it, and your parents have done it so many times you just plan on stopping to get one while traveling. It’s just a law of the universe; it’s going to happen.

There is a way that you can reduce or eliminate forgetting that pesky cable. Especially that micro-USB one that’s still used by a single device, probably a Nook or Kindle, that you still use but you bought it just before USB-C became the standard. You know. That cable.

I never forget to bring any cables these days and I have fleet of cables. When I’m traveling, I’m bringing multiple cameras, usually 3 or 4, laptops, hard drives, power supplies, batteries. The point is, I have a lot of cables but I always get everything I need and the trick to doing that is a packing cube. Also just buying extra cables and USB docks. Believe it or not, I really do need everything on almost all my trips. The trick I use, which isn’t really a trick, is just keeping these cables together and only using them for travel. I simply gathered extra cables I had accumulated, like ones that were bundled with purchases, and used them here. Keeping my two power cubes, USB hub, and various USB cables together ensures I simply grab this cube and go.

The best packing cube is a question of purpose. I use different kinds for different things.

I also use a toiletry packing cube. Each pocket contains specific things that I replace when I run out. Nearly everything you see in these pockets, stays in these pockets. In between trips, very few things are removed from this packing cube, most of them stay in all the time. Whenever I need to pack for a trip, I simply grab the toiletry bag and put it in my luggage. Since I started using this, I’ve never forgotten toothpaste, or deodorant, or any other toiletry that I need.

Do Compression Cubes Work?

I don’t believe that I would be doing a thorough job if I didn’t provide an answer here. To quickly recap what the compression cubes claim to do, they say that the cube can save space by compressing the items. This claim isn’t necessarily false but let’s examine how true that is.

There’s a simple problem I can see with the claims of the compression cubes. Compressing objects relies on reducing the space between them, or in them, usually occupied by air, thus, making them smaller. There’s not much that can be compressed in objects like clothes.

One of the Schake cubes and one of the Aerotrunk cubes are very similar in size, though not identical, but I have packed each with identical sets of clothes. I happened to have two of the same design of dress, pair of shorts, blouses, pajamas, camisole, and socks. This collection of clothing should occupy the same amount of space and, when the two bags are both uncompressed, they each occupy roughly the same volume.

The Aerotrunk compression cube is on the left and the Schake cube is on the right. Even though the angle is a bit different, the height of each cube is similar and they are packed with identical clothes.

Once the compression zipper is closed, the compressed cube does reduce some space. Where that reduction happens is not uniform, however. Most of the compression takes place on the sides of the cube. As the zipper closes, it reduces the available room on the edges of the cube and pushes the clothes toward the inner area, making a tighter fit.

While this does reduce the space being taken up by the cube, where the space is made is often not the most helpful. You might be able to fit a small bottle here or other similar sized object. Yet I will venture that you would be able to fit that same bottle without using the compression cube.

The compressed height of the cube really only changes on the sides.

Although it is true that the compression cubes compress the clothes slightly, the benefits may not be exactly as you hope. If you think this feature is beneficial to your needs, then it could be a good option, but I don’t think having a more rounded cuboid will make much difference.

Differences in Quality

One of the first things that people want to know about any product is how much it costs. It’s completely reasonable to ask that question. Afterall, you don’t want to overpay for something that you won’t get much use out of, even if that thing is high quality. A homeowner with one yard to manage likely won’t benefit from paying for a commercial lawn mower, for example.

On the other end of the spectrum, we’ve all been tricked into buying something that sounded a little too good to be true and it was. A good testimonial or a flashy and fun demonstration has lured many people into buying something that does little more than empty their wallet. The price of something is an indicator as to quality and that often goes both directions. Finding a happy medium for your use is important.

Take this bag and this bag [hold the Eagle Creek bag up and the Shacke one up] This bag by Eagle Creek cost about twice as much as this one from Shacke. Both of them are packing cubes and non-compression style, so why does one cost more than the other?

I felt a difference in the smoothness of the zipper action beteween the Eagle Creek and the Schake.

Neither one of these companies is going to have a detailed breakdown of exactly what every part costs to show you why one is more than the other; they keep those figures strictly internal. The bags are definitely different but the materials listed on the specifications give a clue as to what the difference may be. The Eagle Creek one is made of recycled polyester and the Shacke is made of Nylon.

Using recycled polyester is a more expensive material than virgin (meaning non-recycled) polyester, but that likely does not account for the entire price jump. Most of the figures I found for the cost per ton puts recycled polyester at around 25-35% more expensive than virgin. That percentage difference figure varies as it is influenced by quite a few metrics and it represents an average. The cost per ton can be higher than that difference or lower, sometimes even costing the same as virgin fabric. Regardless, that higher average cost for fabric explains at least some of the price difference.

Given the somewhat limited resources that I have in discovering all the true per unit costs associated with each item, I’m forced to look into other aspects, like feel of material and function of parts.

When I move the zipper on the Shacke, it doesn’t glide as nicely as the as the zipper on the Eagle Creek. I don’t know which one cost more, but I know which one feels nicer. The mesh on top of the cubes also feels higher quality on the Eagle Creek; it’s smoother and softer to the touch. In my mind, which is not knowledgeable about fabrics, the Eagle Creek mesh feels less likely to catch on things or tear.

The Eagle Creek packing cube has a tighter stitching than the Schake option.

Getting closer in, I’m looking at the stitching on these cubes. The Eagle Creek stitching is tighter, with a more frequent stitch. I admit that I don’t have the education in garment manufacturing to judge if this improves the material joining in any meaningful way, but it is still a difference I can see.

Beyond that, and the design of the cubes, I can’t spot any meaningful differences. Again, I am not trained in this field but I want to identify any contributing factors to the price.

I looked at many different cubes from around the internet and the story seems to be mostly the same. Higher cost materials, like recycled fabrics or zippers, are used in more expensive items. But does that additional cost mean anything to you in practical terms. To me, I don’t think that there’s a huge difference for most people’s use case.

It’s preferable to use recycled materials for the environmental impact, but there isn’t a significant separation in durability between using recycled and virgin material, at least that I was able to find. As for the zippers, higher quality zippers will, generally, bind less than lower quality ones, but these zippers may not be ones you are using daily and how much this matters is up to you.

The compression cube did use very nice zippers, which is probably necessary.

I think that compression packing cubes could benefit more from using higher quality materials, especially the zipper. I bought a few different products in research for this article, and when I was searching for compression varieties, I found that lower cost offerings received more comments about the zipper binding up.

Over my life, I’ve learned that buying the good thing once and paying a little more money is almost always a wise decision over buying the cheaper alternatives. Packing cubes are fairly simple items. They hold your things and keep them in place. The parts to assemble are easily sourced and the designs are uncomplicated. They do not need to withstand powerful stresses or hold up to impacts. In my experience, items like this need not be expensive. I don’t see any reason that spending more money on a packing cube is going to provide practical benefit in most cases.

The pricier products do feel nicer in your hand, at least they do to me, but not enough that I can say you should spend money on it, unless you are traveling frequently. However, I believe that the often on the road, business traveler would likely benefit from spending a bit more on a packing cube set for their clothes. The sturdier feel of these items, hopefully, equates to longevity and, the more often they are used, the more that matters.

What’s the Best Packing Cube?

By this point, you may be guessing at my conclusion, but the best packing cube is the one that has the features that matter most to you.

That being said, it’s not very actionable advice so let me tell you my preferences.

My personal favorite is the compression packing cube set from Aerotrunk. Despite what I said about the compression feature not really helping that much, the cubes themselves are fantastic to use. The zippers are great, with smooth action, the material is nice to touch but also has held up to use well over the last few months. They come in lots of colors which are more than just aesthetically pleasing because different colors can be used to indicate different people in the same piece of luggage or different clothing types. Overall, I really liked this product.

My pick for the best packing cube is the Aerotrunk option.

A more budget minded choice won’t be lead astray, though, which is why I like Shacke’s offering. The cubes did not feel as nice to the touch and their zipper action isn’t as smooth. Neither of those things disqualify them from purchase, though, since they still perform the main job of holding your items inside without any problem and cost less than other products I tried.

When you want to make a more environmentally conscious choice, the Eagle Creek cubes provide an excellent option. Though they are more expensive per cube, their quality seems clear to me. They are a very close second in how nice they are to touch and their zipper action is the smoothest of any of the cubes I have. It would be well worth the money to pick up a set of these.

I can no longer travel without this packing cube from Gregory, it is essential.

If you liked my way of keeping all my electronic cable needs in one cube, then here’s a small breakdown of what I have. The cube is from Gregory, their Alpaca 5L Camp Gear Pod. It’s got rigid sides and an easy access, zippered compartment that lets me get at all my electronic cables quickly.

As for the makeup bag, that is a Mary Kay product that can be purchased on their website under the makeup tools section. I have used mine for nearly a decade now and it’s held up to quite a bit of use. It lets me see all the things inside it while keeping any potential spills inside an individual pouch.

I hope that this packing cube review helped you find the best one for you, but that’s not the only thing we can help you with. We are a travel agency and not only do we know a lot about packing cubes, we know even more about the places you’ll want to take them. Whether you are looking to book a trip to a resort, take a cruise, or just get away for a few days we can help with that! Each year we book hundreds of vacations for individuals, families, and large groups. We’ve got years of experience and firsthand knowledge to make sure you get the best trip possible with support all along the way. Our team of travel professionals can help find and book the best rates and discounts for your trip because it’s our job. So don’t book on your own, use our expertise and book with us so we can help get you, far, far away.

The post What’s The Best Packing Cube For You? appeared first on Far Far Away Travels.

This name change restriction has not changed. If you purchase an MNVV in your name, you cannot change the name on that placeholder certificate.

They also announced that there would be some additional changes regarding booking windows and length of time to use the MNVV before it expired. Their recent announcement changed this.

Under the rules that went live on October 27^th, the following changes affect all MNVVs:

• The MNVV must be used on a booking within 2 years of the purchase date. This means if you purchase an MNVV on January 10^th, 2027, you must make a booking with it by January 9^th, 2029.
• There is no date restriction on what sailing the MNVV can be applied to. This means that if you purchase an MNVV, you can book any sailing that is available to purchase. This removes the previous restriction which said that it can only be used on sailings that start within 2 years of the MNVV’s purchase date.

