Cruise Vacations For Dummies 2007 by Heidi Sarna and Matt Hannafin (2006, Paperback)

In true dummy fashion, Cruise Vacations for Dummies 2007 provides a simplified approach on the subject of cruise vacationing.

I bought the book for the sole reason that I had purchased a cruise vacation to the Caribbean for the month of October 2009.

Not to fault the book, but the book does not describe my particular cruise ship, the Emerald Princess. However, the Emerald Princess's date of service was April 2007 and the book's copyright date is 2007. Thus, to fault the book for this particular lack of information would not be considerate, or rather accurate.

Overall, the book is a reference tool and is not a particularly interesting read. I found it to be rather dry, whereas I thought the book should have increased my excitement for my upcoming cruise vacation.

As a reference tool however, I can write that the book excels in providing a great deal of facts relating to almost all aspects of the cruise vacation. It provides summarized, detailed information on ports of embarkment, many cruise destinations, several cruise lines, and the cruise ships. It also describes various factors of cruise etiquette, dress, tipping, shore excursions, onboard activities, meals, drinks, passport information, etc.

If you're one who is undecided about a particular cruise line, or destination, this book would be helpful in that it provides various ratings of the ship's facilities, activities and is of general comparison. It also assists in the reader's determination of a perfect cruise and causes the reader to consider questions that the reader might not have asked.

In addition to the book being a dry read reference book, I was disappointed to see that the book contained no color pictures. It does have many pictures, but they're all in black and white.

My personal consensus is that the book is very detailed, filled with facts, and provides just about anything one would need to know about a cruise.