Travel is

Travel is.....

Always an eye-opener. In this case, I met Suzanne Somers, the 63-year-old actress/entrepreneur/activist who brought 500 supporters along on the five-day cruise aboard MSC Poesia.

Somers, whose new book "Knockout, Interviews with doctors who are curing cancer and how to present getting it in the first place," a controversial way of looking at the dread disease but a look her followers are eager to take. The book, released last month, is a best seller and one of some 18 books she's written. Her first was a book of poetry she wrote in 1980 and read from on the Johnny Carson "Tonight" show.

Somers played the role of ditzy blonde Chrissy Snow on the 1970s television hit "Three's Company." She left the show and says "and it forced me to reinvent myself."

Suzanne Somers is anything but ditzy. She is a brilliant marketer and a bright woman who has taken her own medical experiences - and research she'd done earlier on alternative cancer treatments and the doctors providing those alternatives - and reached out to thousands of men and women all over the globe. During the five-day cruise she conducted several lecture sessions and had some of her physicians speak. Her advocacy of bioidentical hormones for women has been accepted by many and their testimonials are riveting.

I can't say I accept all her theories, but the concept of recreating one's persona is one concept I hang on to.

She's an interesting woman. I spent a couple of hours with her and consider myself lucky.

That's the serendipity of travel.

Travel is...

Cruising.

For the many who have never traveled by sea, the cruise business is the great unknown. I know it well and I never tire of the rhythm of life aboard ship. To me it is a serene and comfortable way to travel.

I am just off the coast of Ocho Rios, Jamaica now and while I didn't actually go ashore (I have many times before, but had an interesting interview here aboard ship, more about that later), I enjoyed the beauty of this island.

But when it comes to beauty, the ship I am on -- MSC POESIA -- is a real winner. The one-year-old ship is one of 10 in the MSC fleet, and is brand new to Caribbean sailing. European in design and decor and with Italian officers and an international crew, the ship is hospitable and comfortable and a wonderful home away from home.

From the magnificent lucite piano on deck 5 to the soft-serve ice cream on deck 13, from the delightful theater to the two graceful swimming pools and from the delicious spa and fitness center to the interactive in-cabin television sets, the ship is designed to make a sea-going vacation as comfortable as possible.

I believe in criusiing. I think that despite the growth of cabins which has probably doubled in the last 10 years, the demand for this kind of vacation for all ages will also continue to grow.

In the case of MSC cruises the offerings can take travelers to South America, throughout Europe, Canada and New England, and here in the lovely, turquoise blue waters of the Caribbean.

Bon voyage.

Travel is..

Returning to wonderful places.

Like San Francisco.

I just spent a long weekend in the city by the bay and found it as beautiful and interesting as I did when I first visited many, many years ago.

I've since grown used to bizarre dress, piercings and tats, and what some might call in- appropriate behavior, but the original visits to Haight Ashbury were revealing and stayed with e all these years as many individual "declarations of independence. Today one doesn't have to travel far to see young (and not so young) people with the accoutrements of what we used to call fighting city hall.

But you do have to travel to SFO to get a glimpse of one of North America's most beautiful cities.

San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf is still home to some of the best and freshest seafood in the world, a fleet of boats that take you to fish or sightsee and views that are dynamite. I took two tours on Saturday: a Blue and Gold Bay cruise that sails under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz and (after a delightful lunch of Shrimp Louis at the venerable Scoma's) took a city tour with Mr. Toad's rides and got up and personal with Pacific Heights and those multi-million dollar homes, drove through the Presidio and down under the bridge, through the Marina and the financial district. The narration and photo ops in San Francisco are remarkable and memorable.

I hope it won't be long until I can return and revisit these marvelous places, but for now I've left a piece of my heart in San Francisco.

Again.

Travel is....

Expectation..

The whole world of travel, travel agents and writers, execs at other cruise lines and anyone who's ever gawked at a 2,500-passenger ship, is waiting breathlessly to see Royal Caribbean's big, beautiful and bodacious new vessel, Oasis of the Seas, due out at Port Everglades in about 18 days.

The $1.5 BILLION, 20-deck, 5,400-passengers with restaurants and lounges, a skating rink, flo-rider and climbing wall, will also feature a water show, live Broadway production, an exotic shopping area and open spaces never before seen at sea.

Oasis of the Seas will settle into a weekly seven-day schedule in December and will do a series of short inaugural cruises this month. She sailed from Finland last week and is so large that apparently sailing under a bridge in Denmark had to lower her stacks, but reported no damage. I've seen videos and pictures, read countless press releases and I, like everyone I know, can't wait to see her in person.

I will keep you posted.