August 5, 2004

TIMES TRAVELS

Princess offers Panama Canal cruise from San Diego

Princess once again offers travelers a variety of opportunities for a front-row view of one the world’s engineering marvels, the Panama Canal, for 2005-06, including a new cruise sailing from California.

Offering both roundtrip sailings and full transit voyages, Princess’ three canal-bound ships—Coral Princess, Regal Princess, and Sun Princess—will offer a variety of canal cruise choices. Among the 28 seasonal sailings, Regal Princess introduces a new 21-day roundtrip sailing from San Diego.

This new option gives West Coast passengers a convenient and intriguing itinerary with unusual ports of call such as San Juan del Sur in Nicaragua and Puerto Quetzal in Guatemala, as well as a unique overnight in the canal. Coral Princess will again offer roundtrip sailings from the East Coast from Ft. Lauderdale, and all three ships also sail on full Canal adventures.

“What better way to enjoy the transit process than from a private balcony—we’ll have more than 1,000 standard balcony staterooms available on canal cruises this season,” said Jan Swartz, Princess’ VP of customer service and sales. For more information and reservations, call the Travel Desk in Almaden at (408) 723-0283, or visit their Web site at www.traveldeskonline.com.



Artists rendering of the new Pride of America cruise ship

NCL announces itinerary for Pride of America 

NCL Corporation has unveiled the itinerary for Pride of America, the second of three U.S.-flagged ships that will sail Hawaii under the NCL America brand.

With a delivery date of June 6, 2005 and after several inaugural cruises, Pride of America will begin sailing seven-day round trip cruises from Honolulu on July 23, 2005 as well as offering three-day and four-day inter-island cruises between Honolulu and Maui. In addition, the company announced that it would offer a Maui embarkation/debarkation option on the Honolulu-based Pride of Aloha, resulting in a seven-day round-trip cruise from Maui as well as the current seven-day round-trip cruise from Honolulu on Pride of Aloha.

NCL will offer from Honolulu two seven-day inter-island cruises, one on Pride of Aloha (Sundays) and one on Pride of America (Saturdays); a 10/11-day itinerary on Norwegian Wind (departing alternate Wednesdays and Saturdays) and a three-night inter-island cruise to Maui via the Big Island of Hawaii on Pride of America. From Maui, NCL will offer a seven-night inter-island cruise on Pride of Aloha and a four-night inter-island cruise from Maui to Honolulu via the Big Island of Hawaii and Kauai on Pride of America. For more information and reservations, call the Travel Desk in Almaden at (408) 723-0283, or visit their Web site at www.traveldeskonline.com.

—By Sean Eastwood