Bob’s View of Travel

We’ve heard that Royal Caribbean like most cruise lines is testing open dining on Freedom of the Seas. One level of the ship will be for open dining between 6:30pm and 9:30pm. The test will be conducted on sailings between Oct 7 thru Dec 16, 2007 with the exception of the Thanksgiving sailing and a chartered Oct 28 sailing.

One interesting point of Royal Caribbeans open dining program is that diners using open dining program must pre-pay dining gratuities prior to dinner. We’ll check on this item and report back to you.

We just received news that Royal Caribbean will be implementing a new NO smoking policy in all cabins during 2008. We now expect a sell-out on Royal Caribbeans balcony cabins in 2008 as smoking will be allowed on the balcony of any cabin.

We found a cool site which has seating diagrams for every aircraft of most every airline. You will find the best seats, most comfortable, best legroom and and of course the seats to stay away from on your flight. All seats are color coded from the good to stay away. If being comfortable while on your flight is important give seatguru.com a look.

We hear Holland America will launch As You Wish dining, an innovative program that allows guests to choose from the best of both worlds, either traditional pre-set seating and dining times, or a completely flexible dining schedule. One level of the two-tiered restaurant will offer a flexible/open dining service from 5:15 to 9 p.m. daily, and the other will host two seatings, an early and main seating.

Holland expects to have all ships refitted for As You Wish dining during May of 2008. The msNoordam currently offer the new dining program.

Bob would like your opinion of Holland America’s new dining program. Take a minute and write your opinion. Do you prefer the same table for dinner, the same waiter or is securing the perfect time for dinner more important to you?

Rumor has it that a major tour operator may be dropping a very popular perk for a certain segment of their clients for 2008 departures.

So who jumped ship? We’ve heard another rumor that a major escorted tour company has selected a Senior Executive from the cruise industry to fill a key post at their company.