Cruise information blog for group cruises, reunions, fundraising cruises and general cruise information
American Cruise Lines (www.americancruiselines.com), the largest U.S. cruise company, announced today record sales at the start of what it is predicting will be its strongest Wave Season to date. Each of the past four weeks has broken previous company sales records during Wave Season, with last week being the most successful sales week in the company’s entire history.
View the Original article
Century Casinos announced today that the company extended its long-term concession agreement with TUI Cruises.
TUI Cruises is a joint venture between TUI AG and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. with focus on the premium all inclusive cruise market. TUI Cruises currently has two luxurious 1,900-guest ships ( Mein Schiff 1, Mein Schiff 2) in service to explore the world in style and comfort. A new 2,500-guest ship ( Mein Schiff 3) is currently being built, scheduled to commence operations in early 2014 and also part of the extended agreement, under which Century Casinos will operate these casinos until at least May 2017.
“We are delighted about the extension and prolongation of our cooperation with TUI Cruises. The growing number of our cruise ship casino operations has developed into a strong business segment for Century Casinos,” said Erwin Haitzmann and Peter Hoetzinger, Co CEOs of Century Casinos.
RecommendedSki breaks at Grand Park Hotel Bad HofgasteinCelebrity Cruises has announced another way for guests to keep their New Year’s resolution to stay fit while on holiday. The cruise line has expanded its extensive portfolio of fitness options by partnering with global lifestyle brand Zumba
View the Original article
Underscoring its commitment to the growing Japanese cruise market, Carnival Corporation & plc today detailed a substantially expanded 2014 Japan cruise program for the Princess Cruises brand, which brings a second ship to the market, features sailings from three homeports and plans to significantly expand the size of the cruise market in Japan to approximately 100,000 passengers.
The Japan-built Diamond Princess will join Sun Princess for a cruise program from three homeports
View the Original article
Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) today announced an expansion of resources in the European market and several personnel appointments within the association’s new global structure. This follows CLIA’s Dec. 17 announcement that nine cruise industry associations around the world had joined together under a common, unified structure to represent the global cruise industry with one voice.
Joining CLIA UK and Ireland, the Dutch Cruise Council (DCC) has agreed to be a part of CLIA and is the 10th cruise association to join CLIA’s newly established global structure. The DCC was formed in 2009 and has 16 member cruise lines. It will operate under the name “CLIA Netherlands.” In France, an agreement was reached with AFCC, the French cruise association, to become CLIA France in late spring. CLIA is also currently developing a German cruise council based in Hamburg which will be named CLIA Germany. The German cruise market has experienced substantial growth in recent years with the number of passengers growing from 1.2 million in 2010 to 1.4 million in 2011, representing a significant year-over-year increase of nearly 14 percent. Later this year, CLIA plans to establish cruise councils in Italy and Spain to ensure a strong local presence for the cruise industry in those important markets.
“Europe is an important market for the cruise industry because of its diverse and breathtakingly beautiful destinations that are rich in cultural heritage and offer something for every traveler,” said Christine Duffy , president and CEO of CLIA. “As we focus on ensuring the cruise industry speaks with one voice we are delighted to welcome the Dutch Cruise Council and the AFCC as part of CLIA, and we look forward to broadening the industry’s representation in key European markets as CLIA expands its presence in Germany, Italy and Spain.”
In addition to CLIA’s expansion in Europe, CLIA also announced five appointments within the newly formed global association.
“This is an exciting year for CLIA as we implement the association’s new global structure,” Duffy said. “Putting the right talent in place is critical as we focus on delivering enhanced value to the global cruise industry while representing it internationally with one voice before numerous stakeholders. The appointments we are announcing today are strong additions to the CLIA team, and we look forward to their contributions as we build on the value we deliver to our members and partners. I also wish to express the industry’s deep gratitude to Tim Marking , Secretary General of CLIA Europe, who is retiring after serving in that role with distinction since CLIA Europe was established in 2004 as the European Cruise Council. We will greatly miss Tim’s leadership and exemplary representation of the cruise industry, and we wish him all the best in retirement.”
The new appointments include:
Robert Ashdown has been appointed as the new Secretary General for CLIA Europe, formerly the European Cruise Council, where he was Director of Technical, Environmental and Operational issues since 2010. Prior to CLIA Europe, Mr. Ashdown held a variety of roles with increasing responsibility at the UK Chamber of Shipping. Under the new CLIA global structure, Mr. Ashdown will be responsible for all aspects of cruise industry affairs in Europe, working closely with CLIA’s global Technical and Regulatory function, as well as promotion of cruising. He succeeds Tim Marking who, as mentioned previously, is retiring after serving as Secretary General for nearly a decade. Mr. Ashdown will be based in Brussels and his appointment is effective March 1, 2013.
