Top 5 Reasons To Try A Small Ship Expedition Cruise

 

Aboard the Coral Expedition Geographer small ship 

When you think about a cruise, you may picture a giant boat with thousands of people, a ongoing pool party and music blaring, huge buffet of food and Broadway like shows. 

Breakfast aboard the ship

There are many cruises out there that look like that, but a growing trend is small boat Expedition Cruises. These cruises are on small ships that hold just a few hundred passengers. They tend to cruise to more remote locales like the Arctic and Antarctica, but you can also find them in the South Pacific, Australia and even sailing the coast of Spain and Portugal.

There are several lines that offer this type of cruising. We like Windstar, Viking, SilverSeas, Ama Waterways, Quark, Coral Expeditions and Hurtigruten Expeditions. 

Small expedition cruise ship Coral Expedition Geographer

I spent two weeks aboard the Coral Expedition small ship traveling along the Kimberley Coast of Australia crossing the Indian Ocean to view the Solar Eclipse and then spending a few days in Indonesia. It was an incredible experience. I must admit that this was just my second cruise ever and the first was a mega cruise ship to Alaska. 

As I reflect on both of these cruise experiences, the small ship Expedition cruise is my preferred way of travel. Here are my top five reasons why. 

Lounge space aboard the ship

1. Small ships - On a small ship with just a few hundred passengers, nothing is crowded. You get to know the staff and your fellow passengers. The experience is very personal. The staff gets to know you and your preferences. You don't have to compete with others for reservations or a seat. 

Porthole state room aboard the Coral Expedition Geographer

Small ships are usually quite nice with comfortable state rooms, fine dining and executive chefs. The only downside could be the lack of traditional facilities like a pool, spa or large fitness area. 

Spotting a crocodile lounging along the Kimberley coast

2. Remote locations - A small ship can venture into locations that large cruise ships just can't . The Coral Expedition ship traveled into small bays along the Kimberley Coast which is not accessible by car or large ship. The small ships can anchor in the bays and then use zodiacs to take the passengers on land. The Coral Expedition had zodiacs and a ferry type boat available depending on the excursion. 

Aboard the zodiac heading to the King George Falls 

3. Experts on board - Where large cruise ships feature Broadway style entertainment and casinos, Expedition ships feature experts lecturing on history, culture and nature. Since the Australia cruise was designed around the Solar Eclipse, the expert was an astronomy professor who lectured multiple times about how eclipses occur, what to look for, why they happen and more. 

Solar Eclipse April 2023

4. Excursions - On large cruise ships, you need to add on excursions in each port. On Expedition ships, the excursions are included because they are part of the itinerary and everyone is expected to participate. Accommodations are available for those who are unable, but 99% of passengers would go on the excursion. Some excursions on the Australia cruise included zodiac landing for a guided walk through Komodo Island National Park, zodiac through the King George Falls, exploring the sandstone caves of Wollaston Bay and visit the three ancient lakes of Kelimutu. 

Komodo dragon living on Komodo Island, Indonesia

5. Environmental and cultural sensitivity - Expedition cruises often have a strong focus on sustainable and eco-friendly travel, adhering to strict guidelines to minimize environmental impact. They emphasize cultural immersion, providing authentic experiences with local communities.

I liked the Expedition cruise experience so much that I am already booked on another one, this time we are headed to the Arctic for the Solar Eclipse 2026. 
If this sounds interesting to you, let me know and I'll help find the best expedition cruise for you and your family.  I have access to perks and on board credits that you won't find anywhere else plus we will use points and miles to make this bucket list trip affordable. 

5 Essential Travel To-Dos Before the Year Ends

The end of the year is quickly upon us once again! Besides end of year sales and tax moves, you may also want to look at the five travel tasks that top the ultimate year end checklist. Here is the list: 

• Travel credits - check all of your airlines to see if you have any travel credits due to expire on Dec. 31st. Many of them ask you to book your flight by the expiration date, but you can travel later. Sometimes, you can book a trip and then cancel it and that will extend the expiration date, but keep in mind that doesn't always work. You may need to call, email or message on social media to the airline to find the right person who can extend the expiration date. Don't give up! It took me a week with a few phone calls, emails and private message on twitter to find someone to extend a United travel credit so I could book a flight in May 2024. 

• FREE hotel nights - Check the expiration dates on those FREE hotel night certificates to see if you any are expiring or if you need to book by Dec. 31st. 

5 Essential Travel To-Dos Before the Year Ends – Your Ultimate Year-End Adventure Checklist!

• Annual fees - this should be noted on your personal tracker, but if not, check to see if any of your credit cards are nearing the anniversary date. If so, make the decision about whether the card still fits with your strategy. If not, cancel it. 

