See why Charleston is a must-see destination before and after your cruise.

Charleston is the ultimate cruise port as it has it all – beauty, history, and southern hospitality. Now that Carnival offers year-round cruising from the city it will introduce many travelers to the wonders of Charleston.

Charleston is a city meant to meander around and get lost and it’s worth spending a few extra days to explore before or after a cruise. Oak-ringed parks with beautiful gardens and memorial plaques and statues are everywhere and are inviting to relax in on a hot day. The city’s historic homes and churches are a highlight of any walk and are perfectly preserved making it easy to imagine what life was like here 150 years ago. St. John’s Lutheran Church dates back to 1817, and St. Philip’s Church whose steeple was once used as a lighthouse. A walk along the waterfront will carry you past grand mansions to White Point Gardens where townspeople watched the first shots fired on nearby Fort Sumter in 1861.

At the corner of Meeting and Market Streets is the Market Hall, a Greek Revival temple built in 1841 that now houses a wonderful open-air market. The northern end has a number of small, enclosed shops that sell hats, jewelry, perfume, and Christmas ornaments, while the southern end is filled with more jewelers, painters, potters and weavers who make sweetgrass baskets — an African-American art form that is South Carolina’s official handicraft.

Good food is plentiful in Charleston – Hyman’s Seafood offers a huge menu of fresh from the sea fare along with numerous landlubber options. Sticky Fingers barbeque is hog heaven for rib lovers and Toast is a great place to start the morning off with a hearty breakfast.

For families with children, travel to Europe can be daunting. Packing and unpacking and deciding where to go and eat is more difficult with kids in tow. However, Disney Cruise Line is setting out to make it easy for families to visit Europe.

In April, the Disney Magic will return to Europe, where it first sailed in 2007, only this time with a few new itineraries. The Magic will offer 10,11, and-12-day cruises to Scandinavia, Germany and Russia, in addition to a lineup of Mediterranean itineraries that include calls at three new ports. And in each port Disney will add its magic touch to enhance the touring experience.

Keys to culture

Each year cruise lines keep upping the ante on shore excursions, as passengers express more enthusiasm to spend money on experiences. Disney sees its return and expansion into the European market as an evolutionary step firmly based on a core Disney activity — storytelling.

Unlike other cruise lines where the hotel department handles the shore excursions, Disney places their tours in the hands of the entertainment department. David Duffy, Disney Cruise Line’s creative director for entertainment and shore excursions, summed it up this way: “We’re using our storytelling expertise to tell the great and fascinating stories of the places we’re visiting at each destination.” He added that the true objective is to provide fact-based narrative rather than fairy tales.

Indeed, the line’s return to Europe offers a treasure trove of culturally rich Italian ports such Naples, Civitavecchia (Rome) and La Spezia (Florence, Pisa, Lucca), as well as Barcelona, Oslo, Copenhagen and Stockholm. However, it’s the ones not normally considered children’s destinations, such as St. Petersburg, Russia and Tunis, Tunisia that are the most intriguing.

Disney realizes that for a lot of passengers it will be their first time in Europe and well-designed shore excursions are the key to a great cruise vacation. “We make our shore excursions very kid-friendly,” said Jason Lasecki, Disney Cruise Line’s public relations director.

“That’s what we do so well. If they know their children are well taken care of, parents have a good time.” Lasecki acknowledged the challenge for Disney is to keep the children engaged in the cultural significance of each port of call. “We’re looking for the sweet spot in each destination,” he added.

Sweet spot or not one thing Disney insists upon for shore excursion participants is comfort. The line goes the extra mile with comfortable transportation along with adding little touches like plentiful bottled water and cool towels. They even make gelato stops during long tours to keep the kids happy. Another nice option that Disney provides at each stop is a “Port Adventure” where youth counselors from the ship whisk the kids off for an activity allowing parents and grandparents to explore a site in more detail.