Barbara Muckermann was named Global Communications Advisor to CLIA and will support the global association team with strategic oversight of international communication activities, including media relations and digital strategies. She also will assist with the implementation of CLIA’s globalization efforts involving various cruise association offices outside of North America. Ms. Muckermann was previously Chief Marketing Officer for MSC Cruises.
Tomas Matesanz is appointed Communications Director for CLIA Europe, based in Brussels. Mr. Matesanz is responsible for the communications needs for CLIA Europe, including media relations, management of local public relations agencies in various countries, and implementation of CLIA’s global communications priorities in the European markets. Prior to CLIA, Mr. Matesanz was Senior Director at a leading communications consultancy in Spain and Latin America, Llorente & Cuenca, based in Madrid.
Didier Scaillet will serve as Vice President, Business Development, responsible for CLIA’s Associate Member and Executive Partner programs, focusing on value creation for CLIA and for the associate members, globally and regionally. Mr. Scaillet will manage a cohesive and comprehensive global research agenda, including economic impact studies, market profiling and key industry capacity development data. Mr. Scaillet has extensive experience in business and partnership development having served for many years as Chief Development Officer for Meeting Professionals International.
Rob Griffiths, formerly a consultant to CLIA, has been named Director of Technical and Regulatory Affairs, Design and Engineering within CLIA’s global Technical and Regulatory function, led by Bud Darr , Senior Vice President of Technical and Regulatory Affairs. CLIA’s Technical and Regulatory Affairs team represents the global cruise industry before the International Maritime Organization and other maritime regulatory and oversight authorities. He is responsible for matters involving shipboard operations, safety, environmental protection, and other operational matters involving the cruise industry. Mr. Griffiths was previously with the U.S. Coast Guard and is based in CLIA’s Washington, D.C., office.
RecommendedSki breaks at Grand Park Hotel Bad Hofgastein
|
In a recent issue of Outside, Ian Frazier offered a lament for the outdoorsman’s yarn. “A truth about the outdoors is that it causes people to lie,” Frazier writes. “Strange forces out there in the wild have always conspired to corrupt human honesty.” But nowadays, between satellite imagery and the ubiquity of digital cameras, between GPS units and cellphone tracking, everything, Frazier argues, is fact-checkable. He goes on:
A favorite word for the technological fishbowl effect is transparency. Anything you do in far places, and anything that exists out there, can, in principle, be seen. Transparency is one of those words whose real meaning is its opposite, the way that countries with ministries of culture haven’t any. Of course, all the technology known or yet to be known won’t see even a part of everything or stop people from making things up. It’s just that the realm of colorful prevarication has moved inside, where the heart does its sneaking. Most of the gods and demons and fairies and windigos who used to inhabit their own particular outdoor places died off long ago, and modern technology has zapped the survivors. If you want to spin a yarn, it will be about something inward and private…
I’m not sure I’m convinced, but—much like the questionable tales Frazier is worried about—it’s an entertaining read nonetheless.
Ian Frazier’s “Travels in Siberia” made our roundup of The Best Travel Books of 2010, while “Great Plains” landed on our list of The 100 Most Celebrated Travel Books of All Time.
Tags:News and BriefsComments (0)Share ThisIn Vanity Fair, the always-caustic A.A. Gill offers a short history of the Michelin restaurant guide—and how it all went wrong:
The Michelin guide also created a new type of customer, the foodie trainspotter, people who aren’t out for a good meal with friends but want to tick a cultural box and have bragging rights on some rare effete spirit. Michelin-starred restaurants began to look and taste the same: the service would be cloying and oleaginous, the menus vast and clotted with verbiage. The room would be hushed, the atmosphere religious. The food would be complicated beyond appetite. And it would all be ridiculously expensive. So, Michelin spawned restaurants that were based on no regional heritage or ingredient but grew out of cooks’ abused vanity, insecurity, and fawning hunger for compliments.
Being French, of course the guide has always been the subject of conspiracy theories regarding the allocation of stars, the number of inspectors, and their quality and disinterest. Having made the hierarchy of chefs, the guide found that it was in its interest to maintain it. A handful of grand and gluttonous kitchens seemed to keep their rating long after their fashion and food faded. Michelin evolved from the wandering Candide of food to become the creeping Richelieu: manipulative, obsessive, and secretive.