• Credit card perks - check those perks like the $50 Chase Sapphire Preferred hotel credit or Global Entry or $300 travel credit, be sure to use these before they reset. 

• Points and Miles expiration dates - check those expiration dates for points and miles on airlines and hotels. If they are close to expiring, make a purchase to show activity or transfer the points to another account or person. 

The $147 sale price for my Travel Coaching Program ends January 15th, so don't wait. Use promo code "NEWYEAR" for $50 off. This price includes 3 video modules about points and miles plus two bonus modules with real life examples, personal points and miles tracker, 1:1 live coaching session with me, and monthly group zoom sessions. Hope you will start off the year right! 

Before you watch the ball drop or sip that celebratory champagne, take an hour to review your points and miles so that 2025 is full of adventure and lots of travel. 

How To Find Amazing Point Deals On Virgin Atlantic

People ask me all the time how I find great flight deals to Europe. There are no tricks, but there are some tips to find them. 

#1 is planning early. If you haven't started planning for next summer, you are late! But I'm here to help. 

#2 is knowing where to look for those deals

#3 is having the points available to jump on them when you find them

Let's go step by step and see what we can find. Suppose we are looking to go to Europe in summer 2025. Usually, I look for flights at least a year in advance so I can find the best deal and get my points earned in time to buy the flights when they open 330 days in advance. But sometimes you can't plan that far out so let's see what's around now. 

My two favorite airlines currently to hop across the pond are Virgin Atlantic and Flying Blue (KLM and Air France).

First, let's check Virgin Atlantic to see how many miles we would need to book Washington DC to London on July 8th.

Even now, you could book a flight from Washington Dulles to London for just 6,000 Virgin points and $73 in taxes in July 2025. Pretty sweet. Last month, Chase was offering a 40% transfer bonus and this month American Express is offering the same deal. With the transfer bonus, this flight would only cost approximately 4,000 points. Crazy! 

For a family of 5 like mine, you are talking just 20,000 points and less than $400 to hop across the pond. 

Now let's check Flying Blue. 

Flying Blue is the loyalty program for both KLM and Air France. It's not the loyalty program for Virgin Atlantic, but that airline shows up on the portal as well. But now look at the points. On Flying Blue, it would cost you 20,000 miles and $124 in taxes for the one way flight from Washington Dulles to London. Still a great deal, but definitely not as good as on Virgin Atlantic. Occasionally, Chase and Amex will offer transfer bonuses to Flying Blue as well making this deal even better. 

To find these deals on Virgin, you will need to start at the reward seat checker. Once you enter your departure and destination airport, you will get a view of the month you choose and available reward seats. 

Then you go to the actual website and put in your dates to locate the flights. 

Now here's where it gets interesting. You might be saying this is all great, but I don't have any Virgin Atlantic or Flying Blue points. 

That's true, most of us don't. 

But if you follow my blog or have worked with me in the travel coaching program, you know how much I love flexible points. My favorite flex points are Chase and Capital One and this is when they come in especially handy. 

Both Chase and Capital One are transfer partners for Flying Blue and Virgin Atlantic. You can read here about how to transfer your flex points to dozens of different airlines and several hotel chains. 

Remember once you transfer your points, you can't get them back even if the flight is no longer available. 

Right now, you can pick up 75,000 Capital One points by applying for the Capital One Venture or Venture X cards. 

• Both come with a 75,000 bonus for a $4,000 minimum spend. 
• The Venture card has a $95 annual fee and the Venture X has a $395 annual fee because it also comes with a $120 Global Entry credit, Priority Pass membership and a $300 travel credit. 

For Chase points, our favorite cards are the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Sapphire Reserve credit cards. 

Both come with a 60,000 point bonus for $4,000 minimum spend. The Preferred has a $95 annual fee and the Reserve has a $550 annual fee, but comes with a $300 travel credit, $120 Global Entry credit and Priority Pass membership. 

Don’t spend tons of money on your next vacation. Instead, let us help you travel for almost FREE forever. Join our coaching program today, and start making your travel dreams a reality—just like this success story!

We can’t wait to see you in the program and help you unlock all the amazing travel rewards waiting for you.

Woohoo! Let’s make your next trip an AlmostFREE adventure!

https://travelplus.virginatlantic.com/reward-flight-finder/results/month?origin=LHR&destination=JFK&month=02&year=2025

Chase 1st Quarter 2025 5x Bonus Categories

 

Woohoo! Chase has announced the 5x bonus categories for the FREEDOM (not available to new customers) and FREEDOM FLEX credit cards for Q1 2025. 

The bonus categories rotate quarterly and offer 5x Chase points up to $1,500. It's an easy way to accelerate your earning power. I max out these bonus offers on both of my FREEDOM credit cards every quarter. 