Onboard the Magic, there will be activities geared toward preparing kids for the ports, such as painting frescoes, mosaics, and Russian stacking dolls. There will also be a food tastings to familiarize the kids with what they’ll find in each port such as gelato for Italy or crepes for France.

Tunisian mystique

For the majority of passengers onboard the Magic, visiting Tunis, Tunisia will be the first time experiencing a Muslim country. Disney realizes this and will offer family-friendly lectures that will discuss Tunisian society and traditions.

Once ashore, tours and activities are clearly aimed at experiencing Tunisian culture. For example, a “Treasure Hunt” shore excursion in the white-washed village of Sidi Bou Said allows families high-octane fun while at the same time discovering the ancient history of the village. Tour participants are given a map booklet with clues for a successful treasure hunt. Along the way guests visit former palaces, receive a temporary Arabic henna tattoo, fetch water from a famous communal fountain, haggle with shop owners using local currency to buy trinkets, take a pit stop in a café where the locals smoke their hookah pipes, and have their name written in Arabic by a Wiseman.

Other tours of the area include tour of Tunis with a visit to a souk, and the Bardo Museum famous for its Roman mosaics. Also available is a visit to Carthage, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and a jaunt to a Berber village, which offers a similar atmosphere to Colonial Williamsburg except it has Arabic touches of snake charmers, camel rides, and belly dancing.

Ciao Tuscany

Florence is one of the most intriguing cultural centers in Western history, in which religion, philosophy, and politics played an important part in the development of the arts. So, how do you get an 8-year-old interested in all this?

Disney developed a tour to take kids beyond just talking about history — they will actually experience it. The line is offering an exclusive “Disney Experience” at the 14th century palace — Palazzo Vecchio. “This tour is something no other cruise line has ever done in Florence,” says Duffy. The tour is actually part of a program developed for Italian school children, but Disney was able to work with the museum to come up with an English-speaking version. The tour will allow kids to enjoy works of art Michelangelo, wander through secret palace passageways, talk with actors portraying Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici or his Spanish wife Duchess Eleonora di Toledo, try on medieval clothing, and paint a fresco.

Another exclusive tour that is only offered by Disney is a medieval parade experience in Lucca complete with drummers, troubadours, dancers, flag throwers, and a cross bow contest. For those that have always dreamed of going to cooking school in Tuscany you can do that as well. The line is offering the experience at the Torre A Cenaia winery just outside Pisa. While this excursion is more adult-oriented, kids are welcomed too. The best part about cooking school in Tuscany – eating what you’ve created and (for adults anyway) washing it down with the local vintages.

Russian intrigue

When the Magic heads north to the Baltics the grandeur of St. Petersburg, Russia will be the highlight for most onboard. For the first time in Disney Cruise Line history a ship will spend an overnight in port. With the added time guests will be able to delve deep into the city’s bloody 300-year history, admire the beautiful architecture of the Winter Palace and the Peterhof, or stroll along the rivers and canals.

“The shore excursions in St. Petersburg have been two years in the making,” said Duffy. A tour of Catherine’s Palace in Pushkin is the highlight where Disney will offer an exclusive Prince and Princess Ball in the palace’s grand ballroom. Imagine all the little girls dressed up in their Belle, Cinderella, and Snow White costumes being driven to the palace’s doors in horse-drawn carriages and then dancing with Disney princess characters. “This is a very exciting time for us,” added Lasecki.

Disney will also offer guests the opportunity to experience an evening performance of Swan Lake at the St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre. Another Disney exclusive tour will allow guests to experience a private performance at the Jacobsen Ballet School, where young dancers, ages 5 to 15, train for a career in the ballet.

Also, no visit to St. Petersburg would be complete without a visit to one of the world’s greatest art museums- the Hermitage. The museum’s collection includes more than three million works of art and artifacts. Disney offers a chance for kids to visit and also create their own masterpieces in the museum’s Roman sculpture section giving parents more time to explore.