Tags:News and BriefsComments (0)Share ThisMy friend Dale and I were on our way to the Chennai airport when I saw the picture. It was on a poster promoting tourism in India. It showed a train so full of people that the very roof was filled with them. A brightly colored array of happy Indians sprouted from the top like flowers. And I suddenly, very desperately, wanted to be one of them. Who knows that the hell I was thinking; but at that moment, at that time, it was the only thing in the world that mattered to me.
“Let’s take the train,” I said.
“Okay!” Dale said. Then he went and threw up in a trash can. Dale had a bit of Chennai Belly. We asked around and found the train station. According to the map Bangalore was a hundred miles away. We figured it would take about two hours.
We bought our tickets, splurging the extra several hundred thousand million gazillion rupees (about a dime) for first class, walked up and got in, and it was all we could do not to step on the chicken guarding the door. This was like what first class must be like in a Russian gulag: there were easily 80 or so people crammed in with their luggage and their food, not to mention their poultry.
We found a seat down below; above us, on either side of our row, were cot-like beds. Nobody was on top of the train. Nor did I see anyone sitting on the front, another of my fantasies. I’d once seen a picture of Theodore Roosevelt sitting on the front of a train in South Africa surrounded by wild animals.
The train finally crawled away from the station. I waited for it to pick up steam. But it just crawled and crawled. People outside the train’s open door walked by, easily outpacing the Train That Couldn’t.
An hour later we had made it, by my estimation, about a hundred yards, stopping three times to take in passengers. Dale had clambered up to the bunk above and promptly fallen asleep. What a fool! He was going to miss out on all the excitement! The costumery the Indians around me wore, based upon their caste and religious orientation, greens and yellows and oranges, looked like a bouquet of colorful flowers.
After 10 stops, still not technically even out of Chennai, a man with a black briefcase, wearing grey slacks and a short sleeve button down blue shirt, open at the collar, sporting a pair of gold chains around his neck, came in and sat down. He immediately turned to me and said, “I went to school in Pennsylvania. I am Rahim!” I looked down at myself and around at everyone else and I definitely stood out. But I could have been English or Australian or Canadian. This guy clearly liked to assume things.
I shook his hand.
‘Where are you going?” he asked.
“Bangalore,” I said.
“Good. Very long trip. Much time to refresh on you my English!”
“What about you?” I asked. “Where are you from?”
“I am being from Beirut.”
“That place is a mess!” I said. He seemed, rightly, to be insulted by this. But then he recovered and smiled hugely.
“It’s very lovely! You will come for a visit! We will go to cafes and drink tea and smoke a hookah, and you will see, it is the Paris of the Middle East!”
Sure it is, I thought. I watched CNN. I read American newspapers. The place was a hellhole. But let him think what he wanted.
“You’ve taken the train before?” I asked.
“Yes, I’m a car salesman, and I go back and forth and back.”
“How long is the trip?”
He looked at his watch. “We should get there in time for dinner tomorrow night,” he said.
I would have done a spit-take had I been drinking anything. I looked at my watch. It was 2 in the afternoon. Dinner tomorrow night, an early dinner, was 28 hours away!
“Do you eat dinner in the morning?” I asked hopefully.
“No, I eat dinner in the night of course.”
“Is tomorrow, where you come from, really just later on today?”
He looked at me like I was mentally deranged, but only briefly. “This train very very very very slow. See for yourself!” he said, pointing out the door where a woman wearing a green sari, carrying a bundle of sticks on her head, walked by, leaving us in her wake.
Twenty eight hours…
Eventually the people on the platforms became fewer and fewer, buildings gave way to grassland, and we were in the country. You could smell smoke in the air as villages burned their cooking fires. I stared out the window wondering when the drink or snack cart might come by.
Dale woke up and climbed down and rubbed his eyes and squinted and looked out the window. “Are we there yet?” he asked.
“Not by a long shot,” I said. “This is Rahim.”
“I am Rahim!” Rahim said.
“When is the snack service?” I asked.
“There is no snacks on this train. That is why you are seeing all of the people with their own food.” I looked around and, sure enough, people were eating their own food. Idlis seemed to be popular (steamed cakes made from rice batter), as well as steaming bowls of rice with daal. The chicken seemed safe—for now.
