St. Maarten

scalise12 · July 6, 2018

Cruise Traffic Up 15 Percent for St. Maarten

: July 06, 2018

The Port of St. Maarten announced that cruise passenger traffic was up 15 percent for the first half of 2018, for the period ended June 30.

733,666 cruise passengers visited the island between January and June on 230 cruise ship calls.

Port officials said they expect a stable off-season and even stronger 2018-2019 cruise season, similar to pre-Hurricane Irma numbers in 2017.

The month of March has the highest number of calls with 55 and 137,375 cruise passengers cruise passengers, followed by April with 39 calls and 128,714 passengers; the months of May (120,907) and June (120,266) saw more than 120,000 cruise passengers for each month calling at the port via 30 and 27 ship calls, respectively.

“Starting in October, destination St. Maarten will see an increase in the number of European cruise lines that will call at the port. This will further add to current forecast numbers for the high season bringing us to the level of cruise calls and passengers before the hurricanes of September 2017. At that point in time cruise sector recovery would have taken a year. We commend the staff of Port St. Maarten for all their hard work, diligence and resilience in helping the port recover," said the port, in a statement.

: June 30, 2018

Princess Cruises announced a Sip and Sail promotion offering free beverages onboard for select cruises on sale between summer 2019 and spring 2020.

Guests booking balcony, mini-suite or suite staterooms will receive a free Premier Beverage Package for two people. Plus, free Unlimited Soda & More Packages for third and fourth guests in the stateroom, the company said.

The Premier Beverage Package includes beer, wine by the glass and cocktails $12 USD and under, all non-alcoholic beverages including bottled water (500ml only), fountain sodas, fresh juices (if available), specialty coffees and teas, Gong Cha items, Frappes at Coffee & Cones, milk shakes (if available) and energy drinks. Additionally, all bottles of wine, one liter bottles of water, canned soda and bottled juices can be purchased at 25% discount from the menu price.

Examples of Sip and Sail cruise deals include:

Alaska cruise — 7 days: $1,749 balcony stateroom; $2,049 mini-suite stateroom
Alaska cruisetour — 11 nights: $2,599 balcony stateroom; $2,899 mini-suite stateroom
Caribbean cruise — 7 days: $1,399 balcony stateroom; $1,699 mini-suite stateroom
Mediterranean cruise — 7 days: $1,699 balcony stateroom; $1,999 mini-suite stateroom
British Isles cruise — 12 days: $2,949 balcony stateroom; $3,449 mini-suite stateroom
Scandinavia & Russia cruise —11 days: $2,649 balcony stateroom; $3,149 mini-suite state

By Jacob Resneck, KTOO - Juneau -

June 22, 2018

The Holland America cruise ship Zaandam docked in Juneau on June 22, 2018. (Photo by Adelyn Baxter/KTOO)

The Centers for Disease Control is reporting an outbreak of norovirus on a Holland America cruise ship in Alaska.

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Some 73 people reported falling ill on the Zaandam which is carrying more than 2,000 passengers and crew.

Juneau’s top attraction is the Mendenhall Glacier. The glacier’s visitor center can receive as many as 6,000 cruise ship visitors in a single day. The U.S. Forest Service monitors reports of outbreaks on cruise ships so it can step up sanitation as a precaution.

“We take it really serious,” Visitor Center Director John Neary said. “Hand washing is just super important for our health, or else we’re not going to survive the season well with a lot of losses of staff time. So it’s a pretty important issue.”

The 781-foot Zaandam was docked in Juneau all day on Friday. It’s scheduled to depart at 10 p.m. and is headed to a number of Alaska ports including Hoonah, Anchorage, Homer, Kodiak and Sitka before it returns to Seattle on July 2.

It’s the sixth reported norovirus outbreak on a cruise ship this year and the second in Alaska, according to the CDC. The 610-foot Silver Shadow reported 36 people fell ill during a May voyage that included Dutch Harbor, Kodiak and Homer.

Norovirus can cause vomiting and diarrhea usually a day or two after exposure. Most people fully recover within a few days.

U.S.

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Holland America cruise in Alaska hit by norovirus

By Jacob Resneck, KTOO - Juneau -

June 22, 2018

The Holland America cruise ship Zaandam docked in Juneau on June 22, 2018. (Photo by Adelyn Baxter/KTOO)

The Centers for Disease Control is reporting an outbreak of norovirus on a Holland America cruise ship in Alaska.

