The Bahamas
Nassau
Well set up for a day ashore — and a port people come away lukewarm about, usually because they never left the few streets nearest the ships.
27 pages · $10.99
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Cruise guides, written from the gangway
We'd rather be useful than enthusiastic.
Twenty years. Fifty-plus cruises. More than a hundred destinations. What we've learned, written down plainly — including the parts most cruise advice leaves out.
No hype. No “top ten things you must do”. Where something isn't worth your money, we say so.
The complete guide
Plan the whole thing calmly
From a vague idea to stepping off the gangway at your first port — in a logical order, one thing at a time.
Cruise with Confidence
Everything we've learned in fifty cruises, in the order you'll actually need it.
- Choosing the right cruise — the four questions that narrow your options faster than hours of research
- Booking smart — timing, real budgets, cabins, flights, agents and insurance
- Pre-cruise prep — documents, onboard accounts, currency, and the muster drill
- Life onboard — spending, dining, gratuities, and permission to do less
- Ports without pressure — your options ashore and the all-aboard time
- When things go wrong — missed ports, billing, medical, and putting it right
Plus a planning pack: a month-by-month timeline, a packing checklist refined over fifty sailings, a 72-term glossary, and six printable sheets to fill in for each port.
$18.99
78 pages · PDF
- Five phases, in planning order
- Printable planning pack
- Written from experience, not a brochure
- Yours to keep — no subscription
Pocket Port Guides
Then make the days ashore count
One port per guide. How the day actually works, what a taxi should cost, where the town eats a few streets back from the water — and an honest word about what isn't worth your time.
Puerto Rico
San Juan
Five centuries of history minutes from the pier, no currency to change, and one of the easiest Caribbean ports to explore on foot.
24 pages · $10.99
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Mexico
Cozumel
A reef divers travel the world for, a Maya site in the jungle, and a wild eastern shore. None of it hidden — it just isn't at the pier.
28 pages · $10.99
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Who we are
Cruising isn't something we do occasionally
It's something we've built our lives around. Over the past twenty years we've taken more than fifty cruises and visited over a hundred destinations — the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, the Norwegian fjords, New England and Canada, the Mexican Pacific coast, and the ports of the Middle East.
We've sailed mass market lines and premium lines. We've had extraordinary trips, and we've made the mistakes too.
None of this is written from a brochure. It's written from the gangway, the deck, the port — and occasionally the customer service queue, when something hadn't gone to plan.
20+Years
50+Cruises
100+Ports
“Cruises are far easier than they first appear — once you understand how the small details fit together, everything starts to feel straightforward.”