This was a travesty of an idea. All because of some silly picture we had discovered the world’s slowest train. The only reason we were even going to Bangalore was because we were told we had to see The Big Bull. Whatever that was. Yesterday it seemed important.
The air grew cool and night came, and you could see the orange lights of villages dotting the hills. I tried sleeping, but I was too hungry. The train stopped at a platform in the middle of absolutely nowhere and Rahim jumped off and disappeared. He came back with three small bags of potato chips and three strange pouches of juice.
“Dinner!” he said, handing us chips and juice. Dale eyed the juice suspiciously, as he probably will all food for the rest of his life. He drank it anyway and ate the chips slowly. We offered to pay Rahim but he would hear none of it.
“It is a gift. You must not refuse it!” That was fine with me.
It got darker and darker and I could see all the stars in the entire universe looking down on us as the train plugged along. I felt something heavy on my shoulder and looked over at the top of Rahim’s head. It was brown with a sparse supply of scraggly black hairs and it smelled like a lemon. Not a bad idea, I thought, and leaned on Dale, who leaned on the window.
Sleep took me in bits and pieces, seconds here, seconds there, and time eked away. The train would lull me to sleep only to yank me awake whenever it stopped. All through the night the train stopped at empty stations; occasionally two or three people got off or a person got on; but mostly nothing happened.
Chemical things were happening in people’s bodies and the train’s odor grew more and more rank. I leaned over and realized I could smell myself, never a good sign. Rahim’s head seemed to grow heavier and heavier.
Dawn came and voices could be heard as people came slowly back to life. Rahim’s head jerked and he sat up straight. At the next stop he got off to pray.
“Where are you to be staying in Bangalore?” he asked when he returned.
I told him we had no plans and he told us he knew the perfect place. “I am very knowledgeable about Bangalore, you will see! We will stay in big room together and be saving money that way!”
I looked at Dale and he shrugged. He didn’t give a crap. I didn’t care either. I just wanted to get off the train. It was three or four long eternities and six bags of potato chips and several strange juices later that I began to see a change in the train station populations. More and more people could be seen getting on and off, and more of the people getting on were wearing business clothes. We were getting close.
The day got warmer and I found new energy.
“I think I will go up on the roof now,” I said. I started to get up, but Rahim stopped me.
“No. This is crazy thing. You will fall onto your head.”
“It’s okay. I saw a picture of a train and the roof was filled with people.”
“Yes, this is true. But they are falling off all the time. You fall off and you are nowhere. You would die I think.”
I got up and walked over to the door and looked out and immediately knew I would not be going up on the roof. But I did jump off and walk a little bit for exercise. It was sort of fun getting on and off such a damnably slow train.
We pulled in to Bangalore around 5 in the evening. We were desperate for food and showers and sleep. We shared a motorized rickshaw down dark alleys and unknown streets in a city neither Dale nor I knew anything about. We had given our lives to Rahim. The rickshaw pulled up in front of what looked like an army barracks painted orange. Rahim walked in and we followed; words were exchanged and Rahim said, “You must be giving him money now.”
“How much?”
He mentioned a number that came out to about one American dollar. Impossibly cheap, even by Indian standards. We were directed up the stairs to a dark room with three twin beds in it that smelled worse than we did. The room was deeply dirty and the mattresses were miserably thin and the sheets felt like Brillo pads.
What a dumb picture, I thought, tossing my backpack on the bed.
View the Original article
It’s not what most people would call travel writing—Boo is absent from the story, which reads like a novel with an omniscient narrator—but as I read it, I’ve been thinking about how it might fit into the genre. It’s drawing me into a part of the world I’ve never visited, and likely never will; it’s teaching me about lives led on the other side of the world, lives that are both wildly divergent, and yet not so different, from my own. Isn’t that one of the tasks of great travel writing?
Interestingly enough, Annawadi is located right next to the Mumbai airport, which means its dramas have unfolded under the noses of every tourist and travel writer who’s ever visited the city.
NPR has a short excerpt.
Tags:Asia, India, Mumbai, Literary TravelComments (0)Share This
| Alaska: Norwegian Jewel, Norwegian Pearl and new for 2013, Norwegian Sun. Best of all, Norwegian makes it easy to explore this must-see destination with a variety of travel options, including: | |||||||||||||
|
 |
||||||||||||
| With so many ways to tour one of the most stunning destinations!! | |||||||||||||
David Peikin
Industry Policies/Regulatory
& Legislative Issues
dpeikin
