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Cruising is easy. Or so cruisers will tell you. For starters, you only have to unpack once, even as you travel from place to place. You also don’t have to go hunting for a restaurant every night. There usually are a bunch just steps away from your cabin, and they have tables waiting for you. And you’ll have no trouble finding entertainment. But even in its simplicity, cruising still can be daunting for a first-timer. What should you bring? What should you plan on doing in ports? What is the best way to book? As The Points Guy’s cruise writer,...

In Hurtigruten’s most extensive stateside event ever, the Norwegian company just gave nearly 300 US and Canadian travel advisors and media a taste of its new hybrid-electric ship, Roald Amundsen. ‘The US market is very important to us, both as a destination and as a source market,’ Hurtigruten CEO Daniel Skjeldam said. The company ‘hasn’t been that present in the US market, but that’s going to change,’ he added. Just 10% of business came from the US last year. That is targeted to rise to 25% to 30%, and Hurtigruten’s Seattle office has bulked up from a few people to...

Broadway pianist Justin Brown, age 26, has been arrested for trying to have sex with a minor, according to the New York Post. Brown has worked as a rehearsal pianist for Dear Evan Hansen and King Kong. Brown began talking to someone who he assumed to be a 14-year-old boy on the dating app Grindr, when he was really talking to an undercover NYPD cop. He was arrested when he showed up to the Queens address with a backpack full of lubricant and condoms. His bail was set for $20,000 at Queens Criminal Court. Queens Acting District Attorney John M....

I’m from Indiana, I’m gay as a — I don’t know, think of something really gay — that’s how gay I am,” he said in an interview. “I’m used to bullying,” Buttigieg replied. “I think you confront it, initially, and move on.” He said that as a presidential candidate he would focus on calling out Trump’s behavior but remain intent on changing the subject to his own agenda. Buttigieg quoted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. saying that “darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that.”

Jussie Smollett has given his first interview about the shocking racist and homophobic attack he was subjected to as he walked home from a Subway in Chicago last month at 2am. The Empire actor spoke to ABC's Robin Roberts for an interview that will air on Good Morning America on Thursday morning. In a brief promo for the interview, he is seen tearing up after Roberts asked him if he feared for his life at any point during the attack. It is the first time the 36-year-old himself will answer questions on camera about the incident which shocked the nation...

Episode 64, from the Youtube channel of an American family who sold the McMansion in the Dallas suburbs, bought a sailboat, and headed out for an adventure of a lifetime! This episode finds them fishing off the coast of Northwest Africa, near the Canaries, just prior to crossing the Atlantic for the Caribbean, and from there back to America in time for the Miami Boat Show. It's pretty funny and the dad, Keith, philosophizes some toward the end of the video. I think many Freepers will be heartened and inspired by his talk.

FULL TITLE: 'Take it outside if you want to call me sir again!' Furious transgender woman rages at store clerk after he calls her 'sir' instead of 'ma'am' A furious transgender shopper threatened a store worker after he called her 'sir' instead of 'ma'am'. An argument broke out at the GameStop in Albuquerque, New Mexico, when the woman had just bought an item at the counter. She demanded her money back after being called 'sir' by the male shop attendant, then raged at a fellow shopper who called her 'sir' again and asked her to stop swearing as there were...

Every year, Nov. 20 marks the International Transgender Day of Remembrance. The solemn day highlights the lives the transgender community lost throughout the year. A total of 369 transgender men and women were killed this year. That's up more than 100 from last year, according to Jamie Lee Sprague-Ballou, founder of Las Vegas TransPride. Thirty of those deaths this year were in the United States. Three-hundred-sixty-nine cards covered a wall at a vigil hosted by Sprague-Ballou and other members of the transgender community. The cards depicted the 369 faces, along with the 369 names of their trans brothers and sisters...

American singer, actor Frankie Avalon celebrates 78 today.

The man, identified as Brian Lamonds of Greensboro, NC, was reported missing Tuesday morning as the ship was sailing from Tampa to Key West. The Coast Guard was notified of the missing guest and is conducting a search, Carnival Cruise said in a statement to Fox News. … Coast Guard Key West watch was notified of the missing passenger around 10 a.m. and sent out a Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew, an Air Station Miami HC-144 Ocean Sentry aircraft crew and the crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Isaac Mayo to aid in the search.