While Virgin Voyages makes changes to the MNVV program, the benefits aren’t going away.

What’s the same?

The main thing is that the MNVV’s rewards have not changed. It’s still one of the most rewarding programs in the cruise industry. Between the price discount and onboard credit, having an MNVV still gives great value.

• Sailing 4-5 days: $150 discount and $150 Sailor Loot (On Board Credit)
• Sailing 6-8 days: $200 discount and $200 Sailor Loot (On Board Credit)
• Sailing 9 days or more: $250 discount and $250 Sailor Loot (On Board Credit)

To purchase an MNVV, you still need to be onboard a Virgin Voyages cruise and put down a $150 deposit. When you convert the MNVV into a booking, that $150 deposit is still applied to the sailing as a payment.

What also hasn’t changed is the room restriction. The MNVV can only be booked on a standard Sea Terrace or better. No Lock-it-In, no Limited View Sea Terraces, or Insiders and Sea Views.

The post Virgin Voyages Makes Changes to Popular MNVV Program appeared first on Far Far Away Travels.

Only two weeks ago I wrote about how the airfare is rising and it’s likely going to be quite expensive to travel around the holidays. Now, we get to add another layer of crap onto our airline experience because the US Department of Transportation has just taken away, even more, consumer protections for fliers.

What the Department of Transportation has Taken Away.

A few days before the rule we’re covering here was supposed to go live, it was delayed. The DoT pushed back the implementation of this rule until February 1, 2027. This wasn’t reported on until the day the rule was supposed to go live, October 19^th, because the DoT quietly published the rule in the Federal Register on October 15^th; making no other remarks in public about it. Although the rule has been delayed, it will still be implemented next year, so we’re still going to cover it.

In July, the Department of Transportation rolled back a consumer protection rule that required airlines to un-hide the hidden fees, following a court ruling on procedural grounds. This includes things like change fees, checked bag fees, carry on fees, seat-choice fees, and more. Now, the price you see when shopping for tickets is not always the price you will eventually pay. Airlines seem happy to have these fees hidden again. In 2024, three of the biggest airlines made well over one billion dollars each on these fees. Yes, one billion. Each. In one year. Allowing the airlines to hide these fees again isn’t even the policy change that prompted this article, but I’m going to take address it regardless.

According to analysis by NetVoucherCodes, a UK based company that focuses on helping customers save money through coupon links (they are akin to Rakuten) and data analysis, 100% of US based airlines charge hidden fees. According to the report, the most egregious offender of the hidden fees is Frontier, adding 376% on top of their base ticket price. Spirit airlines was even higher, at 736%, and we all saw how that turned out.

A DoT Rule can have drastic imapcts on our travel. This chart from from Net Voucher Codes shows their breakdown of how many air carriers charge hidden fees to customers.

Lest you think, I’m sure that the larger, non-budget, carriers don’t really do this. No, they do it too.

Delta increases their final ticket price by 158% over base fare, while United increases it 122%, and American by 95%. The lowest percentage markup is from Southwest at 42%.

We were close to having a world where we would see most, if not all, of these fees rolled into the public price. That day may still come, but it has been punted into the future by the Department of Transportation and the federal courts. That ruling on procedural grounds, by the way, was a determination by the courts that the DOT, in 2024, did not allow the public adequate time to comment before implementing the rule.

The current regulatory environment sets the airlines up to more easily capture extra revenue from all of us from these fees. There doesn’t seem to be any other way to look at it either. The regulators, in my opinion, are taking an anti-consumer stance. Even if the only effect on customers is that we now have to spend more time going deeper into the checkout process or doing more mental math, it still makes it a worse experience for all of us.

Even More Consumer Protections Lost

What I’m covering today is that even more consumer protections that were set to go into effect have been rolled back. These rules changes were published on September 3^rd and went into effect on October 19^th. The Department of Transportation published an amendment to the final rule (linked above). What they changed in the final rule was removing a proposed suite of protections to make flight cancellations less expensive for you, the customer. Under the plan, you would have received $200-$775 per passenger in forms of cash compensation for airline-controlled disruptions. It would also have required the airlines to cover hotel, rebooking, and even meals as a result of these disruptions.

To give you some idea of the scale of this, over the last year, almost one quarter of flights by US Carriers were delayed, meaning that is was 15 or more minutes late. Furthermore, almost 7% of all flights experienced carrier delays. Of delayed flights, carrier caused delays were the most common reason for a delay at just shy of a 30% share. That means that if your flight is delayed, it’s a near one in three chance that the delay was attributable to the airline.

It’s these delays that the changes are most likely to affect. However, we don’t know what the knock-on effects of this policy change will be not only in the current delays, but also the corporate culture changes that may occur when liability is taken away from the companies.

What Are The Changes

Here’s the Department of Transportation’s official list of what the airlines will no longer be required to provide compensation for.

1. An aircraft that must be cleaned following the death of a passenger.
2. An aircraft is damaged by extreme weather, foreign object debris or sabotage.
3. A baggage or cargo loading delay is caused by an outage of a bag system that isn’t controlled by an airline or one of its contractors.
4. A cyberattack causes the disruption and the airlines are in compliance with federal cybersecurity regulations.
5. A shutdown or system failure of government systems occurs that directly affects the ability of an airline to safely conduct flights and that is not expected.
6. A plane’s brakes are overheated due to a safety incident in which emergency procedures were used.
7. Unscheduled maintenance that must be addressed before the next flight is necessary.
8. An emergency requiring medical attention that the airline has no control over occurs.
9. An unruly passenger must be removed from a flight.
10. An airport closes due to volcanic ash, wind or wind shear.

If any delay is categorized into these ten causes, the airline will not have to pay compensation. That means that you’re on the hook for any costs associated with the flight being canceled or delayed for these reasons. Since I try to be very factual in my work, even while having some fun, I want to recognize that airlines may voluntarily compensate you for delays or inconveniences, this rule doesn’t stop that from happening, but the previously proposed rule would have required it.

How Will This Affect Me?

This rule’s ability to impact your flight and compensation is pretty critical, so we’re going to take the time to go over this and discuss how  each item could influence your experience.

1. An aircraft that must be cleaned following the death of a passenger.

This seems fairly reasonable at face value. A passenger dying on an airline is going to cause delays, among other things. Not that the delays are likely the most important thing at that moment, but they will still happen. There aren’t detailed statistics on the number of deaths on airplanes each year outside of fatal crashes, so I don’t have any data to show you regarding how often things like this happen. This does happen though and, if it happens on a flight that you are connecting with, you’ll be on the hook for any disruptions you experience.

2. An aircraft is damaged by extreme weather, foreign object debris or sabotage.

Once again, this sounds mostly reasonable. The airline is not at-fault for hail hitting the plane, which makes some sense. However, the foreign object is a bit more of a question mark for me. What if the foreign object was a piece of something used by the ground crew that broke off. What if that object broke because of poor maintenance by the airline? What if something was left unsecured and damaged the plane when the engines started? I know the airlines don’t want these things to happen, but if they do and they would reasonably be concluded to have been, even if only in part, the fault of the airline, why is the customer bearing the burden of that failure? Once you look at it, this item has too much wiggle room for my taste.

This new DoT Rule is shaping the air travel industry toward a less consumer friendly position.

3. A baggage or cargo loading delay is caused by an outage of a bag system that isn’t controlled by an airline or one of its contractors.

If you’ve never thought too hard about exactly how your bag makes it through the airport and who is tasked with caring for it, you’re not alone. I imagine most people haven’t thought about this. The answer to who is responsible for your luggage ultimately rests with the airline, but who is responsible for the handling of checked bags at an airport has variation.

Much of the time, the airline is responsible for hiring the baggage handlers or contracting with a company that handles the bags in the airport and gets them onto the planes. In some cases, the airport may hire the staff directly. If the airline has issues with the bag system in the airport and it delays the plane, they might not have to compensate you.

The key here is the “isn’t controlled by an airline or one of its contractors.”

Much of this new DoT rule comes down to the fine print of what part controls what. It makes it less likely that consumers will be compensated when something goes wrong.

If this is the reason given for the delay, the airline has room to blame parts of the baggage system that they don’t control. If the conveyers the bags travel on are controlled by the airport, for example, they could be blamed for the delay in loading bags on the plane and mean that you aren’t compensated when your flight is behind schedule.

This is, again, another way that airlines are being given room to shift blame to parties that remove liability from them.

4. A cyberattack causes the disruption and the airlines are in compliance with federal cybersecurity regulations.

This rule means that if an airline suffers an attack on it’s computer systems but it’s in compliance with federal cybersecurity regulation, then it is not responsible for compensating passengers. I have a lot of opinions on this. Well-informed opinions.

In recent years, the federal government realized that it needed to do better with cybersecurity regulations and legislators acted in accordance. In 2018 the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency or CISA was created by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Act of 2018. To be fair, this wasn’t the first time that a centralized digital protection service existed. The current agency began as the National Protection and Programs Directorate or NPPD, back in 2007.

The 2018 reorganization gave CISA significant power to create and enforce security standards, which it was doing. It didn’t just do this in a vacuum either, it had the Cybersecurity Advisory Committee which had members from many different walks of life. Mayors, CEOs, university chancellors, professors, and directors of emergency management agencies all found themselves working with CISA to guide them on implementing policies.

Quite frankly, I don’t trust the current cybersecurity standards to be rigorous enough to support this new DoT rule.

However, CISA has been weakened since 2025 by layoffs and dismantling of the organization. It’s in such a sorry state that this last May, it was discovered that they left open up a massive security vulnerability. So when I’m told that the airlines won’t need to compensate customers if they are in compliance with federal cybersecurity regulations and suffer a cyberattack, I can’t help but question if those standards are enough.

Keep in mind, cyberattacks on airlines and airports are increasing. The idea that a cyber attacker could cripple an airline or airport is not some fanciful tale, it is reality. In 2025, Kuala Lumpur International Airport was brought down for over 10 hours by ransomware. Airlines including United and Hawaiian have publicly been targeted by cyber attackers. Most of these attacks haven’t been successful, but from 2024 to 2025, the European Aviation Safety Agency reported a 600% rise in cyberattacks on airports and airlines, so the bad actors aren’t giving up.

