|
New head tax in Alaska leaves cruise pax with questions
An Alaska ballot initiative to impose a $50 head tax on cruise
passengers to the 49th state was scheduled to become law on Dec. 17,
but that doesn't necessarily mean passengers will start to see the
added cost on their invoices -- not yet, anyway.
There is no industrywide approach to implementing the taxes, said
John Hansen, president of the North West CruiseShip Association.
Princess Cruises will retroactively add the tax to current bookings
and begin applying the tax to new bookings as early as Dec. 20, said
spokeswoman Karen Candy. Norwegian Cruise Line sent a letter to
passengers and agents with existing reservations explaining the tax,
but the line said it would not charge the tax at this time. Other
cruise lines have not indicated what they will do.
In addition to the $50 per-passenger tax, the initiative hits cruise
lines with a host of new taxes and regulations while sailing in
Alaskan waters, including the head tax.
One Hundred Is Not Enough
After you sail a few Carnival cruises you get a gold card, then a few
more and you get another color, a few more and you get one the color
of another precious metal. But what color do you get when you've
sailed a hundred Carnival cruises? Alorzia Jones knows.
Last Week, Mrs. Jones sailed on her one-hundredth Carnival cruise
aboard Fascination. She began sailing Carnival 15 years ago in 1991,
and that works out to one about every other month.
To mark the occasion, she was provided with one of the ship's owner's
suites, and was the guest of honor at a dinner hosted by Capt. Carlo
Queirolo, who presented her with an engraved ship's bell as permanent
reminder of her achievement.
Carnival, TUI to promote joint venture to German market
Carnival Corp. will form a joint venture with German tour operator
TUI AG to operate two cruise brands for the German market,
Carnival’s existing AIDA Cruises and a new TUI Cruises brand.
Carnival, the largest cruise company in the world, and TUI, the
largest tour operator in the world, announced the signing of a letter
of intent to develop, market and operate the two brands, and said the
transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2007.
Celebrity Cruises to add another ship to Expeditions fleet
It doesn't come as much of a surprise, but Royal Caribbean will be
transferring Blue Moon from their recently-acquired Pullmantur brand
to the Celebrity brand. Blue Moon is the sister ship to Blue Dream,
which RCCL already announced would be moved to Celebrity's fleet in
May. Both were originally twin ships in the Renaissance fleet (R6 and R7).
When it joins the Celebrity fleet next October, Blue Moon will
be renamed Celebrity Quest and get a makeover to bring its features
in line with the rest of the Celebrity fleet.
Carnival promotes itineraries for time-strapped cruisers
Carnival Cruise Lines will deploy half its fleet on short cruise
itineraries in 2007, offering 32 short cruises (from three to five
days) from 12 North American homeports, the cruise line said.
Citing a recent Travel Industry Association study indicating that
shorter and more frequent vacations have increased more than 10% over
the past five years, Carnival said it will offer more itineraries of
five days or less than any other cruise operator.
Costa orders another ship
Costa Cruise Lines exercised an option with Fincantieri for the
construction of a 92,700-ton ship, scheduled for delivery in March 2010.
The 2,260-passenger vessel will be built at Fincantieri’s
Marghera shipyard at a cost of approximately 420 million euros, or
about $560 million, said Costa. Sixty-eight percent of its 1,130
cabins will have private verandas, the highest percentage in the
Costa fleet.
The vessel will be sister to another 92,700-ton ship to be built in
Marghera and scheduled to enter service in spring 2009.
Name that Song Quiz Answers:
1. Nutcracker Suite
2. Little Drummer Boy
3. Deck The Halls
4. Silent Night
5. Noel
6. All I want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth
7. It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
8. Joy To The World
9. 12 Days of Christmas
10. Do You Hear What I hear?
How did you do?
|
