Cruise lines give back

by Chris Owen on

Cruise lines are often in the news for a variety of reasons these days, some good, some not so good. The not-so-good stories touch topics like a passenger or crew member lost at sea, attacks on their record as a friend (or foe) of the environment and more. Good news includes a focus on safety in an unsafe travel world, the great value a cruise vacation represents and every once in a while a story or two about cruise lines giving back through charitable efforts.

Just this month, Carnival Cruise Lines launched a “Build a Ship” contest that invites anyone 13 years or older to build a model Carnival ship out of everyday items and submit a photo of it to win a free Carnival cruise. The contest, which benefits St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, is the latest in a series of contests and other activities in anticipation of the May 1, 2011 launch of the line’s newest ship, Carnival Magic. Carnival will donate $1 to St. Jude, up to $10,000, for each entry.

Carnival has an ongoing program that helps this and a variety of charitable and arts-related organizations. The company and its employees support .

In the past five years alone, Carnival and its employees have contributed more than $30 million in financial contributions and in-kind donations to a variety of local and national charities. Following the example set forth by Carnival’s founder, the late Ted Arison, and continued by his son Micky, chairman and CEO of Carnival Cruise Lines’ parent company, Carnival Corporation & plc, Carnival and its employees endeavor to make South Florida and its other homeport communities better places to live and work.

Other cruise lines give back as well.

Norwegian Cruise Line is known in the cruise industry as an innovator. Inventing what they call Freestyle Cruising, the line broke new ground offering their “guests” the ability to skip the formal wear and time restrictions for dining as it had been, years before many other lines loosened up the onboard experience. Answering the call from solo cruisers, the line added single accommodations on their new Norwegian Epic.

Norwegian recently announced a $5 million donation to the Camillus House, a shelter in Miami, Florida that has served the homeless for half a century. Norwegian Cruise Line CEO Kevin Sheehan told the Miami Herald of the line’s commitment saying “it’s critically important that as an organization, we have a charitable side to us.”

Camillus House is expanding and the donation from Norwegian Cruise Line could not have come at a better time. Expansion plans are in progress and the Norwegian donation helps the organization meet a goal to raise almost half of the $84 million tab for its new complex from private funds.

Cruise lines set competition aside for the greater good in what seems a natural fit

Camillus House has Bob Dickinson, former CEO of competitor Carnival Cruise Lines before retiring in 2007 as chairman of the board of directors. Norwegian’s Sheehan said the donation had been discussed over a few years between him and Dickinson.

Dr. Paul Ahr, president and CEO of Camillus House draws an accurate parallel between giving and cruise lines:

“On a ship, I am treated with tremendous hospitality, I can set aside my daily struggles or challenges,” he said. “When people come to stay with us at Camillus House, people who have been on the street a long time, they recognize our own sense of hospitality. We are here to serve them.”

Three different companies, one solid goal.

I don’t have numbers on what the cruise lines have given back in total but I bet it is a generous amount in not just money but time and resources as well.

Relief to Haiti is an ongoing effort at Royal Caribbean International. Highlighted by opening one of the first schools to be built after the earthquake in October 2010 and company blogs that helped keep the world informed, relief efforts started just three days after the earthquake.

The efforts continue too as company lets those with Royal Caribbean Visa cards help by donating their points to help in aide programs. Guests aboard sister-lines Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Club Cruises can donate to Food for the Poor’s Haiti Relief Fund via their onboard charge accounts while sailing.

Cruise lines help raise funds while their guests are on vacation.

One of the biggest and most widespread programs cruise lines offer in giving back is through group cruises. By designating onboard perks and bonus amenities not as onboard credit or a bottle of wine but as a donation for their cause, charitable organizations have been raising funds through group cruises for years. That adds up fast too, even with small groups.

A recent fund-raising cruise hosted by the Temple Shalom in Florida paired over 150 senior ladies for a Temple Shalom Sisterhood Fun-raiser cruise on Royal Caribbean that raised over $6000 for the Villages Hospice and Temple Building Fund.

Norwegian CEO Kevin Sheehan put it well when he told the Miami Herald that although Norwegian Cruise Line is a privately held company, “it’s critically important that as an organization, we have a charitable side to us.”

It seems they all do.

In fact, Norwegian’s Sheehan, recently featured in an episode of CBS’s Undercover Boss television program, took it a step further, looking inside his organization and gave $100,000 to supplement the Crew Enrichment Program to ensure the entire crew across our fleet feels appreciated.

