mercedes

Alaska cruise ship traffic is expected to drop by 14% in 2010, adding to the woes of tourism leaders who say that visits to the Frontier State already plunged this year due to the crippled economy. Determining the cause of the visitor downturn, and how to fix it, was on the agenda of a tourism summit held in Anchorage yesterday. It was the second such summit in the Alaska in less than a month to address the threat to tourism, the state’s third largest employer. At both meetings, taxes and regulations slapped on cruise ships in a citizen-approved ballot initiative two years ago were blamed for the reduction in cruise ship traffic. The Alaska Travel Industry Association said that 140,000 fewer cruise passengers would visit Alaska next year as a result of capacity cuts by big-ship lines like Princess, Holland America, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian Cruise Line. Even small-ship, Alaska-centric Cruise West cut capacity this year and next, and will even lay up two ships rather than keep them on Alaska itineraries in 2010. Proponents of the cruise ship tax say that the cruise capacity reduction is due to the overall economic downturn, not the taxes and regulations. No matter the reason, the cruise ships had to discount heavily in Alaska this year. With movable assets, the cruise lines are looking elsewhere.

From their website - "Guests are prohibited from bringing alcoholic beverages onboard. However, guests 21 years of age and older only may bring one bottle (750ml) of wine or champagne, per person, on board only during embarkation at the beginning of the cruise. A $10 corkage fee per bottle will be charged should you wish to consume this wine in the main dining room; $14 corkage fee per bottle in the steakhouse. Guests may bring a small quantity of non-alcoholic beverages. All prohibited alcohol, additional quantities of wine/champagne or excessive quantities of non-alcoholic beverages will be confiscated and discarded without compensation".

MSC Cruises will use thermal imaging cameras to detect whether its passengers might be infected with H1N1 swine flu. Since the worldwide outbreak of the flu last spring, most cruise lines use enhanced influenza screening procedures at embarkation such as questionnaires and secondary screening for passengers with flu-like symptoms. MSC is going a step further, explaining that one of the principal indicators of influenza is body temperature. The Italian line said it will have sophisticated thermal imaging cameras on every one of its 11 ships, allowing its medical staff to monitor the temperature of every embarking passenger. "An infrared camera is a very effective yet non-intrusive tool for detecting people infected with a viral disease even at a very early stage," MSC cruises spokeswoman Cheryl Fenske said in an email. Fenske said that the within seconds, the cameras produces infrared images, or heat pictures, of a person’s body which detects whether that person's temperature exceeds a certain threshold. MSC has not given up on old-fashioned detection methods either. The line has also upgraded the hand sanitizers in most public areas of its ships and introduced a new “How to Stay Safe” video on each ship’s in-cabin TV network.

Chris, thanks for the tip. I have used justairports.com and they were also excellent.

Bill, the first Atlantic Hurricane of the 2009 season, reached Category 4 strength today, and two cruise lines have so far modified their itineraries to keep their ships out of harm's way. The National Hurricane Center issued a hurricane advisory for the storm, saying it could strengthen over the next 24 hours. Bill currently has wind speeds of 135 miles per hour as it churns through the Atlantic 460 miles east of the Leeward Islands. The Carnival Glory, on a seven-day cruise from Port Canaveral that left on Aug. 15, will stay at sea today instead of calling on St. Maarten, will visit Grand Turk tomorrow instead of spending the day at sea, and will return to Port Canaveral on Saturday as planned. Norwegian Cruise Line said that Norwegian Dawn and the Norwegian Majesty would most likely leave Bermuda early tomorrow, but that so far no changes have been made to this weekend’s Bermuda cruises. The NHC said that the storm would cause large swells in the islands of the Northeast Caribbean during the next day or two, and would then affect Bermuda and parts of the east coast of the United States as it heads north on Friday and Saturday.

eugereray, have a safe and enjoyable cruise.

TVLady2, have a safe and enjoyable cruise.

Linda, have a safe and enjoyable cruise.