Book Review

I was so excited to hear that I would be receiving a copy of Complete Guide to Cruising & Cruise Ships . Then I suddenly remembered that I did a project several years ago where I was to use this book as a reference. I found that book repetitious and thought that little effort was made to distinguish ships, especially in the same class. I hoped that this new edition would be better.
I mentioned my disappointment to a colleague who told me how much work the author did compiling this book. Well, we all know that much work does go into a book and I certainly respect that. However, I have other expectations such as accurate information.

I will disclose immediately that this book was sent to me gratis. I did not purchase it and am dutifully following the new guidelines by the FTC who thinks that receiving a complimentary copy of a book or a complimentary anything for that matter might influence my opinion of such free item. The FTC obviously doesn’t know the cynical, skeptical me.

The author of this book claims to have sailed on 990 ships. I immediately did the math as this claim piqued my interest just like the claim that Warren Beatty slept with 12,775 women. I don’t think that I know that many people, and I definitely know that I haven’t sailed 990 times. So the tactic that I used in reviewing this book was to use my knowledge of cruising – I have cruised about 30 times, but I have inspected more ships than that. I have also reviewed several ships, so have a good starting point for comparison. My review of this book relies on my experience with the ships that I have sailed compared to the author’s review of these same ships. Of course, I do know a bit about the cruise experience as a whole so can also contrast and compare our thoughts on that.

Come back next time for my comments on the new edition of this book.

Sail Away