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MORE TAXES!!!!
Alaskans go to the polls tomorrow to determine whether cruise
passengers will pay a $50 state head tax and whether cruise lines
will be subject to nine pages of changes to the way they do business there.
Ballot Measure 2, or the cruise ship tax initiative, will be on the
Aug. 22 ballot via a citizens petition; Alaska law allows residents
to place initiatives on ballots if there are enough valid signatures.
Responsible Cruising in Alaska, a nonprofit group, acquired 24,000
signatures to push the initiative forward. The electorate seems
divided on the issue.
"People see the cruise lines as an outside industry that uses
Alaska and doesn't pay its way," said Gershon Cohen, a co-author
of the legislation.
But others applaud the industry for bringing boatloads of visitors
who spend millions of dollars per year on pre- and post-cruise stays
and shore excursions.
"The cruise line industry accounts for 23,000 jobs in
Alaska," said Carol Fraser, owner of Aspen Hotels of Alaska.
"They pay taxes, they give money to nonprofits. It's sad that
the cruise lines seem to be the bad guy in our tourism industry.
They're not." "The industry brings a lot of
economic benefits, over $1 billion a year."
The ships would be required to have permits to discharge any
wastewater in state marine waters and have an onboard "ocean
ranger" to enforce this. It would also allow citizen lawsuits
against owners or operators of cruise ships for alleged violations of
these environmental statutes.
The cruise lines are already monitored by the Coast Guard for
environmental practices and all the major cruise vessels that sail in
Alaska are equipped with advanced wastewater treatment systems, so
having a ranger on board would be redundant.
Editors Note: We have lost count of the number of new
taxes that Alaska has put on cruise ships over the years. It seems
like every time Alaska needs some more money somebody gets the bright
idea of a new tax on the cruise ships. It would be interesting
to find out just how much the ships are already paying Alaska in
taxes, and how many different taxes are involved.
NCL America fleet is now fully manned
NCL America’s Hawaii fleet is now at full-manning level.
The company had been undermanned since Pride of Hawaii’s
introduction in late May, even though it began taking crew on since
early in the year.
NCL America is recruiting 400 people a week in order to have 100 a
week trained and documented to keep the three ships fully staffed,
said Colin Veitch, NCL Corp. president and ceo.
New recruits from the Seafarers International Union’s training
center in Piney Point, Md., who await their merchant mariner
documents are now staying in island ports and going on board the
ships to work during the day. The procedure is going well as an
interim step to shipboard employment, Veitch said.
THE U.S. COAST GUARD did not raise the security level
for the maritime sector or change the screening process for
passengers at seaports, the International Council of Cruise Lines
reported, after an alleged plot to blow up airplanes was foiled last
week in the U.K., causing major worldwide travel disruptions. Several
cruise lines pushed back debarkation times after Thursday's event,
but none reported any major delays or any cancellations of
itineraries. Most major cruise lines, the ICCL, and the Cruise Lines
International Association distributed information to travel agents
and cruise passengers, either via their Web sites or by sending
advisories, on the new aviation regulations for carry-on items.
CELEBRITY CRUISES canceled the Sept. 13 Alaska sailing
on the Infinity: Problems with one of the ship's propulsion
pods prompted the line to send the Infinity into dry-dock for repairs
at a facility in Victoria, British Columbia. It is expected to return
to service for its Sept. 24 Panama Canal transit from San Francisco
to Fort Lauderdale. Passengers booked on the Sept. 13 cruise will
receive a full refund and a future cruise credit. Passengers on the
next sailing will depart San Francisco a day later than scheduled and
miss the scheduled call in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico; passengers on this
cruise are entitled to a $500 per-cabin onboard credit, a $200 future
cruise credit and overnight accommodations in San Francisco on Sept.
23. Celebrity established a phone desk at (800) 852-8175 to assist
guests and agents.
