Theme Cruise Columns Win Second Gold Award

I want to thank the North American Travel Journalists Association (NATJA) for naming me for the second straight year as the Gold Award winner for Best Magazine Travel Series in their annual travel writing competition.

For both 2013 and 2014, three of my theme cruise columns written for Porthole Cruise Magazine took home the Gold.

This year’s series consisted of  “Blue Sea, Red Sea,” about political cruises; “Bird is The Word,” about birding cruises; and “Now You Sea It,” about ghost-hunting cruises.

While the Porthole column came to an end earlier this year (with a piece on cat cruises), I had six years of fun writing about 37 different theme cruises covering all kinds of topics — some serious, some wacky, all entertaining.

At some point I’ll be putting out a collection of the columns in eBook form, and will let you know when it’s out.

According to the NATJA press release, “This awards competition, now in its 23rd year, honors the ‘best of the best’ in travel writing, photography and promotion that cover all aspects of the travel industry worldwide. NATJA is the second largest travel media association in North America. Members include travel media professionals, convention and visitors bureaus, social media, hotels and attractions, and other travel marketing agencies.”

So once again, thanks to NATJA and also to my editors at Porthole Cruise Magazine for making all this possible!