Fair Oaks Police District – An investigation is underway after a 15-year-old boy reported being filmed while using the bathroom at Red Robin in the Fair Lakes area on December 26. He saw a figure over his head and noticed a cell phone pointing at the urinal which appeared to be recording him. When he confronted the person, he realized the suspect was an employee of the restaurant. The victim left the bathroom and told his mom, who then notified restaurant staff. The victim’s family left the location and called us. Officers responded to the restaurant in the 13000 block...

A new cruise ship is heading our way, built to host more passengers than ever before. MSC Cruises announced plans for its new World Class ships - which will carry a maximum of 6,850 guests and boast 2,760 cabins - at a ceremony in France's Saint-Nazaire last week, with an artist's rendering of the ship showing that she'll be quite a sight to behold. The 200,000–ton vessels, the first of which will be delivered in 2022, will have room for 70 more passengers than the current record-holder, Royal Caribbean's Harmony of the Seas, which has a capacity of 6,780.

The world's biggest-ever cruise ship, the 227,000-tonne Harmony of the Seas, a luxury home on the waves for 8,500 passengers and crew, was handed over by a French shipyard on Thursday after a 40-month engineering feat. At 218ft, it is the widest cruise ship ever built, while its 1,187ft length makes it 164ft longer than the height of the Eiffel Tower. The immense floating town, which cost close to one billion euros (£800 million), has 18 decks and will be able to carry 6,360 passengers and 2,100 crew members.

I was exploring the 3,084-passenger Ruby Princess, docked at the World Cruise Center in San Pedro, when I stumbled across a dessert display and tasting -- a wondrous thing to chance upon, especially given that the theme was "Chocolate Journeys." Spread out in front of me were hundreds of dreamy desserts in all varieties of chocolate: white, milk, dark and sweet. I saw truffles, cakes, mousses, cupcakes and pastries. Multiple trays were festooned with dozens of tiny chocolate confections, each a silky, rich work of art. My ship had truly come in. As sweet and wonderful as it was, the...

Before becoming a Florida senator or a 2016 Republican presidential hopeful, Marco Rubio was apparently just another kid caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. After a bad first year at college in Missouri, Rubio returned home to Miami shortly before the summer of 1990, when he was arrested in May at age 18 for being in a public park after it had closed for the night, the Washington Post reported Thursday. The misdemeanor offense was eventually dismissed, and most of the documentation that led to the dismissal of charges has been destroyed by the Miami-Dade County court...

Country star Ty Herndon has something to share: He's an "out, proud and happy gay man." Herndon, 52, came out publicly as gay in an interview with People magazine. He says he's known he was gay since he was a child and started coming out to family members in his 20s. But the "What Mattered Most" singer, who had a number of hits in the 1990s, kept the news close to the vest. It wasn't until he attended a Tony Robbins seminar in 2009 that he decided to become more public, he told the magazine. "I realized I had an...

Hey guys and girls. Who here has cruised a Blvd or Ave while you were a teen? Do you remember what that meant to you and the fun of just looking next to the other car? Who has dragged raced when the light hit green?

Several cruise lines have changed itineraries due to concerns over Ebola, canceling port stops in West Africa. On Holland America Line's 35-day African Explorer cruise aboard the MS Rotterdam, from Cape Town, South Africa, to Southampton, England, three ports of call in Ghana, Gambia and Senegal will be replaced with an added overnight in Cape Town, an added overnight in Cape Verde and a stop in Tangier, Morocco, according to Holland America spokesman Erik Elvejord....

A West Side priest pleaded guilty this morning to soliciting sex from an undercover ranger at Edgewater Park last October while failing to divulge he was carrying the AIDS virus. Under provisions of a plea bargain reached with prosecutors, the Rev. James McGonegal, 69, the former pastor of St. Ignatius of Antioch Church, will enter an early intervention program. The agreement allows McGonegal to avoid a felony conviction if he successfully completes the program. At that point, the case would be dismissed and his record expunged. He also must perform 50 hours of community service and continue out-patient treatment begun...

The recent exchange of missiles between Hamas and Israel reached even a cruise ship. Last night around 8 p.m. in the port of Ashdod in Israel, some 30 kilometers north of the Gaza Strip a cruise ship was hit by rocket shrapnel’s. According to a correspondent of the German broadcaster ARD, multiple shrapnel struck the ship Aida Diva late on Monday. The company Aida Cruises said none of the 2,700 passengers and crew were injured and damages were neither verified the vessel. Israeli forces attempt by Hamas fired rockets trap. Small debris raining down on the passenger deck of the...