The Essential Little Cruise Book, 3rd: Secrets from a Cruise Director for a Perfect Cruise Vacation

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Summary: bogus reviews
Review: Most, if not all, glowing reviews on this book are from one or two sources that *oddly* list the authors 800 number for booking a cruise. Beware.

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Summary: Wonderful book of tips!
Review: My family is planning a cruise to Alaska this year and I purchased The Essential Little Cruise Book through Amazon.com. What a great surprise to find dozens of really great tips for our Alaska cruise. You might consider telling people this book not only has a lot of general tips, but there is an entire section for Alaska and the Caribbean. Anyway, Jim West, who I understand plans cruises (I was reading previous reviews) sounds to me like the kind of person who "gets it!" Had I not already made my cruise plans with my travel agent, I would have at least given him a call to see what kind of price I could get.
My personal opinion for anyone planning a cruise, especially your first cruise, GET THIS BOOK. It is worth the little money you will spend for it and I promise, you'll be glad you did.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful book of tips!
Review: My family is planning a cruise to Alaska this year and I purchased The Essential Little Cruise Book through Amazon.com. What a great surprise to find dozens of really great tips for our Alaska cruise. You might consider telling people this book not only has a lot of general tips, but there is an entire section for Alaska and the Caribbean. Anyway, Jim West, who I understand plans cruises (I was reading previous reviews) sounds to me like the kind of person who "gets it!" Had I not already made my cruise plans with my travel agent, I would have at least given him a call to see what kind of price I could get.
My personal opinion for anyone planning a cruise, especially your first cruise, GET THIS BOOK. It is worth the little money you will spend for it and I promise, you'll be glad you did.

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Summary: A first-time cruisers cruise bible!
Review: My wife and I are planning our first cruise, and what a great surprise to read The Essential Little Cruise Book. Jim West has a hit, and I am sure anyone who reads this, and is planning their first cruise, will find the information to be more helpful than anything your travel agent could ever tell you. I have recommended it to people I know, and have even called his travel agency in Illinois to have him personally plan my next cruise. Here's his toll free number if anyone else would like to call him. 800-708-0880

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Summary: A fantastic book of helpful tips for the first-time cruiser.
Review: My wife and I have never been on a cruise before and found THE ESSENTIAL LITTLE CRUISE BOOK to be more informative than what our travel agent could provide. Out of the 600 tips that are provided, if you use just 20 of them, you've made your cruise better. Don't listen to the negative comments on here, it truly is a GREAT little book!

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Summary: A cute rendition of common sense.
Review: Not only is this book little (literally), it contains facts even novice cruisers are aware of (such as myself). Occasionally, I felt as though some of the comments were condescending, don't do this, do do that..., etc. There were a few nice ideas in the book but overall I was disappointed in the quality of the book and for paying extra to have it shipped faster to me.

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Summary: GREAT CRUISE KNOW-HOW BY A PROFESSIONAL CRUISE DIRECTOR.
Review: One of the best things about THE ESSENTIAL LITTLE CRUISE BOOK is that it is written by an actual cruise director--Jim West. He has over ten years of experience working onboard ships, so that in itself is impressive. I would recommend this book to anyone, especially if you're buying just one cruise book. It's great. No, I mean really GREAT!

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Summary: Not worth it.
Review: Only generalities and penned by a former cruise director who writes mostly like a cruise line shill. Too many times, the advice for things that go wrong is to grin-and-bear it.

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Summary: Don't waste your money
Review: The book should be called "The Essential Little Travel Book With Some Cruise Tips Included" Anybody who has done a minimum amount of traveling will allready know most of the tips in this book. Most of them are just common sense. It's obivious that the auther does not want to say any thing bad about the cruise companies, and at the end you find out why. In his bio. it says he owns a travel agency. If you go to "cruiseopinion.com" on the internet, you can read the unbiased opinions of the people that took the cruise. Such as don't book your excursions on the ship,but wait until you get on land where they are cheaper. Save your money and go to the web site.

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Summary: The best guide book of cruise information published today!
Review: The Essential Little Cruise Book is the best book I have ever read for anyone who is planning a cruise. Whether it is your first cruise or your 20th, this book contains over 600 tips for making it great. Sir Edmund Hillary says it best, "The Essential Little Cruise Book is a book for even the hardened travel agent." IT IS A MUST!!!