Carnival Cruise Lines will cancel Carnival Destiny's February 13 (5-night) and February 18 (4-night) sailings to accommodate an unscheduled drydock necessary resolve a propulsion problem.
Three other cruises scheduled before the drydock will operate modified itineraries due to the necessarily slower cruising speed due to the propulsion problem. The January 30 (5-night) sailing will now call at Cozumel and Costa Maya instead of Ocho Rios and Grand Cayman. The February 4 (4-night) sailing will visit only Cozumel and cancel its Key West Call. The February 8 (5-night) sailing will replace the scheduled call at Grand Turk with a stop at Freeport, along with visits to Nassau and Half Moon Cay.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Coral Princess to the Rescue
Updated 9:50pm
A reader aboard Coral Princess tells us that after they left Cartagena this afternoon, the captain advised there was a fishing vessel sinking in the area with 18 crew members aboard. Coral Princess along, with three other vessels, headed to the scene, which was about 52 miles NNW of Cartagena, to assist with the rescue.
Princess says that Coral Princess began a search pattern with the three other vessels and Colombian search & rescue aircraft at about 4:45pm LT. The large fishing vessel had actually sunk at 2am Sunday morning. Three of the crew members had been found and rescued. A fishing buoy, some barrels and an empty swamped inflatable boat were also observed. At 6:15pm, the ships were released from the search by the Colombian authorities due to darkness.
Coral Princess has continued on to its next port, Aruba, where it is planning to arrive on schedule Monday. Colombian aircraft will resume the search for the missing crew members at daylight.
Coral Princess is on a 15-night cruise which left Los Angeles on January 6. It is scheduled to end in Ft. Lauderdale on January 21.
A reader aboard Coral Princess tells us that after they left Cartagena this afternoon, the captain advised there was a fishing vessel sinking in the area with 18 crew members aboard. Coral Princess along, with three other vessels, headed to the scene, which was about 52 miles NNW of Cartagena, to assist with the rescue.
Princess says that Coral Princess began a search pattern with the three other vessels and Colombian search & rescue aircraft at about 4:45pm LT. The large fishing vessel had actually sunk at 2am Sunday morning. Three of the crew members had been found and rescued. A fishing buoy, some barrels and an empty swamped inflatable boat were also observed. At 6:15pm, the ships were released from the search by the Colombian authorities due to darkness.
Coral Princess has continued on to its next port, Aruba, where it is planning to arrive on schedule Monday. Colombian aircraft will resume the search for the missing crew members at daylight.
Coral Princess is on a 15-night cruise which left Los Angeles on January 6. It is scheduled to end in Ft. Lauderdale on January 21.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Coast Guard Searching for Missing Royal Caribbean Passenger
Update January 2, 2010 - 7pm
Since Thursday afternoon, the US Coast Guard has been searching an area near the Bahamas for a passenger who went overboard early Thursday from Royal Caribbean's Monarch of the Seas when it was nearing Coco Cay a/k/a Little Stirrup Cay.
The 23-year-old woman was reported missing by her husband, who works aboard the ship, Thursday at 12:15pm. She was last seen about 3:45am. The ship and Coco Cay were searched and numerous announcements were made, but the woman was not located. The US Coast Guard and Bahamian authorities were notified at approximately 2pm.
Upon reviewing the security video, it was found that the woman went overboard from Deck 12 of the 74,000-ton cruise ship at 4:11am. The video shows the woman was wearing a black tank top and white skirt at the time. Deck 12 is the ship's highest deck where the jogging track is located. There are no passenger staterooms on the deck.
Government officials have reviewed the footage and determined that the guest jumped overboard.
Engaged in the initial search were a Coast Guard HU-25 Falcon jet, a Coast Guard HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter and a Coast Guard cutter.
Royal Caribbean’s Guest Care Team is providing support to the woman's husband.
Monarch of the Seas was operating a special 5-night itinerary this week which departed Port Canaveral on Monday (December 28) calling at Nassau and Coco Cay. It is return to Port Canaveral on January 2 as scheduled.
The Coast Guard suspended their search at 4:30pm on Saturday (January 2) without finding the woman or her body.
According to published reports in India (where the couple is from), the woman's family allege she was the victim of ongoing domestic violence, and they believe that is what drove her to end her life.
Since Thursday afternoon, the US Coast Guard has been searching an area near the Bahamas for a passenger who went overboard early Thursday from Royal Caribbean's Monarch of the Seas when it was nearing Coco Cay a/k/a Little Stirrup Cay.
The 23-year-old woman was reported missing by her husband, who works aboard the ship, Thursday at 12:15pm. She was last seen about 3:45am. The ship and Coco Cay were searched and numerous announcements were made, but the woman was not located. The US Coast Guard and Bahamian authorities were notified at approximately 2pm.
Upon reviewing the security video, it was found that the woman went overboard from Deck 12 of the 74,000-ton cruise ship at 4:11am. The video shows the woman was wearing a black tank top and white skirt at the time. Deck 12 is the ship's highest deck where the jogging track is located. There are no passenger staterooms on the deck.
Government officials have reviewed the footage and determined that the guest jumped overboard.
Engaged in the initial search were a Coast Guard HU-25 Falcon jet, a Coast Guard HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter and a Coast Guard cutter.
Royal Caribbean’s Guest Care Team is providing support to the woman's husband.
Monarch of the Seas was operating a special 5-night itinerary this week which departed Port Canaveral on Monday (December 28) calling at Nassau and Coco Cay. It is return to Port Canaveral on January 2 as scheduled.
