CruiseSource » Social Media

Cruise Deals on Google+, $520 Savings on NCL Epic Europe

Rich Tucker — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 23:31:27 +0000

I like how the Google+ platform allows for CruiseDeals.com to easily share side by side comparisons of our rates and the cruise lines rates. See: Cruise Deals on Google Plus

In many instances, CruiseDeals.com has lower rates for the same exact cabins. We block group space months in advance in order to lock in rates. So as prices go up, our prices stay the same… giving us a price advantage.

Norwegian Epic Summer Europe Cruise Deals

CruiseDeals.com has significant savings on 2012 Norwegian Epic Summer Med Cruises. In some cases, like the June 10th departure we are saving our clients $520 on balcony cabins. If you’d like to see the side by side comparison for yourself, Click Here.

Looking for the best rates on the NCL Epic for a different date in the summer? Click Here -> Best Deals on NCL Epic Summer 2012.

How to manage your Facebook Newsfeed

Rich Tucker — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:15:29 +0000

FYI: Facebook does not show you all of your friends status updates:

Did you know Facebook filters out many of your friends and business pages that you like from your newsfeed? The “newsfeed” is where you see all of your friends updates when logged into Facebook. Due to so many status updates, Facebook has to attempt to only show you the most relevant updates. The issue is that Facebook doesn’t truly know who and what is most important to you.

How does Facebook decide who is important to you? If you interact with a status update from a friend or business page on Facebook, then Facebook takes this as a signal that you care about this person/page. So, if you comment, click like, click share, or click on a link that counts as signal that this person or business is important to you.

Example: Your brother posts on Facebook once a month. Your neighbor who you’re only friends with on Facebook because you don’t want to hurt his feelings posts 10 times per day. You happen to comment on his post about neighborhood dogs pooping in his yard. If you do not do what we recommend below, you are more likely to see your neighbor’s status updates then your brother’s updates.

We love Facebook…we just want you to know how Facebook works so you can make your newsfeed more valuable.

Want to take control over your Facebook newsfeed?

Step 1: When you are looking at the newsfeed of your friends updates, at the top you’ll see a SORT. Click on SORT and change it to recent stories first. This will make your Facebook newsfeed chronological – not some random order where Facebook decides what is most important for you.
Note on step 1: You will have to do this each day because Facebook resets this preference daily.

Step 1: Click to Enlarge

Step 2: Let Facebook know who truly are the most important to you. If you put your mouse over one of your friends status updates in your newsfeed, you’ll see a drop down arrow in the right corner of their status update.

Left click on the drop down arrow. Choose to see all of their updates [brother], most of the updates, or only their most important updates [neighbor]. By making these selections, you will take control over what Facebook presents in your newsfeed.

Step 2: Click to Enlarge

The only way you have to let Facebook know that a business page is important to you is to interact with most status updates from the business by clicking LIKE on the update, share, or commenting.

LOVE getting the best Cruise Deals alerts on the internet?

Do you LIKE the CruiseDeals.com Facebook Page? If you do, I’m assuming that you LOVE getting awesome deals on cruise vacations. Perfect! CruiseDeals has been recommended by ABCnews.com, NY Times, & Money Magazine for getting the best Cruise Deals on the internets.

The issue is that deal status updates on Facebook do not typically get a lot of interaction. So, without interaction we can only share deals sparingly [twice per week]. Without interaction, Facebook will not show our updates to anyone because they think that no one cares bout receiving cruise deals on Facebook [which hope isn't true].

Do you want to get real-time cruise deal alerts on Facebook? To ensure that you continue to see our Facebook Status updates, you should click LIKE or Comment on your favorite cruise deal posts. Our PROMISE is to ONLY SHARE the best Cruise Deals on the internet. We just need your support by clicking LIKE on our Deal updates, so we can keep sharing them.

Learn anything new about Facebook on this post?

3 ways to get the best cruise deal alerts on the internet:

Subscribe to Seamail [recommended by ABCnews.com]

Like CruiseDeals on Facebook

Follow @CruiseDeals on Twitter [recommended by Money Magazine]

2011, a special year for CruiseSource

Rich Tucker — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 20:32:19 +0000

Over the last 4 years, I’ve written a post at the end of the year recapping the year for CruiseSource.

I just read my 1st recap post from December 2007 where the post was primarily focused on my goals for CruiseSource. It’s cool to look back and see that 4 years later my goals and purpose for CruiseSource are still the same. The number one goal is to continue to be a trusted resource that helps new and experienced cruisers maximize the value of their next cruise vacation.

