Disney Cruise Line heading to Alaska in 2011

by Scott Carmichael on

Starting May 3rd 2011, Disney Cruise Line will be offering an Alaska itinerary. The 7 night Alaska cruise starts in Vancouver and after day at sea will take guests to Tracy Arm, Skagway, Juneau, Ketchikan, followed by another sea day before arriving back in Vancouver.

The cruise will be offered on board the Disney Wonder, their 964 foot long, 2400 passenger vessel. The Disney Wonder offers guests three pools, 6 youth clubs, 7 lounges and bars, 9 restaurants and of course a whole host of Disney themed entertainment.

For a modest fee, parents can check their little ones into one of the on-board kids clubs, allowing them to enjoy themselves without the kids for a couple of hours.

The Disney Wonder currently sails in the Bahamas, Mexican Riviera and the Panama Canal, so the repositioning to Alaska during the summer is an interesting choice – I’m guessing it has something to do with a drop in passenger numbers on cruise lines, especially in that area, along with overcapacity. The Alaska Cruise market is still relatively popular, so this Disney gamble should mean they’ll be able to fill their ships quite easily.

If you are interested in a Disney Alaska Cruise, you’ll be able to book your voyage starting September 28th 2009. In addition to the Alaska route, Disney will also be offering 2 repositioning cruises from Los Angeles to Vancouver (April 27th 2011) and Vancouver back to Los Angeles (September 20th 2011).

(Via: Anchorage Daily News, thanks Matt!)

Carnival cruise passengers spend weekend in Antigua … in jail

by Tom Johansmeyer on

It looks like Carnival could use some new passengers. Not even a week after banning a family for life – and then reversing the ban – six passengers on one of its ships have been detained in Antigua. Now, if you’re going to get stuck someplace, Antigua isn’t bad, but I’d rather be in a resort than involved with the criminal justice system – it just seems more fun.

Dolores Lalanne, 25, Mike Pierre Paul, 24, Joshua Jackson, 25, Shoshonnah Henry, 24, Nancy Lalanne, 22, and Rachael Henry, 27 have been charged with assault, battery and malicious damage. A fight over cab fare got out of hand and turned into an altercation with the local police. They are being held in Antigua until trial.

The alleged fight broke out on Friday, when the Carnival Victory passengers got off the ship for a 10-hour port call. The passengers refused to pay a cab driver, claiming they were being overcharged. Original reports of the story say that the cab driver quoted a $50 price for a tour that would end at a beach. He later told them, supposedly, that it would cost more to get back to the ship. The driver drove the passengers to a police station, which is where the fight is said to have broken out.

After spending the weekend in jail, the passengers were released on $5,000 bail but had to give up their travel documents and check in with the court regularly. Apparently, jail is unpleasant in Antigua, particularly because of the mosquitoes.

%Gallery-13474%


%Gallery-68288%

Nine great photographic adventures

by Kraig Becker on

Yesterday we told you about the highest photography and videography workshop in the world, which is scheduled to take place in April of 2010 on the North and East side of Everest. Today we have nine more great photography adventures courtesy of Outside Magazine, who asked their favorite photographers to name the best locations for getting amazing photos.

Topping the list is Antarctica, which gets high marks for its stark beauty and acres of penguins. They recommend a cruise from Geographic Expeditions that is 23 days in length and includes guest lectures by Peter Hillary (son of Sir Edmund Hillary) and photography workshops from a guy named Art Wolfe.

If heading to the South Pole seems a bit on the cold side to you, perhaps you’d prefer to go to Nepal instead. Outside claims that it’s practically impossible to take a bad picture in the Himalaya, and I’m inclined to agree with them. They recommend staying on the Nepali side of the mountain and making the trek up to base camp with Berg Adventures on a 24-day adventure in the Khumbu Valley.

Most of the other trips on the list are equally high on adventure, but lack the distances involved in traveling to Nepal or the Antarctic. They recommend similar photographic adventures in Colorado, New Mexico, and California, amongst others. Each of the locations will give you plenty of interesting landscapes to shoot or to serve as spectacular backdrops at the very least.

I recently had great advice from a photographer friend of mine who told me that the trick to shooting great photos is to shoot great subjects. Who would have thought that it was that simple?

Cruise ship employee tells his favorite “dumb passenger” stories

by Aaron Hotfelder on

I recently spent some time in the up-and-coming port town of Mahahual, Mexico, and had the opportunity to speak with an assistant cruise director for one of the Big Cruise Lines. Because I am always interested in the ways stupid tourists manifest their stupidity, I asked the man (let’s call him Miguel) if he had any entertaining stories of people doing dumb things on his cruises.

Ten hours later, when Miguel was about halfway done telling me about all the dumb passengers he’d encountered over the years, I decided to write down a couple of my favorites. Here, in no particular order, are three of Miguel’s most memorable “dumb cruise ship passenger” stories:

  • A woman came up to the reception desk and told Miguel she had a problem. “I can’t get my coffee cup out of the microwave,” she said. Miguel was understandably puzzled for a moment, then asked her if the hinge on the microwave door looked broken. “No, I don’t think so,” she said. “I’m pulling on the door as hard as I can but it won’t budge.” “Well, I’ll come to your cabin and take a look at it,” Miguel said. As soon as these words left his mouth, Miguel thought to himself: “Wait, these cabins don’t have microwaves.” As he walked with the woman to her cabin Miguel tried to think of what could possibly be going on. When they arrived, it was just as he suspected– the woman had tried to heat up a cup of coffee in the safe.
  • An older man walked up to Miguel and asked, “Why don’t they use salt water in the toilets?” To which Miguel replied, “How do you know they don’t?”

  • The passengers had just boarded the ship when a middle-aged woman approached Miguel and asked, “Do the workers stay on the ship at night?” Miguel, thinking the woman must be kidding, asked the woman to repeat herself. “Do you stay on the ship overnight during the cruise, or does another boat come and get you, or what?” she asked. Miguel didn’t tell me what he did in response, but I can tell you what I would have done: Repeat the conversation to all those within earshot then assemble a mob and throw the woman overboard. (This is why I do not have a future in the cruise ship industry.)

Carnival cruise line bans family for life

by Grant Martin on

You would think that it would take a pretty serious infraction to cause a cruise line operator to ban you for life — pushing the annoying commerical guy overboard, for example, or dumping soap in the water slide pool.

But surely not for getting a few scratches on your dresser. According to one Mr. Chris Harvey who took a cruise docking into Ft. Lauderdale this summer, however, that’s what got him and his family the boot. In addition to that, Mr. Harvey claims that the scratches were there long before the cruise says that they existed, suggesting that the staff falsely accused them of causing the damage.

In the end, Harvey signed a document accepting a life time ban from the entire cruise line, the only alternative to coughing up some cash for the damages. You can read about his experience at his website.

Since the ban, however, the plot has thickened. Harvey was able to produce a few photos showing that the dresser was already damaged before the cruise claimed, and now that his story has gained traction on his site, Carnival is reversing the ban.

In the end, the moral of this whole fiasco is to check your room before you move in. Like a rental car, you’re liable for any damage during your stay.

%Gallery-71848%