THE RIGHT PRICE…………..$419
December 5, 2010:
Miami (return) to
Western Caribbean 7 days
Ship: Carnival Valor
Contact: carnival.com
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Somebody’s standing behind one of us (that would be Bob) when he steps on the scales.
A Holland America spokesman, John Primeau, says that the typical cruise passenger gains one pound a day on cruises of 7 to 10 days. Actually, he doesn’t take credit for this gem (?) of wisdom; he attributes it to a “long-time adage of cruise professionals.”
The theory is that passengers consume more food on the early days of a cruise and then, perhaps feeling guilty (that would be Bob) either slow down or start walking laps on the promenade deck. The bad news is that when the cruise is over, the waistline has still expanded.
Sorry, Bob.
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File this under “everything old is new again.”
Carnival is going to start sailing the Panama Canal. Celebrity is sending the Century to Australia.
In Carnival’s case, even though the cruise line has been this way before, the Panama Canal is a matter of convenience. The Inspiration and the Paradise (left) are swapping home ports; the former going to Long Beach, the latter to Tampa. To get them to their new locations, Carnival is running one-way, one-time, 14-day Canal cruises.
It happens at the end of 2011 and prices start at $949 per person.
Celebrity hasn’t been in Australia for two years, pulling out because the market wasn’t growing fast enough, or so Celebrity thought. Apparently now that it is, the Century will leave next fall for the winter (Australian summer) season. This could also be somewhat attributable to passengers’ queries…at an itineraries session we attended on the Millennium, an inordinate number of passengers wanted to know when Celebrity was returning Down Under.
It seems Celebrity was listening.
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Imitation is the greatest form of flattery, or should that be the greatest form of competition? When one business comes up with a promotion, if it’s a good one a competitor usually follows suit, and the cruise business is just like any other in that regard.
Case in point: Luxury cruise line Regent announced earlier this year that all its cruises in 2011 would include free flights. Last week (and you can say it took a while), Crystal announced it was making the same offer on all its 2011 cruises, except for the world cruises.
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Attention, all humpback whales, arguably the most intelligent of all mammals: Avoid the Sapphire Princess.
Twice in the last year, the Princess cruise ship has unknowingly collided with one of the mammals, and both times the dead whale was found impaled on the bow. The latest accident caused a three-hour delay on a cruise from Seattle to Alaska while the carcass was removed by a tugboat. Last year’s collision also occurred during an Alaska run — the whale was lodged in the bow of the ship when it arrived in Vancouver, B.C.
No results have been announced from the ensuing investigation, conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The cruise line’s policy is to take “strict whale avoidance procedures” when in the vicinity of marine life. No crew members were aware of the impact.
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That’s it, we’re done.