While the purpose is still the same, a lot has changed in 4 years. CruiseSource is one of the original cruise industry blogs. I’ve personally written 425 articles in 4 years. Every article on CruiseSource is original content offering cruise advice, reviews, tips, or information about cruise deals & pricing trends. When I started CruiseSource, I was the only contributor. Today we have 10 expert writers.

When I started CruiseSource, most people had never heard of a ‘blog’. Since then, the CruiseSource blog has been featured in all kinds of publications from Wired to the NY Times.

This is not to brag… but now there are tons of sites out there writing cruise related posts. Anyone can set up a WordPress site and start a blog in minutes. It is up to you the internet surfer to figure out if a site is a trusted resource or not. Very few blogs in any industry have been recommended by the NY Times, like CruiseSource was in June 2011. Only a handful of cruising blogs have been around since 2007.

So however you got to CruiseSource — You’ve stumbled upon one of the most trusted cruising blogs on the internets, recognized by the biggest of publications, the cruise lines, and cruisers as a trusted resource. Now that you found us, make sure you click here: to Subscribe to CruiseSource to get all of our posts delivered to your email for FREE.

CruiseSource Top Post of 2011

Posted yesterday: Click here to see the top 7 list of cruise stories on CruiseSource for 2011.

CruiseSource 2011 Highlights

1. I know I mentioned it earlier [twice], but the NY Times article that featured and recommended CruiseSource was huge. While CruiseSource has been in many publications over the last 4 years, very few publications carry the weight of the NY Times.

2. Planning and cruising on the first ever Tweetup at Sea [#SeaTweetup] with Norwegian Cruise Line and the Miami Social Media Community was awesome. It received worldwide coverage from here to Australia!

3. Raising money for Linda, the winner of a Bahamas Cruise who could no longer take the cruise because her cancer returned. With your help, we raised $1000 in 4 days making Christmas a little less stressful for her and her 14 year old daughter.

4. Partnering with Green Mountain Coffee, CruiseDeals.com, & VaynerMedia on the Brew-Over-Ice Alaska Cruise Giveaway. Green Mountain Coffee is one of the hottest brands in America… and thanks to power of social media, we partnered with them in the promo of their new product launch Brew-Over Ice K-Cups.

5. CruiseSource becomes a multi-authored blog. Having more expert contributors on CruiseSource has taken our content to the next level. The cruise industry is to big for one person to know it all. Having a diverse set of experts contributing to CruiseSource truly sets us apart from every other site on the internet. You will see much more of this in 2012.

6. Another record breaking year in visitors to CruiseSource. Good content gets rewarded now more than ever. We know when write something that you find valuable because it gets shared on Facebook and Twitter. There is no bigger compliment then when you share one of our articles with your social network. THANK YOU!

As 2011 comes to a close, I’m very thankful for our subscribers, supporters, contributors, partners, and of course our friends on Twitter. Without you, there would not be a CruiseSource.

2012 holds tons of promise. I wish all of you the most blessed of New Years!

Happy Cruising,
Rich Tucker
CruiseSource Founder

Chipwrecked Family Movie Pass Giveaway

Rich Tucker — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 19:23:23 +0000

In honor of Carnival Dream’s movie debut in Alvin and the Chipmunks 3 Chipwrecked we’re giving away a movie family 4-pack to watch Alvin and his friends on the big screen.

Checkout the trailer and pay attention to the Carnival Dreams supporting role… she may be looking at Oscar-nomination for best supporting actress. She just looks beautiful.

Want to take your family to see the movie on us? This is a Twitter giveaway… so in order to win, you must be following the @CruiseDeals Twitter account and you must Tweet this:

Copy & Tweet this to enter:

RT @CruiseDeals #Winning a trip for 4 to see Alvin & the Chipmunks 3 Chipwrecked featuring the Carnival Dream: http://bit.ly/ChipWrecked

Some other rules:

In order to enter you must have tweeted the above Tweet by 4:30 PM ET Wednesday December 21st. I’ll announce the winner at 5PM ET via Twitter. The winner will be able to choose the family 4 pass from either Regal or AMC Cinemas.

Must be 21 or over to enter. Accounts must have a profile pic and more than 50 followers to enter. Open to US Residents only. Twitter does not endorse, sponsor, or have any involvement with this giveaway. Void where prohibited. Winner has 24 hours to respond to accept prize. A second winner will be drawn after 24 hours if the first winner does not respond via Twitter.

Lindas Cruise Giveaway/Fundraiser Recap & Thank you!

Rich Tucker — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 00:23:20 +0000

In a year in which we [CruiseDeals.com] gave away several cruise vacations using Facebook and Twitter…. For many, last week’s give away will be the most memorable. Last week, we gave away a Royal Caribbean 3-night Bahamas Cruise for the second time because the original winner, Linda Orellano could no longer go due to her cancer returning and spreading.

