Welcome to CruiseDiva.com
General Terms of Service:
Privacy Policy, Copyright, Bandwidth Theft
This site began as Making Waves~~~ in 1995 and has evolved into a place to share our love of cruise travel with online friends. If you are reading this, we're glad to call you a friend. We hope you find this web site entertaining and informative.
Your Privacy
We have no record of visitors to this site and, other than numerical statistics, do not track usage. CruiseDiva.com does not require registration, nor do we set "cookies" on your computer. We have no way to collect email addresses. Linda Coffman is a travel writer, not an HTML guru.
Your email and contributions are welcomed, both suggestions and questions, as well as cruise reviews. Linda responds to everyone as quickly as possible and credit is given to our contributors. Be patient when waiting for an email response or the appearance of your cruise review—we might be on a cruise!
Copyright
All work on this site is copyrighted. The entire body of the site and original reviews, articles, and photos belong to CruiseDiva.com and are not to be copied for republication without first being granted permission. for licensing information. Feel free to make one copy the printable versions of the Packing Lists for personal use. Cruise reviews and other material submitted for inclusion on this site are the property of their creators. All content submissions are credited to the originators and copyright retained by them. Certain other information is in the public domain (for example, how to obtain a passport and CDC vessel sanitation scores). The page layout and "style" of these pages are the product of Microsoft Expression Web™, of which we are a registered user. We suggest not ripping off our pal Bill Gates.
For one of the best explanations about copyrights and the Internet, see 10 Big Myths About Copyright Explained. A good rule of thumb to keep you out of trouble is, "if you didn't create it, don't copy it!" If you want to share something on CruiseDiva.com, don't copy it. Instead, share the URL to the page where it appears. Copyright violators are vigorously pursued. If you want to buy content, please feel free to email for rates.
Bandwidth Theft
Inappropriate bandwidth use has become an increasing problem on the Internet, particularly regarding the use of photographs and images. Are you wondering what exactly IS bandwidth? First, every site on the Internet is "hosted" on a server, either for free (such as GEO Cities) or for a fee paid to a private service. CruiseDiva.com is hosted by a private service. We pay for and receive a limited amount of bandwidth per month—in other words, the total resources necessary to stay online. Each time a file and/or photograph appears on your computer, it registers bandwidth usage on the hosting service's Internet server. When the monthly resource is gone, we pay an additional fee.
Why is that important? Because some people inappropriately "direct link" to our photographs from message boards and personal web sites. A "direct link" drains the resources of the site where the photo is hosted. For example, if you find an appealing photo on CruiseDiva.com and want it to appear in message board posts on another web site, you might copy the URL (the image source) into your "signature" on that message board. That is "direct linking"—i.e. bandwidth theft. Think of it in terms of extending a garden hose to a neighbors' water spigot and watering your lawn with resources being paid for by the neighbor.
This is a warning to anyone who posts a "direct link" to CruiseDiva.com: Due to the widespread problem and additional cost, we track bandwidth theft and replace images we find being direct linked with a banner. If you want to share an image on CruiseDiva.com with your friends, give them the URL to the page on this site where it is located. DO NOT "DIRECT LINK" TO IMAGES ON THIS SITE. Again, violators are vigorously pursued.
General Info
Cruise information tends to be time sensitive and subject to change. CruiseDiva.com accepts no responsibility for those changes, although we do our best to keep articles and other facts as up-to-date as possible. Check Cruise News and news archives for the latest information.
In order for you to enjoy this site to the fullest, we ask that you:
- Use MS Internet Explorer 7.0 or higher versions.
- Have your browser's Java enabled. Some page features will not appear properly if your Java setting is disabled.
- Have your browser's resolution set to a minimum of 800x600 and 16bit High Color. This will prevent excessive scrolling.
In today's computer world those are normal settings. However, some online users rightfully choose to disable them or use other settings. Some even use other browsers. Unfortunately we cannot make this site work the way it is intended without using at least the minimum settings above. (Our appreciation to HTML-guru Bob Hoover for the aforementioned advice.)
Finally, we have no financial ties to the cruise industry and are not travel agents. The cruise-related merchants listed on this site in The Cruise Shop, Cruise Guidebooks, and Magazine Rack are those we trust and personally use. CruiseDiva.com carries paid advertising. We resisted commercialization as long as possible, but Linda is a professional travel writer with expenses.
Now... let's MAKE WAVES~~~
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