New ships, deals and prices 

Here, from Orbitz, is a look at the 2011 cruise scene:

* In the next six months, cruising in the Caribbean is expected to hit all-time highs. In the latter part of the year, cruise lines will be moving ships to focus on European excursions.

* Several new ships in the Caribbean (including Celebrity Eclipse [pictured] and Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas) means 2011 will present many opportunities to score a great deal because of heavy competition.

* The Western Caribbean is expected to be this year’s most popular destination, and the average cost of a cruise will be down about 5 percent from 2010 levels.

* Miami and Port Canaveral, Fla., will be the most popular ports of departure in the U.S., with average cruise prices of $1,270 and $1,199 respectively.* Cruises departing Boston will cost about 34 percent more than they did in 2010, while those leaving Charleston, S.C. are about 40 percent cheaper when compared to last year’s rates.
* The least expensive U.S.-based cruises will be departing from Mobile, Ala.; Long Beach, Calif.; and Jacksonville, Fla.

 Search Amazon.com for Cruises

Trivial question

What is Germany's third-largest city? (Answer somewhere below.)

Unlimited golfing in Tuscany 

Terme di Saturnia Spa & Golf Resort,  in Tuscany’s picturesque Maremma region, has a new Golf Unlimited package that features unlimited greens fees and use of the driving range, along with accommodations, cuisine,  a welcome amenity, and complimentary use of the resort’s thermal pool . From April 1-July 31, the resort will have a three-night package with rates starting at €699 per person,  double occupancy (about $950) and a five-night packagewith  rates starting at  €999 per person (about $1,365).  For more information, visit www.termedisaturnia.it.

Win one of 10 free vacations to Virginia 

The Virginia Tourism Corporation has launched  the Follow Your Heart to Virginia Sweepstakes featuring nine first-prize trips and one grand prize that allows the winner to build his or her dream vacation.  Each prize trip puts centers on things you love, be it amusement parks, wineries, museums and special experiences.  The sweepstakes is open to U.S. residents 21 and older who enter at www.Virginia.org/sweeps through Aug. 25.

Fascinating fact

Reykjavik translates to Bay of Smokes.

Your car dines for free with this offer

With the price of gas expected to rise some more, the Greenbelt Marriott has a Cars Eat Free promotion that lets guests to earn up to $75 in gas cards ($25 per night for up to they nights) when they stay at the hotel, which is in Greenbelt, Md., near Washington..

 Rates for the  free gas promotion range from $119 to $169 per night, include a $25 gas card for each night of stay, and must include a Friday or Saturday night stay.  This promotion is effective from now through Memorial Day, Monday, May 30,  and does not include taxes. To book this offer, you must mention promo code TRS.  Call 800-228-9290. The website is www.marriott.com/hotels/hotel-deals/wasgb-greenbelt-marriott/

Trivial answer

Munich, the capital of Bavaria, is Germany's third-largest city.

Wild horses couldn't drag you away from Assateague

Neither car nor camper can deter the horses of Assateague Island from their daily dining. (Story and photo by Richard P. Carpenter)

They're not very wild and they're not really ponies. Nonetheless, the legendary Wild Ponies of Assateague Island are well worth seeing, as is the rest of this 37-mile-long barrier island.

Depending upon where you are standing, Assateague, located in both Maryland an Virginia, is a national seashore, a state park and a wildlife refuge. Again, depending where you are, the attractions are off-roading, camping, birding and wildlife watching. During a recent visit, I was treated to the relatively rare sight of a hummingbird in its nest.

The big attraction, though are those equines, who have inhabited the island for some 300 years. There are some 130 of them on the Maryland side, but they don't make appointments for you to view them, so on a given day, you may see a few or a lot. I saw about 10 during my visit, and while it's true they have not been domesticated and ridden, most seem tame and will hardly gallop away at the sight of you. In facts, signs put up by the national park service, which owns and manages the animals, tell you not to feed them. And while some may look like ponies, many experts will tell you they are actually small horses. On Chincoteague Island on the Virginia side, meanwhile, horses are owned by the Volunteer Fire Department, and every July there is a roundup, during which the horses may splash through the sea, and an auction. The Maryland and Virginia horses are separated by fences at the border between the states. 

How did the horses get to Assateague in the first place? There are all kinds of mythical or magical explanations, and some believe they were survivors of a Spanish ship that sank in a storm.  But research turns up a more mundane explanation: At least some were put there by colonial planters to dodge livestock taxes and fencing rules.

For more information on this unusual island and its sights, click here and here and here.

Philly loves you so much that it will give you a gift

As part of the new With Love, Philadelphia XOXO campaign, visitors who book one of the nearly 100 packages on www.gophila.com/withlove will get a gift at check-in. The giveaway includes a Philadelphia Privileges coupon book, a five-pack of With Love postcards and a With Love pin, along with other brochures, coupons and maps. Starting rates range from $77 -$415 per night, and packages have perks that are based on a variety of interests. Examples: Star Trek: the Exhibition. Franklin Institute Science Museum, Spa and Romance, and Family Fun.

After checking the Web site, visitors can book their selected packages online or by calling their chosen hotel directly.

What's in a pronunciation?

Britain pronounces the Thames River as "Tems," but in Newport, R.I., the river of the same name is pronounced "Thaymes."

What's in a location?