The Coast Guard suspended their search at 4:30pm on Saturday (January 2) without finding the woman or her body.
According to published reports in India (where the couple is from), the woman's family allege she was the victim of ongoing domestic violence, and they believe that is what drove her to end her life.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Right Place at the Right Time
It's the holidays, and in the days leading up to them, Ellen DeGeneres always gives audience members some pretty good merchandise as gifts, but the members of today's audience had no idea just how good one of their gifts was going to be. After she gave them a video camera and other smaller items together worth several hundred dollars, most were flabbergasted when every member of the audience of more than 300 received a 7-day cruise for two aboard Norwegian Cruise Line. The video is below.
The complete story about why cruise lines participate in such expensive giveaways appeared in the December 17 edition of Cruise News Daily.
The complete story about why cruise lines participate in such expensive giveaways appeared in the December 17 edition of Cruise News Daily.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
The Bottom Line
The first of the capacity reductions in Alaska are set to begin this summer, with further reductions in 2010. Last week, as we reported, Carnival brands Holland America and Princess announced even further reductions for 2011. From the coverage in Alaska, it seems that some people are beginning to understand that tough times are ahead for state's economy, especially that portion of the population which is directly dependent on the tourism industry. Everyone else, however, seems caught up in debating one issue or another. Is the $50 tax on cruise passengers hurting the market? Is the tax really legal? Do the cruise lines really pollute?
Guess what. None of these issues themselves are important to the situation. None of them.
What is important is a very basic business principle that no one in the state seems to remember.
Here it is: Alaska has a product to sell: Alaska. The cruise lines are the customers. If the cruise lines don't want to buy the product - for whatever reason - they can simply take their business elsewhere and buy someone else's product.
In this case, the cruise lines feel the price they are being charged by the merchant is too high, so they are buying less of the product from Alaska and more of it elsewhere. That high cost is a result of several things directly in the control of Alaskans.
They don't want to debate it with the state. They've been expressing their opinion to "the management" for several years, and their "complaints" have not been responded to.
Think of it like a restaurant. If you keep increasing and increasing your prices, well past your competitors' prices, eventually customers are going to begin to come less frequently. If they take the trouble to tell you why they aren't coming as often anymore, you don't argue with them about it.
To stay in business, the restaurateur has to take a hard look at his operation, figure out exactly what the customers don't like, and then change what is necessary to entice them back.
That's what Alaska needs to be doing.
Alaska also needs to realize that what they do at this point probably isn't going to bring ships back to the market. Success will need to be seen in terms of just keeping more ships from leaving.
In the last decade, while Alaska has been developing new ways to extract money from the cruise industry, they seem to have been totally unaware that the cruise industry was changing. It's no longer a seller's market for them. Alaska is now in a very competitive market with other ports around the world for cruise ship calls.
The American companies Alaskans are dealing with are no longer selling primarily to Americans. With the expansion of the industry, Americans will soon be the minority of those buying cruises, and cruise lines want to position their ships where those new customers (and generally higher-paying customers) live. Europe is experiencing rapid growth. South America and Australia are exploding, and while the Asian market is in its infancy, that market is vast. As it is, cruise lines don't have enough capacity to move into all the markets they would like to. A couple at a time, the entire Alaskan fleet can easily be absorbed elsewhere.
Alaskans need to stop debating the issues, and do like the restaurateur. They need to figure out what's wrong with their product, and make changes to please their customers - if they want to keep them.
Guess what. None of these issues themselves are important to the situation. None of them.
What is important is a very basic business principle that no one in the state seems to remember.
Here it is: Alaska has a product to sell: Alaska. The cruise lines are the customers. If the cruise lines don't want to buy the product - for whatever reason - they can simply take their business elsewhere and buy someone else's product.
In this case, the cruise lines feel the price they are being charged by the merchant is too high, so they are buying less of the product from Alaska and more of it elsewhere. That high cost is a result of several things directly in the control of Alaskans.
They don't want to debate it with the state. They've been expressing their opinion to "the management" for several years, and their "complaints" have not been responded to.
Think of it like a restaurant. If you keep increasing and increasing your prices, well past your competitors' prices, eventually customers are going to begin to come less frequently. If they take the trouble to tell you why they aren't coming as often anymore, you don't argue with them about it.
To stay in business, the restaurateur has to take a hard look at his operation, figure out exactly what the customers don't like, and then change what is necessary to entice them back.
That's what Alaska needs to be doing.
Alaska also needs to realize that what they do at this point probably isn't going to bring ships back to the market. Success will need to be seen in terms of just keeping more ships from leaving.
In the last decade, while Alaska has been developing new ways to extract money from the cruise industry, they seem to have been totally unaware that the cruise industry was changing. It's no longer a seller's market for them. Alaska is now in a very competitive market with other ports around the world for cruise ship calls.
The American companies Alaskans are dealing with are no longer selling primarily to Americans. With the expansion of the industry, Americans will soon be the minority of those buying cruises, and cruise lines want to position their ships where those new customers (and generally higher-paying customers) live. Europe is experiencing rapid growth. South America and Australia are exploding, and while the Asian market is in its infancy, that market is vast. As it is, cruise lines don't have enough capacity to move into all the markets they would like to. A couple at a time, the entire Alaskan fleet can easily be absorbed elsewhere.
Alaskans need to stop debating the issues, and do like the restaurateur. They need to figure out what's wrong with their product, and make changes to please their customers - if they want to keep them.
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