5. A shutdown or system failure of government systems occurs that directly affects the ability of an airline to safely conduct flights and that is not expected.

Government systems could be anything from TSA scanning devices to air traffic controller communication equipment. These elements are often very much out of the airline companies’ control, that is true. I certainly don’t want to fly if, say, radar isn’t working. You’re still going to be in a tough spot, though.

I agree that things like radar and ATC systems need to be working for a safe flight.

6. A plane’s brakes are overheated due to a safety incident in which emergency procedures were used.

If you’re thinking, this sounds very specific, you would be correct. Situations like this are quite rare and what it means is that the plane has done something where they have to land either overweight or in a less-than-controlled manor, leading to the breaks overheating and either having to be replaced or cooled off. If this leads to cancellations or delays down the schedule, regardless of fault, the passengers may be on the hook for any issues that come from it.

Now, this is again about safety, which is always paramount but, I want you to keep this one in the back of your mind for a few minutes because we’re going to come back to it.

7. Unscheduled maintenance that must be addressed before the next flight is necessary.

“Unscheduled maintenance” is a far too broad category for me to like it in this context. To illustrate, let me paint a picture for you. This could mean that an airplane’s computer isn’t working and it can’t take off or even start up. That’s a pretty good reason for a delay. That exact scenario happened to me a few years ago. They had to swap out the computer and almost had to swap jets; there were many hours of delay.

This new DoT rule allows airlines to blame unscheduled maintenance when something goes wrong and not compensate you.

Now, that sort of thing could be completely unexpected, things happen and you can’t predict everything. However, it could also be that the pilots had been logging issues steadily and the airline hadn’t scheduled the plane for the proper maintenance and now the plane is delayed unexpectedly.

Yet again, this is a blackhole of interpretation that the airlines could use to avoid compensating passengers when something goes wrong.

8. An emergency requiring medical attention that the airline has no control over occurs.

How this is defined will be a huge key factor. A heart attack is something they have no control over, but if an older person falls over and breaks a bone because of turbulence, is that out of the airline’s control? I would say the airline bears little responsibility in that scenario in most cases but, context is everything. The more questions there are, though, the more wiggle room there is for the company not to pay something to passengers that have their travel disrupted.

9. An unruly passenger must be removed from a flight.

Unruly passengers are always popular to cover in various travel articles. There are tons of videos, some fairly famous, of people having meltdowns on planes. Sometimes it’s anger issues, other times it’s mental illness, but often it is alcohol that is a leading cause of these situations.

Airlines have a responsibility, at least in my opinion, to not overserve passengers and not allow inebriated passengers to board. They do often reject passengers that are intoxicated, but it’s still a problem and this new DoT rule gives the airline an out if it happens.

Airlines have to deal with drunken passengers more often than you might realize. Quite often, those passengers were inebriated when they got on the plane, so it isn’t entirely the airline’s doing. Consider, though, if the airline keeps serving the passenger alcohol and they become unruly, wouldn’t that give the airline at least some culpability? Not according to these new rules, it seems.

If a passenger gets overserved and starts throwing up or hitting people, it’s a problem that the airline must deal with now. Sometimes, that means duck taping passengers to their seats. Sometimes that means an emergency landing. Maybe that landing leads to overheated brakes. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter if the behavior was caused by alcohol that was served on the plane or on the ground before the flight, the passenger was let on the plane or served more alcohol when, arguably, they shouldn’t have been and now, you’re on the hook for the delay.

10. An airport closes due to volcanic ash, wind or wind shear.

Yes, I do agree, a volcano or wind closing an airport is out of the hands of airlines.

The Real Problem Is What To Do In The Moment

In my mind, several of these items seem reasonable, the rest are far too open ended. The problem isn’t really how much responsibility the airline actually has, though, it’s dealing with what is happening in the moment.

Take, for example, a cyber-attack. If hackers take down an airline’s booking systems and the gate agent cannot scan tickets, in that moment, to you the passenger, it doesn’t matter whether the airline was in compliance with regulations or not, you’re still stuck. It could take months to figure out if an airline was in compliance or not, but you need a hotel now. You don’t have time to wait for fault to be determined, the problem exists in the moment.

That’s the issue at heart here. The old rules were in place to protect and care for consumers when things go wrong. Customers won’t spend weeks, months, or years, trying to get reimbursed for expenses that they technically should have been compensated for. By requiring airlines to pay passengers in the moment that disruption happens, it incentivized airlines to work diligently to avoid those situations and ensured passengers have hotel rooms or money to get one.

Those protections are out the window now. Instead, customers will have to fight for compensation and argue with customer service agents. We’ve all lost protections we had because of these rule changes and it sucks. Even if some of these changes seem reasonable, I doubt you will feel that way if these things happen to you. I’ve flown too many times to believe that people remain completely calm and level headed when their flight is delayed or cancelled. That’s especially true if it’s because of “unexpected maintenance.”

What Can You Do?

Perhaps it sounds quaint right now, but you can call or write to your representative in Congress. Ostensibly, they have the power to change the requirements of the regulatory bodies and pass laws to protect us. Letting them know how you feel doesn’t protect your travel in the moment, though.

The best thing you can do if you’re traveling is get some travel insurance. A travel insurance policy can protect you from delayed or cancelled flights, missed bookings at hotels or cruises, and make sure you don’t face a huge loss if something goes wrong.

Yes, things usually do go the way they are suoosed to when you’re traveling, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take steps to protect yourself and let those in power know they need to protect us.

I don’t want you to get the feeling that I’m here to sell you on buying another thing by fear mongering, I’m not. The truth about travel is that the VAST majority of the time, everything goes right and you get to where you need to be, when you need to be there. If it didn’t work that way, then people would get pretty fed up pretty quickly. Things do go wrong, though, and now there are fewer rights that protect you so, you might want to take a step to protect yourself.

If you’re taking a flight somewhere and are wondering how to get that travel insurance, we’ve got you covered. As you might have guessed we are a travel agency and if you are looking to book a trip to a resort, take a cruise, or just get away for a few days we can help with that! Each year we book hundreds of vacations for individuals, families, and large groups. We’ve got years of experience and firsthand knowledge to make sure you get the best trip possible with support all along the way. Our team of travel professionals can help find and book the best rates and discounts for your trip because it’s our job. So don’t book on your own, use our expertise and book with us so we can help get you, far far away.

The post New DoT Rule Makes Air Travel Worse for the Customer appeared first on Far Far Away Travels.

Disney Believe Announcement

Just last week, Disney made a big announcement about their upcoming ship in the Wish-class, Disney Believe. This will be the fourth ship in the class with one more Wish class expected in 2029. While that 2029 ship is set to operate in Japan, opening Disney to a whole new market, the Believe is playing it safe by starting out with 4- and 5-night sailings in the Caribbean. While this isn’t exactly a bold beginning, and there are online grumblings about the rather staid itinerary, this isn’t really a bad thing. Keeping the brand-new ship close to home gives the company plenty of time to give it a long shake-down. Every ship comes with some quirks and being near territory with plenty of support helps to ease that process.

Disney announced that operations on the Believe will begin in December 2027, with sales opening on October 19^th of 2026, so just over a week away at time of writing. The company spent quite a bit of time in the announcement going over the theming for the Believe. While that might be an odd choice of emphasis for other lines, it makes a lot of sense for DCL. After all, if you’re going on a Disney Cruise, you are there for the theming.

The Grand Hall in the center of the ship is going for a Moana theme this time around, something already shown at this year’s D23 convention, which we covered when it happened. There’s plenty of new information released too.

This is the Grand Hall on New Disney Ship, The Disney Believe. It Features Moana Theming.

For Entertainment, they are debuting an Encanto Musical which will be exclusive to the Believe. The show already has some buzz around it, featuring hit Lin-Manuel songs from the astoundingly popular film. Parents, be warned, if you only recently stopped not talking about Bruno, sailing on the Believe will make you start not talking about Bruno all over again. They are also bringing the popular Tangled and Disney Seas the Adventure stage shows from the other lines.

Character encounters and trivia, because what is a cruise ship if not a floating trivia game, will take place in an entertainment area themed to Zootopia. Operating under the name “Gazelle”, it will include the first on-ship appearances of Judy and Nick as meetable characters. The space will also host some evening activities for adults, like a silent disco as well as some fan-favorite activities being brought on from other ships.

Guests will be able to dine at a new Frozen experience set at Oaken’s which, Disney made clear, is a new story rather than a repeat of the Wish’s Arendelle Dining Adventure. For anyone who might be confused about the phrase, “new story,” and dinner being next to each other, I will explain. The Wish class ships all have a dinner and a show style restaurant on them and, on the Believe, the show will be a second story set withing the world of Frozen. Other restaurants on The Believe will be the 1923 and Marvel dining rooms that exist on other ships in the line, as well as some smaller venues like two new cafes, Big Hero Sips and Café Kakamora.

The Sea Notes Piano Bar on the New Disney Ship, The Disney Believe.

For adults, they will have Sea Notes, a Little Mermaid themed Piano Bar, Wishing Well for Snow White theming, and the Haunted Mansion Parlor, a very popular bar that is already on the Treasure and the Destiny. Disney drew some modest ire from fans who were hoping for some new theming for these spaces.

Overall, we felt like Disney announced a lot of new things for the Believe that didn’t really feel all that new or distinct for the line. On a line where you are expecting deep theming, where many of their clientele want to sail all the different ships to see the different settings, most of the dining was largely similar, and I didn’t feel like there was much that makes the Believe stand out amongst its sister ships. Nothing bad, but nothing amazing. She should still be a solid addition of the Disney Cruise Line fleet, it just feels like a missed opportunity.

Queen Anne Leaving Cunard

To the surprise of, well, most people who follow these sorts of things, Cunard has recently announced that they will be moving the brand-new Queen Anne out of the Cunard fleet and over to P&O Cruises. Both lines are owned by Carnival Corporation, so this is akin to an internal transfer.

Formal Night on Cunard Ships is the Sort of Thing Their Customers Love. Image credit Cunard.

