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Best Fitness Areas on Celebrity Cruises Ships

5/29/2015

Bocce on the Celebrity Summit lawn club on Celebrity Cruises.

Are you ready for a bocce battle on the lawn club on a Celebrity Cruises' ship? You can use the real grass surface to get a unique workout at sea.

By John Roberts

We'll be taking our third Celebrity Cruises trip this fall. The trip for 17 days from San Francisco to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, takes us through the Panama Canal for the first time and also on our longest journey to date.

We're especially excited because the voyage also brings together a group of family and friends, including the first cruise for my father in law, and it is a celebration of both my 10 years of marriage to Mrs. In The Loop as well as a certain milestone birthday for her (the Big 4-0! Shhhhhhhh!).

Being on the ship that long, you know we want to be prepared to keep up with our fitness regimen.

So, continuing my occasional look at the best fitness areas at sea, let's take a look at what Celebrity Cruises ships have to offer.

The most distinctive feature on a Celebrity ship, I think, is the lawn club available on all of its Solstice-class vessels. This half-acre area of real live grass make the perfect spot for a morning yoga or stretching session. You also can do a full regimen of body-weight exercises in this peaceful space. Push-ups, sit-ups, squats, burpees, lunges, etc.

Celebrity also provides games and equipment for you to use on the lawn. Especially competitive when you play croquet or bocce? Count that as a workout!

Celebrity also features gyms on its ships, of course, and fitness classes that come with a fee (Zumba, pilates, spinning, yoga). The gyms are some of the most well-equipped and spacious we've seen at sea, which is nice. It's easier to get in a more effective workout when you have ample equipment and aren't fighting off fellow passengers for equipment and benches (though that might get your heart racing, too).

We enjoyed a competitive pool volleyball tournament and playing hoops on the ships' sports courts. Celebrity Cruises ships contain jogging tracks that are best used early in the day or late afternoon when the sun loungers are least likely to be in use and encroaching on the track space.

Celebrity offers complimentary access to a thalassotherapy pool (adults only) in the solarium on Millennium-class ships. These jetted warm, salty soaking pools are a fabulous way to soothe those sore muscles after your workouts. A section of the pool has metal rollers that you can use to work out the knots and kinks. We found this pool a great treat and perfect way to achieve a bit of relaxing bliss each day.

Thanks for reading.

Travel fit! Travel happy!

JR

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Crystal Cruises, Seabourn Launch New Adventure Excursions

5/19/2015

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Crystal Cruises offers an excursion to zipline Reversing Rapids in Saint John, New Brunswick.

By John Roberts

Adventure travel has been on the rise in the past decade. Studies show it.

In fact, the percentage of adventure travelers (someone whose main purpose of his or her last trip was to participate in an adventure activity like canoeing, hiking or caving, for example) from North America, South America and Europe increased to 42 percent of travelers in 2012 from 26 percent in 2009, according to the 2013 Adventure Tourism Market Study.

This is not surprising to me. We know how awesome it is to get out and get your adrenaline racing while exploring fantastic sites around the world.

What caught me off guard a bit is that ultra-luxury cruise lines (that means cruises filled with very rich people, usually of an older demographic than your stereotypical adventure traveler) are taking notice, offering new excursions for active adventure seekers.

Not that I can afford a voyage on these luxury ships, but it's nice to see a trend for all demographics that understands the value and excitement in getting off your ass and away from the buffets for at least a few hours a day to interact with the awesomeness of nature.

As a high school science teacher of mine used to say, "It's good for the heart!"

Crystal Cruises and Seabourn Cruise Line unveiled new excursions ranging from simple soft-adventure outings to more hard-core challenges for your days in port.

Ventures by Seabourn, an excursion program, allows passengers to enjoy kayak and Zodiac boat expeditions led by expert guides. Three sailings from Copenhagen, Denmark, in summer 2015 will feature excursions -- launched straight from Seabourn Quest's fold-out watersports marina -- through fjords and waterways, as passengers go ashore at islands for hikes and view icebergs and more.

Crystal Cruises has created a number of active excursion options for its fall sailings in New England and Eastern Canada. Passengers can, for example, hike at a national historic site in Nova Scotia; run the carriage trails at Acadia National Park in Bar Harbor, Maine, along a 5-kilometer route led by a fitness instructor; hike the ocean trail at Acadia; zipline alongside Reversing Rapids in Saint John, New Brunswick; go cycling in wildlife marshes in Halifax, Nova Scotia; or go sailing in Newport, Rhode Island.

Mass-market cruise lines have been coming around in recent years by expanding fitness-based and adventure offerings. Onboard, we see waterslides, ziplines, skating rinks, ropes courses, simulated skydiving and surfing, expanded gyms and fitness classes. Check out all the action available onboard Royal Caribbean's new Anthem of the Seas, for example.

Now, it's good to see that more upscale and specialty lines are aspiring to make the experience ashore more physical and fun, too.

Thanks for reading,

JR

Travel fit. Travel happy!

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The Best Fitness Areas on Carnival Cruise Ships

5/12/2015

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Courtesy Carnival Cruise Line

By John Roberts

You can use a weeklong cruise vacation as a way to recharge and refresh. For many people, that might mean laying on beaches or sitting poolside on a lounger on the lido deck soaking up the sun while sipping fruity cocktails.

For me, I like to make sure I get the right balance of exercise, rest and entertainment. Cruise ships provide tons of opportunities for all of these vacation styles -- and I'm talking about all the things that can all be enjoyed without even leaving the ship.

If you're more like me -- and you just might be because you're poking around this website, after all -- you need to start your day by revving up your engine with a good workout. It's the best way to earn all those extra cruise calories.

In the first of an occasional series on fitness at sea, let's take a look at what Carnival Cruise Line has to offer for its passengers.

Yes, you can take fitness classes on a cruise. They come with an added fee, and the classes are located in the gym onboard your vessel. The gyms are complimentary, but you pay about $12 to $20 for fitness classes -- such as yoga, pilates, spinning and boot camp -- which are available on all ships in the fleet. Personal training sessions also are available and typically cost about $50 to $75 per session.

Good news: the fitness center is often located right next to the spa, so you can get a soak or a massage after your workout.

Courtesy Carnival Cruise Line

All Carnival Cruise ships include an outdoor jogging track, where you can make your way around an upper deck for a few laps to start or end your day. Watch out for walkers and lounge chairs that tend to creep into your lanes, though.

You can also take your workouts outdoors. Cruise ships Carnival Breeze, Carnival Magic, Carnival Sunshine and the new Carnival Vista (debuting in 2016) include a SkyFitness area. The gym on top of the ship offers machines for body-weight exercises, heavy bags to give the once over and a selection of cardio equipment. You can sweat under the sun or in cooling tropical breezes while enjoying the views.

I like the variety offered on the Carnival Cruise ships, so I can change up how I start each day while on my voyage.

Travel fit. Travel happy.

Thanks for reading,

JR

Related stories
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Best Fitness Areas on Celebrity Cruises Ships

Crystal Cruises, Seabourn Launch New Adventure Excursions

The Best Fitness Areas on Carnival Cruise Ships

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