South Florida MPI’s “Floating Hotel” Event It was a beautiful day in Miami, so what better place for South Florida MPI members to meet for an educational event than on a dazzling “floating hotel” with spectacular views of downtown Miami and Biscayne Bay. After a smooth check in, we split into small groups to tour [...]

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Eco-friendly “Floating Hotels” Now more than ever, planners are looking for ways to “green” their meetings and events. If you haven’t considered a cruise ship as your venue, you might be surprised to learn about the tremendous progress the cruise industry has made to protect our environment. There are a variety of innovative programs in [...]

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American Cruise Lines will soon usher in a new era of Mississippi riverboat cruising with the launch of a sternwheeler, already under construction at Chesapeake Shipbuilding in Salisbury, Maryland. The first cruise is scheduled to depart August 11, 2012 from New Orleans on a 7-night journey up the Mississippi to Memphis, Tennessee. Why is this [...]

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Think About It What would excite you more – the chance to earn a chunk of money, or the opportunity to travel with a group of your peers to a dream destination? In my case, a monetary reward would disappear quickly.  Maybe I’d use it to pay off some bills or buy new furniture – [...]

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Our friend and meeting technology pundit Corbin Ball has released his list of  “Eleven Meetings Technology Trends to Watch for 2011″. Corbin is enthusiastic about the advancements in meetings technology, and rightly so: The rate of technology change is increasing. Meetings and tradeshow technology continues to advance with technology products becoming better, cheaper and easier [...]

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Sea Cloud Cruises – Classic Perfection You’re looking for a unique, dazzling destination to reward your highest achievers or accommodate a top-level meeting – without breaking the bank.  Here’s a solution: a Sea Cloud Cruises upscale sailing ship or elegant river yacht is sure to inspire your attendees, while giving you the ultimate Return on [...]

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I believe that a life of magic is a life of passion. Passion is what drove my business partner Jo Kling and me to open our cruise specialist office in New York City 28 years ago, even though the odds were against us.  How did we do it? Jo and I steered clear of negative [...]

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If you plan motivational events or incentive travel programs, you’ll want to get a heads up on industry trends and forecasts by reading the first annual Site Index Survey from the Society of Incentive Travel Executives (Site).  A group of 131 highly-qualified incentive travel/motivational event users and providers from 12 countries participated in the survey, [...]

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A journey aboard the Avalon Tapestry on the Danube River from Budapest to Vienna After a good night sleep in Avalon’s Comfort Bed, the morning offered scenic cruising along the Danube – a full breakfast buffet is offered in the dining room complete with omelet station. Today we learned more about Avalon Waterways and the [...]

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This is my first Danube River cruise. A few years back, I cruised the Po River in Italy – needless to say, a new experience is always exciting, as well as educational. Unlike the title in Robert Redford’s 1992 movie where the river plays a symbolic role, the river in this story literally runs through [...]

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