Always come prepared.

Nothing is worse than finally embarking on a cruise ship vacation that you had planned for months — only to get there and make a mistake that could potentially ruin the rest of your trip.

Thankfully, expert Alley Kerr, a dancer and singer who has worked on more than 100 cruise ships and now writes travel content on her site Wanderlust Alley, gave insight into the one mistake cruise goers often make that can be easily prevented.

If you’ve ever been on a cruise before — you know just how chaotic the first day is.

“…That’s the day that everybody is trying to book their shore excursions, trying to get their internet sorted, trying to book restaurants and any extra add-ons,” she told the Independent.

“…if you can avoid waiting for embarkation day and get it done in advance, your life is going to be so much easier.”

As the saying goes — failure to prepare is preparing to fail. So, waiting to book excursions and other fun activities at the ports the cruise is stopping at is where most cruise rookies go wrong.

“People who have never cruised before often get on the ship and then suddenly at the end of the day, they’re like, ‘Oh, everything’s sold out,’” she told the outlet.

“I feel that this is one of the worst things that could happen, because you’ve missed out. There’s limited availability for a lot of things.”

And no one wants to be stuck going down the water slide for the 109th time to keep themselves occupied while the ship is docked and everyone is off having fun.

Passengers on a recent Celebrity Cruises vacation had a flub in their travel plans — but unfortunately, it was completely out of their control and had nothing to do with planning.

The Celebrity Constellation lost power for three hours due to a technical issue while on an 11-night Mediterranean voyage.

Passengers were stuck on the massive ship without lighting, air conditioning, toilets and kitchen facilities.

Although it was confirmed to USA Today by a Royal Caribbean Group spokesperson — the parent company of Celebrity Cruises — that the loss of power was caused by a technical issue, no other details were provided.

As preparations for its official debut continue, the Star of the Seas recently arrived at the port of Ponce for a technical call.

After crossing the Atlantic for the first time, the Royal Caribbean International vessel docked at the Puerto Rican port on August 4, 2025.

According to local media, the Star of the Seas will spend three days in Ponce.

Before arriving in Puerto Rico, the LNG-powered vessel also made a technical visit to the Spanish port of Cadiz.

Delivered by the Meyer Turky shipyard in July, the new ship is scheduled to welcome its first paying guests on August 16, 2025.

On that day, the Star of the Seas kicks off a series of preview cruises sailing from its homeport of Port Canaveral.

The three- and four-night itineraries feature visits to Royal Caribbean’s private island destination in the Bahamas, Perfect Day at CocoCay.

The vessel is then set to be christened by its godmother, singer and actress Diana Ross, before embarking on its maiden cruise on August 31, 2025.

As the second ship in Royal Caribbean’s Icon-class series, the Star of the Seas is set to offer weeklong cruises to the Caribbean from Port Canaveral.

The itineraries visit destinations in both the Western and the Eastern Caribbean, including San Juan in Puerto Rico, St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Other ports of call set to be visited include Philipsburg in St. Maarten, Cozumel in Mexico and Basseterre in St. Kitts, as well as Perfect Day at CocoCay, which will be featured in all cruises.

Following the Star of the Seas, Royal Caribbean is set to take delivery of two additional Icon class ships in the near future.

The first to debut will be the new Legend of the Seas, which is scheduled to enter service in the Mediterranean in 2026. A fourth, still-unnamed vessel follows suit in 2027.

A NEW Netflix documentary about a woman who mysteriously vanished from a cruise ship 27 years ago points the finger at the wrong man, an expert has claimed.

Amy Lynn Bradley, then 23, vanished in March 1998 after boarding the Royal Caribbean Rhapsody of the Seas with her family.

On March 23, just three days into the trip, she went missing.

She was last seen on the balcony of the cabin she shared with her parents, Ron and Iva, and her younger brother, Brad, after partying at the ship’s nightclub.

There was no evidence that she jumped or fell from the high railing, but she was not seen again on the ship’s security cameras.

Despite this, her family still believes she could have left the room and been kidnapped and sex-trafficked.

Amy was captured on security footage dancing with a bass player who played at the club, Alister “Yellow” Douglas, earlier on in the night, who has always denied knowing what happened to her.

The Netflix documentary, Amy Bradley is Missing, featured alleged witnesses who claimed to have seen the recent college graduate with Douglas after the club closed, and on a beach after she was reported missing.

The sightings have never been confirmed, and although a lie detector test came back inconclusive, the FBI ruled Douglas out.

Many social media users claimed they were “sure” he played a part in Amy’s disappearance after seeing the three-part series.

Douglas’s daughter, Amica, also told filmmakers she is suspicious of her father’s story, having been bombarded with messages about the case, and called him to comment while being interviewed on camera.

He was unaware the phone call was being filmed and is not thought to have been approached for further comment.

YouTuber, journalist, and author James Renner recently took the same trip as Amy and went to meet Douglas, who is now an exorcist and reverend at a small church in Granada.

Douglas granted Renner a rare interview after years of trying to stay out of the spotlight. 

In the filmed interview, Douglas claimed he never saw Amy after they danced together at the ship’s nightclub before she retired to her cabin to be with her family.

Renner is set to release a book, A Cruise to Nowhere, next summer about Amy’s case, having previously met with her family and investigators who spent years tirelessly trying to find her.

