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.
Write to us 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
linda@cruisediva.com 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 th
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.
