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I
remember having trouble sleeping the night before my first ever visit to a
cruise ship, now 25 years ago. My hours on board the beautiful Royal Viking
Sea fueled my desire to make a "real" cruise once. At that time, I could not
have imagined that that wish would come true in a grand way! |
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Only four years after my visit to Royal
Viking Sea I embarked on my
maiden cruise, sailing (for two nights only!) on NCL's majestic Norway from Southampton
to Amsterdam. That was the first of many cruise vacations and
ship visits. In the eighties and nineties, I created elaborate
scrapbooks of my travels, but nothing could prepare me for the
impact of the Internet!
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My first online reviews and photos appeared in 1997 at
Lois Evensen's Royal Caribbean Cruisers Discussions
page,
still going strong after all this time. Lois spent hours
resizing my photos and putting it all online for everyone to
see. I was thrilled to receive so many reactions after each
review was posted, and decided to find a home for my non-Royal
Caribbean stories. At that time, "Cruise Diva" Linda Coffman
was hosting Cruises.About.com, and she has played a vital role
in putting my name on the map. These days, Linda now hosts her
own great website devoted to all the practical sides of
cruising at
www.cruisediva.com.
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In 2000, I stumbled across a very simple
instruction on "how to make your own website". I decided to
take matters into my own hands and moved into my own space on
the World Wide Web. Starting out as an online picture book of
my travels, Passenger Ship Parade (shortened to Ship
Parade in 2005) has evolved into a mature web magazine
covering many of the world's most interesting cruise ships.
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From the very first issue, I wanted to offer a no-frills
website which is easy to navigate and full of first hand
impressions and exclusive photos of today's growing fleet
of cruise ships, without the irritation of advertisement
banners and pop-ups. After five years, I am proud to have
kept Ship Parade completely non-commercial. The goal of
the website is simple: to give an unbiased and informative
report on a particular ship or cruise, packaged in an
easy-to-read layout, complete with high-quality photos.
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This website is now in its 8th year and has turned into a
mind-boggling affair. Encompassing hundreds of pages with
thousands of original, full-sized photos, Ship Parade has
become very popular with both seasoned cruisers and travel &
media professionals. |
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Travel agencies use the reviews to properly inform their
clients and many cruise line executives are regular
visitors to the site. Apart from the 40-odd reviews, three
other very popular features are "Photo of the Week"
(updated every Sunday), "Ship Alphabet" and "Port
Alphabet", all with many exclusive photos. |
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Most readers of
Ship Parade hail from the United States of America, Canada
and the United Kingdom. My fellow Dutchmen come in fourth,
followed closely by Germany, Scandinavia and many,
many other countries worldwide.
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From China to
New Zealand; from Argentina to Russia - the Internet
delivers Ship Parade to many far flung places! Let's hope
all of you have as much fun browsing through my pages as I
have putting it all online... |
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Bart de
Boer |
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bart@shipparade.com |
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A number of
specially-adapted Ship Parade
articles and photos have appeared in printed form.
Porthole Magazine published a four-page article on
Renaissance Cruises' R1, and several magazines have used my
write-ups and photos.
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Article by Bart de Boer on MSC
Fantasia in GUIDE07, published by Shippax, Halmstad, Sweden. |
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This website
is brought to you by Bart de Boer, one of 15 million
inhabitants of the tiny country of the Netherlands, to
some of you perhaps better known as Holland. Instead of
walking around on wooden shoes and making cheese in
windmills, this Dutchman likes to spend much of his
spare time on cruise ships. He was born in a good
wine year (so they say). and lives approx. half an
hours' drive from the country's beautiful capital Amsterdam. |
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Starting out
working in the cruise industry at a cruise-only
agency, I switched jobs in 1994 and landed at a ferry
company being in charge of reservations, group sales
and check-in |
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departments. In
May, 2008 I transferred back to my original employer and I
am now managing the cruise division at
VCK Travel. |
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In September, 2007,
Smartertravel.com chose ShipParade as one of " Eight great
websites every cruiser should know". This is what they (and
others) said about ShipParade: |
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ShipParade puts a new spin on the cruise review website.
The heart of the site is its photos—hundreds of pictures of
the inside and outside of practically every cruise ship
afloat, as well as ports-of-call. But Bart de Boer's pet
website isn't just a photo gallery. Coupled with the
pictures are ship reviews, port descriptions, and advice for
cruisers. |
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The ShipAlphabet lets you search for ships in alphabetical
order to view photos and statistics. The PortAlphabet
combines photos with helpful tips for navigating each
port-of-call. The reviews include many photos, details of
the ship, and de Boer's firsthand cruise experience. |
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Favorite Feature: A beautiful design
makes each page look like a magazine spread, rather than an
Internet site. |
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Could improve: The site's light blue
text on a dark blue background can be hard to read. |
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"Thank
you so much for the tour. It is a wonderful tool for me to use"
(Jennifer,
The Cruise Center, USA) |
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"Bart, This is the best I have seen! Great work. Thank you so much
for all you do!!" (Michael, The Cruise Company) |
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"I came upon your site by accident and was indeed glad that I
stumbled upon it. I am so glad you did pictures of the Grandeur. I
had my doubts as I am a new cruiser and and it is very hard to
pick a ship . But your review of the grandeur put me at ease about
making her our next ship to cruise on. I also appreciate your
other reviews. I felt as if I were there with you. Your reviews
are wonderful and very personal" (Cassandra, USA) |
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"Others have already complimented your photos and texts, so let me
instead thank you for the unparalleled quality and design of your
website lay-out. It is truly the only Bentley among the cruise
websites, which in comparison range from Lada to Opel. I browse
your pages often just for the pleasure of enjoying them. Thanks
for taking your time to produce them! "(Ole Nyborg, Denmark)
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"Great comments and photos" (Chairman & CEO, Royal Caribbean
International, Miami) |
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