Linda has had a rough year with her home being hit by a tornado in April, fighting cancer, and raising a 14 daughter on her own.

When Linda asked us if we could give her cruise away to someone to enjoy, we quickly decided to use the giveaway as an opportunity to raise money for Linda’s Christmas and gas money for the 160 mile drive to receive cancer treatments.

On Monday, 12.12.2011, I wrote a blog post telling Linda’s story and announcing the 3-night cruise re-giveaway. From there it became a huge team effort to raise $1000 in 5 days.

Linda’s story was shared 1000s of times on Twitter and Facebook. Checkout http://facebook.com/cruisedeals to see how supportive everyone was on Facebook. Sweepstakes bloggers @ostmega @sweepsmama & @CocoaCali jumped in to help spread Linda’s story to their readers with very thoughtful blog posts.

Thanks to all the sharing, Linda’s story inspired 71 people to donate a total of $1000. When we set the goal of $1000, I was unsure if we could raise it in 5 days. I’d never seen a giveaway tied to a fundraiser that did not require a donation to enter. No one was required to donate…but thanks to a team effort, we hit the goal!

The Winner

Oh yeah… Who won the 3-night Royal Caribbean Bahamas Cruise? The Lucky winner is Cathy Haynes. She heard about the cruise giveaway via Facebook and is excited to take her husband on their first cruise vacation!

Special Thanks

A Special thanks to all of our friends on Facebook and Twitter who helped spread the message! It meant a lot to me for us to be able to a little something to help Linda & her daughter have a Merry Christmas.

For those of you on Twitter, I recommend connecting with people who care about others enough to jump in to help those in need. I recommend being one of those people who take action… not only Retweets but also donates, volunteers time, writes blog posts etc. Here is a Twitter list of people who took action and help make #LindasCruise a success: http://twitter.com/#!/CruiseDeals/lindascruise/members

To Royal Caribbean Cruise line for allowing us to re-giveaway this cruise in order to raise money for Linda.

To the whole team at CruiseDeals.com who got behind this effort immediately – especially Sean Pfost, CruiseDeals.com’s super talented web guy for getting the landing page up and running in 2 hours. Kevin Weisner, CruiseDeals.com’s VP, for always allowing us to experiment with social media – which gave us a platform to be able to do some good for Linda.

When are competitors not competitors? When thanks to Twitter, they are also good friends. Special thanks to Lara Nicotra [Liberty Travel], CruisewithMike, and SimonTravels for helping spread Linda’s Story and donating – putting friendship and compassion over competition.

As always, I’m very thankful for the support from the #CLT community on Twitter & Facebook. Blessed to have the hometown support from folks like @ScottHepburn, @BillVoth @TamelaRich @LeliaKate, @TheClothier, Southern Spark etc.

On Facebook, there were 100s of people sharing Linda’s Story. Facebook is a little harder to track who is sharing – But, Romona N. was very inspiring… she commented that she wanted to donate, but could not because of budget reasons. Then commented a few hours later that she figured out some things she could do without and donated.

Linda asked me to add this:

“This is more than I could have ever imagined; all I was concerned about was my Daughter getting a few things she really wanted for Christmas. Thank you to Rich Tucker and Cruisedeals and Thanks and God Bless to all who donated.”

Three awesome blog posts that were written out of kindness:

Sweepstakes Mama: http://www.sweepstakesmama.com/2011/12/special-bahamas-cruise-christmas.html

CruisewithMike.com: http://cruisewithmike.com/2011/12/14/a-feel-good-story-definately-worth-reading/

Minute Made Mama: http://minutemademama.blogspot.com/2011/12/help-make-christmas-wish-come-true-and.html

I’m fully aware that this $1000 is not going to cure Linda’s cancer… But, I do know that it helps her to know that she is in so many people thoughts and prayers. And thanks to a online community, she’ll enjoy less stress over the Christmas holiday. That’s what Christmas is all about.

Like Cruise Giveaways? We have plenty in store for 2012, Subscribe to CruiseSource to stay in the know

Post written by Rich Tucker, Biz Dev at CruiseDeals.com & Founder of CruiseSource.us. Rich is regularly involved with or sharing innovative social good projects on Twitter. Follow Rich’s personal account get involved: @RichTucker

A Special Bahamas Cruise Christmas Giveaway

Rich Tucker — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 23:47:29 +0000

@cbsassy pic: Alaska Cruise Winner

This year CruiseDeals.com has given away a 7-night Royal Caribbean Alaska Cruise, a 7-night Celebrity Alaska Cruise, a 7-night Norwegian Caribbean Cruise, and a 3 night Royal Caribbean Bahamas Cruise using Facebook and Twitter.