Vm

P

Some 73 people reported falling ill on the Zaandam which is carrying more than 2,000 passengers and crew.

Juneau’s top attraction is the Mendenhall Glacier. The glacier’s visitor center can receive as many as 6,000 cruise ship visitors in a single day. The U.S. Forest Service monitors reports of outbreaks on cruise ships so it can step up sanitation as a precaution.

“We take it really serious,” Visitor Center Director John Neary said. “Hand washing is just super important for our health, or else we’re not going to survive the season well with a lot of losses of staff time. So it’s a pretty important issue.”

The 781-foot Zaandam was docked in Juneau all day on Friday. It’s scheduled to depart at 10 p.m. and is headed to a number of Alaska ports including Hoonah, Anchorage, Homer, Kodiak and Sitka before it returns to Seattle on July 2.

It’s the sixth reported norovirus outbreak on a cruise ship this year and the second in Alaska, according to the CDC. The 610-foot Silver Shadow reported 36 people fell ill during a May voyage that included Dutch Harbor, Kodiak and Homer.

Norovirus can cause vomiting and diarrhea usually a day or two after exposure. Most people fully recover within a few days.

U.S.

Buzz Aldrin Fights Family For Control of His Space Legacy

The former astronaut’s children say their father is in mental decline and want a court to appoint them his guardians; he is sui

At issue are the operations of his private company, Buzz Aldrin Enterprises, and his nonprofit ShareSpace Foundation, overseen by his son and daughter, Andrew and Janice Aldrin.

Col. Aldrin said in an interview he was shocked last month when his two children asked a Florida state court to appoint them his co-guardians because he is “in cognitive decline” and experiencing paranoia and confusion. That would give them power to make decisions on his behalf, and give them control of his finances and business dealings.

Buzz Aldrin photographed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2016. PHOTO: MIKE MARSLAND/WIREIMAGE

They also requested that their father undergo a competency examination by three mental health specialists appointed by the court because, they say, he is associating with new people who appear to be manipulating him, according to documents they filed with the court. Col. Aldrin denies that.

He is scheduled to undergo the examination this Tuesday and Wednesday, he and his lawyers say.

In an interview last week, Col. Aldrin said: “Nobody is going to come close to thinking I should be under a guardianship.”

Col. Aldrin responded this month with a lawsuit, accusing Andrew Aldrin and his business manager of recent years, Christina Korp, of elder exploitation, unjust enrichment and of converting his property for themselves. The suit also accused his daughter Janice of conspiracy and breach of fiduciary duty.

In a statement through lawyers, Andrew Aldrin, 60 years old, and Janice Aldrin, 51, said they are “deeply disappointed and saddened by the unjustified lawsuit that has been brought against us individually and against the Foundation that we have built together as a family to carry on Dad’s legacy for generations to come. We love and respect our father very much and remain hopeful that we can rise above this situation and recover the strong relationship that built this foundation in the first place.”

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Buzz Aldrin sets a record for being outside a vehicle in space, staying outside his spacecraft for 5 1/2 hours.

On Apollo 11 mission with Neil Armstrong, becomes second man to walk on the moon.

Appointed to National Space Council Advisory Board.

Received U.S. patent for design of permanent space station.

Appointed by President Bush to commission on future of U.S. Aerospace Industry.2002.

Buzz Aldrin ShareSpace Foundation is revamped to spark excitement about space among elementary school children. Col. Aldrin's son, Andrew Aldrin, is vice president. Col. Aldrin’s business manager, Christina Korp, is a director.

Col. Aldrin travels with Ms. Korp to South Pole with small group who had paid for the trip to raise money for his foundation. Col. Aldrin becomes ill and has to be evacuated.

Col. Aldrin’s lawyer sends a cease and desist letter to Ms. Korp demanding that she stop representing that she has authority to promote or manage Buzz Aldrin.

Col. Aldrin’s children, Andrew and Janice, file a petition with probate division of Florida circuit court saying Col. Aldrin “suffers from cognitive decline,” and asks the court appoint them co-guardians.

Col. Aldrin sues his two children and Ms. Korp. He accuses Andrew and Ms. Korp of elder exploitation.

Sources: NASA; Buzz Aldrin; court documents

Ms. Korp, 45, did not respond to an email seeking comment and could not be reached by telephone. In the Aldrin children’s request for a mental examination of their father, they mention Ms. Korp as a person with knowledge of his “cognitive decline.”

