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Tuesday, February 5
From the clean as a fischio department: The US CDC sprang their semi-annual
surprise inspection on Costa Atlantica last Sunday, and it shouldn't be any surprise, but
the ship rated a perfect score.
Friday, February 4
From the where's the beef department: Texans love their beef. Princess
Cruises tells us on Grand Princess, which departs from Galveston, they find
about 15% more beef and steaks are consumed during a cruise than on other
Grand-class ships sailing from other ports.
Thursday, February 3
From the ka-ching department: Everyone sees the casino on the ship, but few
realize what a business unto itself it is. There are professionals running the
casinos at each line who are just as business-savvy as their counterparts at
land-based casinos. One part of running a profitable casino it to keep it fresh
for players, so most casinos are constantly changing newer slot machines for
older ones, to provide the newest games for players. Last year on the Royal Caribbean and Celebrity brands RCCL
changed more than 500 machines for newer ones, and this year they plan to swap
out 1,000.
Wednesday, February 2
From the rumor control department: According officials we talked with at
Carnival, there is no truth to a rumor circulating on the bulletin boards that
their series of summer European cruises aboard Carnival Liberty are grossly
oversold. The rumor, which attributes the story to a Carnival sales manager,
says that Carnival got into the situation in the same way as they did in
Baltimore last summer, because they just aren't receiving anywhere near the
normal number of cancellations. The rumor then goes on to say people can expect
to get bumped from the sailings, as Carnival had to do last year in Baltimore,
which created so many adverse stories in the media. Carnival told CND that there
just is no truth to the story. Space is selling well, with space getting
tightest late in the season (September and October). The only sailing which is
sold out, is the 16-day transatlantic crossing, but they said it's in a position
that some space could well open on that if there are cancellations. Indeed, a
check of availability showed many categories available on most all of the
12-night sailings until you get to September and then space is limited. Like
Carnival told us, only the transatlantic crossing was closed. One executive
theorized that perhaps the rumor was born out of some restrictions they placed
on reservations for the European program to be sure the cabins were actually
being sold and not just held on speculation to be canceled when final payments
are due. To limit that they are tightening up on group space and deposits and
restricting name changes. Carnival has no intention of letting another
widespread oversale situation occur.
Friday, January 28
From the big donation department: Carnival Corporation wrote out checks today
totaling $3.2 million for tsunami relief. $800,000 of that came from
fundraising efforts within their twelve brands, and the balance, $2.4 million,
was a donation from the company. The corporate donation was broken down as $1
million to the American Red Cross International Relief fund, $1 million to the
US fund for UNICEF and $400,000 for the Save The Children Asia
Earthquake/Tsunami Relief Fund. The remaining $800,000 from the individual
brands' fundraising efforts both from appeals on the ships and shoreside events
was earmarked for specific charities by the individual brands. Those included
the American Red Cross International Relief Fund, the International Red Cross,
the Indonesian Red Cross, the Save The Children Asia Earthquake/Tsunami Relief
Fund and Doctors Without Borders. Several of the Carnival brands' websites also
have links on them so visitors can donate directly to relief organizations. Even
though Carnival Corp is the largest cruise company in the world, $3.2 million is
still a lot of money no matter how you look at it.
Thursday, January 27
From it is it real or is it Memorex department: The US Conference of Catholic
Bishops has started a new program to certify that priests hired by cruise lines
are indeed priests in good standing with the Roman Catholic church. The
organization has been receiving complaints from passengers who discovered that
the priests ministering to them on some cruise ships are not really qualified.
The confusion is that some former priests (such as those who have resigned their
duties to marry) present themselves to the cruise lines as Catholic priests, and
it both hasn't occurred to the cruise line to check them out nor has there been
any mechanism for the line to really check. Since the church doesn't sanction
the "bogus" priests to perform acts, the passengers haven't really
been to mass, and that's really upsetting some passengers after they take time
out of their cruise activities. The USCCB has now set
up a database of approved priests in good standing, and Celebrity and Holland America are the
first two cruise lines to sign on to use it in hiring priests.
Wednesday, January 26
From the you're not alone department: The norovirus that you hear about sickening people on cruise
ships, is actually the second most common illness in the country (surpassed only
by the common cold), estimated to strike about 23 million people each year. There
are two reasons you hear so much about it in connection with cruises. One is
that on land it's more commonly referred to as stomach flu rather than
norovirus. The other is that on
cruise ships, "they are required to report every incidence of
gastrointestinal illness," said Dave Forney, the chief of the Vessel
Sanitation Program at the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC). "Nowhere
else in the public health system of the United States is norovirus a reportable
illness," Forney continued. It happens just as often (actually more often) on shore in
schools, hospitals, day care facilities, nursing homes, and any other place
where there are people.
Wednesday, January 19
From the getting back to normal department: Sri Lanka had its first cruise
ship call since the December 26 tsunami disaster, when the German
cruise ship Delphin Renaissance made its scheduled call at Colombo
yesterday. The return of cruise ships is, of course, important to the local
economy. During the day-long and overnight stop, several shore excursions were
offered including visits to several Sri Lankan cities, but one of the most
popular was a visit to an elephant orphanage. The 700-passenger Delphin Renaissance
is the former Renaissance R7.