Like they say, “charity starts at home.”

Flickr photo by puuikibeach

Air travel issues promote travel by rail and ship

by Chris Owen on

As security concerns, luggage problems, fuel surcharges, crowded airports and high prices for air travel continue, some travelers are choosing other ways to get where they want to go. Rather than stay home or cancel travel plans, many travelers are looking at train or bus transportation or cruise vacations at a port they can drive to rather than flying.

Amtrak reports business is good. February marked 16 consecutive months of ridership growth and was the best February on record with 1,099,010 passengers.

“The ridership increase shows the continued popularity of rail travel and the need for continued investment in passenger rail service” said Amtrak President and CEO Joe Boardman.

Instead of booking a flight, standing in security lines at the airport, running to catch a connecting flight, then getting to the hotel at their destination, a growing number of travelers are choosing a cruise vacation.

The all-inclusive nature of a cruise combined with easy access by car, rail or bus to local home-ports spread around the U.S. is allowing travelers to skip the airport, hotel and/or rental car altogether.”Even as economies around the world are experiencing financial woes, industry statistics indicate just under 11 million people enjoyed a vacation at sea last year. It could be because one price covers just about everything compared to land vacations where travelers are faced with added expenses such as hotel rooms, valet parking, transportation, buying tickets for entertainment and restaurant expenses.” says Rebecca Kelley from Huliq.com.

She has a point. Once paid, the price of a cruise booking represents is an average of between 70 and 85% of the total vacation cost, that price when vacation is over and you are back home paying the bills.

Variables such as cash to spend in the ship’s casino or ashore, on-board services like spa treatments, shore excursions, alcoholic beverages or gift shop purchases make up the difference. But with $0 for airfare, $0 for hotels and $0 for food, those three items alone can add up fast and make a cruise vacation a bargain. If not a bargain, at least you know how much the total price will be before vacation, not after when the credit card bills come tumbling in.

On the ease-of-travel scale, air travel issues have travelers scrambling for flights when increasingly more frequent schedule disruptions occur, while cruise passengers who can drive to the port could care less. Even with the high price of gas, driving is often the most economical way to go. Still, it is hard to drive from New York to London so flying may be inevitable. One way, anyway. Many travelers are flying to or from Europe from the U.S. then sailing back.

Called either TransAtlantic sailings like those done on Cunard Line’s Queen Mary 2 or Repositioning Cruises that many lines do, a ship sails one-way to or from Europe. Queen Mary 2 does it all the time, others make the crossing seasonally and often include ports of call along the way.

If you have the time to take 6 to 14 days on a ship instead of 6 or 14 hours (with disruptions) in the air, sailing can be a great way to go.

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Video of the Day: 4 minutes of boat fails

by Mike Barish on
Who doesn’t enjoy a boat ride (except for people with extreme seasickness)? Whether you’re on a schooner, a yacht or a cruise ship, being on a boat makes you cooler. However, no form of transportation is perfect. Cars break down, planes crash and boats…well, there’s apparently more that can go wrong with boats than we ever could have imagined. So, if you have four minutes to kill and want to see boat after boat meet a horrible fate, then this is the video for you.

Of course, we never root for disasters and we hope that everyone walked (or swam) away safely. That said, we’ll be laughing our way to the life boats and making sure that we have a floatation device handy at all times.

[Via Gawker]

Travel and Jewish ceremonies a great match, who knew?

by Chris Owen on
In the days of old, like a few years ago, traditional Jewish coming-of-age ceremonies were held in traditional ways. Study the Torah. Read the Torah. Give a report about the Torah. Something along those lines. Kinda boring but part of the deal. It was the after-party that got all the press. Now, things are changing as families look for new ways to celebrate one of the Jewish faith’s most treasured events, the Bar Mitzvah.

First, quick, loose lesson on the Jewish faith.

When a boy “comes of age” at 13 he has become a “bar mitzvah” and Jewish tradition holds that he now has the same rights and responsibilities as a full grown man. The people that give out drivers licenses, voter registration cards and the like (including the sellers of beer, believe me) disagree but as Jews we’re used to the whole opression thing so we move along. Bar mitzvah also refers to the religious ceremony that goes along with a boy becoming a Bar Mitzvah and the party will follow the ceremony and that party is also called a bar mitzvah. Bat Mitzvah is the girl version which is basically the same deal but for girls it’s age 12 (because “girls are better than boys” as my mother told me countless times)

Got it? Ok let’s move along then.

