I’ve been doing travel segments, as a roving travel correspondent, for ABC News Now for almost two years but this month I hosted the new half-hour ABC Travel Show for the first time.

Working as the host meant not only did I have to be a travel “expert” in the area we were highlighting, cruising, but I also had shoot some fun, creative segments and interview some other top experts in the travel field including the Senior Editor of Shermanstravels.com and Budgettravel.com.

The first challenge of the day was just getting on the huge ship we where shooting on, the Royal Caribbean’s “Explorer of the Seas” . It was docked in New Jersey but to get on the TV crew we had to go through the same long lines that you go on when you’re going on the ship for a cruise because our ship was going to take off at about 5pm that night.

That left the other challenge. Shooting the entire half hour show in a few hours before the ship took off, unless we wanted to head to the Caribbean with it!

Turns out we had a great shoot, including me doing the show open by ice-skating, yes, ice-skating, on the ship that’s about the size of a football field and holds almost 4,000 people.

For this latest ABC travel show we profiled some of the top cruise deals of 2010 and gave some great, unique tips, things you need to know before you book and go your first cruise. Things like make sure to bring an alarm clock because most cabins don’t have them and how to make sure you get a cabin in a good location, not one above the disco!

For the best cruising tips and top cruising deals and sales be sure to check out the show! Just watch the below links in the order they’re listed. I would love to hear what you think and any tips or questions you might have on how to plan the best cruise!

Karen Schaler Hosts Half-Hour ABC Travel Show

Best Cruise Ships Small vs Large:

http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/video/big-small-cruise-ships-11074746

Top Cruising Tips:

http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/video/ship-tips-tools-11074697&tab=9482931&section=8865284

Explorer of the Seas, Royal Caribbean, Behind the Scenes Look:

http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/video/explorer-seas-11074736&tab=9482931&section=8865284

For more cool ABC News Now travel shows that I’ve been working on you can go to www.abcnews.com and just click on the “Travel” tab and scroll down to “Best of” Travel and you can find some great shows, including a some top road trips and best spas!

If you have any ideas of what you’d like to see covered in a travel show just leave a comment below!

For more unique travel finds also be sure to check out a copy of my new book Travel Therapy: Where Do You Need to Go?