Yesterday cruise passengers at Port Everglades waited for up to four hours in long lines to be processed by customs and border protection officials.
Due to budget cuts caused by the federal budget sequester, there were only three U.S. Customs Border Protection Officers working.
There were also long lines of passengers waiting to board
Last night NBC Rock Center with Brian Williams aired a special on Carnival CEO Micky Arison who has a net worth reportedly of around $5,700,000,000.
One of the secrets to Arison’s wealth is that his cruise line, Carnival, according to NBC News, paid around 0.6% in taxes at the federal, state, local and international levels
USA TODAY has an interesting article today entitled "Titans of the Cruise Industry See Net Worth Rise."
Forbes’ annual ranking of the world’s billionaires for 2013 lists Carnival mogul Micky Arison at No. 211 with a net worth of $5.7 billion, up from $4.7 billion a year ago. Arison’s net worth has nearly doubled
At this moment the 210 foot Coast Guard cutter Vigorous is escorting the disabled Carnival Triumph back to the U.S. The Coast Guard performs a remarkable job responding to emergencies such as cruise ship fires and the numerous helicopter medevacs involving ill or injured passengers who need medical treatment back here in the U.S.
But
Barron’s reports that Royal Caribbean Cruises’ top executive recently bailed out on a large block of cruise line stock just before the cruise line’s shares touched a new 52-week intra-day high.
On December 13th Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard Fain sold 143,140 shares of RCL stock for $4,964,095, an average of $34.68 each. Barron’s says
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Today I read an interesting case analysis from the Journal of Business Case Studies (May/June 2012), which studied the business model of the second largest cruise company in the world, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd.
The article is entitled "Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.: Innovation At A Cost?" (click on the pdf link)
The article
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Over the past week, CNN has aired a number of special programs about the cruise industry, revealing a number of things that the industry would prefer you not know.
The segment below focuses on the cruise lines’ efforts to avoid U.S taxes,
By registering their cruise ships in foreign countries, cruise lines avoid most U.S.
Carnival held its annual meeting this morning at a hotel on Miami Beach. But today was different from the usually dull, self-serving pontificating by cruise line executives when a group demanding that Carnival pay its fair share of taxes appeared on the scene.
An organization called "1Miami" challenged Carnival and its CEO Micky
This week the United States Coast Guard rescued two cruise passengers – one ill young man from the NCL Gem cruise ship sailing off the coast of North Carolina and a second young woman from the Explorer cruise ship who was suffering from an appendicitis attack near Key West Florida.
When we report on these type of rescues
An interesting editorial appears today in the Jamaica Gleaner about a proposal to increase the head tax on visitors who arrive via air to Jamaica from $10 to $20. The writer characterizes this proposed increase as unfair considering the head tax on cruise passengers is only $2 per person. These taxes help pay the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) which funds projects