Cruise

The American Queen, the largest steamboat ever built, will return to the Mississippi River with cruises starting in April. The re-created riverboat that had ended service in 2008 returns under new management and with onboard entertainment and historians to keep it lively. An added holiday gift: a $150 shipboard credit for those who reserve by the end of December. The Great American Steamboat Co. will offer three- to 10-day itineraries focusing on the Civil War, Southern culture, spring gardens, fall foliage, the Kentucky Derby and other themes.

MIAMI - The Carnival Destiny cruise ship hasn't even left port, and half the ship's guests are already wasted. Passengers pack the lobby bar, balancing luggage with buckets of ice-soaked beer bottles, and flashing room keys that double as charge cards to keep the drinks flowing. When it's time for a mandatory safety drill, the life-saving instructions playing over the vessel's intercom can barely be heard over sounds of drunken guests stumbling over one another, spewing obscenities, cheering, slapping high-fives and yelling chants like "Ain't no party like a … Kid Rock party.

Fares for Queen Elizabeth cruises range from $1,195 for an inside stateroom on a five-night voyage to $199,995 for the top Queens Grill suite on the 107-night world voyage that will depart Jan. 10, 2012, from Southampton, England. These fares are per person, based on double occupancy, and do not include taxes and fuel supplements. The ship, which left Jan. 5 from Southampton on its maiden world voyage, will call at San Pedro on Saturday, embarking on a 24-night voyage to Sydney, Australia, with ports of call including Hawaii, and on to Southeast Asia, India, Egypt and southern Europe, returning to Southampton on April 19. The Queen Elizabeth will sail in Europe, the Mediterranean and the Caribbean during the year and will make a maiden voyage to the Holy Land, from Southampton on Oct. 28, calling at Jerusalem and Galilee/Nazareth as well as Gibraltar, Egypt, Cyprus and Greece.

CUBA Tour gets personal Alabama-based International Expeditions has begun offering 10-day people-to-people tours of Cuba that start in June. The itinerary includes discussions with botanists at the Soledad Botanical Garden, a visit to the Zapata Wetlands in search of bee hummingbirds and talks with farmers during a trip to a tobacco farm. Havana, the Bay of Pigs, Cienfuegos and other hot spots are part of the itinerary too. Travelers must have proof of legal travel from International Expeditions before they are allowed to board a charter flight from Miami to Cuba (charters are approved a few weeks before departure)

Spend 14 days visiting historic cities in Germany and the Netherlands on a tour that combines a Rhine River cruise with a motor-coach tour, starting at $2,099 a person. Whether on water or land, there are lots of stops on this trip -- and lots of history too.  The excursion begins with a tour of Berlin then heads to Potsdam, Netherlands, to see the 18th century Sanssouci Castle and other sites. Travelers then are to continue on to Dresden, Weimar and Frankfurt in Germany before boarding the MS Allegra . Guests are scheduled to spend eight days on the small ship during an out-and-back cruise on the Rhine, stopping at Bonn, Cologne and Dusseldorf in Germany and Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Nijmegen in the Netherlands before heading back to Frankfurt.

Friday the 13th seems to be a good day to write about the Titanic-- not just because we find the number 13 creepy but because the cruise was then underway, 100 years ago, with not a hint (at least, not to the passengers) of trouble in sight. It was the most luxurious ship of its day -- a fact that it certainly didn't try to hide. Indeed, some would say the boasting about the megaship -- remember, they said it was unsinkable -- may have tempted fate. Meanwhile, we'd like to tempt you to take this quiz and find out how much you really know about this maritime nightmare.

If you've ever wanted to try a Cunard Line cruise, autumn might be a good time to sail and save. For example, a 12-night cruise that includes Egypt and the Greek islands in November starts at less than $100 per night per person-- a great price for sampling this storied line. The deal: The "Egypt and Greek Isles" cruise departs from Athens, with stops in Turkey, Egypt, another Greek port and Croatia before arriving in Venice. The cheapest inside cabin starts at $891 per person, based on double occupancy.

A cruise catering to gay travelers will sail from Buenos Aires on Dec. 12 for a four-night trip across the Plata River Estuary and on to the Atlantic seaboard, with stops at Uruguay’s Punta del Este resort town and Montevideo. Argentina’s legalization of same-sex marriage last year has catapulted Buenos Aires to the forefront of gay tourism in South America , said Jose Maria Jaroslavsky, director of the tour operator Thesys, one of the cruise's organizers. The cruise, dubbed "EGO," will take to the seas during the Southern Hemisphere’s summer on the luxury liner MSC Opera . Seven bars, four restaurants, pools, a spa, theater, casino, eight disc jockeys and themed parties will be on hand to quench hedonistic pursuits.

Recently, a kid named Sandy Pukel, whom I haven't seen since high school, tracked me down through Facebook. Turns out he is no longer a kid (surprise!); in fact, he is a health food guru, and he mentioned he was running his annual Holistic Holiday at Sea vegan cruise to the Caribbean. The idea tickled my funny bone, and pardon me if I mention the word "bone" in the context of vegan fare. The average cruiser is said to gain 7 to 10 pounds in a week by shoveling in food by the truckload; Sandy said that on his cruise, folks lose weight.

