Greetings from cruise3sixty in sunny and humid Ft. Lauderdale, Florida! While Embark is extremely happy being in the cruise center of the universe, it’s hard to escape talking and debating about sports during our downtime. In addition to chatting about cruising, we’ve conversed about the hometown Miami Heat in the NBA Playoffs, the Florida Panthers just wrapping up their NHL Playoff run, the Miami Dolphins picking their future in the NFL Draft and the Miami Marlins opening up a new stadium. So it got us thinking how about how we could combine the universal love of sports with our favorite pastime of cruising. Here are our top 5 cruises that you should know about if you’re a sport’s fan
2012 Summer Olympics in London: I attended the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, and it was absolutely awesome. I attribute that statement not only to the intimacy of the Games, but the camaraderie among the tourists. It didn’t matter where you were from or what language you spoke, all those in attendance cheered all athletes during their competition and praised them during the medal ceremony.
The 2012 Summer Olympics will be held in London. While larger cruise ships can’t get onto the River Thames to embark out of the city center, the Southampton port is a short 1.5 hour drive. The Olympics start on July 27, 2012, you could do a pre-Games 14-night Mediterranean cruise that starts on July 14 on Royal Caribbean’s Independence of the Seas. The voyage starts in England, tours Portugal and Spain and returns back to England just in time for the Opening Ceremonies.
2013 Super Bowl in New Orleans: The mother of all football games returns to New Orleans in 2013 and being a big departure point for cruises, next February may be a good time to experience the Big Game and the Caribbean. For those that aren’t too keen on spending several thousand dollars for a 3-4 hour football game, you could watch the Super Bowl while on the Carnival Conquest that departs New Orleans on February 3 (the game is on February 5) and visits the Eastern Caribbean.
2013 NBA All Star Game in Houston: If the Super Bowl wasn’t enough in February 2013, you could extend your vacation and check out the NBA All Stars in Houston on February 17, 2013 and then take a cruise out of Galveston, Texas. A four-night Carnival Triumph that visits the Western Caribbean does a roundtrip through Galveston on February 21.
2014 World Cup in Brazil: For futbol (aka soccer) fans, nothing beats the FIFA’s World Cup. For the first time in World Cup history, the 32-team tournament visits Brazil. The host country is no stranger to the World Cup with five championships and 20 consecutive trips to the tournament-of-all-tournaments on their resume. Itineraries and schedules aren’t available for 2014 yet, but Royal Caribbean’s Splendour of the Seas has a few trips out of Sao Paulo in late 2012 and early 2013 for those that want a sneak peak.
2015 MLB All Star Game in Washington DC: It hasn’t officially been announced that Washington DC will be the host of the 2015 Major League Baseball All Star Game, USA Today reported that the city had been awarded the Mid-Summer Classic. Not only can you see baseball’s best play in beautiful National’s Park, you can plan a cruise out of Baltimore on a Carnival Cruise. While 2015 itineraries won’t be released until 2014, the Carnival Pride is regularly departing out of Baltimore – which is a short drive from our Nation’s capital.
You can reach Allan on Twitter (@EmbarkAt) or by email ([email protected]). Allan is a guest blogger for Mikey’s Cruise Blog.
Photo credit: Royal Caribbean Arabia’s Blog