CELEBRITY'S POD PROBLEMS are an ongoing issue for the
cruise line's ships that are fitted with Mermaid pods. The Infinity
has been taken out of service for at least one cruise each year since
its 2000 debut to deal with propulsion issues, and an Alaska sailing
was cancelled in May due to propulsion problems on Celebrity's
Summit. Celebrity's parent company Royal Caribbean Cruises had sued
pod producers Rolls-Royce and Alstom Power Conversion for $300
million in 2003. RCCL settled with Alstom in January, releasing them
from the suit after being paid $38 million; its case against
Rolls-Royce is still pending. This latest cancellation will
negatively impact shares by about five cents, RCCL said.
Body of missing passenger is identified
A body recovered off the coast of Italy last month was positively
identified as Elizabeth Galeana, the Florida passenger who went
missing from Voyager of the Seas on July 25.
The identification was made by Italian authorities following an
autopsy. The cause of death was drowning, an FBI spokeswoman in Tampa
said. ‘There was no evidence of foul play so we rule it as
accidental,’ said FBI spokeswoman Lourdes Hall.
After Med debut, Miami base for Carnival Freedom
Carnival Freedom will sail year-round seven-day cruises from
Miami beginning in November 2007. The 110,000gt ship, under
construction at Fincantieri’s Marghera yard, will offer
alternating Western and Eastern Caribbean voyages.
Prior to the Miami program, Carnival Freedom will operate a
previously announced inaugural summer schedule of Mediterranean/Greek
Isles voyages March 14 to Oct. 16, followed by a 14-day crossing from
Civitavecchia (Rome) to Miami.
In Miami, the 2,974-passenger ship will replace the 2,758-passenger
Carnival Triumph, which is redeploying to New Orleans next autumn.
New Orleans wins 2nd year-round Carnival ship
A year from now, Carnival Cruise Lines will again have two ships
based at New Orleans, just as they did before Hurricane Katrina a
year ago.
Carnival Cruise Lines will deploy a second year-round ship from New
Orleans, the 2,758-passenger Carnival Triumph, in August 2007.
Carnival will be the only line to operate year-round from the city
and, with the arrival of the 2,056-passenger Fantasy in October, will
offer four-, five- and seven-day cruises. Carnival Triumph will begin
weekly itineraries on Sept. 2, 2007 (following a special five-day
cruise on Aug. 28), becoming the largest cruise ship based at the
port. The Fantasy will launch year-round four- and five-day sailings
beginning this Oct. 26.
With the Fantasy and Carnival Triumph, Carnival expects to carry
320,000 passengers annually from New Orleans.
Carnival Triumph will offer two itineraries: Cozumel, Grand Cayman
and Ocho Rios, and Belize, Cozumel and Progresso. Bookings open on
Sept. 6 with fares starting at $449.
US Passport Update
U.S. travelers would have a few
extra days before they would need passports or other approved
documentation when crossing U.S. ports of entry, under the
long-awaited final proposed border security rules issued by the Dept.
of Homeland Security and the State Dept.
Under the pending final rule for
the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI), which is open to
industry comment through Sept. 25, the departments have proposed
pushing back the current Jan. 1, 2007 administrative start date to
Jan. 8 in order to "better accommodate the holiday travel season."
The departments also contend that
delaying the implementation date for a few days "would not have
an adverse effect on national security."
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HAL to
conduct environmental study onboard vessel
Holland
America Line plans to conduct a seawater scrubber feasibility
project aboard one of its cruise ships to determine the feasibility
of new technology designed to reduce air emissions on seagoing vessels.
With a $300,000
Environmental Protection Agency/West Coast Collaborative grant and
$100,000 contribution from the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, Holland
America Line plans on conducting the project intended to demonstrate
how advanced seawater scrubbing reduces air emissions on large
oceangoing vessels. The results will determine whether this
technology could be rolled out to new oceangoing vessels, as well as
retrofitting existing vessels.
The total cost
of the installation is more than $1.2 million.
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