AmaWaterways' cruise and land tour highlights Jewish heritage in five countries along the Danube River. Synagogues in Budapest and Prague, Oscar Schindler's home in Germany, the setting for “The Sound of Music” in Austria and the site of the Nuremberg war-crimes trials are some of the highlights of the 13-night trip. It begins with two days touring Budapest before embarking on the small-ship river cruise for seven days. Participants will meet Rabbi Chatam Sofer and tour Bratislava in Slovakia, visit the Jewish Museum and Sigmund Freud's House in Vienna, and stop in Regensburg at Schindler's house and Nuremberg in Germany before ending with three nights in Prague.

Rita Ryack spent several weeks tangling with Tom Cruise's leather pants. The costume designer for the upcoming 1980s musical "Rock of Ages" (opening June 15) was instrumental in Cruise's conversion into the fictional rock icon Stacee Jaxx, a self-involved guitar-playing idol in the vein of Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose. The coyote-fur jacket, the jewel-encrusted codpiece and the custom-made cowboy hat did wonders in transforming the normally strait-laced Cruise into a drug-addled performer with more in common with Mick Jagger than Ethan Hunt.

If you want to be afraid, be very afraid, on your next vacation, check out the "Saw at Sea" summer cruise from New York City to Canada. The trip features actors who have appeared in the horror-film franchise, including  Costas Mandylor (Hoffman), Anne Greene (Dina) and Ned Bellamy (Jeff). Dan Yeager, who played Leatherface in “Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D,” also joins the "Saw" crew aboard ship. Even Jigsaw's creepy puppet Billy will be on board for photo ops. The film series started in 2004 and has seen the creation of six successfully scary movies, box-office wise.

AmaWaterways' cruise and land tour highlights Jewish heritage in five countries along the Danube River. Synagogues in Budapest and Prague, Oscar Schindler's home in Germany, the setting for “The Sound of Music” in Austria and the site of the Nuremberg war-crimes trials are some of the highlights of the 13-night trip. It begins with two days touring Budapest before embarking on the small-ship river cruise for seven days. Participants will meet Rabbi Chatam Sofer and tour Bratislava in Slovakia, visit the Jewish Museum and Sigmund Freud's House in Vienna, and stop in Regensburg at Schindler's house and Nuremberg in Germany before ending with three nights in Prague.

Princess Cruises says it will continue to investigate why the Star Princess cruise ship in March passed up a fishing boat in distress, leaving two Panamanian men in the boat to die. The cruise line also said it “deeply regrets” the incident off the South American coast that it blames on a communication glitch. Passengers aboard the cruise ship spotted the small boat and alerted crew members, but the message never got to the ship's captain and no action was taken, the cruise line said.

OAKLAND -- Good day for the Lakers. They beat the short-handed Golden State Warriors, nobody could stop Andrew Bynum, and Kobe Bryant's seven-game run as an unofficial assistant coach probably came to an end. Bynum had 31 points on 12-for-14 shooting as the Lakers plundered the woeful Warriors, 99-87, Wednesday at Oracle Arena. A few hours before the game, Bryant successfully endured a thorough workout that included dozens of shots and full-speed running and jumping exercises that produced no pain in his sore left shin.

Friday the 13th seems to be a good day to write about the Titanic-- not just because we find the number 13 creepy but because the cruise was then underway, 100 years ago, with not a hint (at least, not to the passengers) of trouble in sight. It was the most luxurious ship of its day -- a fact that it certainly didn't try to hide. Indeed, some would say the boasting about the megaship -- remember, they said it was unsinkable -- may have tempted fate. Meanwhile, we'd like to tempt you to take this quiz and find out how much you really know about this maritime nightmare.

The Angels broke out of a four-game offensive slump today with a 7-2 victory over the Kansas City Royals in Kauffman Stadium, increasing their American League West lead over Texas to 5 1/2 games. Erick Aybar tied a club record with two triples, and Bobby Abreu had a big two-run double to back the pitching of Joe Saunders, who allowed two runs and 10 hits in 5 1/3 innings to win his third straight game since coming off the disabled list Aug. 26. The Angels scored all of five runs in their previous four games, though two came against Cy Young Award contenders, Kansas City's Zack Greinke and Seattle's Felix Hernandez.

Without too much effort, even a novice can snare a great fare on a one-way repositioning cruise. Such cruises have become increasingly popular in recent times, especially among cruisers who enjoy time at sea rather than at many ports. For the do-it-yourselfer, websites can provide a wealth of information, so much so that the info sometimes can be overwhelming. Both the cruise lines and online sellers of travel have websites offering various pricing options. A search engine such as Google or Yahoo can help locate such sites.

USC tailback Curtis McNeal has enjoyed a quiet spring. No injuries. No uncertainty about grades. Just work on the field, which is just fine with the fifth-year senior. Maneuverings to address depth issues at tailback have provided plenty of drama, but the Trojans' top returning rusher has not been distracted — or sidelined. "I got through it healthy," McNeal said after practice Tuesday, "and I'm looking to continue that. " The Trojans have only two workouts remaining, a practice Thursday and the spring finale at the Coliseum on Saturday.

Yani Tseng finished her second round Friday at the Kraft Nabisco Championship with a series of shots that made golf seem like an easy game. Tseng's drive off the tee was a three-wood straight down the middle of the fairway on the 539-yard par-five hole. Her final shot was a birdie putt of about 15 feet. And that was followed by a series of fist-pumps, the kind athletes make when they know they've done well. Tseng, a 23-year-old from Taiwan who has won six of the last 12 tournaments she has entered, took a two-shot lead after two rounds of the LPGA Tour's first major of the season Friday at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage.