Last week Carnival announced its new brand "fathom" as the first "first voluntourism cruise line." It said that the new cruise line will focus on the "environment" and "sustainability," which seem like ridiculous propositions to me given Carnival’s deplorable record of polluting the air and water. Plus the new brand is going to operate the
The Associated Press (AP) reports that jihadi fighters are increasingly buying tickets on cruise ships to join extremists in battle zones in Syria and Iraq.
The AP states that jihadists are trying to bypass travel restrictions in neighboring Turkey.
According to the AP, Turkey says that it has been deporting hundreds of terrorists caught in airports and
Carnival Cruise Lines announced today that smoking will be prohibited on stateroom balconies effective October 9, 2014.
Carnival Cruise Line spokesperson Vance Gulliksen said that the new policy is in response to comments by the majority of its customers.
It’s about time.
In 2007, our client Lynnette Hudson, testified before Congress after her father died
The Gazzetta del Sud newspaper reports that government officials in Rome, Italy ordered a halt to large cruise ships passing through the Venice lagoon, effective November 2014. The outright ban on cruise ships applies to those ships over 96,000 tons. (The Costa Concordia is 114,500 tons).
The legislation comes after years of debate and highly charged
Today the Wall Street Journal published an article about the cruise industry’s efforts to overcome damage to its reputation while battling off criticism by a consumer group and efforts by Congress to regulate the industry.
The WSJ points out that the cruise lines have a lot to be concerned with, including "stranded vessels, fires, people
The Florida Today newspaper published two articles today about the issue of sexual assault of passengers and whether cruise lines conduct background checks of their cruise ship employees.
The issue of background checks is a rather interesting topic. But it’s an issue the cruise lines hate to talk about.
Six weeks ago, I attended
The New York Times Travel Section published an article today about the topic of cruise ship "mishaps" such as collisions, fires, evacuations, groundings, and sinkings.
The problem is that there is no centralized agency collecting data about such incidents. Plus the cruise line industry is notoriously secretive about events that are inconsistent with the notion
Governor Parnell and the pro-cruise pollution legislators in Alaska have some new talking points in their efforts to weaken the cruise line waste water restrictions. They say that its not the cruise sewage that will harm the state’s image but their opponents’ "hype" that easing the standards will result in "dirty water and terrible discharges."
While some cruise ships have elected to hunker down in port and ride out Hurricane Sandy, other ships such as the Royal Caribbean Explorer of the Seas and Carnival’s Miracle are out at sea trying to skirt the high seas and high winds. ABC News reports:
The UK’s Mail Online newspaper has some interesting photographs today regarding the ongoing protests by environmental groups in Italy who are trying to protect the beautiful city of Venice from the effects of water pollution, air emissions and erosion of historical building by traffic from huge cruise ships.
Earlier this week we addressed this issue
Yesterday, Australia’s 60 Minutes aired a special program investigating crimes on cruise ships.
The program mentioned the disappearance of Rebecca Coriam (from the Disney Wonder) and Merrian Carver (from the Celebrity Mercury), the outrageous circumstances surrounding the death of Dianne Brimble on a P & O cruise ship, and the sexual assault of
The U.K.’s Channel 4 broadcast a cruise documentary tonight called "Disaster at Sea: Why Ships Sink."
"Why Ships Sink" examines the issue of passenger safety at sea since the Titanic. A film crew came to Miami last month and interviewed me and others involved in the cruise and maritime industries.
Unfortunately, the documentary
Ever since the Costa Concordia disaster, questions have been raised whether modern day cruise ships are being designed more dangerously by increasing their size to pile more and more passengers aboard.
There is no question that cruise ship are getting bigger and bigger. You need look no further than Royal Caribbean’s Genesis class (Oasis
This weekend our television has alternated between college football games and documentaries about the horror of 9/11.
Where were you on 9/11? Many of the special programs seem to ask.
I was in my office talking to Dad who was with my Mom visiting my sister in Park City, Utah. I was with him on the telephone when the
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While the city of Charleston South Carolina is resisting the expansion of the cruise industry into its city, the southernmost city of the U.S. may be heading in the other direction. Key West appears to be poised to accommodate bigger and more cruise ships, including the new mega ships the Allure and Oasis of the Seas.
The KeyNoter newspaper
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
I have written a couple of articles about the the cruise industry and Cuba lately, U.S. – Cuba Politics: No Cruise Ships In Havana and Royal Caribbean Intercepts Cuban Immigrants. Notwithstanding the U.S. embargo of Cuba for over the past four decades, there is no question that U.S. based cruise ships will stop in Havana as an integral part of their Caribbean
Today Carnival issued a press release which reported profits of $1,100,000,000 for the third quarter ending August 31, 2009. The cruise line collected revenues from passengers of over $4,000,000,000 in the last three months.
This announcement of Carnival’s over-a-billion-dollars-in-profits comes two days after the Carnival dominated "Alaska" Cruise Association filed a lawsuit against Alaska over the $50-a-passenger tax.
Four days ago, the