Most of the 3.8-mile Las Vegas Strip is not in Las Vegas but in Paradise and Winchester, Nev.

Park Plaza celebrates summer in Boston

The Boston Park Plaza Hotel has four new summer packages. The Copley Place Shopping Package features a one-night stay, two $50 American Express Copley Place Gift Cards, and two Copley Place gift bags. Rates start at $259, and persons booking should use rate code CPSHOP. The Take Me Out to the Ball Game Father's Day Package includes a night's stay and two right field box tickets for the Sox vs. Braves game on June 20 or 21. The package is available Saturday, June 20, and Sunday, June 21, with rates starting at $369.The rate code is FENWAY1. The Dinner & the Movies Package includes a two-night stay, breakfast buffet for two, an n-room dinner for two, and two tickets for Boston Movie Mile Walking Tour. Rates start at $499 and the code is DANDM. And then there's Fireworks on the Fourth, which features an overnight stay, two amenities that include supplies to view the city's famed fireworks from the Esplanade. The rate is $239 and the code is 4th2009.

Visit www.bostonparkplaza.com or call 617-426-2000.

Trivial question

Which country has the world's longest coastline? (It is not necessarily the world's largest country.) Answer Friday.

Golf for free at New Hampshire resort

The Balsams Grand Resort Hotel in Dixville Notch, N.H., has a Golf Free Package available Sunday-Thursday through June 30 and from Sept. 1 to the end of golf season for $119 per person, per night. The package includes lodging, breakfast, and unlimited rounds of golf on the resort's Donald Ross-designed golf course. The package is available now through June 30th and from September 1st through the end of golf season.

For details, click here. For resort information, visit www.thebalsams.com.

Tangier: a Virginia island that's like no other

Top, golf carts are the preferred method of getting around. Bottonm, the Methodist parsonage.

(Story and photos by Richard P. Carpenter)

The first thing you notice on Virginia's Tangier Island are the accents. They are none like you've heard before, largely Elizabethan with a dollop of Virginian as well.

There's a reason for those unique accents. The island was settled in 1686 by people from Cornwall, England, and their isolation from the mainland of Virginia and Maryland, a dozen or so miles away, has kept that method of talking relatively intact.

Tangier, though, would be fascinating to visit even without those accents. Some 600 residents inhabit this 900-acre island in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay and, not surprisingly, most make their livings by fishing and crabbing. There are two churches, one Methodist and the other non-denominational, two schools and one policeman, whose official car is a PT Cruiser. (Good thing the island has virtually no crime. People get around the island by golf cart, motorcycles, bicycles and cars but there are only about 20 of the latter. Seven artesian wells provide the water supply.

The same family names keep cropping up, Crockett, Pruitt and Parks among them. "No, we're not all related," said one resident. They all know each other, though. How could they not in an island this small. They are susceptible to "outside" influences, though. They watch television largely by satellite and get on the Internet, mostly by dial-up. Residents have their own boat to take them to and from the mainland. No liquor can be bought or sold on Tangier Island, but there is no law against bringing a supply back during those mainland visits.

Tangier Island is accessible by commercial boats from Onancock and Reedville, Va., and Crisfield, Md. The ride takes a little over an hour, and residents are welcome indeed. For those who want to stay longer, there are three bed-and-breakfasts. One of them, Hilda Crockett's served a lunch so hearty -- there were crabcakes, clam fritters, ham and corn pudding -- that I felt no need to have dinner that evening.

For more information on the island, click here and here.

Travel tip

During flights, especially long ones, passengers' feet tend to swell. Consider wearing Crocs or other loose-fitting shoes, then changing to more traditional footwear after landing.

Family savings in St. Thomas

Summertime is savings time in the Caribbean. For instance, the Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort & Spa in St. Thomas,has an an all-inclusive SunValue Island Getaway package available through Aug. 24. The price starts at $387 per room, per night, for two adults staying four nights or more, but here comes the good part: That price includes unlimited food and beverages, entertainment, non-motorized water activities and half-day access to the supervised Kids Club. Children under 12 who share a room with their parents stay, play and eat (from the children’s menu) at no additional charge. The cost for children ages 13 to 17 who stay in the same room with their parents is $95 per child per night. And for those concerned about the new passport rules, those documents are not required for US citizens who visit the U.S. Virgin Islands.

For that offer, click here or call 877-999-3223 and mention code PKGAIP. For resort information and other offers, visit http://www.wyndhamsugarbay.com/.

Monday's trivia answer

Sitka, Alaska, is the largest municipality in the United States by area, with a total area of 4,811.5 square miles. Of that amount, 1,937.6 square miles, or 40.27 percent, is water.

Let your dad heed the call of the wild

Looking for a memorable Father's Day gift? The Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge in Alberta is offering its first annual "men's only" weekend, July 3-5. The package features two nightsat the lodge, which is in the Canadian Rockies; a men's barbecue; two breakfasts and one lunch; a poker night; transfers to and from Jasper; unlimited onsite recreational rentals, including canoes, kayaks, and bikes; and a choice of one of the following: a whitewater rafting excursion,
guided fly fishing, or golf at the lodge. The cost is $1,244 based on double occupancy.

Call 800-441-1414. To learna bput the lodge, visit www.fairmont.com/jasper.

Worth quoting

I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.

-- Robert Louis Stevenson