2010 January | American Tracker

20. Jan, 2010

Getting about in Cornwall

beach-cornwall Whereas package holidays might take care of everything for you, including all of your travel arrangements, they also force you into a strict, rigid, set plan of what your holiday will be like, governed entirely by your tour operator. Making your own decisions regarding your trip can leave you much, much happier, as long as you’re sure to properly plan before hand, and ensure that you know what you’re getting yourself into.

Accommodation, activities, weather and so on are not normally things that people overlook, but travel once you’re there is left until the last minute more often than you’d think. It’s a real shame as well, as if you’ve decided to book a more intimate holiday, perhaps in a hotel with a loved one, then shoddy travel arrangements can really ruin the mood. Family cottage holidays don’t have the travel pre-planned either, and little Jeremy and Ron are going to drive you mad with wailing if the travel arrangements are less than satisfactory.

So what can you do to alleviate this? Well, depending on where you are you have plenty of options. From my experiences in the UK (mostly in Cornwall, in the South West), I can say that travel is easy there as long as you spend the time preparing. Train, plane, coach, or car are all available, and booking early is a possibility in all cases. Almost every service also allows you to view schedules or even book online if you want to, making the whole process as hassle-free as possible.

The train lines in the UK are generally very good, though planning for delays is for the best, especially if the worst does happen. Many smaller lines also branch of the main one, meaning that once you’ve taken the main line down to Cornwall, you can get a smaller train to near your Sennen Cove cottage, for instance.

Plane flights in the UK can get you around, but I always find it actually takes just as long as getting a train, what with check-in times, and then getting transport to and from the airport. If you can rent a car whilst you’re abroad then that’s great, but longer journeys may still be better if you utilise a bus or train.

04. Jan, 2010

World’s largest Cruise Liner

oasis Oasis of the Seas, the most recent line launched by Royal Caribbean Cruises. It is 20-stories tall and 1,180 feet long it is now the largest passenger liner afloat. It is five times the size of the Titanic and has lodging available for 6,300 passengers. The crew total is 2,100 and too many buffet tables to count. At a cost of $1.3 billion to build, this ship was six years in the making. This cruise liner is the definition of luxury travel. It was build in Turku, Finland and from there made its maiden voyage with its amphitheatre that seats 750 people outdoors. It also offers a mini-golf course, basketball and volleyball courts, an ice rink and an indoor theatre for 1,300 and enough swimming pools to satisfy everyone.

Although this ship has been compared to the Titanic, designers feel it is an undue comparison. This ship’s interaction with an iceberg would be an unlikely concern says Assistant professor of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering at the University of Michigan Matthew Collette, “All ships are designed to make the chance of large-scale structural collapse very remote.” He went on to say, “If it was struck by one I would expect there to be some local damage at the point of impact – broken portholes, bent railings, but little else.”