I love creating and running the interactive giveaways. One of the best parts of my job is notifying the winners. Hearing the excitement and disbelief in their voice or email makes my day. Out of all the cruises we gave away this year, no winner was more excited than Linda Orellano. Linda was the winner of the 3-night Bahamas Cruise.

Click Here to Enter to Win

Linda’s Story

After I told Linda that she won the Bahamas Cruise, I could hear the excitement in her voice. She could not believe she actually won. As is common to hear from many winners “I can’t believe it, I never win anything”

Linda's House after Tornado

But I quickly learned that this cruise meant a lot more to Linda. The last year had been a really rough year. Linda’s raising a 14 year old daughter on her own while fighting colon cancer and her home had major damage after being hit by a tornado in April. Linda began to cry has she told me that her cancer was in remission and that she was so happy that she’d be able to take her daughter on a Bahamas Cruise.

I was overcome with emotions. I’d felt sorry for all that Linda had been through but thankful that her cancer was in remission and that I was able to deliver the news that she won a Bahamas cruise.

Ariel view of Linda's neighborhood

On Monday December 5th, I received this email from Linda:

I am writing this regretfully but in hopes maybe if I do so now there will be time for someone else to enjoy the Cruise,
maybe you can do a Christmas giveaway. I will not be able to go after all, My cancer is back and has spread, I am facing months of
aggressive treatments after surgery. I have to travel 160 miles round trip to the Hospital for treatments twice week and with the cost of
Gas and my small income I need to prioritize my where my money goes. The airfare for my daughter and I was going to be $900.00 for
roundtrip and thats a lot of full tanks of gas. I am truly Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. I never checked in on the ship,
maybe that will help. I appreciate just the feeling I had of winning the trip it felt great! Thank You again for all you did, May God
Bless you and your Family, and may your Business thrive in the coming year, Linda Orellano

I was so disappointed. While I love to notify the winners of the cruises… seeing their pictures from the cruise is even better. After learning about all of Linda’s recent struggles, I was so looking forward to seeing pictures of Linda and her daughter enjoying their 3 day Bahamas Cruise.

When I read the email, I’m touched by Linda’s selflessness. Her cancer has returned and spread, but she is concerned about any inconvenience that she has caused me. She hopes that we can give away the cruise again so that someone else can enjoy it. Amazing!

Can we help?

After I read her email all I could think about is… Can we help? Is there anything we can do?

I called Linda to find out how we can help. Linda, said she was fortunate to have good health insurance and a car that gets good gas mileage for driving 160 miles to get the chemo treatments. As we continued talking her concern about her 14 year old daughters Christmas became evident. Her daughter is to old for most Christmas Assistance programs, and since she just found out that the cancer returned she was too late for other programs.

Just think about how rough this year has been for Linda’s daughter… her home was hit by a tornado, cancer has returned and spread for mom, she gets excited about going on FREE Bahamas Cruise that will no longer happen. Linda’s daughter deserves a Merry Christmas and Linda deserves not to have to stress about it.

with friends.

Click to Donate

How to Win the Bahamas Cruise

Royal Caribbean has agreed to let us giveaway the cruise again — So we are giving away the 3-night Majesty of the Seas departing Miami on March 9th, 2012. We are giving away the cruise, while also accepting donations to help with Linda’s Christmas and Gas money for her cancer treatments in 2012.

Donations are not required to win the cruise…. but, if it wasn’t for Linda we would not be giving this cruise away again. Every dollar counts and sharing this with friends on Facebook also helps – Thank you for helping us make this a special Christmas for Linda & her Daughter! We are excepting entries until 2 PM ET on Friday December 16th, 2011.

Click Here to Enter to Win

Give

CruiseDeals.com & CruiseSource are the leaders in social media cruise giveaways. Click here to Subscribe to CruiseSource!

Facebook and Twitter are not involved with this giveaway in anyway including sponsors, endorsers, etc.

1st ever SeaTweetup is in the books… and all over the internet

Rich Tucker — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 20:37:34 +0000

I’ve been back from #SeaTweetup for a couple of days now and I’m happy to report that it was even better than anticipated. We had a group of 40 social media and Twitter enthusiast from as far as London on the Norwegian Sky for a 3 day weekend cruise to the Bahamas. It was a fun, smart group of people excited to be part of an event designed to take social networking to the next the level.

The awesome part of social media cruises is that most of the attendees are content creators… so I’m using this post to share with you the pics and blog posts already out on the internet from the 1st ever #SeaTweetup.