The idea of heading on a family cruise often conjures up thoughts of sitting back on deck, soaking up the sunshine and splashing in the pool, but a European cruise offers something different. Cruising in this part of the world means seeing amazing sites and experiencing ancient cultures and customs. And for kids lucky enough to sail on the Disney Magic with all its family-friendly tours full of cultural enlightenment they’ll get to see that it’s a small world after all.

If you go:

In the Mediterranean, the Disney Magic will be based in Barcelona and offer four 10-day and four 11-day cruises in April, May, August and September 2010. Fares start at $1964 per person, based on double occupancy. Kids ages 17 and under traveling with 2 full-fare guests in the same cabin sail free on select Mediterranean sailings from April 24 through May 26, 2010 (taxes and fees not included).

In June, July and part of August the Magic will be based out of Dover, England and offer 12-day cruises to the Baltics. Fares start at $3,649 per person, based on double occupancy. Visit Disney Cruise Line’s Web site for more details.

It’s 7:00 am and anyone who is still asleep has just been awakened by this morning’s announcement. A polite good morning call that announces it is a “nippy” 39 degrees outside, and a reminder that the bus for the winery tour leaves in one hour. Not that anyone is in bed — no one wants to miss a thing. The fall foliage was just setting in making the scenery along the Columbia River Gorge more spectacular. Add the backdrop of the Cascade Mountain Range with snow-covered Mount Hood and it’s even more breathtaking.

Expedition cruising aboard Cruise West’s Sprit of Discovery, as you might have gathered, is quite different from your one week cruise around the Caribbean. For one thing the ship is small and there is no casino, lounge acts, bingo contests, disco, spa or fitness center. There’s no dressing up since the atmosphere onboard is very casual — jeans, khakis, sweaters and fleece jackets are the norm. Accommodations are basic – cabins have no television, radio or telephone, and get this, no locks on the doors. Still everything is secure, safe, clean, and the all-American crew is friendly and eager to please.

Spirit of Discovery

One of the hottest trends in cruising today is the almost insatiable interest in cuisine. Food and wine have always been an integral part of the cruise experience, but in recent years, the interest has become more refined to include special cruises dedicated to specific cuisine. When it comes to wine many cruise lines offer wine tastings, but few have the ability to take you right to the source.

Cruise West, a company long known for its educational eco-cruises to adventure destinations like Alaska, Costa Rica, and Asia may seem like an unusual fit for a wine cruise. But the company is known to focus on the destination rather than the cruise itself, and sailing along the Columbia River with access to Washington and Oregon’s growing wine region offers an amazing experience for wine lovers.

Spirit of Discovery, launched in 1976, was purpose-built for cruising off-the-beaten track waters. It is small carrying just 84 passengers and functional, with a dining room, lounge, bow viewing area, sun deck, but little else. The downside is that cabins are compact with twin beds (queen beds in higher class cabins) and tiny shower area, the sink is located outside the bathroom in the cabin. The good news is you won’t spend a lot of time in the cabin since shore excursions take up most of the day.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner are served in the intimate, open-seating Grand Pacific Dining Room. Meals are at set times, and since there is no 24-hour room service or alternative dining, you eat when you are supposed to or you will miss out. For early risers there is a Continental breakfast spread in the lounge, the same area where all the lectures take place. A sit-down breakfast follows in the dining room. Lunch is scheduled around the shore excursions. Dinners are the highlight where the chef uses local ingredients from the Pacific Northwest. Menu choices are somewhat limited, but the cuisine with the highlighted wines offered was excellent. Standouts included Wagyu Shortribs, Kurbata Pork Prime Rib, and Wild Pacific Sturgeon and Grilled Salmon and amazing breads like Walla Walla Onion Cheddar and Curry Egg. Coffee, tea, and sodas are complimentary – the only extras are cocktails and wines not part of the tastings.

