Travel Tid Bits
Bits and Pieces - Today’s blog is a medley of travel tidbits. No overriding theme, no groundbreaking story, it is a compilation of a few travel topics I thought you might find useful.
THE PANAMA CANAL is one week into its $5 billion expansion. Ground was broken Sept. 3 on the massive project, which is expected to double the waterway's capacity by 2014. This is the first expansion of the almost 100-year-old, 51-mile canal: The planned work would build one new lane of traffic across the canal by constructing a new set of locks, which would enable longer and wider ships to pass through.
CRUISE LINES TIGHTEN SMOKING RULES. "The non-smokers are thrilled, (but) the smokers are very unhappy," says Mark Conroy, president of Regent Seven Seas Cruises, which is planning to tighten its on board smoking rules in December. Regent is just one of several lines changing the smoking rules in the next few months — and facing the wrath of both smokers and non-smokers (some of whom say the lines aren't going far enough). Just weeks after Regent's announcement, Royal Caribbean said it would snuff out smoking in cabins (though not on balconies) and all but one lounge on each ship by January.
"We are looking at further restrictions," says Shawn Magnuson of Crystal Cruises, which already prohibits smoking in dining rooms and show lounges. "But they probably won't be implemented until 2008."
The flurry of rules comes less than a year after British investigators concluded that a smoldering cigarette was the likely cause of a ship fire last year on the 2,600-passenger Star Princess that killed one passenger and destroyed 79 cabins. Even before the report, several lines had made changes. On the day of the fire, Oceania Cruises, the only major line with a smoking ban in cabins at the time, announced it was adding a zero-tolerance policy. (Passengers caught smoking in cabins are now kicked off.) And two months after the fire, Disney banned smoking in cabins.
"Improperly disposed-of cigarettes are a fire hazard," Conroy says. But that's not the only reason for the changes, he says. Like smoke-free hotels and restaurants, cruise lines also are responding to customers.
U.S. State Dept. Returns to Standard Passport Processing - The U.S. State Department said on Friday that it has restored passport service to the standard six to eight week processing time for routine passport applications, and no more than three weeks for expedited service. To date, the department said it has issued over 16 million passports in fiscal year 2007, which ends on Sept. 30, compared to 12.1 million issued in fiscal year 2006. Throughout the summer, it said its Washington staff and 18 passport agencies have worked "tirelessly" to eliminate the delays in processing that had developed earlier in the year. The department said it plans to expand passport facilities and continue to hire more passport specialists in order to increase production capacity and meet rising passport demand expected in coming years, as passport requirements are extended to land and sea borders. By January 2008, it expects to have hired hundreds of new employees, and production capacity at the National Passport Center in New Hampshire. Longer-term expansion plans include new passport facilities strategically located to enhance customer service around the country. For more information, visit http://www.travel.state.gov/.
Celebrity Cruises is revamping its shipboard dining and will have the new menus and cuisine in place fleetwide by the end of January. Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, Celebrity's vice president of onboard revenue and entertainment, said the new menus will be more contemporary and will have new presentations "to be more in line with what fine restaurants on land are doing." Overseeing the menu redesign is the Celebrity's new vice president of food and beverage, Jacques Van Staden, who joined the line after working with Blau & Associates, a top restaurant consultant in Las Vegas. Blau is also consulting with Celebrity on the new menus. "We want to take our cuisine further to define Celebrity in a new way," Lutoff-Perlo said. The cuisine will be revamped in all restaurants on all seven ships except for the specialty restaurants, she said.
Looking further down the horizon, Celebrity's second ship in its Solstice class, the Celebrity Equinox, entered life last week in a German shipyard. Royal Caribbean Cruises CEO Richard Fain started the plasma torch that launched the production of the ship's first steel plate at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany. The 122,000-ton vessel is slated to enter service in 2009. Meyer Werft will build four Solstice-class vessels in all; the first ship in the series, the Celebrity Solstice, is under construction and scheduled for delivery in fall 2008.
Princess Cruises is removing one of my favorite ships. The 1,590 passenger capacity Regal Princess is to enter Singapore's Sembawang Shipyard this October for a near month-long refit which will see the vessel transformed into Pacific Dawn for operation by P&O Cruises (Australia) Ltd. When she re-emerges from the Singapore yard at the end of October this year Pacific Dawn will be the Australia's first 'Super Liner' and the most modern cruise ship ever based year-round in the country. I fondly remember inaugurating this ship when I was gleefully employed as their West Florida District Sales Manager. Time slips by quickly - I wonder if they could rename me and send me off to Australia?
If you have topics and concerns you would like to hear about, please let me know.
