business travel

A legend of the seas experience for Lankan travellers

Hemas Travels has introduced the Royal Caribbean International's Legend of the Seas holiday experience for Sri Lankan travellers.

The "Legend of the Seas" cruise will begin its short and long voyages across the Asian region on December 9 from Singapore.

Darryl Wee of the Royal Caribbean International said the Legend of the Seas will join her sister ship Rhapsody of the Seas to guarantee an unforgettable experience. Both ships are known as ships of light.

Guests have a fine selection of entertainment such as broadway style musicals, relaxing in the solarium, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a lounge with a retractable glass roof, award winning adventure ocean activities for children, nine-metre high wall for rock climbing and a 6000 sq foot miniature golf course, Wee said.

Wee said the Royal Caribbean is a truly international cruise that covers almost every part of the world. Asia is a faster growing region for cruising and the biggest demand comes from China.

The Best of Malaysia, a three-night cruise starts on December 9 from Singapore and will call at the Penang and Kuala Lumpur ports in Malaysia.

The Isles of South East Asia a four-night cruise which starts on December 15 offers a one relaxing day at sea and will call at the Kuala Lumpur and Phuket ports. Spice of Southeast Asia, a five-night cruise with one relaxing day at sea will call at Phuket, Thailand, Langkawi and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It starts on December 22. The long voyage Southeast Asia 14-night cruise has three relaxing days at sea and will call at Bangkok, Sihanoukville, Cambodia, Ho Chi Minh city, Nha Trang and Hue/Danang Vietnam, Sanya, Hong Kong and Xiamen in China and starts on January 31, 2009.

The world's second-largest cruise line, Royal Caribbean International (originally Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines) began in the late 1960's as a consortium of Norwegian ship owners who wanted to get into the rapidly expanding American market.

The Voyager of the Seas which was launched in 1999 was the most innovative ship design in decades, the first ship that was more like a resort than a ship.

The Royal Caribbean, built four Radiance-class ships in the early 2000's as a follow-up to the vision-class vessels of the 1990's. Similarly designed for worldwide cruising, they are larger, with more balconies, dining choices, public areas and greater luxury all around.

In 2006, it launched the Freedom of the Seas, an enlarged, enhanced version of the Voyager-class design that introduced new features such as a water park and onboard surfing to the array of Voyager-class amenities.

The Freedom-class also includes Freedom's sister ships, Liberty of the Seas and Independence of the Seas.

The Oasis-class ship, set to enter service in 2009 is the next generation of the Royal Caribbean cruses. It is over 40 per cent larger than the Freedom of the Seas and Oasis of the Seas of the Royal Caribbean will be the biggest cruise ship in the world.

GW

Elephant Gathering woos visitors

Located between Habarana and Polonnaruwa, the 8,890 hectares of Minneriya National Park, is an ideal eco tourism location in Sri Lanka. The park consists of mixed evergreen forest and scrub areas and is home to Sri Lanka's favourite species such as sambur, deer, leopards and elephants.

The central feature of the park is the ancient Minneriya irrigation tank (built in the third century AD by King Mahasena). During the dry season, the environs of the tank are an incredible place to observe elephants who come to bathe and graze on the grass as well as the huge flocks of birds (cormorants and painted storks) that come to fish in the shallow waters.

Tucked away in the island's North Central Province, Minneriya provides an ideal venue for herds of elephants during the dry season when waterholes in the forests evaporate into cracked mud patches.

Almost three-hundred wild elephants gather each evening during the season along the banks of the Minneriya Tank for food, water, shelter and match-making.

Asian elephants are renowned as highly social animals and the reservoir or tank meetings demonstrate their complex group dynamics in action. The atmosphere gives an ideal setting for a world phenomenon, where a high concentration of Asian elephants can be found at a single location from July to October each year.

Hotels in the Minneriya area use the "Gathering" - as it is known- to organise safaris to the Minneriya National Park during the season.

"The Gathering" gives tourists the chance to observe the elephants frolicking on the water's edge.

Emirates doubles flights to Milan

Emirates will double its flights to the Italian fashion centre of Milan.

From January 1, the airline will fly twice daily from Dubai to Milan's Malpensa International Airport, weaving yet more services into its European network.

The new flight, EK 091, departs Dubai at 1600hrs - arriving in Milan at 1940hrs, supplementing the earlier EK 093, which leaves Dubai at 0905hrs and arrives at 1245hrs.

Emirates' Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations, Europe Nabil Sultan said, "This has been a very good 18 months for our passengers travelling in and out of Italy from across our network.

First, there was Venice and the opening of the Italian north east, then we gave better access to Milan and Rome, making them non-stop daily to and from Dubai, and now we're stepping up flights to Milan. We are truly committed to the Italian market and this latest development very much shows that."

Emirates has been flying to Milan since 2000, and in addition to Dubai, most passengers travel there from cities including Manila, Colombo, Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Johannesburg and Bombay.

New face to Chaaya Maldives Hotels and Resorts on the web

Chaaya Maldives Hotels and Resorts, a part of the John Keells Group gave a new look to their website- www.chaayamaldives.com.

With the Maldives becoming a popular and convenient holiday destination among Sri Lankans, the website offers easy navigation, special web offers and features a complete online booking system, enabling customers to make their booking to enjoy a sunny holiday in the Maldives at one of the three Chaaya resorts, hassle free.

Chaaya Hotels and Resorts provide visitors a varied range of experiences through the 'Experience Package' concept, which is packaged to provide a total experience to the novelty-seeking tourist, while maintaining a consistent high standard of service across all hotels within the Chaaya chain.

Silencing launches Serendib Treasures collection

SriLankan Airlines has launched its all new Serendib Treasures on-board duty-free collection for the Winter Season, with a fresh range of name-brand fragrances, cosmetics, watches, jewellery, children's delights and liquor.

Manager In flight Service Support Jehan Karunaratne, said: "The Serendib Treasures collection has been completely reinvented following the change in management of Sri Lanka's National Carrier, and features 173 products of which 80% are newly introduced."