Tuesday, January 18
From the bad timing department: Whitsunday Cruises' (the Australian islands
just off the Great Barrier Reef) just received a new excursion boat. Prior to
taking delivery, they had all their new promotional material printed up and
ready to go. Just before delivery, they realized they had to scrap all the
material and rename the ship. The name they had chosen several months ago was
Tsunami. A spokesman for the company said that even though it is causing a
financial loss, there's no question in their minds that the name change is
absolutely the right thing to do.
Monday, January 17
From the old shell game department: In the summer, Holland America
operates a fleet of deluxe rail cars that carry cruisetour passengers between
Anchorage, Denali and Fairbanks. In the winter, those cars usually sit unused on
a siding in Anchorage. The city recently changed the personal property tax
formula to be more complex and will now bill Holland America more for the time
those when those rail cars are sitting unused than when they are actually in
use. It was going to be another one of those ways the Alaskan governments could
maximize the revenue they receive from the cruise lines. But not so fast. One
thing they forgot, is that cruise lines are mobile businesses, and Holland
America's solution was to hitch up the rail cars to a locomotive and tow them to
a siding 50 miles away in another friendlier town that was happy to have a lower
tax rate, leaving Anchorage with less money now than they had before under the
old formula. Perhaps the folks in Alaska should take heed with when
contemplating new taxes for cruise lines. Cruise ships, with all their
passengers, like rail cars, can move out of town just as easily when prices get
too high.
Thursday, January 13
From the clean as a whistle department: Carnival Glory achieved a perfect
score on its most recent US Public Health inspection. The inspections are
conducted semi-annually on a surprise basis. Those are becoming more common
since ships are being built specifically to make them easier to maintain USPH
standards, but there's another part to Carnival Glory's perfect score. This is
the second time in the last three inspections that Carnival Glory has achieved
that coveted 100%. Even the time it didn't quite make perfect, it still scored a
97. Fleetwide, over the past year, the Carnival fleet has averaged a score of
93.
Monday, January 10
From the face is familiar but the uniform is different department:
Popular NCL hotel director James Deering has changed his venue and
yesterday signed onto Holland America's Oosterdam as the hotel director.
Deering has had a long career in the cruise industry, becoming practically
became an institution as the hotel manager on Norwegian Star, bringing
that ship out for NCL and remaining with it on a regular basis until he
left it to help in the recruiting and training process for the sister
line, NCL America. He also served as hotel director on Pride of Aloha for
this ship's initial voyages. Deering said he doesn't know if Oosterdam
will be his permanent assignment, or if he'll shortly transfer to another
ship, but he is anxious to resume his now-famous wine-tasting seminars
again (in which he could never "fully participate" due to
company regulations on NCL).
Friday, January 7
From the putting down roots department: In a sign they plan to be
operating in North America for the long haul, MSC Cruises has moved into
their permanent headquarters building in Ft. Lauderdale. The
13,000-square-foot facility is next door to the temporary office they
rented last summer as they were making plans for this winter's push into
the Caribbean. The new offices house the 50-person staff of the executive
offices, the sales and marketing departments, back office operations and
reservations. The space also will accommodate their expected growth. The
line also maintains their original reservation office in New Jersey. In
another sign they plan to be in Florida long-term, the freight division
transferred their Florida operation from the Port of Miami to Port
Everglades (at Ft. Lauderdale), making MSC the largest tenant at Port
Everglades. This gives the cruise line more priority in the port's eyes
than if they operated a stand-alone seasonal cruise operation at the port, giving
them much more clout than cruise cruise lines which have sailed from the
port for many years.
Thursday, January 6
From the bad timing department: Word has it that easyCruise, the new
unbundled no-frills entry into the cruise industry, will not start their
cruise operation with a series of cruises in southeast Asia as previously
announced. Since they were planning a startup in March, in view of the
tsunami catastrophe, it's probably a wise decision. Instead, the word is
that they are now planning to move the ship right to the Mediterranean for
a March or April launch, although the itinerary and homeport is still
being finalized.
Wednesday, January 5
From the this will be the final answer department: The US Supreme
Court has set the date of February 28 to hear the case against NCL
involving the Americans with Disabilities Act. At issue is whether US laws
can be imposed upon cruise lines operating foreign-flagged ships from US
ports. In this case, two lower courts have issued conflicting rulings.
This case should then serve as a precedent for other ADA cases against
other lines. In a larger sense, this ruling could also serve as a
precedent for all other litigation against cruise lines with ships
registered in other countries. Everyone in the industry is watching this
one.
Tuesday, January 4
From the creeping delay department: Star Cruises is continuing their
amended itineraries with SuperStar Virgo and SuperStar Gemini. Both ship's
normal itineraries include stops at the Phuket (Thailand) which was so
affected by the Asian tsunami catastrophe. On the bright side, the line
says passenger comments have been very positive about the alternate ports
of Langkawi and Penang, and they are not feeling pressure on the part of
customers to rush their return to the popular port of Phuket. They have
also been very interested in so many unsolicited comments from passengers
(apparently on their comment cards) about the feeling of safety on the
ship and the thoroughness of the safety drills.
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