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Tags: Dangerous Travel / Cruises / Ships / Boats / → All Tags
Golden Princess Cruise Ship Makes A Daring Sea Rescue
We’ve got some more news from the Pacific Ocean, but this time it isn’t as successful or cool as those two dudes who decided to take a rowboat across the ocean. This story involves an ocean rescue and a couple of people that might want to reconsider their new career opportunities before they even began.
Two people from Seattle were rescued about 400 miles outside of Hawaii when their boat hit some rough seas last Friday. The winds were whipping and the waves were easily 40 feet high, and to make things worse, the two had to look after their dogs as well—don‘t worry they had life vests for their furry friends. Everything turned out well in the end as they signaled the Golden Princess cruise ship, and the vessel was glad to give them a lift. No word on whether they were allowed to eat in the dining room without formal attire.
Tags: Cruises / Ships / Royal Caribbean / Tacky Travel / → All Tags
Why I Secretly Want to Cruise on the New Oasis of the Seas
Some travelers endeavor to make every trip an educational and spiritually uplifting experience, seeking out museums, parks, and cultural sites and making a point to get to know the local people and understand their unique way of life. Other travelers simply want to relax and have fun in a warm, beautiful place, the more delicious food and fancy drinks the better. I've always been the former kind of traveler, but there's a part of me that seeks the comfort, luxury, and sheer simplicity of the latter. So while I might speak disdainfully of those who book vacations at all-inclusive resorts and never leave the property, I secretly wouldn't mind changing places with them every once in a while, spending a week learning nothing at all about my destination and returning home just a little bit dumber than I left.
Tags: NYC-In-The-1950s / Retro Travel / New York City / Tourism Advertising / Ships / Cruise Travel / → All Tags
New York 1953 To Today: Transatlantic Liners Versus Cruise Ships
Times Square and Central Park attract tourists to New York City in droves, but what were the most exciting sights back in the 1950s? Thanks to an old tourist brochure from 1953, we're exploring back in the day versus today, for NYC tourists.
While no tourism brochure these days would use the phrase "your gay entree" unless we're talking about Damron or another gay-focused guidebook, this ad for transatlantic crossing on the storied French Line causes us to conjure up sepia-tinged fantasies of sailing out of New York harbor on a great ship, with goodbye party streamers flying all around and cocktails in a piano lounge.
By 1953, travelers had already mostly forgotten about the Normandie burning at dock in NY in 1942, and they would continue to sail until the early 1960s, when airplanes finally got the hang of elegant travel.
Tags: Hot Yachts / Yachting / Richard Branson / Ships / First Class Travel / Virgin / Virgin Charter / → All Tags
Play With Richard Branson's New Toy For $88,000 Per Week
When we aren't out jetting around or hopping a high-speed train, we like to fantasize about that other form of transportation: the almighty ship. So to allay our own curiosity as much as yours, we're spotlighting yachts with either notorious owners or histories...or both. Know of a bootylicious boat? Let us know.
Who doesn't dream of owning a lush private island in the Caribbean? Perhaps Virgin Group head honcho Richard Branson, who has been living the dream since 1979, when he purchased Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands and turned it into a private resort.
If you can't afford to take over the whole island for your vacation, at a cost of $47,000 a day, then how about chartering his new catamaran yacht, the Necker Belle, for a mere $88,000 a week? She'll be fresh from a makover (she used to be the Lady Barbaretta) in February 2010, just in time to catch the end of the rich exodus to the Caribbean in winter.
Tags: Hot Yachts / Yachting / Bernie Madoff / Ships / Crimes / → All Tags
France Has Made Off With Bernie Madoff's 'Bull' Yacht
When we aren't out jetting around or hopping a high-speed train, we like to fantasize about that other form of transportation: the almighty ship. So to allay our own curiosity as much as yours, we're spotlighting yachts with either notorious owners or histories...or both. Know of a bootylicious boat? Let us know.
Anybody in the market for a super deal on a yacht? Because boy oh boy does the harbor in Cap d'Antibes, France have the boat for you: it's Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff's old 88-footer, named Bull. The yacht, only built back in 2007, was seized by French authorities back in April, and now she sits with her propeller chained up and the dock roped off until someone steps up to buy her.
