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No Welcome Mat Here
Libya last week denied Silversea Cruises' American passengers entry
into the country, instead making them remain onboard during the
ship's call there, a repeat of the fall 2005 actions that prompted
Silversea and Oceania Cruises to cancel calls to Libya. "It's
the same problem that's been going on," said Brad Ball,
spokesman for Silversea Cruises. "Libya is still not issuing
visas for Americans." Some lines had canceled calls to the
popular destination last spring, before the U.S. State Dept.
announced in May 2006 that it would reestablish diplomatic relations
with Libya.
NBC special highlights Queen Mary 2
A 30-minute special titled ‘Onboard Queen Mary 2 - A
Transatlantic Adventure’ will air throughout October on
NBC-owned and operated stations in major U.S. cities.
Emmy Award-winning news anchor Jane Hanson hosts the program, which
follows a six-day Atlantic crossing and includes afternoon tea, a
tour of the bridge with Capt. Christopher Rynd and a peek at the
Canyon Ranch SpaClub. The program is scheduled to air in 10
cities, starting with New York last Saturday.
Curaçao hopes new airport will boost homeporting
Wiith Curaçao’s new $44m airport terminal now
operational, the island hopes to draw more homeporting ships to the
Southern Caribbean, local officials said. The expanded air capacity
is seen as particularly helpful in drawing European ship operators.
Curaçao International Airport now offers the potential to
serve 1.6m passengers a year, and plans for future, second-phase
growth envision an annual carrying capacity of 2.5m passengers.
HAL fleet to go cellular by March
Passengers can now use cellular phones and PDAs on Holland America
Line’s Volendam, and the capability will be available fleetwide
by March, the company said.
As earlier reported, HAL signed an agreement with Seattle-based
SeaMobile Enterprises to provide the service.
Passengers will be able to make and receive calls and use text
messaging as they would on land with their personal cell phone.
Phones and PDAs must be activated for international dialing with the
owner’s home provider, but otherwise no special codes or
software are needed.
International roaming fees will apply and appear on the
passenger’s cell phone bill.
P&O Australia turns back the clock -- again
P&O Cruises Australia has released details of what it says will
be its first round cruise from Sydney to Tahiti in nearly 25 years.
On June 3, 2008, ‘The Pearls of Tahiti’ voyage departs
Sydney for French Polynesia, American Samoa (Pago Pago), Samoa
(Apia), Tonga, Fiji and the Cook Islands. It will be undertaken by
the company’s new resident ship, the 70,000gt Regal Princess
which will be renamed Pacific Dawn when she is repositioned in
Australia in October next year.
Cunard appoints Queen Victoria master
Capt. Paul Wright, a 26-year veteran of Cunard Line, has been
appointed master of Queen Victoria. Under construction in Italy, the
liner is scheduled to enter service in December 2007.
Wright first went to sea in 1965 as a cadet with Shell Tankers and
progressed to passenger ships in 1969 when he joined Canadian
Pacific. His first appointment with Cunard was to Cunard Countess in
1980 and since then he has served on Cunard Princess, Sagafjord and
Cunard Dynasty.
In 1999, Wright was promoted to captain of Queen Elizabeth 2, where
he served until construction began on Queen Mary 2. He oversaw
construction of QM2 in St. Nazaire prior to commission, and in 2004
was appointed master of the largest passenger liner ever built,
rotating with the recently retired Commodore Ronald Warwick.
Wright cites his two most memorable moments at sea as meeting
astronaut Neil Armstrong, who was lecturing on board in the early
1990s, and sailing QM2 into Hamburg on her maiden call when half a
million people lined the shore.
‘I fully expect that sailing Queen Victoria into Southampton for
the first time will give me a third most memorable event,’
Wright said, adding that he thinks the occasion will be equally
memorable for those who turn out to greet the ship.
Wright is a well-known figure to Cunard-philes, and even some
less-frequent passengers, since he's currently one of the masters of
Queen Mary 2. During the last year, the Princess brand has been
benefiting from his experience (as he broadens his own experience
with other vessels) as he has been at the helm of a number of
Princess ships.
Caribbean hoteliers angry about passports
The cruise industry is under fire by some Caribbean hoteliers who
blame the industry for not using its ‘lobbying clout’ to
get the U.S. passport deadline extended for air travel as well as sea travel.
Last Friday, Congress voted to delay the passport deadline for land
and sea borders to as late as June 2009. However, no extension was
made for air travel in the Western Hemisphere, and the U.S. will
require passports for international flights as of this Jan. 8.
NCL Dining Ready for a Change
There's new blood at NCL, and it's not in the butcher shop, but
rather in the shoreside kitchen. The line has hired three new
corporate chefs and charged them with developing "dynamic new
menu concepts" and implementing them onboard the fleet by the
end of November. This follows the recent addition of another
Corporate Chef, Alain Gruber, to make similar changes aboard the NCL
America fleet.
Is That Cricket?
The IOC may not want any part of cruise ships to be used for housing
at the winter games in Vancouver, but Barbados apparently will take
all they can get to help their housing shortage, and they are
planning to use some 30 ships to house visitors during the ICC World
Cup Cricket matches.
When the Offended become Offensive
The message that's coming from Hawaii this week is that it's not the
welcoming place the tourism people would like you to think -
especially if you make a mistake - unless you pay them off in cash.
Last week, Celebrity Cruises unwittingly ran an ad in several trade
publications that some Hawaiians found offensive. When it was pointed
out to the cruise line, they promptly issued an apology and pulled
the ads. That should have been the end of the story, but several
Hawaiian groups are still grabbing media attention with their
manufactured indignation, which seemed more real until they started
asking for cash.
And this just in on the above topic .... The Hawaii Visitors
Bureau and the Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association will provide
cultural training for Celebrity Cruises staff members after trade
advertising featuring a King Kamehameha statue holding a champagne
glass was deemed as belittling Hawaii's culture. Celebrity has
apologized and cancelled the ads.
Barcelona breaks 1m passenger barrier
Barcelona has gone through the one million passenger barrier inside
the first nine months of 2006. Statistics up to end September show a
total of 1,089,000 passengers passing through the port this year, up
14.1% from the first three quarters of 2005.
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