THE PANAMA CANAL is one week into its $5 billion expansion. Ground was broken Sept. 3 on the massive project, which is expected to double the waterway's capacity by 2014. This is the first expansion of the almost 100-year-old, 51-mile canal: The planned work would build one new lane of traffic across the canal by constructing a new set of locks, which would enable longer and wider ships to pass through.
CRUISE LINES TIGHTEN SMOKING RULES. "The non-smokers are thrilled, (but) the smokers are very unhappy," says Mark Conroy, president of Regent Seven Seas Cruises, which is planning to tighten its on board smoking rules in December. Regent is just one of several lines changing the smoking rules in the next few months — and facing the wrath of both smokers and non-smokers (some of whom say the lines aren't going far enough). Just weeks after Regent's announcement, Royal Caribbean said it would snuff out smoking in cabins (though not on balconies) and all but one lounge on each ship by January.
"We are looking at further restrictions," says Shawn Magnuson of Crystal Cruises, which already prohibits smoking in dining rooms and show lounges. "But they probably won't be implemented until 2008."
The flurry of rules comes less than a year after British investigators concluded that a smoldering cigarette was the likely cause of a ship fire last year on the 2,600-passenger Star Princess that killed one passenger and destroyed 79 cabins. Even before the report, several lines had made changes. On the day of the fire, Oceania Cruises, the only major line with a smoking ban in cabins at the time, announced it was adding a zero-tolerance policy. (Passengers caught smoking in cabins are now kicked off.) And two months after the fire, Disney banned smoking in cabins.
"Improperly disposed-of cigarettes are a fire hazard," Conroy says. But that's not the only reason for the changes, he says. Like smoke-free hotels and restaurants, cruise lines also are responding to customers.
U.S. State Dept. Returns to Standard Passport Processing - The U.S. State Department said on Friday that it has restored passport service to the standard six to eight week processing time for routine passport applications, and no more than three weeks for expedited service. To date, the department said it has issued over 16 million passports in fiscal year 2007, which ends on Sept. 30, compared to 12.1 million issued in fiscal year 2006. Throughout the summer, it said its Washington staff and 18 passport agencies have worked "tirelessly" to eliminate the delays in processing that had developed earlier in the year. The department said it plans to expand passport facilities and continue to hire more passport specialists in order to increase production capacity and meet rising passport demand expected in coming years, as passport requirements are extended to land and sea borders. By January 2008, it expects to have hired hundreds of new employees, and production capacity at the National Passport Center in New Hampshire. Longer-term expansion plans include new passport facilities strategically located to enhance customer service around the country. For more information, visit http://www.travel.state.gov/.
Celebrity Cruises is revamping its shipboard dining and will have the new menus and cuisine in place fleetwide by the end of January. Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, Celebrity's vice president of onboard revenue and entertainment, said the new menus will be more contemporary and will have new presentations "to be more in line with what fine restaurants on land are doing." Overseeing the menu redesign is the Celebrity's new vice president of food and beverage, Jacques Van Staden, who joined the line after working with Blau & Associates, a top restaurant consultant in Las Vegas. Blau is also consulting with Celebrity on the new menus. "We want to take our cuisine further to define Celebrity in a new way," Lutoff-Perlo said. The cuisine will be revamped in all restaurants on all seven ships except for the specialty restaurants, she said.
Looking further down the horizon, Celebrity's second ship in its Solstice class, the Celebrity Equinox, entered life last week in a German shipyard. Royal Caribbean Cruises CEO Richard Fain started the plasma torch that launched the production of the ship's first steel plate at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany. The 122,000-ton vessel is slated to enter service in 2009. Meyer Werft will build four Solstice-class vessels in all; the first ship in the series, the Celebrity Solstice, is under construction and scheduled for delivery in fall 2008.
Princess Cruises is removing one of my favorite ships. The 1,590 passenger capacity Regal Princess is to enter Singapore's Sembawang Shipyard this October for a near month-long refit which will see the vessel transformed into Pacific Dawn for operation by P&O Cruises (Australia) Ltd. When she re-emerges from the Singapore yard at the end of October this year Pacific Dawn will be the Australia's first 'Super Liner' and the most modern cruise ship ever based year-round in the country. I fondly remember inaugurating this ship when I was gleefully employed as their West Florida District Sales Manager. Time slips by quickly - I wonder if they could rename me and send me off to Australia?
If you have topics and concerns you would like to hear about, please let me know.
posted by The Captain at
8:19 AM
1 Comments:
I think the blog is a great idea. I suggest you change the subject line of the email to be more informative so it's not deleted as spam. For example " The Captain's blog for cruisers" or simply "Clearwater Cruise blog".
Thanks
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home