If you are unfamiliar with P&O Cruises, it’s likely because, like me, you’re an American. While they are not well known to us Yanks, they are fairly well-known in the UK. Similar to Cunard, they are an older brand, which both companies love to boast about. P&O dates back to 1837 which, technically, makes it an older line than Cunard, but that’s a little bit of creative interpretation, since P&O started as a shipping company, but didn’t start doing passenger sailings until 1977. Meanwhile, Cunard loves to tell you about their history dating back to1840 and their merger with the White Star line and that legendary company’s famous ships, like the Oceanic, the Olympic, the Titanic… okay maybe forget that part.

While the move isn’t entirely without some sense, P&O is a very British-y line, they even feature fish and chips on their About Us page, this is a fairly concerning move for the well-being of Cunard as a company.

Cunard just received the Queen Anne in 2024 and it cost them 500 million pounds to build. It was a risky design as the ship was a departure from the style of vessel that Cunard was known for. Cunard loyalists definitely had mixed feelings on the Queen Anne and they ways it differed from the others, but only giving it two years to get its sea-legs seems a little rash.

This move will bring Cunard’s active fleet down from 4 ships to 3, keeping them in the small line category when we thought we were seeing some growth. It’s even more puzzling when you consider the marketing push that the company has made in the last few years. NPR listeners couldn’t get through a broadcast without hearing from the cruise company until somewhat recently.

The Library on The Queen Mary 2 is a Major Draw for Many Guests.

Although no one at any of the companies involved mentioned this, my hope is that Cunard will take another stab at a fourth ship. The Queen Anne was considered, by many of Cunard’s passengers, to be much more contemporary than the line’s other ships, and not in a good way. Cunard sailors are looking for ships that feel more like classic ocean liners, like the Queen Mary, and not like something from Princess or Celebrity. The Queen Anne seemed to venture too far afield from the desire of the customers. With any luck, Cunard will be back here in a few years with a new ship, presumably named The Queen Anne’s Revenge.

This isn’t the end of the Carnival Corporation ship shuffle, though, as P&O cruises is sending one of their ships away to Holland America. The Arcadia, which began operating in 2005 for P&O, was part of a class of vessels originally intended for Holland America. Its sister ships were meant to be the Oosterdam, Noordam, Westerdam, and Zuiderdam. During construction, it was reassigned to Cunard where it was supposed to be the Queen Victora, but that didn’t happen either. Ultimately, it went to P&O and became the Arcadia, but not before picking up a mast featured on all Cunard ships.

The size of the ship does fit with Holland America’s fleet. Which is rather obvious given that Holland America originally ordered it but, the size of HAL’s ships remain closer in capacity and tonnage than other similarly sized cruise fleets. While many lines have moved towards ever larger ships, Holland America stays fairly similar.

It should also be mentioned that the Arcadia will be undergoing a major refit and seeing upgrades as part of Carnival Corporation’s announced $500 million Evolution program announced last April.

Ups and Downs in Cruise Environmental News

Hydrogen power has been touted for some time as a way to reduce greenhouse gases but has come with a lot of logistical and cost issues associated with it. With ships, which are one of the leading greenhouse gas emitters, the idea of hydrogen power has been thrown around a lot.

Well, one of the biggest cruise lines in the world is making the jump into more sustainable cruising with Viking’s investment in hydrogen powered ships that hold around 1,000 guests. Just last March, the Viking Libra became the world’s first hydrogen powered cruise ship to sail, with delivery expected in November. Signaling Viking’s commitment to the brand-new propulsion system, they just did the cord cutting last month on the Libra’s sister ship, the Viking Astrea. While the details on just how much all of this will reduce environmental impacts from the ships remains unknown, especially as it looks to be a hybrid system, it is, nonetheless, a major move in the right direction from one of the biggest players in one of the most polluting industries. Hopefully, this signals more to come.

In tragic environmental news, a second endangered fin whale was found on the prow of a cruise ship in Alaska. This time it was on the Norwegian Joy in Sitka and was an adult male, as opposed to the pregnant female that was hit in Seward earlier this year. This news shows just how much of an environmental impact the travel industry can have, and how important it is for the cruise lines to work with scientists and governments on solutions to avoid these sorts of incidents in the future.

Explora Dips a Toe into River Cruising

Even more companies are getting into the river cruising sector with a recent announcement. Last year, Celebrity announced that they would be moving into River Cruising with an eventual fleet of ten ships. Now there’s another newcomer into the river cruise market since Explora started the ball rolling. A relative newcomer to the cruising world, MSC’s Explora line has been very well received in the luxury cruising market, with their high-end, new ships, and their longer sailing itineraries.

At this point, all we know is that they have signed a letter-of-intent with Den Breejen Shipyard, making a statement at the same time that said:

“Since launching, Explora Journeys has sought to change the way people experience ocean travel through its Ocean State of Mind philosophy — combining the freedom and discovery of travelling by sea with the elegance and refinement of European hospitality and design. The brand now intends to bring that same approach to Europe’s most iconic rivers.

“Further details regarding ship design, onboard experiences, delivery schedules and initial itineraries will be announced in due course with sales planned to open in 2027.”

The Press Release from Explora Journeys on Their New River Ships Deal.

Since river ships are considerably smaller with a much less complicated operation environment than their ocean-faring siblings, a 2027 sales date seems very reasonable, even at this early stage.

If you’re thinking about taking a cruise with any of these lines and are having a hard time keeping up with the changes, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. As you might have guessed we are a travel agency and if you are looking to book a trip to a resort, take a cruise, or just get away for a few days we can help with that! Each year we book hundreds of vacations for individuals, families, and large groups. We’ve got years of experience and firsthand knowledge to make sure you get the best trip possible with support all along the way. Our team of travel professionals can help find and book the best rates and discounts for your trip because it’s our job. So don’t book on your own, use our expertise and book with us so we can help get you, far, far away.

The post More Details Released On The New Disney Ship appeared first on Far Far Away Travels.

While we have frequently extolled the benefits of the Plus and Premier packages, seeing Princess double dip their profit chip inside the same calendar year, doesn’t feel great. Of course, the action is chafing even the line’s most ardent customers, as price increases tend to do, to client bases, but it might actually be worse than that. This action may portend serious troubles for the travel industry as they are, like all of us, feeling the strain under rising fuel costs (see previous articles here and here).

In addition to the upcoming price increase on the Plus and Premier packages, Princess also announced a rise in what the Wi-Fi packages will cost. Which, perhaps, also reveals the increasing costs of Space X’s Starlink internet on the ships as, in the announcement, Princess referred to “changes in our operating environment” as the reason for the increase.

Both changes are set to take effect on October 13^th, 2026, just one week from publication.

Pricing Increase

In May of 2025, Princess announced that their Plus and Premier packages would be getting more expensive. Back then, they gave a fair bit of heads up though. The actual price increase didn’t come into effect until January of 2026, at which time the charge for Princess Plus and Premier increased $5 and $10 per day, respectively, on non-Sphere class ships. On the Sun and Star, however, the cruise line’s Sphere Class vessels, the price for the packages increased by a further $5 per person per day for each.

In this recent announcement, made on September 28^th, the company said that starting October 13^th, these prices will all go up an additional $5 per person per day. What that means is that starting on October 13^th, 2026, passengers on Princess will see the following pricing:

Premier Package price at $105/person/day
Plus Package price at $70/person/day

Don’t forget that Sphere class upcharge, though, because that hasn’t gone away. On Princess’ newest class of ship, which again is only the Sun Princess and Star Princess, customers will see the even higher pricing.

On Sphere Class ships the new prices are:

Premier Package is $110/person/day.
Plus Package is $75/person/day.

In fairness to Princess, it is common practice in the cruise industry to have upcharges for customers sailing on the newest ships a company has, so this isn’t out of step with their competition.

Princess Plus and Premier Benefits

With these increasing prices, you might be asking, “what do I actually get for all that money and is it still worth it?” Let’s start by reviewing what comes with each package or, at least, the broad strokes

Princess Plus ($70/Person/Day or $75 on Sphere Class):

• 15 drinks per day valued at up to $15 each, this includes cocktails, mocktails, soft drinks.
• Unlimited specialty coffee and tea.
• 12 bottles of water per day.
• 4 casual dining meals.
• Free OceanNow delivery.
• Free room service.
• Wi-Fi for one device.
• Crew tips.

Princess Premier ($105/Person/Day or $110 on Sphere Class):

• Unlimited drinks per day valued at up to $20 each.
• Unlimited specialty coffee and tea.
• 12 bottles of water per day.
• Unlimited Specialty Dining.
• Free OceanNow delivery.
• Free room service.
• Wi-Fi for four devices.
• A $300 Shore Excursion Credit
• Crew tips.
• Digital photos and up to 3 prints.
• Reserved theater seating.

Image: Princess Cruises. Both the Plus and Premiere Package Price is going up.

Regarding the worth it part of the question above, that’s not ultimately for us to decide. Yes, each of these things has value and that value changes based on how much you would use them. That means that the value of the package is up to you.

That being said, I do sail on Princess and quite like the experience they offer, so I can share my personal feelings. Despite the creeping prices, if you are going to sail on Princess, I think these packages are still worth it, especially the Plus. The benefits that come with them, like paid gratuities and Wi-Fi, add a fair amount each day if purchased a-la-carte; not to mention that it’s a pain to get anything to drink without a package. Which, of course, is by design.

Whenever I book a Princess cruise, I still get the Plus Package and, when I’m picking out a cruise, I add $70/person/day to the public price and that’s what it actually costs. Even though I opt for the Plus, Premier has grown in popularity. Many clients buy the Premier Package to get the unlimited Specialty Dining, which is often regarded as the most appealing aspect of the package, though I feel the $300 Shore Excursion Credit provides greater value.

What Else is Changing?

Unlike the announcement in 2025, which also contained changes to what the packages offered, not much beyond the price is changing this time around. That said, Princess Cruises has announced updates to the standalone Wi-Fi packages. That is to say, the Wi-Fi packages that you can buy independently from Plus or Premier.

The 1-device Wi-Fi package will now be priced at:

• Pre-cruise: $27.99 per day
• Onboard (full voyage): $33.99 per day
• Onboard (1-day only): $39.99 per day

While this isn’t a large increase from approximately $25 per day previously, it is still a noticeable jump when tallied up over longer sailings.

The Plus and Premiere Package Price is Increasing and the Wi-Fi packages are being cut in half.