Although she is valued at $7 million dollars, it probably won't take all that much to get off her the yacht broker's hands. Madoff of course registered her in Georgetown, Barbados to tax advantage of their tax haven reputation, but now that she's docked in the South of France, she'll need to be moved by March 2010 or else she'll be liable to French sales tax.
Tags: Accidents / Philippine Travel / Ferry Travel / Ships / Travel Safety / → All Tags
Note To Self: Avoid Ferries In The Philippines
Well we made it through a very hectic Labor Day weekend for travelers without any major mishaps, that is, unless you were spending your three-day weekend in The Philippines, where a Superferry sunk on Sunday after a mysterious clunk was heard and the ferry began listing. As a result of the tragedy, nine people lost their lives although 957 others were saved—you can even see them heading down the ladders on the side of the ship in the picture above.
As if we weren't already wary about boarding vintage-looking vessels, The Guardian UK has this to say:
Sea accidents are common in the Philippine archipelago because of tropical storms, badly maintained boats and weak enforcement of safety regulations. Last year, a ferry overturned after sailing towards a powerful typhoon, killing more than 800 people on board.
Tags: Ships / Philadelphia Travel / Travel News / Cruise Travel / → All Tags
Anchors Aweigh: An Endangered Ocean Liner Up For Sale In Philly
Diners at IKEA look out at the SS United States
Buried deep beneath our professed love of air travel is a true loyalty to the history of transatlantic liners and travel by ship. After all, our grandparents came to the US on the liner SS Bremen and relatives later traveled on the grand SS United States, with both ships winning the coveted Blue Riband—an award for fastest crossing of the Atlantic Ocean.
Although airplanes have long displaced boats as the preferred means of transatlantic travel, with ships relegated to pleasure cruises (even though Cunard makes a hearty effort to retain the grandeur), even the history of these beautiful behemoths is at stake.
Case in point: Just outside of Philadelphia's IKEA store along the river, sits the dilapidated hulk of the once-grand SS United States, her sleek lines and art deco appeal marred by rust and general lack of upkeep. Plopped in her spot at Pier 82 since 1996, the United States has been waiting and waiting for her owners, Star Cruise of Hong Kong (aka Norwegian Cruise Line) to make good on their promises to transform her into a Hawaii cruise ship.
Tags: Cruises / Miami Travel / Travel News / Ships / Carnival Cruises / Costa Cruises / → All Tags
Power To The Cruisers! Carnival Installs Self Check-In Kiosks
Can everyone please welcome the cruise lines to the 21st century? If airlines, notoriously security-focused as they are, can successfully board and fly their passengers who have checked in via a self-service kiosk, then why can't ships do the same for cruisers? Finally, after Costa Cruises saw the light last year and installed some kiosk check-ins, Carnival has come around to allowing their passengers to check themselves in as well, but only at the Port of Miami.
Veteran cruisers know that along with the unlimited buffets and blue water of a cruise, one must endure the grueling discomfort of a lifeboat muster drill and the wait to simply board the ship. You check your luggage, get loaded with pamphlets on shore excursions and a map of the ship, and finally claim your ID/onboard credit card, and all you want to do is collapse into the closet that is your ship-side bedroom.
Now, using the self check-in kiosks, you can zip through the formalities, even set up a cash account for onboard purchases, and finally exchange your checked-in confirmation for your stateroom key. To use this new machine, however, you must pre-register online and be a US or Canadian citizen or from a visa-waiver country. Checked bags can be left with the porters and you are free to board and partake in the farewell Lido buffet, one of the grandest traditions in cruising.
Related Stories:
· Carnival Introduces Self-Service Cruise Check-In Kiosks [CruiseCritic]
· Carnival Launches Self-Service check-in at Port of Miami [Travel Weekly]
· Cruise News [Jaunted]
[Photo: CruiseCritic]
Tags: Cruises / Ships / Royal Caribbean / Blimps / → All Tags
Has the Oasis of the Seas Test Blimp Vanished?
[Update: CruiseCritic has just Twittered that the blimp has been located. Phew!]
According to CruiseCritic.com, who translated a Finnish news report, the test blimp attached to the new cruise ship Oasis of the Seas has gone missing.