It isn’t uncommon for family members to disagree over how aging parents spend their money or handle their affairs, or for some spats to escalate to all-out legal combat. Rarely do such disputes involve a moonwalking American icon.

Col. Aldrin, in his lawsuit, accuses Andrew and Ms. Korp of improperly using his credit cards and bank accounts, and of transferring nearly a half million dollars in the past two years from his savings account to his private company and his foundation for their own purposes.

They have also assumed control of Col. Aldrin’s “space memorabilia, space artifacts, social media accounts and all elements of the Buzz Aldrin brand,” according to the suit, filed in a Florida state court. It also alleges that Andrew Aldrin and Ms. Korp slandered Col. Aldrin by saying he has dementia.

Robert Bauer, a lawyer in Gainesville, Fla., who represents Col. Aldrin there and has talked with Andrew Aldrin, says “What Andy is doing is saying to Buzz, ‘you’re old, you’re not in your right mind anymore because you don’t agree with me’.”

Buzz Aldrin aboard the Lunar Module during the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission, July 1969 in a photo taken by Neil Armstrong. PHOTO: NEIL ARMSTRONG/SPACE FRONTIERS/GETTY IMAGES

In April, Col. Aldrin voluntarily submitted to a mental evaluation by Dr. James Spar, a professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral sciences at UCLA Medical School. Dr. Spar concluded that Col. Aldrin is “cognitively intact and retains all forms of decisional capacity,” according to the report, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Col. Aldrin, who grew up in Montclair, N.J., graduated third in his class at West Point and earned a PhD in astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. But he has never paid much attention to money matters, said his longtime lawyer and friend Robert Tourtelot.

“Buzz is a genius, he’s the smartest guy I ever met,” Mr. Tourtelot said. “But Buzz has never been street smart.”

His relationship with his kids has been a rocky ride, according to Mr. Tourtelot. There have been periodic estrangements, Mr. Tourtelot said. Col. Aldrin was rarely home when they were young. His eldest son, James Michael, is not involved in the legal dispute between his father and siblings.

Col. Aldrin said he has tried unsuccessfully to bring all the children together in recent years. “I intend to disengage as a repairman of family ruptures,” he said.

Janice Aldrin, 11, and her brothers, Andrew, 10, and James Michael 13, give a thumbs up after the 1969 launch of Apollo 11 spaceflight carrying their father. PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS

He divorced his children’s mother, Joan, in 1974, remarried and divorced two more times after that. Mr. Aldrin has spoken publicly about his bouts with depression and alcoholism after he returned from the moon. He said he’s been sober for nearly 40 years.

It was after his last divorce in 2013 that Ms. Korp gradually took over the business, according to Col. Aldrin and Mr Tourtelot. Hired as an executive secretary at the Aldrin operation around 2007, she is a director of the ShareSpace Foundation with Janice Aldrin. Andrew Aldrin is president.

An aspiring singer and songwriter, Ms. Korp had worked for radio personality John Tesh more than a decade ago, her LinkedIn profile says. In 2005, court records show, she filed for bankruptcy owing $22,500.

After working for Buzz Aldrin Enterprises, she set up Christina Korp Management in 2016 “to manage media and entertainment projects and interesting world changing personalities,” according to her LinkedIn page. “My motto is: I bring astronauts back down to Earth.”

In 2015, the Aldrin operation was newly incorporated with a board consisting of Col. Aldrin, Andrew Aldrin and Janice Aldrin. After a share transaction, Col. Aldrin lost control of the company, and had just one vote out of three, according to Mr. Tourtelot who has examined the transaction.

Buzz Aldrin stands beside an American flag at Tranquility Base on the surface of the moon during the Apollo 11 mission. PHOTO: NASA/CORBIS/GETTY IMAGES

That year, the Florida Institute of Technology launched the Buzz Aldrin Space Institute. Col. Aldrin joined the university faculty as research professor of aeronautics and served as the institute’s senior faculty adviser.

Andrew wasn’t working at the time, Col. Aldrin said, and he asked him to assume the position of a graduate assistant the university had offered him.

In the interview, Col. Aldrin said his son “began to broadly interpret that and soon he became the director of the Institute.” Meanwhile,Ms. Korp continued to oversee Buzz Aldrin Enterprises, planning annual fundraising galas for ShareSpace and managing the former astronaut’s Twitter and other social-media accounts, according to Col. Aldrin and Mr. Tourtelot.

The Florida Institute did not immediately return an email seeking comment.