The other Wi-Fi offer being impacted is the 4-Device Wi-Fi package, which is being discontinued. If you want 4-devices, the only way to get that going forward will be with the Premier package. In its place, Princess will offer a 2-device package. Pricing for this will be:

• Pre-cruise: $39.99 per day
• Onboard (full voyage): $47.99 per day
• Onboard (1-day only): $55.99 per day

This pricing is fairly in line with the previous 4-device package, which regularly cost $44.99 per day if purchased before you set sail. While a lot of people don’t generally use 4-devices at once, halving the number of devices offered by these plans in exchange for a modest decrease in price is not appealing, nor do I think it is meant to be.

It’s always been our assessment that these packages and their prices are meant to steer people toward purchasing the Plus and Premier packages. That assessment has not changed with this retooling.

What Should I Do?

While it’s hard to deny these changes are eroding the value of the two Princess packages, it’s also hard to imagine sailing on Princess without them.

As I said earlier, I like to set with the Princess Plus package. I don’t drink much alcohol, typically 1-2 drinks per day on a cruise if I have any at all. Nor do I value the specialty dining as high as others. My weakness, however, is the OceanNow delivery. Whether it’s in my cabin or somewhere by the pool, the ability to turn my brain off, press a button on my phone, and then some amazing person appears with an orange San Pellegrino is just too good to pass on. I’m not happy but, for now, I’m still sailing.

If you’re thinking about taking a cruise with Princess in the future, as you might have guessed we are a travel agency and if you are looking to book a trip to a resort, take a cruise, or just get away for a few days we can help with that! Each year we book hundreds of vacations for individuals, families, and large groups. We’ve got years of experience and firsthand knowledge to make sure you get the best trip possible with support all along the way. Our team of travel professionals can help find and book the best rates and discounts for your trip because it’s our job. So don’t book on your own, use our expertise and book with us so we can help get you, far far away.

The post Surprise! Princess Cruises Raises Plus and Premier Package Price appeared first on Far Far Away Travels.

Smaller Airlines Going Under

Spirit isn’t the only airline collapsing under these economic conditions. Smaller airlines generally don’t have as much wiggle room when it comes to overhead and finances. They often service smaller, less profitable routes, and as a result they are more susceptible to major changes in the market, like the ones we’ve seen in fuel costs. A lot of small, regional airlines, which will often operate under a larger company’s name, have been shutting down over the last six months because of rising costs.

In a sure sign of the stress hitting the airline industry, AirBaltic, the Flag Carrier line of Latvia (yes, the country), has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections in New York. They cited fuel prices doubling since the war with Iran started in late February. That’s not all they cited, though. The airline also highlighted a growing shortage of aircraft engines, which exasperated the debt that it was already carrying.

While AirBaltic isn’t shuttering the whole company like Spirit, it is shrinking its fleet, cancelling orders, and reducing its least profitable routes. It states that by the end of 2026, its fleet of 54 Airbus planes will be brought down 36 by the end of the year. If you have a flight with AirBaltic, however, know that it isn’t cancelling any tickets at this time.

Airfare Prices are going to be impacted by engine shortages, no matter what plane you book your flight on.

As an aside, that engine shortage isn’t new and there’s reporting going back to 2024 on how engine maker Pratt and Whitney is struggling to keep up with demand for new units and repairs among supply chain problems. The engine that they are struggling to keep up with is the Geared TurboFan used widely in the A320 family, the most delivered jet in history. This probable is impacting other lines as well.

A similar state-owned airline, Congo Airways, has been shutdown since 2024 due to debt and, pretty importantly, a lack of safety. While they completely missed their 2025 restart date, they are still trying to restart sometime before the end of the year.

What all these smaller lines shutting down, reducing service, or just not functioning means is that there are less planes filling in those smaller, unprofitable routes. Now, if you’re thinking, “Well, that sounds bad but I don’t fly smaller airlines, I fly the major carriers,” well I wouldn’t get too excited just yet because you probably do and haven’t noticed.

If you’ve ever bought a ticket from a major airline and seen in the small details of the flight, like the number or aircraft type, “this flight serviced by Company-Name-You’ve-Never-Heard-Of-Airlines”, that means a regional company is running the route for the major airline you booked through, and those companies have been folding at an accelerated rate. No matter where you are, all these companies closing the doors is likely to impact you.

FAA Pushing AI

The Federal Aviation Administration has been pushing for an artificial intelligence tool to manage flight scheduling. However, it was only described in the vaguest terms about what it would do and how it would do it, saying it would “offer advice to air traffic controllers”. There was significant industry pushback on the idea of an undefined AI system, called the Strategic Management of Airspace Routing Trajectories, or SMART system, telling these companies how air traffic management would be handled. In the last few weeks, there have been a number of long meetings with the FAA, and reporting is that rather than providing any answers, the airline officials were left with more questions.

The primary concern among the airlines is that this AI tool will add an extra layer of noise onto the already understaffed and overwhelmed air traffic controllers that have been the subject of firings and resignations during the various government shutdowns in the last few years.

The folks working in this tower are under a lot of pressure. Technically this is in Bogata, so not really directly impacted by the FAA’s work, but it’s a nice looking tower.

Earlier this month, there was a big meeting between the CEOs of the airline companies and the FAA, which looks to have caused the FAA to quote, “narrow the scope”, of the AI tool down to more of a recommendation system and providing alternative routing options to reduce bottlenecks, rather than being integrated directly into day-to-day traffic management.

It is currently set to be tested out in three airports that serve the Washington DC area.

Holiday Airfare Pricing

For all of you that have been anxiously planning your holiday travel, watching the rising cost of plane tickets, I don’t have great news. While oil prices surged in spring with the Iran War beginning, and then again in the summer, oil prices have broken over $100 a barrel this September. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, airfares from August 2025 compared to last month had risen 23%.

All this is to say, be prepared for a rough holiday travel season. Not only are the smaller regional flights disappearing, but airline executives at the Morgan Stanley Laguna Conference said they were prepared to raise ticket prices and cut less profitable routes going into the holidays in order to offset these increased fuel prices.

Airfare prices are only going up,,,

Executives from across the airline industry are, essentially, saying that prices are going up, availability is decreasing, and demand is staying steady. All of that translates into increased prices in every aspect of travel. Even cheaper flights, those extra fees they tack on for things like checked bags have been increasing. Recently, I personally saw a checked bag fee hit $200 for a single bag on a transatlantic flight.

While we don’t know, for sure, how it’s all going to shake out this season, be prepared to not see prices and fees improve anytime soon.

Are you planning out your holiday travel before things get pricier? Well, as you might have guessed we are a travel agency and if you are looking to book a trip to a resort, take a cruise, or just get away for a few days we can help with that! Each year we book hundreds of vacations for individuals, families, and large groups. We’ve got years of experience and firsthand knowledge to make sure you get the best trip possible with support all along the way. Our team of travel professionals can help find and book the best rates and discounts for your trip because it’s our job. So don’t book on your own, use our expertise and book with us so we can help get you, far far away.

The post New Airfare Prices are Staggering and the Holiday Outlook is Beak appeared first on Far Far Away Travels.

What is this program all about?

When you sail with Virgin Voyages, you can join their Sailing Club, which is their loyalty program. By sailing multiple times with the Richard Branson backed company, you’ll earn benefits that you will receive when you are aboard their ships. The biggest perks are complimentary upgraded wi-fi, free laundry services, and even priority boarding (meaning that you’ll get on the ship faster! You’ll receive these benefits and more starting at your third sailing and you’ll get even more from your fifth sailing onward.

Here’s a breakdown of everything you’ll get.

Blue Extras Level (After Two Sailings or Status Match)

Blue Extras are perks for sailors on their 3rd or 4th sailing.

• 1 Coffee Credit per day (not eligible to use with room service AKA Ship Eats)
• 1 Laundry Bag (By the way, the laundry bags are BIG)
• An Exclusive Cocktail event
• Dedicated Sailor Services Support

Deep Blue Extras (DBE)

Once you reach your 5th sailing, you will have Deep Blue Extras. Your perks, include all the perks of Blue Extras, plus:

• Priority Boarding right after the Rockstars! Even if only one person has Deep Blue Extras, the entire party of people sharing the cabin may board together
• $100 Bar Tab credit. Each person in the cabin that qualifies for DBE gets the Bar Tab
• Premium Wi-fi. Everyone gets free wi-fi on Virgin, but there is an upcharge for premium. With Deep Blue Extras, you get free premium wi-fi
• Free Laundry Service including which includes 2 pressed items, 1 specialty-cleaned item and the big bag of laundry
• Two Coffee Credits Per Day (not eligible to use with room service AKA Ship Eats)

Temporary Status Match

Virgin Voyages has opened up an opportunity to folks with status on many other airlines, hotels, and cruise companies to receive a status match with Virgin. Here’s the offer from the Virgin Voyages website:

For a limited time, members from most airline and hotel programs – in addition to other cruise lines – are invited to apply for membership in the Virgin Voyages sailing club through our Status Match program. Once verified, you’ll receive an exclusive Access Key to add when you book your next voyage. This unlocks VIP perks, Blue Extras, that kick in when you set sail.

After that voyage, the standard Sailing Club journey applies, with Blue Extras returning on the third sailing and Deep Blue Extras awaiting those who keep coming back aboard.

In other words, if you’ve got status one on of the accepted programs, you’ll get to enjoy one voyage with Blue Extras. After that, you’ll earn your status normally. This program is for new sailings only and you must apply for it by October 31, 2026.

Virgin Voyages loyalty program is one of the better loyalty programs in the cruise industry, at least in our opinion. That means that if you’ve been thinking about trying Virgin Voyages, this is a very good time to act on that and book a cruise, after you’ve applied for the status match of course.

If this has got you pondering about a Virgin Voyages cruise, we know exactly how you feel! Far Far Away Travels is a travel agency and if experts on Virgin Voyages as we’re one of the Top 100 First Mates. Each year we book hundreds of Virgin cruises for individuals, families, and large groups. We’ve got years of experience and firsthand knowledge to make sure you get the best trip possible with support all along the way. Our team of travel professionals can help find and book the best rates, discounts, and promotions for your trip because it’s our job. So don’t book on your own, use our expertise and book with us so we can help get you, far, far away.