Now, families are taking turning the traditional “rent a hall and have a party” part into a travel opportunity that involves everything from all-inclusive resorts to cruise vacations. And why not? People travel from all over the world to attend these things, why not make it convenient for everyone?

When Jodi and Alan Katz of Marietta, Ga., began talking about plans for a bar mitzvah for their son, Zach, the idea of reading the Torah in front of 300 strangers wasn’t so appealing to him reports MSNBC. This family did it differently and went on a cruise with 35 friends and relatives.

“It was the best thing we ever did,” said Jodi Katz. “It took away that pressure and anxiety. I could see in his eyes he was happy.”

Indeed, cruise lines, travel agencies and the like are seeing more of this type of business every year as bar mitzvah’s become family vacations.

A match made in heaven? “Not so fast” say traditionalists.

Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin sees these vacation-like events as a big problem for Judaism because it removes the child from their local Jewish community which he told MSNBC was the glue that holds the religion together.

“The beauty of the setting doesn’t come from the beach and sunset,” said Salkin, author of the book, “Putting God on the Guest List: How to Reclaim the Spiritual Meaning of Your Child’s Bar or Bat Mitzvah.” “It comes from knowing the people in the pews.”

Still, the move to join travel and Jewish ceremonies makes economic sense, gathers important family members to witness the event and joins a movement to make religion relevant.

Rabbi Jamie S. Korngolds nonprofit company, Adventure Rabbi, focuses on teaching about God in nature. Based in Colorado, the group teaches kids traditional lessons using Skype. They also organize ceremonies, as well as hikes and horseback rides in Boulder and skiing at Copper Mountain for guests.

“People are trying to get away from big parties, and they want to focus on the spiritual rite of passage,” Korngold said.

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Flickr photo by Justin Jackson

Travel still safe to Hawaii and U.S. West coast

by Chris Owen on
Despite fears over effects of the recent Japanese nuclear power plant disaster, authorities pronounced travel still safe to Hawaii and the U.S. west coast. Stories of a giant cloud of nuclear waste on the way to cripple the United States and an e-mail predicting acid rain turned out to be a hoax. It is almost business-as-usual for travelers, with a few exceptions to be aware of.

“We get a lot of calls from people about possible dangers,” Cathy Brooks of CruiseOne told times-georgian.com. “We try to assure them it’s safe to travel.”

The U.S Department of State advised U.S. citizens within 50 miles of the plant in Japan to evacuate the area or to take shelter indoors, if safe evacuation was not practical. The U.S. Government also made available potassium iodide (KI) pills as a precautionary measure for American personnel and dependents residing in Japan at the time of the incident.

Earlier this month the Los Angeles Times reported that a small amount of radiation was headed for California but that health risks were not a concern. To help Americans understand their radiation-related health risks, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE), the American Thyroid Association (ATA), The Endocrine Society and the Society of Nuclear Medicine (SNM) issued a joint statement which noted that “current estimates indicate there will not be a hazardous level of radiation reaching the United States from this accident” and added “there is not a radiation emergency in the United States or its territories”.

Indeed, nuclear authorities gave the U.S. West coast and Hawaii a clean bill of health, clearing away the concerns of travelers.

“I want to reassure residents and visitors that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the highest authority on radiation in the nation, has indicated Japan’s nuclear emergency presents no danger to Hawaii.” Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie told the Hawaii Reporter.

That’s not to say everything is operating normally in Hawaii though. Several resorts and tourist destinations were damaged by the tsunami event but most are open.

Two resorts that remain closed are Four Seasons Resort Hualālai, which plans to reopen on April 30, and iconic Kona Village Resort which will remain closed for an extended period of time due to the significant structural and property damage it sustained

Kailua Pier was deemed structurally sound after the event, and all charters are operating as usual. Norwegian Cruise Lines Pride of America, the year-round cruise ship servicing Hawaii, stopped in Kona last week as planned.

King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel is also open, and guest rooms were not damaged. However, the lu’au area, ground floor public areas including the lobby and Kona Beach Restaurant, were flooded by seawater, sand and debris. Cleanup efforts are well underway, and several retail stores have reopened.

“Our state and county monitoring systems have not detected any increase in radiation levels, and based on all available information, state and federal experts do not anticipate any risk of harmful radiation exposure to our islands. We are open for business. Hawai’i continues to be the world’s paradise.” added Governor Abercrombie.

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Flickr photo by Merfarm