In an exclusive chat with The U.S. Sun, Renner said he feels desperately sorry for Douglas, whose life was turned upside down by the case, and believes he is innocent.

He feels the reverend may sue after the Netflix series heavily focused on him as a suspect who could have sex-trafficked Amy, and after the show set up the phone call with his daughter.

Renner told The U.S. Sun, “I think it was just like a week or two after that happened that I talked to him. 

“When I talked to him, he said he was ready to take [legal] action if they made him look [bad].

“I certainly think he has a case. I would do it if I were him.”

Renner said he had not spoken with him since the release of the documentary, and The U.S. Sun has made several attempts to reach him for comment.

“I would imagine by now he has [watched it] or has somebody that’s told him what’s in it,” Renner continued. “He keeps up, he knows what’s going on.

‘SINCERE & CANDID’

“I think the documentary certainly did a disservice to the investigation and to what happened to Amy. Because you go online now, and people just assume that he’s guilty.”

The U.S. Sun spoke to filmmaker Ari Mark about Douglas being a suspect, to which he replied, “I feel awful for the Douglas family and what they’ve had to endure all these years.”

They did not comment further on how he was portrayed in the series.

Discussing his meet-up with Douglas, Renner said he has remarried and tried to make peace with the fact that his name is still linked to the case. 

But he still gets upset when trolls attack him and his family online, and he has received death threats over the years, despite using another name on Facebook. 

“I found him to be very sincere and candid,” Renner said. 

“If he was involved, there was really no reason for him to grant me an interview. He had nothing to gain from it.

“But this is an event that he’s had to think about a lot. I think he was looking for an opportunity to tell his side of the story.

“He admits that, as an officer on the cruise ship, he definitely crossed the line with dancing close with Amy.

“But he says he didn’t have anything to do with what ultimately happened to her. And I believe him. 

“He’s an active member in his community there. He doesn’t have any other history of violence. 

“He has a beautiful wife and kid on the island, and they were at church with him and were involved there and seemed well-adjusted.”

Asked if the Bradleys had ever met with Douglas to hear his side of the story, Renner said, “I don’t believe he ever met with the family. I think, from what I understand, the last time they saw him was when he was coming out the first time he was questioned by the FBI on the cruise ship.”

Renner said Douglas met again with the FBI just a few years ago, and they believed he had nothing to do with her disappearance. 

An alleged witness featured in the Netflix show claimed to have seen Douglas going up to the club in an elevator with Amy before returning alone after the last time she was seen in her cabin. 

Another claimed to have seen him walking along a beach with a woman matching her description and acting suspiciously, but neither has ever been backed up with real evidence.

Renner said, “You just look at the statistics on people who have been wrongfully convicted, and the majority of them were convicted based on witness testimony that was false.”

Douglas’ work as an exorcist in Granada has also raised eyebrows, with some critics claiming he’s doing “satanic rituals.”

Renner insists his work is a fairly normal practice on the island. 

He explained, “It has a long history of what’s called Obeah, which is what we might think of as akin to voodoo or witchcraft. 

“Obeah is technically outlawed on Grenada, but people still practice it all the time. And it’s such a tradition that people those beliefs. 

“So, he’s essentially, through this church, working as an exorcist in the tradition of Obeah. It’s not that out of the ordinary for Grenada. 

“It would be a little weird, you know, if he was doing that in like Ohio.”

LAST MEETING

In his interview with Renner for the YouTube channel, True Crime This Week, Douglas recalled playing until midnight with the band, after which he began talking to Amy, the night she vanished.

He claims the pair talked about music, and she later met him at the lounge at the top of the ship, where he grew uncomfortable with her chain-smoking.

She allegedly told him it was because her father found out she was gay, a claim backed up in the documentary, which also featured interviews with past girlfriends.

Douglas admitted he didn’t know how to respond as he’s a religious man, but took pity on her and suggested they dance to a few songs before he had to leave at 12.55 am.

“I said, ‘Look, I have to go, I have to be out of [the] passenger area’, and I left,” he claimed. “That was my last conversation [with her], last time I saw her.

“The person I am, I like to console people, I like to talk with people. There was not enough time, maybe the following day, if I had seen her, I would have.”

He further claimed he had a key card for his cabin that recorded what time he arrived back at his room.

The ship’s security allegedly called him the following morning and quizzed him on whether he had a woman in his room, explaining Amy was missing.

He claims he was told not to leave his cabin, where other musicians were also sleeping.

He insisted he hadn’t seen her since their chat, and it was forbidden to have passengers in his room or to be outside past 1 am.

Douglas said he was questioned for hours by authorities, but later cleared, insisting he wasn’t worried but was nervous to have his name “mixed up” in something he didn’t know about.

Tearing up, he admitted, “I’ve lost so many opportunities because of this,” explaining that people Google his name and believe he had something to do with Amy going missing.

“My inbox, my Facebook, people have been writing me horrible stuff for years.”

Speaking about the phone call with his daughter, he said, “I said, ‘Amica, listen, if you want, you can let people know that I’m not your father because I can’t explain this.’

“I said, ‘The truth will come out, and when the truth come out I will sue the people who have been making documentaries about me’.

“For now, it’s just in the hands of those investigating. Somebody knows something, and somebody will speak at some point.”