SeaDream Yacht Club on Travel Channel!!

If you can't make our client event next Thursday featuring SeaDream Yacht Club don't miss Saturdays episode of Cruises we Love June 20th on the Travel Channel!!!

If you like what you see, call Jen Mitchell @ 800-865-8111 or email Jen@BettyMacleanTravel.com to make your reservations.

SEABOURN ODYSSEY NAMED ON JUNE 24

VENICE TO SHINE AS SEABOURN ODYSSEY

IS NAMED ON JUNE 24, 2009

Guests/godparents to savor rare experience of anointing the cruise industry’s first new luxury vessel in six years at intimate ceremony in spectacular setting

June 8, 2009 (Miami) – The Yachts of Seabourn is planning an intimate ceremony for the naming of the newest addition to its award-winning fleet: Seabourn Odyssey. The highly anticipated event, set for June 24, 2009, will take place on deck as the sun sets behind the unmistakable skyline of Venice, Italy.

While naming ceremonies typically invite attendees to watch from shore as an honorary “godparent” names the vessel and breaks a bottle on its bow, the anointment of Seabourn Odyssey will be held on board with guests booked on the maiden voyage. Collectively, all of the guests will act as godparents, initiating the anointment with a bottle of Italian prosecco and giving the yacht its name. Each will receive a commemorative certificate from the event, and their names will be affixed to a plaque to be displayed on board.

With Venice as the backdrop, the colorful heritage of the city will be a touchstone throughout the daylong event. Guests arriving at Stazione Marittima terminal will be given a red carpet welcome, complete with musicians playing and festive banners and garland. Once all are on board, Seabourn Odyssey will depart for a stately cruise down the Guidecca Canal to Riva dei Sette Martiri, a docking location near the Piazza San Marco, where it will be moored for the ceremony.

An early dinner served in Odyssey’s superb dining venues will precede the ceremony. With darkness set to fall in Venice after 9:00pm, guests will return to find the deck transformed and the sun gilding the domes and turrets of the city – an enticing view to be enhanced by ceremonial music.

Though many details of the ceremony are being kept hush-hush, Seabourn has revealed that a magnum of sparkling prosecco spumante will be used to anoint Odyssey. The bottle will come from a vineyard in northeastern Italy, near where the vessel’s hull was crafted, and will be broken by means of an ingenious mechanism designed especially for the event.

For more information or to make a reservation, contact Jen at Betty Maclean Travel at 1-800-865-8111 or Jen@BettyMacleanTravel.com.

**Ask me about our Voyager Club sailings and the benifits that come with it FREE! When calling mention you heard about this on our Travel Blog!!!

FINAL Passport Rule Issued for Land and Sea Borders

Departments of Homeland Security and of State issued the final rule making concerning the requirements of passports for land and sea border crossings under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. After years of development following 9/11, this ruling is the end of the process and can be considered FINAL ensuring you will have the proper identification when traveling.

Effective June 1, 2009, the following rules take effect for cruise passengers:

U.S. citizens on cruise voyages that begin and end at the same U.S. port (closed-loop itineraries) must show proof of citizenship* and government-issued photo ID (such as a driver’s license). A passport will not be required for passengers that fall into this category.

*Documents include: Original or certified copy of birth certificate; Naturalization papers; Consular Report of Birth Abroad issued by Department of State

All other passengers and/or itineraries (such as cruises which begin in one U.S. port and return to a different U.S. port or any cruise that begins or ends in a foreign port) will require a passport or other recognized document. For a list of accepted documents, see http://www.travel.state.gov/The good news for a majority of cruise passengers – American citizens that leave and return on their cruise from the same U.S. port – is that the travel document requirements will remain largely unchanged from how the industry is operating today.

I continue to encourage travelers to obtain passports to allow the broadest travel opportunities. You can visit http://www.travel.state.gov/ to obtain information on how to apply at more than 9,000 passport acceptance facilities in the United States.

*Please call Jen Mitchell to set up an apointment for specific passport requirements regarding your cruise reservation. I will be glad to help you!