The blimp, called the Aerostat was launched earlier this week for testing as a new adventure amenity aboard the cruise ship which is also in its own sea testing trials. For passengers who are tired of walking around and around the ship, the Aerostat would enable them to get off the boat for a little while. The blimp would rise about 165 feet high in the sky but would still be tethered to the ship.
Except somewhere in testing that rope has snapped off.
The 220,000-ton, 5,400-passenger Oasis of the Seas is scheduled to return to the STX Europe Finland shipyard in Turku today, but the current whereabouts of the blimp are still unconfirmed. No one was onboard the object, which was being tested for use as a balloon ride onboard the largest cruise ship ever built.
And this is exactly what we would keep us from riding a cruise ship's baby blimp. Meanwhile, the blimp is still out there. We hope Royal Caribbean can find it soon.
Related Stories:
· Would You Ride In A Cruise Ship's Baby Blimp? [Jaunted]
· Update: Oasis of the Seas' Missing Blimp [CruiseCritic.com]
[Photo: CruiseCritic]
Tags: Cruises / Ships / Royal Caribbean / Blimps / → All Tags
Would You Ride In A Cruise Ship's Baby Blimp?
The annals of shipboard entertainment are a study in the growing ADD-ness of travelers; there once was a day when week-long ocean crossings were happily passed with games of shuffleboard and skeet shooting, and then we graduated to learning napkin-folding and wine pairings during Caribbean cruises. These days however, it seems as though even 4-night trips require access to D-list celebrities, rock climbing walls and mini-golf greens.
Would you believe that we've done all of the above—well, we watched the skeet shooting and never touched the celeb—and yet we remain flabbergasted by the amenity that Royal Caribbean is trying to bring onboard their new Oasis of the Seas. It's a freaking blimp-on-a-string!
Tags: Bad Breakups / Cruises / Queen Elizabeth 2 / Ships / → All Tags
QE2 Captain Apparently Not Ready For Retirement
The noble ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 made its final stop in its home port of Southampton today, after colliding with a sandbar at around 5:30 am this morning. After being dragged off the underwater obstacle and participating in Armistice Day festivities, the QE2 set course for Dubai, where it will be docked next to an artificial island as a five-star hotel.
One of the passengers said the ship herself didn't want to retire:
She didn't want to come in. That's the opinion of quite a few of us on board. She doesn't want to go to Dubai and we don't want her to go.
But we're more likely to cast a suspicious eye on Captain Ian McNaught, who, in an interview from the bridge with NPR, likened his 20-plus-year career on the QE2 to a marriage:
It's a little like being married really, I think. To be honest, it's a little bit of a love-hate relationship, and happily there are more days when I love her than I hate her.
Crashing her into a sandbar must be a bad day, then.
Related Stories:
· QE2 Sets Sail On Farewell Voyage [NPR]
· QE2 Runs Aground on Final Stop [AFP, via Google]
· Cruises coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo of the QE2 in Sydney: Wikipedia]
Tags: Museums / Ships / → All Tags
Spruced-up USS Intrepid Returns to Manhattan
The World War II aircraft carrier Intrepid has returned to its berth on Manhattan's West Side following a two-year refurbishment in Bayonne, New Jersey and Staten Island, New York. The decommissioned ship had served as the centerpiece of the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum at Manhattan's Pier 86 since 1982, but two decades of visitors stomping through its narrow passageways had left it looking worse for wear, so an ambitious renovation was initiated in late 2006.
When the museum reopens on November 8, visitors will be able to explore parts of the ship that were previously off-limits, including the forecastle and machine shop, as well as gawk at several new aircraft on the flight deck. The hangar deck, meanwhile, will contain a host of interactive exhibits that tell the story of the ship's history in periods of both war and peace.
The Intrepid is one of only a handful of attractions in the city solely dedicated to the military, and its return to the West Side Piers should give a welcome bump to tourism in an area that was once one of the busiest ports in the country.
[Photo: The New York Times]
Related Stories:
· Floating Proudly, a Warship Returns to Its Mission [The New York Times]
· Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum [Official Site]
· Museum Coverage [Jaunted]
