About: the avid cruiser

Full Name
Ralph Grizzle
Website
http://www.avidcruiser.com
Details
I specialize in writing about cruises. Cruises, in fact, are all that I write about these days. I've made such a profession of writing about cruises that in 2006, I have averaged traveling on one ship per month. In my lifetime, I have cruised on more than 100 ships. I publish a newsletter, Cruise Observer; a magazine, The Avid Cruiser; and am cruise editor of Hemispheres, United Airlines' in-flight magazine. If you're a long-timer in the industry, you may know me from Cruise Week, which I launched in 1995. My roots go back further: I specialized in cruising between 1990 and 1995 as an editor for ASTA Agency Management, back when the American Society of Travel Agents published a magazine that was on every owner/manager's desk. I get better with age (don't we all?) Just last fall, the North American Travel Journalism Association, awarded my article, Ship Shape, which appeared in the September 2005 issue of Hemispheres, in the category of "Best Cruise Writing." And though it has no particular relevance perhaps, Alaskan Amber is my favorite beer; the Baltic is my favorite cruising region; and when pressed, I tell people that Windstar is my favorite cruise line. I make my home in Asheville, North Carolina - or at least I did last time I checked - but I am always at sea or in port. Though I frequently am at sea, I enjoy mountain and road biking, hiking, lingering in coffee shops and frequent trips to the gorgeous Biltmore Estate. Did I mention that I have been on more than 100 cruises? I began my journalistic career at the age of 32, following the conclusion of my "sabbatical decade." From 1980 through 1990, I bicycled across America, pedaled through Europe and island-hopped the South Pacific. After backpacking through Bali, bussing through Java, hopping a boat to Singapore and crossing Malaysia to Thailand, I flew into Burma, tramped to Dhaka and endured a 32-hour train ride from calamitous Calcutta to bustling Bombay. From there, I hopped a plane for Greece and traveled to Switzerland before returning home, where I settled, quite naturally, into a career of travel writing. My work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and numerous consumer magazines. I am the author of four books, including "Remembering Charles Kuralt," a biography that Publisher's Weekly called "a sweet and lovely homage, a welcome commemoration." But enough about wonderful me. My goal is to provide you with content that engages you and compels you to return often.

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