And then transfer the points to my Chase Sapphire Reserve for maximum value. 

Past categories have included Paypal, Amazon, Lowe's Walmart, pet services and more. 

For Q1 2025, the categories are:

• Self Care, Nail and Hair Salon and Spa 
• Grocery Stores - excluding Walmart and Target
• Fitness and Gyms 
• Norwegian Cruise Lines 

You need to activate your bonus by March 14th 2025. 

Besides the bonus categories, the Chase FREEDOM FLEX comes with a $200 bonus offer for a $500 minimum spend. This is a $0 annual fee credit card so it's a great everyday card to add to your wallet. 

Travel Insurance: Do You Need It And Which Should You Choose

Are you travelling for the holidays? A lot of us are and well, when we travel things happen. So the question is should you buy travel insurance? 

Well it depends. 

Our client, Deborah, said that travel insurance recently saved her thousands of dollars when she and her partner came down with Covid while on a trip to Croatia and Greece. They had to change plans and stay at an island hotel for 5 days while they recovered. Travel insurance covered the additional hotel nights, cancelled hotel nights, food and transportation. 

Some credit cards include travel insurance if you buy your flights, hotels or car insurance with it. If you use points to buy your flights and/or hotels, coverage will depend on how you booked the flight and hotel. Did you transfer the points to an airline or hotel partner, if you did, then Chase considers itself no longer responsible for the trip. And you would only be covered if you purchased travel insurance from the carrier or hotel brand. 

If you booked through the Chase Travel Portal, then Chase would still cover your trip and would refund you in cash rather than points. 

The credit cards we like that include travel insurance are:

Chase Sapphire Reserve -  details about coverage from Chase.com 

• Travel and Emergency Assistance Services: If you run into a problem away from home, call the Benefit Administrator for legal and medical referrals or other travel and emergency assistance. (You will be responsible for the cost of any goods or services obtained.)
• Trip Delay Reimbursement: If your common carrier travel is delayed more than 12 hours (six hours for Sapphire Reserve) or requires an overnight stay, you and your family are covered for unreimbursed expenses, such as meals and lodging, up to $500 per ticket.
• Trip Cancellation / Interruption Insurance: If your trip is canceled or cut short by sickness, severe weather and other covered situations, you can be reimbursed up to $10,000 per person and $20,000 per trip for your pre-paid, non-refundable travel expenses, including passenger fares, tours and hotels.
• Baggage Delay Insurance: Reimburses you for essential purchases like toiletries and clothing for baggage delays over six hours by passenger carrier up to $100 a day for 5 days.
• Lost Luggage Reimbursement: If you or an immediate family member check or carry-on luggage that is damaged or lost by the carrier, you're covered up to $3,000 per passenger.
• Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver: Decline the rental company's collision insurance and charge the entire rental cost to your card. For Sapphire Reserve cardmembers, coverage is primary and provides reimbursement up to $75,000 for theft and collision damage for rental cars in the U.S. and abroad. Sapphire Preferred Cardmembers can be reimbursed up to the actual cash value of the vehicle, but coverage excludes certain cars, such as high value and exotic vehicles.
• Travel Accident Insurance: When you pay for your air, bus, train or cruise transportation with your card, you are eligible to receive accidental death or dismemberment coverage of up to $500,000 ($1,000,000 for Sapphire Reserve).
• Certain travel reimbursement, cancellation protection and emergency services are available to Chase Sapphire Reserve® cardmembers on eligible travel booked with their credit card. Here’s some more information about the benefits offered with the card.
• Emergency Evacuation and Transportation - If you or a member of your immediate family are injured or become sick during a trip far from home that results in an emergency evacuation, you can be covered for medical services and transportation up to $100,000.
• Roadside Assistance - If you have a roadside emergency, you can call for a tow, jumpstart, tire change, locksmith or gas. You’re covered up to $50 per incident 4 times a year.
• Emergency Medical and Dental Benefit - If you're 100 miles or more from home on a trip, you can be reimbursed up to $2,500 for medical expenses if you or your immediate family member become sick or injured.

Chase Sapphire Reserve is one of our favorite cards, it comes with 60,000 bonus points, $300 travel credit, Priority Pass Lounge Membership, $120 Global Entry credit and more.

