---

BOGO — the Buy One, Get One deals are common for retail stores, not cruise lines.

However, Norwegian is offering a deal that is sure to tempt people who enjoy cruising.

The Buy Once, Cruise Twice event runs through Sunday, May 11. In it, if you book one of Norwegian’s newest ships — the Getaway or the Breakaway — you will get a voucher for a free three- or four-day cruise on the Norwegian Sky to the Bahamas.

The Breakaway, of course, comes to Bermuda out of New York so you would probably prefer to cruise on the Getaway out of Miami which goes to the Eastern Caribbean year-round, visiting tropical ports of call including Philipsburg, St Maarten, St Thomas, US Virgin Islands and Nassau, Bahamas.

You have to sail between May and September to be eligible for the free cruise certificate.

The current lowest available fare on the Getaway is $489 and that’s for an inside cabin.

The Norwegian Sky free cruise will be good on select dates in fall 2014 and early 2015.

Bermudians cruising
On my recent cruise on the Allure of the Seas, there were 32 Bermudians on board.

My wife was sitting in the Royal Promenade waiting for me to come back from our cabin and struck up a conversation with a lady sitting next to her.

She naturally asked where the lady was from and she said “Bermuda” and my wife replied “I’m from Bermuda too.”

The ship gave a list of what countries people were from and they announced that there were 32 of us on board.

Surprisingly, less than 50 per cent of the passengers were from the US, which gave the ship a real international flavour.

JetBlue
The airline saw its pilot union vote to unionize earlier this month.

That could signal further unionization by the various factions of the airline.

How does that affect you? At the moment, not much. But unionization generally means the workers get better conditions and higher pay, and, if that happens, any costs will be passed on to the consumer, which is you.

Generally, where JetBlue is in the market, they set the price for air travel to and from that city and any movement to raise ticket prices would likely see other carriers follow suit.

---