The post You Need To Act Fast On Virgin Voyages New Status Match appeared first on Far Far Away Travels.

We were only a few hours into our expedition cruise on the National Geographic Lindblad Islander II and I thought it couldn’t get better than that. How wrong I was.

Not Your Typical Cruise

A few months ago, close to the start of the year, we had several clients ask us about National Geographic Lindblad cruises. We’ve got a team with lots of experience under our belts, but we hadn’t done anything with Nat Geo Lindblad. Of course, we did our research and connected with the sales team at the company to answer questions from our clients. What we booked for them sounded amazing and our curiosity was piqued. We realized that we had a blind spot in our knowledge base. None of us had ever done any cruises like this, known as expedition cruises, and if our clients were going to ask about it, we figured we should have some answers.

By late May, we’d found some dates that worked for us and chose a location, one that I still can’t believe you can go to, the Galapagos Islands. Located several hundred miles off the coast of Ecuador, they aren’t exactly easy to get to and, given that they are not only a national park but also one of the most closely protected wildlife sanctuaries and research stations in the world, we figured this would be a very interesting trip.

The National Geographic Islander II is unlike any vessel I’ve ever been on.

You might notice that the title of this article does not say review and this isn’t one. If you’ve read our articles before, you’ll know that we hold ourselves to strict standards about reviewing travel companies. For an article to be a review we must pay the publicly listed fare, receive no special treatment or benefits because of our status as travel agents, and have no reason to believe that the crew of the ship is aware of our line of work. Our trip on the Islander II was discounted to a promotional rate available to travel agents, known as a fam or familiarization rate, and, although we don’t think we received special treatment, some staff were aware of our line of work.

That means this is a description of our time with Nat Geo Lindblad to help you understand what you are likely to experience when sailing with them.

They Handle It For You

Once we confirmed the dates with the National Geographic Lindblad booking team, we started making our travel arrangements. They informed us that we would need to book our flights to the city of Guayaquil and that they will make arrangements for us at the Hotel del Parque for the night before the cruise and they would have a driver and coordinator waiting to meet us at the airport. That was our first hint of just how different this type of cruise is. It’s not that no other cruise lines do that for guests, more so that it’s usually not part of the standard package, it’s an extra cost or an addon.

To be clear, the airfare is not included in the price, that is something that you have to book on your own. Also excluded is the cost of your meals while you stay at the hotel, although breakfast is included as standard by the Hotel del Parque so we had that, for lunch and dinner, though, we were on our own.

The hotel was exquisite, truly a luxury location. Nestled inside a historic park and indeed inside what, we were told, was the oldest building in the city. Apparently, some years ago, it was moved to the park, piece by piece, brick by brick, and reconstructed to create an immaculately posh place to lay your head. During the move and rebuilding, the structure was updated to include an elevator and space for all the modern amenities, like air conditioning and marble showers.

The Hotel del Parque is a wonderful place to stay, to put it mildly.

Nat Geo Lindblad also made flight arrangements to the Galapagos (this flight is included in the fare), transportation to the airport for that flight, and handled our luggage all the way from the hotel to the ship. The company is so thorough in its care for guests that we literally had an escort onto the flight to make sure that everything went smoothly.

Most importantly, though, Nat Geo Lindblad handled the vast majority of paperwork required to visit the Galapagos, which there is a great deal of. We did have to fill out a short declaration form ourselves, but that was it. They handled paying the $100 fee to enter the Islands. They worked through the customs forms that needed to be processed before visiting. All we saw was a few QR codes on our phones and they handled the rest, something I’m very glad wasn’t my job. Once we landed at the Baltra airport in the Galapagos, two of the guides were there to meet us and make sure we got to the ship.

On this journey, once we passed through Ecuadorian customs, National Geographic Lindblad held our hand every step of the way. Not just on the way out, but on the way back as well. National Geographic Lindblad Expeditions takes the step to not only arrange for a hotel at the front end, but the back end as well. We spent another night in the exquisite Hotel del Parque and in the morning they arranged transport, with a company representative, to take us to the airport.

The National Geograpic Islander II

Perhaps the descriptor “expedition cruising” has set the scene for you. An expedition is something done by explorers, adventurers, in other words, rugged types. While, yes, this sort of cruising does attract the more adventurous sorts, you won’t be roughing it exactly. Unless you consider king bed suites, marble bathrooms, and thrice per day room cleanings to be “rough”, I think you’ll find the accommodations to be opulent. Not that you’ll be spending much time in them, given the schedule you will likely keep.

Knowing the ship’s origins explains the palatial experience. The National Geographic Islander II was purchased by Lindblad Expeditions in 2021 from Crystal Cruises, the well-known high luxury cruise line, during Crystal’s bankruptcy proceedings that year. Crystal refit the ship after they acquired it in 2015, making it an all-suite ship, drenched in comfort. When Lindblad took possession, they promptly changed very little because, they didn’t need to. Even today, more than a decade after its last refit, the Islander II looks pristine.

Every surface is perfectly chosen for its purpose. Warm woods, cool marbles, durable carpets all put in their respective places to suit an exact need. Chairs are plush and comfortable after a long day of activities. Couches welcome you to gather on them. The dining facilities are open and inviting. Even the common area restrooms are, as the youths would say, extra, with heated toilet seats. Yes, you read that correctly, the common area toilet seats are heated.

Aboard the National Geographic Islander II you’ll be in the lap of luxury and comfort, not that you’ll likely care much by the end of the day.

This luxuriating extends beyond the things you can touch. The people who make it all work are the real magic to all of this. To say the staff are incredible is to commit a crime, for that word robs them of so much of the credit they are due. There is no single word in the English language adequate to the task of praising the people who work on the Islander II. It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about the zodiac pilots, the ship’s doctor, hotel staff, purser, kitchen crew, wait staff, engineers, mechanics, or the captain and his mates, they all deserve more praise than I could possibly give. I try to limit naming individual people in my writing to avoid any potential pressure I could place on them in a public venue, but I certainly made my feelings clear to the company.

The wait staff, for example, takes pains to learn your preferences. After two breakfasts, where I opted for the daily juice and a coffee with cream, the waiters simply asked if I want the usual and, if there was an option, which juice I would like. They even took note of what we ordered from the menu and made suggestions about what we might like at each meal based on that. The bartender and bartender assistant knew not only how I like my drinks, but which drink I like at which time. Once again, they would simply ask if I wanted the same beverage as last night.

My one evening drink, which they knew just how to prepare.

It’s no accident that this is the experience either. National Geographic Lindblad maintains a 1:1 crew to passenger ratio on the Islander II. The ship can accommodate roughly 45-50 passengers and carries more crew than customers at 57 staff. I cannot say, at least with certainty, that the ship was laid out that way intentionally by National Geographic Lindblad or if it was designed that way by Crystal. Regardless, the crew aboard the ship is without an equal.

Since this ship is used for expedition cruising, you’ll find some facilities and ways of operating onboard that, if you’re used to large cruise ships, you wouldn’t expect. Meals are served for everyone at the same time, meaning that you all dine together. You can have your own table, if you prefer, or dine with other guests, usually 2-4 others. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are all scheduled and there isn’t hot food available outside of these times.

There’s a lounge that you all gather in for a daily debriefing, covering what people experienced that day and what you are scheduled to do tomorrow. The bar is only open during meals and after dinner, but the bridge of the ship is open 24/7 and you can go and visit while they navigate. There’s also the marina deck where you embark/disembark and where you keep your wetsuit, snorkel, and flippers. You don’t have to bring your own, by the way, they provide them for you.

On the National Geographic Islander II, if you ever have any issues with the facilities or need some accomodations, simply put it in the Log Book at the front desk.

There are also features that you would expect to find on other cruise ships that might surprise you by their presence on a vessel of this size. There’s an observation deck complete with a small pool and sauna. It’s equipped with a gym, including cardio equipment and weights. Should your back ache after a long flight into Ecuador, you can book a session with the ship’s massage therapist who, I heard on the good authority of a mother of three young children, was fantastic. A small library area sits next to the hotel reception desk and across from the Global Gallery, which is what Nat Geo Lindblad calls their ship’s gift shop. There’s a “Science Hub”, which has some photo kiosks, board games, and a space for presentations; it was used mostly during the programing for the kids.

The Cabins

If you book an itinerary on the Islander II, your choice of room is limited to suites and larger suites, something that people ceaselessly never lament. The larger suites are most suitable for groups with more than two people. They come with convertible sofas and complimentary laundry. There are some of the smaller suites with adjoining doors to make a family suite, but not all of them have this ability. The layout of the rooms and if they connect is clear on the website should you be curious.

The suites themselves want for nothing. They can be arranged as two beds or one king size, with nightstands on both sides. Electrical outlets of both US and European connections are available on the nightstands as well as light controls for the room, so CPAP users have nothing to fear in that regard (though the distilled water may be more difficult). Here’s where I want to pause for a moment and remark on the quality of the light design in the suites. To be blunt, I found the light controls to be the best of any ship or hotel room I’ve ever stayed in.

The suites, which are your only option, on the National Geographic Islander II have plenty of bedside plugs to charge or run any device you need.

I promise that I won’t harp on for too long, but for some years I sold commercial and industrial lighting and designed custom lighting control systems, so I’m rather attuned to the demands of the industry and how they often fail to meet consumers’ needs. For example, have you ever stayed in a hotel room where you have to walk around the space turning each individual light off or what about a place where you simply couldn’t find the light switch to operate one specific light? I know I have and I hate that.

Space and light are the basis for architecture and so often one or the other, or both, are failed by the hospitality industry, not on the Islander II, though. From multiple points in the room, you can adjust the intensity of the lights, set different scenes, such as for reading lights only, and turn all the lights on or off. This is all done from simple, push-button panels. I don’t need to use a tablet and I don’t need to leave the bed to turn the lights off. Why this is the first time I’m seeing such an implementation on a cruise ship is beyond me but praise should be heaped upon whoever made this happen.

I truly loved the lighting design on the National Geographic Islander II. So simple, yet versatile.

Getting back to the rest of the room, storage space was plentiful, more than plentiful, in fact. As an expedition ship, there really isn’t a desire by most guests to change into dressier clothes in the evening, which cuts down on the wardrobe size needed. The ship is a casual dress environment, so shorts and sneakers are common with guests. You will, however, likely desire to air your clothing out after hiking and they have plenty of hangars and hooks in the room to allow for that. There is no need to bring any extra magnetic hooks to this ship.