Onboard entertainment consists of enrichment lectures by two Cruise West Exploration Guides who lecture on the history of the Columbia River. Come evening, there are activities in the Discovery Lounge – mainly wine tastings and talks by the ship’s guest “Wine Guy”, Frank Baldassare. He lectured on how grapes are grown and how various regions produce different wines, how to properly taste wine and pair it with food, and how Washington and Oregon became wine regions.

All shore excursions are included in the price and Exploration Leaders separate passengers into two touring groups. This made it easier to spend time exploring and not overwhelming the destinations visited. We hiked through pear orchards in Oregon, onion fields in Washington, toured the giant Bonneville Dam with its huge power generators and salmon fish ladders, jet boated to the Hanford Reach Monument where we witnessed abundant wildlife and glimpsed at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation (birthplace of nuclear energy), watched seafood cooking demonstrations in Astoria, and in Walla Walla and Richland drank barrels of wine – literally.

Swirl, smell, sip

Prior to the winery tours the first lecture was Baldassare educating us on the Four S’s of wine tasting: see, swirl, smell, and sip — a valuable way to experience and understand each wine from first to last taste. This practice would be essential to make the most of this cruise with all its abundant wine samplings.

Surprisingly most all the passengers on this trip were over 65 years of age, I am 43 and I was by far one of the youngest. But let me tell you these seniors were sprite and could run laps around you, not to mention being able to swill wine with the best of them.

The first winery tour was Three Rivers Winery just outside of Walla Walla. The visit coincided with the October crush season when grapes are harvested and placed into wine vats to cure. Jan Wessel, a retail manager for Three Rivers, gave a group tour of the vats and told how making fine wines is a blend of science and art. “It is the result of a host of varying environmental factors and, typically, the combination of several different grape varieties, each in varying quantities, overseen and orchestrated by master vintners to create a unique and excellent vintage,” he said. Tastings included a number of red and white wines where my personal favorite ended up being the 2005 Syrah.

Since gourmet food goes hand-in-hand with good wine our group stopped for lunch at Walla Walla’s Backstage Bistro and dined on an amazing three-course meal. During the meal more wines were sampled and one in particular stood out – a 2003 Nicolas Coles Cellars Camille, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. I just loved this wine so much I had several glasses and was feeling no pain. Baldassare laughed at me and told me to “pace” myself. The reality is there are five S’s in wine tasting – the last being spit, which I quickly learned to do or I would not remember a thing about this trip.

After lunch it was off to visit two more wineries. At Beresan Winery the farming aspects of growing grapes was discussed, and our group was able to pick and eat Merlot grapes right off the vine – yum! The next winery was Basel Cellars set atop a hill, not only did we drink wine but we drank in the beautiful scenery as well.

The next day the ship docked in Richland and it was off to visit three more wineries. The first stop was Coyote Canyon Winery located high above the Yakima Valley in the remote area of Horse Heaven Hills. The owner Mike Andrews gave a tour of the 500-acre vineyard and afterwards indulged our palates in a number of excellent vintages. Next it was off to the Red Mountain area and the Terra Blanca Winery with amazing landscaped grounds and sweeping views of the Yakima Valley. More tastings and lunch was followed by a tour winery’s vast cave system storing thousands of barrels of wine. Our last stop was another winery in the Red Mountain area, Kiona Vineyards. Kiona was the first vineyard in the area and has cultivated a stellar reputation for producing amazing vintages. The Vivacious Vicky wines are not to be missed.

For Baldessere, educating others about the joy of wine is simply not a job, it’s a passion. “It’s all about exploration and the process of discovery, and rediscovery of tastes,” he says. This, as it turns out, is an essential ingredient to creating a memorable travel experience.

If you go:

This cruise is best for intellectually curious travelers interested more in culture and nature than splashy big ship amenities. The eight-day, seven-night “Taste of the Pacific Northwest” cruises on select dates in April, September and October 2009. All trips depart from Portland, Oregon. Rates range from $3,299 to $4,399 per person, depending on cabin category. Prices include taxes, port charges, airport transfers, shore excursions, and gratuities. Visit Cruise West’s Web site for all the details.