She fired the agency sometime after 2013 that had been booking Mr. Aldrin’s speaking engagements and began making those arrangements herself, Mr. Tourtelot said. She received a 5% commission on any deals, he said, a set-up Col. Aldrin didn’t know about or authorize.

By 2016, Col. Aldrin said he increasingly grew frustrated that his foundation wasn’t moving in the direction he wanted. While it focused on educating elementary-school children about Mars through maps, he wanted to work more urgently on getting a permanent human settlement on the planet.

He said he also was booked for events he didn’t want to attend and encouraged to pursue endorsement deals he didn’t favor.

For instance, he “never quite saw why I should get involved with Faberge eggs and French perfume,” Col. Aldrin said. He rejected the suggestions, he said.

Annual reports indicate that his foundation hasn’t granted scholarships. Revenues are generated by annual galas and the sale of Mars maps and T-shirts, the reports shows; some, designed by Ms. Korp, say “Get Your Ass to Mars.” In 2016, the most recent figures available, those sales generated $59,101.

Last year, Mr. Tourtelot said, Col. Aldrin expressed concerns that he didn’t know how much money he had.

In September, on his client’s behalf, Mr. Tourtelot demanded seven years of financial records of Buzz Aldrin Enterprises and the ShareSpace Foundation. After months of back and forth, he said he recently received documents from 2017.

They show Buzz Aldrin Enterprises paid the former astronaut a salary of $36,000 in 2017 and reimbursed him for expenses, according to Mr. Tourtelot and documents reviewed by the Journal. Andrew Aldrin and Ms. Korp, meanwhile, each received salaries of $153,000 from the company as well as reimbursements for expenses such as first-class air travel, according to Mr. Tourtelot and documents reviewed by the Journal.

Over the years, Mr. Tourtelot said, Ms. Korp has exerted control over Col. Aldrin.

At a birthday party for him at a Los Angeles restaurant a few years ago, Mr. Aldrin was speaking to the roughly 200 guests about his childhood, telling stories many had never heard. Mr. Tourtelot, who was there, said Ms. Korp strode to Mr. Aldrin and took the microphone away from him. “That’s enough, Buzz,” she said, according to Mr. Tourtelot.

In October 2016, Col. Aldrin set up a new revocable trust with Andrew as trustee. In it, Andrew and Janice Aldrin are set to receive more than James Michael, their sibling. The trust, which was reviewed by the Journal, stipulates that no changes can be made to its terms without Andrew’s written permission.

The rift in the Aldrin family deepened later that year, after a trip to the South Pole with Col. Aldrin to generate revenues for the foundation. Several people paid to join him on the trip, which he said he was reluctant to take.

It required a long walk at over 9,000 feet above sea level from where the airplane landed near the Pole. Col. Aldrin tired and collapsed; medics said he appeared to have high-altitude pulmonary edema and had to be evacuated. He was flown to a New Zealand hospital to recover.

After that, Col Aldrin said, Andrew and Janice started limiting his activities. They have also told him he can no longer scuba dive, his favorite hobby, and have taken away his passport.

Recently, when Col. Aldrin fired Ms. Korp from his company, he said Andrew told him he did not have the authority to do so because the board had given Janice and Andrew control. Ms. Korp remains at the foundation.

—Jim Oberman contributed to this article.

Write to Gretchen Morgenson at Gretchen.Morgenson@wsj.com

Corrections & Amplifications
Buzz Aldrin became the second man to walk on the moon in July 1969. The timeline in an earlier version of this article incorrectly said it was January 1969. (June 25, 2018)

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uzz Aldrin Fights Family For Control of His Space Legacy

The former astronaut’s children say their father is in mental decline and want a court to appoint them his guardians; he is suing for ‘elder exploitation’

Edward ‘Buzz’ Aldrin, center, is shown with his family in 1970. From left to right are son Andrew, Edwin Aldrin Sr., Buzz, former wife Joan, daughter Janice and son James Michael. ASSOCIATED PRESS

By

Gretchen Morgenson

Updated June 25, 2018 12:32 a.m. ET

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Buzz Aldrin has walked on the moon and received the Distinguished Flying Cross in the Korean War and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. At 88, the former astronaut has visited the White House to discuss space exploration, and envisions humans living on Mars.

His legacy in space is secure. On earth it’s another matter.

Col. Aldrin is grounded in a legal fight with two of his adult children and a former business manager, who he says are trying to grab his legacy and money.