The beds were comfortable, although I must admit that my ability to judge them fairly against other lines is hampered by the physical exhaustion I felt at the end of each day, so I won’t make any comparisons. Suffice it to say that I, a scoliosis haver, slept well in them. Regarding the room temperature, I never once had to adjust it because it was perfect from the moment we stepped into our suite. And that’s a good thing too because changing the temperature is, apparently, quite a faff. The hotel staff specifically mentioned to call them to adjust the temperature and guests, who attempted to do otherwise, reported to us that it really is a task for the crew. I cannot explain why this is, but it is.

Oh yeah, staying on the National Geographic Islander II is a real hardship. How can I even pee is a bathroom like this?

Bathrooms were marble and spacious. Showers were large enough for two people and complete with rain a shower head and wand. The lighting designers were even so thoughtful to add a nightlight by the toilet that is permanently on, allowing you to find your way safely even in the dark. The provided shampoo, body wash, and conditioner weren’t my favorite, but they weren’t bad either. Since everyone’s hair is different, your conditioning may vary. I did like the provided lotion, though, and used it frequently since I was swimming in the salt water and often showering twice per day. To be clear, that is not my usual showering frequency, but it is warm and quite humid in the Galapagos and you will be active… Just consider the other guests is all I’m saying.

There are TVs in the rooms with a host of movies to choose from, especially Nat Geo documentaries. Our tv, though, did seem to suffer from some “burn-in” and the image in our room was washed out slightly. It wasn’t so bad that it made the set unusable, but it was noticeable. I imagine, however, most guests don’t even bother to turn it on.

The TV in our room had a bit of “burn in” on some spots, at least that’s the best idea I have for whatever these bright spots are.

Each suite has a small desk space and a moveable round table for flat surfaces. Both can easily accommodate a laptop and other charging setups. Even I, with my three cameras, gimbal, 600mm lens, storage disks, laptops, phone, and smart watch had no issue finding areas to set up on, which is a first for a cruise ship, including some rather posh ones I’ve sailed on.

Housekeeping staff tend to your room three times a day and keep it stocked with a chilled carafe of water. They advise you to not drink the tap water, saying it’s safe for brushing teeth, and steer you toward using the water provided. There’s also a mini-fridge stocked with some beer and sodas that you are free to use. Only select wines and some crafted cocktails are extra on the ship, so hydrate to your heart’s content because the mini-fridge beverages don’t cost extra.

Cuisine

All of my previous cruises have been on ships larger than this. Only one ship I’ve taken, the Hurtigruten Trollfjord, had fewer than 500 guests. Unlike most other cruise ships’ approach  to culinary offerings, which I would describe as being akin to a shotgun, the Islander II operates their kitchen with surgical precision. Each menu for each meal is different. There’s no way for me to say what you’ll have to eat but, there will be some things that you can depend on.

There will always be a vegetarian dish, a fish dish, and a meat dish. Our meat dishes consisted of chicken, duck, beef, or pork. Most of the dishes are Ecuadorian in origin or given an Ecuadorian flare and, as much as possible, the food is sourced locally, especially the fish and other meats. You also won’t see any upcharges or extra cost dishes.

Lunch aboard the Islander II is a mix of hearty and light, either is available as you desire.

If you’re hungry outside of mealtimes, they keep snacks in the lounge area and the library, along with a stocked mini fridge at both locations. As I mentioned above, most alcohol is included. Beers and most basic cocktails (like a simple Manhattan or martini), wines at meals (selected by the house), and a variety of liqueurs are all available as part of the fare. Bottles of wine, many of which are sourced from the region, and premium cocktails are extra at typical prices for cruises/restaurants.

Should you want to bring your kids, they will be fine with the food if they aren’t too fussy of eaters. There were a number of kids on our sailing and they all seemed to like the meals from what I saw. Admittedly, I didn’t go into detail on how the kids were eating with each parent group, but I saw them every meal and it seemed to be fine. Ultimately, you know your child and will know if they will be alright with the menu. I’ve posted a couple samples below from dinners we had so you can assess.

A typical dinner menu on the National Geographic Islander II.

Most importantly, the staff took care to check for allergies every meal. I know that has become more commonplace, but it’s still critical. Less important to safety, they also took care to try and prepare your dish to your taste, and I want to recognize how hard this actually is. As someone who worked in food service for years, I’ll try and briefly describe how challenging what they did is.

The National Geographic Islander II gave us a BBQ night out on the open air back of the ship. It was one of my favoirte dinners because I love eating outside.

Each day, the kitchen team, which was only five of them, prepared three meals, along with appetizers, snacks, cut fruits, and desserts. Every morning, by 5:30 AM, before the day’s excursions begin, there were fresh cut fruits and yogurts available as an early morning snack. At 8 AM, breakfast was served, which included bacon, eggs, oatmeal, and several Ecuadorian dishes, which were all amazing! By 11 AM, they had prepared more snacks for the retuning excursions and a full lunch with multiple dishes to choose from along with soup and salad. Once 6 PM rolled around, more snacks for the returning evening excursions were ready and dinner was moments away. All of that made, as much as they can, to individual tastes, for around 45 guests.

That is food preparation on hard mode.

Ship Life

With only 45 or so guests on the ship, you get to know almost everyone you sail with. This would never happen on a large cruise ship. Yes, many guests get to know a few people onboard, but not everyone. That would be impossible. However, with a group of several dozen, instead of several thousand, it results in real connections with people from all over the world.

Let me walk you through one of our days to explain what this is like.

The first morning, most of the ship woke at 5 AM, or there about, for a hike at dawn. Sunrise is consistently early at the equator and avoiding the sun’s rays during the most intense parts of the day is important, hence the early beginning. About a dozen at a time, we boarded zodiac boats to get to the shore where the hike would begin. This hike took us up around 300 feet above the water on a challenging boardwalk ascent. We took pictures as a group and learned about flora and fauna as we saw them.

The National Geographic guides were fonts of knowledge, spewing facts about geology, history, and biology, as easily as you could ask. Once the hike concluded, we took a brief diversion on the zodiac to see some Galapagos penguins that had been spotted; these were a rare sighting this year because of El Niño making the water too warm. After the brief meeting with the penguin on the shore, we went back to the Islander II for breakfast.

This little galapagos penguin is so cute! Depending on how you measure, they are either the second or third smallest penguin.

After the morning meal concluded, anyone who wanted to snorkel changed into their wetsuits for our first dive into the waters of the Galapagos Islands. Once in the water, our guides took us around the area and pointed out amazing wildlife, like reef sharks and surgeon fish. Joyously, we were joined by sea lions freely swimming among us, and even the rare penguins graced our waters to dart around as they hunted for fish. Of course, the National Geographic Lindblad wouldn’t forget non-swimmers and those who didn’t snorkel had a glass bottom boat tour to see the amazing wildlife along the coast.

Once we were all back on the ship, greeted by stunningly delicious gluten free baked goods, and given a chance to shower, lunch was served. Both lunch and breakfast are enjoyed al fresco at the outdoor area on the back of the ship, weather permitting that is. We sat with some people we’d just been swimming with and recounted the amazing wildlife we’d already seen on the first day before noon. We get to know each other a bit more by chatting and sharing stories of our lives. The obvious question is always, “Why did you want to come to the Galapagos?” It turns out, everyone with us loves the natural world, is fascinated by what humanity has learned there, and visiting was usually a lifelong desire.

The educational seminars were well put together and always entertaining.

As the meal concludes, we go to an hour long seminar on a topic within the Galapagos. One day was on the geology and volcanic nature of the islands, another on the human history of the place, still another was on Darwin, who is the reason most of us are so fascinated by these remote lands. Each lecture is presented by one of the guides and they bring a vibrant, passionate energy to what they do. After a couple excursions, and a lecture, it’s easy to see just how deeply they feel about this place and their responsibilities in caring for it as stewards, educators, and ambassadors for the preservation of the islands.

Not long after the lecture concludes, it’s time to head out for the afternoon excursion. This schedule carefully avoids the most punishing hours of the midday sun, a fact my pale, freckly skin was immensely grateful for. On this day it was another hike and once again we boarded the zodiacs. Upon arriving at the trail head, it became clear that we would need to take our shoes off because the tide was high and we would be jumping out in the water then drying our feet off, a common experience on the excursions.

This path was more strenuous than the morning, but the effort would be worth it because it took us to see iguanas and, I promise, you aren’t prepared for iguanas this large and this close. They aren’t scary or threatening, just massive. I’ve spent enough time in the Caribbean to become familiar with these lizards, but I’d never seen any like this. They were amazing to behold.

These iguanas are HUGE! They’re also adorable

As the sun set, the guides hurried us up back to the zodiacs and by the time we stepped foot on the Islander II, dinner was being readied. Each evening, the entire ship gathered in the lounge to go over what we did that day and what we would be doing the next day. Staff would take time to announce any news and check in with guests. We also would usually have a brief presentation from one of the ship’s departments. After about 45 minutes of debriefing and, for many people, drinking from the bar, dinner was served.

Dinner took place, most nights, in the dining room. A more formal setting, but no more formal in attire. Like the rest of the dining experiences, you could choose to eat alone or with other guests. We always chose to eat with other guests as we enjoyed the conversations, but you can always choose otherwise. The dinners usually lasted an hour and by 8:30 PM, most guests were exhausted and wanted nothing more than the comfort of their pillow, including us. There would be a documentary shown in the lounge after dinner each night, but neither Nichole nor I ever had the energy for that. There were some guests who did and I remain astonished by their endurance.

The National Geographic Islander II dining room allows for both group and private dining.

After 4 days of this schedule, many of us passengers became closer than I had ever expected. In our last moments together on the bus before the plane, we were all swapping contact information, excitedly exchanging numbers via text swearing, to keep in touch with one another.

As a few of us got off the plane in Guayaquil, the first stop of a continuous flight itinerary that went onto Quito, around a third of the plane was waving goodbye to us and giving quick fist bumps and handshakes. I’ve never seen the like.

