This week we feature deals on spring cruises to the islands of the Caribbean and the Bahamas. Choose from a Bahamas cruise from New York, southern Caribbean cruise from Miami, western Caribbean cruise from Galveston, or an eastern Caribbean cruise from Miami. Priced from just $50 per night per person.  See the details at CruiseGuideNetwork.com.

Happy New Year from CruiseGuideNetwork and TheRealPlaces.com!  As you may have already noticed, we're starting the year off with a fresh new look for our weekly travel newsletter.  In addition to a cleaner, easier to read design, it makes it easier for us to add more travel news items.  That's just the first of the changes planned for this month: Over the next couple of weeks we'll be unveiling an improved hotel booking process at TheRealPlaces.com, celebrating the addition of a regional golf destination guide with a complete redesign and some more surprises.  We greatly appreciate your continued subscription to our newsletter.  If you have any comments or suggestions about any of our sites, send us a note at TheRealPlaces Facebook page.

The Crystal Serenity cruise ship has emerged from a $17 million redesign. The ship is part of the luxurious Crystal Cruises fleet. There are new Crystal Penthouses accommodations. The Lido deck now has dining and lounging spaces with expansive ocean views, retractable glass roof, living wall of plants, and live olive trees. 70 deluxe verandah staterooms were transformed into hypoallergenic luxury accommodations a chemical- and odor-free environment. The Crystal Serenity offers a world cruise from Los Angeles to London in 2014, and a world cruise out of Miami in 2015. The ship also offers a variety of Mediterranean cruises.

TheRealPlaces now has over 37,000 US hotels available for online booking, plus another 72,000 places to stay in 188 countries around the world.  Hotels added this week include the Ariel Dunes Condominiums in Miramar Beach, Florida; the Comfort Inn Brooklyn; the Hilton Garden Inn in Victoria, Texas; and the Wyndham Garden in Carson City, Nevada.  And we've got over 1,100 international hotels added including several hundred in Spain, Italy and France.