# CruisePortAdvisor.com > Cruise port guides for passengers departing from or arriving at North American and Caribbean cruise ports. Covers parking, hotels, transportation, shore excursions, restaurants, shopping, things to do, and destination travel guides. Founded 2014. Based in Toronto, Canada. CruisePortAdvisor.com is an independent cruise travel resource built for cruise passengers — not cruise lines. Content is written and verified by experienced cruisers. The site covers the practical logistics of cruise travel: how to get to the port, where to park, where to stay, what to do on port days, and how to book shore excursions. It is not a booking engine for cruises themselves. The site operates a companion app at app.cruiseportadvisor.com — the CruisePortAdvisor Logbook — a cruise planning and journaling tool. --- ## Site Sections ### Departure Ports Guides for cruise passengers departing from North American home ports. Each port hub covers terminals, parking, hotels (park-and-cruise, fly-and-cruise, hotels near port), transportation, restaurants, shopping, things to do, and shore excursions. - /departure-ports/ — index of all departure ports - /port/[port-slug]/ — port hub page - /port/[port-slug]/terminal-information/ — which cruise lines dock where - /port/[port-slug]/parking/ — on-site garages, off-site lots, hotel+park packages - /port/[port-slug]/park-cruise-hotels/ — stay the night before, leave your car - /port/[port-slug]/fly-cruise-hotels/ — flying in; airport transfer hotels - /port/[port-slug]/hotels-near-port/ — hotels within walking or short transfer distance - /port/[port-slug]/transportation/ — rideshare, taxi, shuttle, train options - /port/[port-slug]/restaurants/ — dining near the port pre/post-cruise - /port/[port-slug]/shopping/ — souvenirs and local retail near the port - /port/[port-slug]/things-to-do/ — attractions near the port for early arrivals or late departures - /port/[port-slug]/excursions/ — shore excursions bookable before boarding **Active departure ports include:** Port of Miami (FL), Port Everglades / Fort Lauderdale (FL), Port Canaveral (FL), Tampa (FL), Jacksonville (FL), New Orleans (LA), Galveston (TX), Manhattan / New York (NY), Brooklyn (NY), Cape Liberty / Bayonne (NJ), Baltimore (MD), Boston (MA), Norfolk (VA), Charleston (SC), San Juan (PR), Seattle (WA), Los Angeles (CA), Long Beach (CA), San Diego (CA), San Francisco (CA), Honolulu (HI), Vancouver (BC), Quebec City (QC), and others. --- ### Destinations (Ports of Call) Guides for cruise passengers arriving at ports of call — what to do, where to eat, what to see, and how to book excursions on a port day. - /destinations/ — index of all destination ports - /destination/[region]/ — regional overview (e.g. Caribbean, Bahamas, Mexico, Bermuda, Alaska) - /destination/[port-slug]/ — destination hub (overview, getting around, beaches, dining, shopping, excursions, FAQ) - /destination/[port-slug]/excursions/ - /destination/[port-slug]/beaches/ - /destination/[port-slug]/restaurants/ - /destination/[port-slug]/things-to-do/ **Active destination regions include:** Caribbean, Bahamas, Bermuda, Mexico / Mexican Riviera, Alaska / Pacific Northwest, Hawaii, Florida, California, Eastern Canada / Quebec, New England, Central & South America, Dominican Republic, Cuba. --- ### Blog Cruise travel articles covering planning tips, port days, packing, onboard life, ship comparisons, first-time cruiser guides, and destination-specific content. Written by Joy Hyjek and Jonathon Hyjek. - /blog/ — blog index - /blog/[post-slug]/ — individual post **Active content clusters:** - Caribbean Port Days (Nassau, St. Maarten, Aruba, Key West, Grand Cayman) - First-Time Cruiser Planning (pillar + supporting articles) --- ### FAQ Standalone FAQ articles answering common cruise passenger questions. Articles live at root level (e.g. /do-cruise-ships-have-jails/). - /frequently-asked-questions/ — FAQ index - /[question-slug]/ — individual FAQ article **Sample FAQ topics:** Do cruise ships have jails? Do cruise lines search luggage? Can cruise ships tip over? Do cruise ships have doctors? Where do cruise ship staff sleep? Are cruises good for wheelchair users? Can cruise lines change your itinerary? --- ### Tools & Utility Pages - /search-cruises/ — cruise search tool (embedded) - /flight-search-engine/ — flight search tool (embedded) - /go/shore-excursions/ — affiliate redirect to shore excursion booking (Viator / Shore Excursions Group) - /go/car-rentals/ — affiliate redirect (planned) - /search/ — Google Programmable Search (cx=13c67f11be6f942de) - /sitemap/ — HTML sitemap --- ### Static Pages - /about/ — about the site and team - /contact-us/ - /advertise/ - /privacy-policy/ - /terms-of-service/ - /author/[name]/ — author profile pages (Joy Hyjek, Jonathon Hyjek) --- ## Companion App CruisePortAdvisor Logbook — https://app.cruiseportadvisor.com A PHP-based cruise planning and journaling app. Free plan: 5 cruises, 21-day journal. Premium: $49 lifetime. Features include trip logging, port day planning, and a printed memory book option (Prodigi/POD integration planned). PWA and app store submission planned. --- ## Technical Stack - Custom PHP 8.2 / MySQL CMS (rebuilt after Google HCU penalty — no WordPress) - Hosted on Verpex / cPanel with LiteSpeed web server - CDN: Bunny CDN + Cloudflare - Database: MySQL (`cruiseport_2026newdb`) - Analytics: GA4 (G-R7QG8QL168), Ezoic Analytics, Clicky - Display ads: Ezoic (named placeholder divs) - Affiliate systems: /go/ redirect handler (302), 1,239 ThirstyAffiliates slugs imported; affiliates include Viator, Shore Excursions Group, Kayak, Stay22 - Email: MailerSend (transactional), MailerLite (subscriber capture) - Payments: Stripe (planned — Logbook premium) - SEO: Google Search Console, Ahrefs, Bing Webmaster Tools, IndexNow - Schema: JSON-LD (WebSite, BreadcrumbList, FAQPage per page type) - Fonts: Sora (headings) + DM Sans (body) — self-hosted - Internal linking: auto_link() helper in helpers.php with keyword→URL mapping table (internal_links table) --- ## Content & Editorial Notes - Content voice: direct, conversational, practical — written for cruise passengers, not travel agents - Authors: Joy Hyjek (content lead/editor), Jonathon Hyjek (founder/developer) - E-E-A-T signals: author bylines with cruise credentials, last-verified dates, UGC tip submissions on destination pages - All affiliate links use rel="noopener nofollow sponsored" and /go/ cloaked redirects (302) - robots.txt disallows /go/ - No manual internal links in content — auto_link() handles injection at render time - FAQ sections use native HTML
accordion - Hot Tip boxes (🔥) appear on all port and subpage content - UGC tip submission forms on destination pages for authentic experience signals --- ## Do Not Crawl / Index - /go/ (affiliate redirects) - /admin/ (CMS admin panel) - /app/ (Logbook app — separate subdomain)