Life aboard the National Geographic Islander II forms a community. You are all there to do the same thing at the same time. It’s rare to find that as an adult and it’s worth relishing on its own. Despite my demeanor, and many refuse to believe this, I am more inclined towards introversion than extroversion. It’s not that I don’t like meeting people, I do, but I recharge myself by a quiet night in over a night out with friends. Given the choice between a party and my pjs, I almost always choose my pjs. Being this social may be a bit much for people more inclined towards introversion than myself, but even in that case, as Nichole can attest because she fits in this category, she wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Company Values

One might expect that a cruise run by National Geographic Lindblad Expeditions would value sustainability and you would be right.

The ship’s Purser, who ran the store, told us a great deal about the programs the line has to support the local economy and artisans. Everything that we found in the store was made either by artisans in the Galapagos or in mainland Ecuador. This even extended to the clothes you could purchase.

Valuing sustainability continues down to the artisans themselves. We purchased several carved wooden sculptures that were made using an invasive tree to the islands. By harvesting it, the artisans would rid the island of a destructive plant and turn it into a business.

This is one of my favorite things I’ve ever found. I’m so glad that it was crafted and that I was able to take it home with me. This blue footed booby sculpture sits on my mantle as I write. It will always sit there.

It might also be assumed that a cruise run by National Geographic Lindblad Expeditions would care about education and once again, you would be correct. On each excursion, the guides teach you about what you’re seeing. Each afternoon there is a educational seminar. The kids program teaches them about the biology and geology of the area in a captivating way because the guides wear their passion on their sleeves, which the kids respond to.

Earlier, I mentioned that the ship’s bridge was open to guests, something we took time to check out during the evening navigation on the last night. Even here the line wants to educate their guests. We were greeted by one of the ship’s navigators and were later joined by the captain. Both were eager to explain every single panel we asked about. Having some familiarity with aviation and radar tracking in the air, I took particular interest in their radar, and we spent a while discussing the reflectivity responses and various maps that could be projected over the screen.

The Few Flaws

Nothing is perfect and so too is it for the National Geographic Islander II.

Although I can’t really say this is a flaw, it is something that every guest needs to prepare for. Getting on and off the ship, every time, required a ride on a zodiac boat. That means traversing between a small boat bobbing on the ocean and a ship. The staff grips your arm each time, giving you a firm hand, but it still requires some dexterity and balance of your own. People with mobility issues should take this into consideration before booking. I have video of us leaving the ship on the last day with our carryon luggage. This would be the most difficult boarding process for your personal evaluation.

I have some of it playing over the screen now, but will have a link to a longer cut in the description below.

One more consideration is that there’s also no elevator on the ship. Guests must be able to take stairs and there isn’t really another option here. There aren’t many stairs, with only five decks compared to more than a dozen on big cruise ships, but it’s still more than you might have at home, which could be zero.

These boats are how you get on and off the ship, that’s the only way you can. Take that into consideration before booking anything on the National Geographic Islander II.

Guests also reported to us that rooms underneath the kitchen, which would be rooms in the center of the ship on deck three, especially the port side of the vessel, were loud during meal preparation. This meant that if they had wanted to sleep in, it would have been challenging for those sensitive to noise.

Last, and this is a rather unavoidable fact of physics, the boat rocks. Expedition cruises are smaller ships and the smaller the ship, the more you feel the rocking of the waves. If you are sensitive to ocean movement, take the sea sickness meds in whatever form you prefer but, be sure to take them and keep up with it. Several staff members on the ship were wearing the patches; others took the pills. I’m not prone to motion sickness myself but Nichole is and she didn’t have any trouble. Still, we both felt this is worth noting to help ensure that people have a good experience.

That’s about it for problems we encountered on the ship, but we think it’s also important to mention that we thought the line could do a little better off the ship with communication. Nichole and I felt that the line’s emails and information to sailors could have been more frequent and provided more information in them. They have many resources available for you to read, but most are stored in your account online and not sent to you in an email. It’s far from a deal breaker, but it’s still something that they could up their game on.

Value Proposition

As I said near the beginning, Nichole and I experienced this on a discounted rate for travel agents, it’s why I can’t call this a review. However, I still need to assess the value proposition of the line, which I’m finding a bit unfair or, at least, unequal.

As you might have guessed, these expeditions are not cheap. The cost of similar sailings to what we did run between $6,000 and $13,000 dollars per person depending on what you choose. That sort of price tag means that I have to compare it to top level suites on lines like Virgin Voyages, Regent Seven Seas, or Azamara. And that’s where I’m running into the problem because the comparison doesn’t seem to match.

As a Mega Rockstar on Virgin Voyages or in the Penthouse Suite category and above on Regent Seven Seas, you certainly have luxury. Your needs are tended to, the rooms are large, the beds plush. You have a butler. But these places offer none of what an expedition cruise offers. Look back at the day I described and ask yourself, could you ever experience anything like that on these other lines? I can’t imagine how you would.

Yes, this was me. I was surrounded by wold dolphins that approached our snorkeling group.

I haven’t even mentioned that on day three, our deep water snorkeling met a pod of hundreds of dolphins that swam right around us. Yes. I swam with dolphins in the wild. Hundreds of them were mere feet from me in the water. It was an experience I’ll never forget and it brought tears to my eyes in the moment. You won’t ever experience something like that on these larger lines.

We did three to four excursions EACH DAY. Not only could you never do that on the larger lines, but it would cost hundreds or thousands of dollars per day on top of what you already paid.

How then can I assess this fairly by comparison to mainstream cruises? The answer, I think, is that I can’t. It’s trying to compare a pizza deli to a Michelin Star restaurant. It’s not that one is better than the other, it’s that they aren’t even the same thing. They both serve food, but beyond that the similarity ends.

What I can say is that I’ve sailed in the ultra-luxurious suites on other lines but, for my money, I’ll take a National Geographic Lindblad Expedition cruise every time. It costs about the same, but the experience is incomparable.

Who Is This For?

National Geographic Lindblad Expeditions are for the person that wants to be outdoors more than they want to breathe. This for the person with an unquenchable desire to learn. It is for people who know the journey and destination are inextricably bonded and seek the beauty of both.

More than all of that, this is the journey of a lifetime. Expedition cruises go places that make up bucket lists, the kinds of destinations that in the waning hours of your life, you’ll still remember. These itineraries are not weekend getaways, nor are they lounging lazy days in the sun. It’s not that you can’t do that but why would you when you’re in a place as unbelievable as the Galapagos?

I woke up each day at 5AM and hiked for miles, over rough terrain. My mornings were spent swimming in deep and rough waters to see the world beneath the waves. I bobbed in the water with wildlife from sea lions and dolphins to penguins and hiked alongside iguanas and a very bewildered waved albatross. It would be easy to spend hours describing all the astounding things I did each day but I think the footage in this video speaks for itself.

The sort of person who should take a cruise with National Geographic Lindblad Expeditions is the sort of person that looks at the images I’ve presented and lets out a little “wow” under their breath.

Conclusion

This wasn’t a review. I said it couldn’t be and it isn’t. I can’t guarantee that my experience wasn’t colored in some way by the cruise line to make it better than it would have otherwise been. There’s nothing I can imagine that they could have done, but I can’t rule it out either.

None of the animal encounters can be scripted. Seeing the penguins was luck, as was swimming with dolphins. We even encountered the first humpback whales of the season and Nichole was the one to spot them and alert the ship. An event so exciting, the crew was buzzing around with fervent energy, telling one another the news. It resulted in a zodiac boat ride where the mother and her calf approached the boat, within a couple dozen feet, close enough to hear their breathing (you’ll have to watch my video to see this).

They couldn’t have planned a sea lion birth right in front of us. Nor could they have scripted the iguanas, the variety of boobies, and certainly not the albatross that walked right down the path at us.

Nothing about what we did can be created, it’s all serendipity. Perhaps though, some of it goes beyond mere chance and enters the realm of kismet because the real magic of this trip was more than just the place we were and the animals we saw, it was the people we did it with.

This is what bucket lists are made of.

The thing I can’t shake, what won’t leave my mind, is the people. The couple we swam with on our first day. The family from Long Island that took an interest in my camera gear and whose little girl alerted the ship’s crew to a fallen ladder and was given a plaque for her quick actions. A wonderful mother, father, and son that brought me real joy to see together. A fellow Michigander that traveled the world, sharing her adventurous spirit in literally every country.

A mother and daughter who were delightfully curious about our odd Midwestern cuisine. A photographer that’s traveled the world and could share the love of that art with me. An Australian whose cheerful energy would make everyone smile. Parents and their adult daughter together on a trip, embarrassing each other in the way a family does that shows just how much they love they share. A crew that made it all happen and brought us face to face with impossible, then made it real.

One lovely woman we met wanted to see the tortoises more than anything in the world! Sharing that excitment with her is something that I cherish.

That’s not even close to all the amazing souls we met and formed friendships with, just all that I have the space for, and frankly I’m already pushing it.

We saw wonderous things. I did what I never dreamed I would do. We met people I never imagined I would meet and for that I am all the richer. I went to the Galapagos to see wildlife and nature. What I found down there was better, though. What I found was humanity.

This is the first of at least two articles (and videos) that I have planned on our trip to the Galapagos islands. I’m working on a story about the encounters we had to, hopefully, bring you a bit closer to the adventure we had and showing you why taking a trip to the Galapagos is worth it. I’m actively processing the thousands of photos and hours of video I took. I have links to the album below and it will be updated as I add more.

This little face is something I’ll never forget.

I also have a number of photos I took of various people. They didn’t give permission to be in my publicly displayed work and I didn’t ask them either. Some of you have my personal contact information, some of you don’t. If you’re interested in getting your personal photos from me and don’t have my number, just reach out using the contact form on our website and I’ll give you a private link.

Like I said earlier, we are a travel agency and if this video made you want to book a cruise with National Geographic Lindblad, take a trip to a resort, or just get away for a few days we can help with that! Each year we book hundreds of vacations for individuals, families, and large groups. We’ve got years of experience and firsthand knowledge to make sure you get the best trip possible with support all along the way. Our team of travel professionals can help find and book the best rates and discounts for your trip because it’s our job. So don’t book on your own, use our expertise and book with us so we can help get you, far far away.

The post National Geographic Islander II: What It’s Really Like? appeared first on Far Far Away Travels.