Capital One Venture X - details about coverage from Capitalone.com 

• Trip cancellation and interruption insurance - If you booked and paid for your trip with a card belonging to a network that offers trip cancellation and interruption insurance, you may qualify for reimbursement in certain situations. For example, they can include unexpected health issues or accidental injuries. The death of an immediate family member or someone in your travel party may also qualify. Maximum reimbursement depends on your card and can vary significantly. For example, some Capital One consumer credit cards may offer up to $2,000 per trip. (For others, it could be less or more.)
• Trip delay insurance - Travel schedules don’t always go as planned. Flights may get delayed or severe weather may affect your travels. Or you may need to pay for a meal or last-minute hotel room while you wait. If you paid for your trip with a card that has trip delay insurance, certain reasonable costs you incur during the delay might be covered.
• Rental car insurance - If you pay for a rental car with your card, you might be able to skip the added cost of buying insurance through the rental company. Credit card rental car insurance through some Capital One cards could cover collisions and theft.
• Lost or delayed baggage insurance - Lost, delayed or even stolen baggage can interrupt your trip. If you need to buy replacement items, you could be reimbursed.
• Travel accident insurance - In cases of severe injury or death, you or your family members could receive benefits if you booked and paid for your trip with a card that offers travel accident insurance.

Capital One Venture X is my second favorite credit card because it earns 2x points on every purchase, offers a 75,000 bonus, $300 travel credit, $120 Global Entry credit and access to Capital One Lounges. 

If your credit card doesn't cover your needs or if you need additional travel insurance for a cruise or tour, I recommend Faye Travel Insurance. It's generally inexpensive and you can adjust coverage on the company website to suit your needs. 

I am an official partner with Faye Travel Insurance so reach out if you need help with this. 

Cyber Monday Sale: Save $50 and Learn To Travel For Almost FREE

My family of 5 walked on a glacier in Patagonia for almost FREE.  Yep, we saved thousands on our vacation to Chile and Argentina by using strategy and intentionality. Now I'm sharing my secrets with you to help you travel for Almost Free too. 

By joining our AlmostFREEFamilyTravel.com Coaching Program, you'll gain access to all the insider knowledge and tools that made this success story possible. Here’s what you’ll get:

• Video Series: Learn how to maximize your travel rewards and points with easy-to-follow lessons.
• Custom Tracker: Stay organized and on top of your travel goals with our personalized tracker.
• 1:1 Consulting Session: Get expert advice tailored to your travel plans.
• Live Monthly Group Coaching: Join a community of like-minded travelers, ask questions, and get feedback in our monthly live coaching sessions.

And here’s the best part— You can join right now for just $197! That’s a one-time payment for a lifetime of travel hacks, strategies, and savings!

But wait… we’ve got something extra special for you!

Cyber Monday Special: Save $50!

Use the coupon code “CYBERSALE” at checkout to get $50 off the coaching program! This is the best deal we offer, and it expires December 3rd 11:59pm pst.

Don’t Miss Out on This Opportunity!

Don’t spend tons of money on your next vacation. Instead, let us help you travel for almost FREE forever. Join our coaching program today, and start making your travel dreams a reality—just like this success story!

We can’t wait to see you in the program and help you unlock all the amazing travel rewards waiting for you.

Woohoo! Let’s make your next trip an AlmostFREE adventure!

---

P.S. The $50 off Cyber Monday deal won’t last forever, so grab your spot now and start planning your next European getaway (or wherever your heart desires)!

Want Your Next Vacation Almost FREE? Black Friday Sale

 

My family of 5 spent 3 weeks in Tahiti for just $5,000! Yep, we saved $15,000 on this vacation by using strategy and intentionality. Now I'm sharing my secrets with you to help you travel for Almost Free too. 

By joining our AlmostFREEFamilyTravel.com Coaching Program, you'll gain access to all the insider knowledge and tools that made this success story possible. Here’s what you’ll get:

• Video Series: Learn how to maximize your travel rewards and points with easy-to-follow lessons.
• Custom Tracker: Stay organized and on top of your travel goals with our personalized tracker.
• 1:1 Consulting Session: Get expert advice tailored to your travel plans.
• Live Monthly Group Coaching: Join a community of like-minded travelers, ask questions, and get feedback in our monthly live coaching sessions.

And here’s the best part— You can join right now for just $197! That’s a one-time payment for a lifetime of travel hacks, strategies, and savings!

But wait… we’ve got something extra special for you!

Black Friday Special: Save $50!

Use the coupon code “BlackFriday” at checkout to get $50 off the coaching program! This is the best deal we offer, and it expires November 30th at 11:59pm PST.

Don’t Miss Out on This Opportunity!

Don’t spend tons of money on your next vacation. Instead, let us help you travel for almost FREE forever. Join our coaching program today, and start making your travel dreams a reality—just like this success story!

We can’t wait to see you in the program and help you unlock all the amazing travel rewards waiting for you.

Woohoo! Let’s make your next trip an AlmostFREE adventure!

---

P.S. The $50 off Black Friday deal won’t last forever, so grab your spot now and start planning your next European getaway (or wherever your heart desires)!