Cruise line Godmother a “true hero”

by Chris Owen on

When cruise lines launch a new ship, it is traditional to name a Godmother for the new vessel. Godmothers come in all shapes and sizes ranging from Reba McEntire to Whoopi Goldberg and even Martha Stewart. When Carnival Cruise Lines went to pick a Godmother for new Carnival Magic, set to debut May 1, they did not have to look very far.

Carnival is an ongoing sponsor and supporter of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital so they turned to Lindsey Wilkerson, former patient, now good-will ambassador for the hospital to be Godmother of the new Carnival Magic.


“Lindsey embodies the spirit of the tremendously talented, compassionate and dedicated individuals at St. Jude who are true heroes in every sense of the word. Lindsey’s selection as godmother is a tribute to the special children of St. Jude, as well as an acknowledgement of the groundbreaking efforts the organization has made in the fight against childhood cancer,” said Gerry Cahill, Carnival president and CEO.

Wilkerson began treatment at the St. Jude facility in Memphis, Tennessee at age 10. Three years later, her cancer was in remission and she went on to finish high school and attend college. She joined ALSAC, the fundraising organization of St. Jude, in 2004 and is now a volunteer specialist helping to engage and support St. Jude volunteers across the country. Wilkerson also volunteers as a tour guide at the hospital and is a member of the organization’s Family Advisory Council and the St. Jude Women’s Club, the latter for which she serves as president.

Wilkerson will officially name the 130,000-ton vessel during a shipboard ceremony taking place May 1 in Venice, Italy, prior to the Carnival Magic‘s inaugural voyage. Gadling will be there for the event and hopes to meet Lindsey, an unusual choice for Godmother we hope begins a trend of recognizing those who do so much for so many.

Post-race wedding ceremony a win for charity

by Chris Owen on
The Cooper Ridge Bridge Run in Charleston, South Carolina is the third-largest 10K race in America. In a first-ever post-race wedding ceremony at the 2011 run this last weekend, the culminating event was a Race to the Altar contest and fundraiser which resulted in a $10,000 donation to the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) Children’s Hospital.

Sponsored by Carnival Cruise Lines, a nationwide search selected Andy Cook and Tina Berwanger as the winning couple based on their inspiring personal story. The couple met at Surry Community College in North Carolina and were two of over 40,000 participants in this years race, their first. Using preparation for the race as a goal to aid in an ongoing, realistic weight loss/lifestyle program, they said the race to the altar “is symbolic of the healthy lifestyle that we want to continue to lead” after they were married.


Andy and Tina ran in custom-designed wedding attire then, after the race, they were married in a beach-themed ceremony complete with sand, calypso band and slushy drinks in Charleston‘s Marion Square. The couple also got the first dance at the Cooper River Bridge Run Finish Festival in front of family, friends and 40,000 fellow runners plus a honeymoon cruise aboard Carnival Cruise Lines’ Fantasy.


Fulfilling a promise made on New Year Eve in Times Square, this was part of Carnival’s “Hey America, DidJa Ever?” social focus where the line collected “Top 100 Firsts” from over 420,000 Facebook fans. Fans were encouraged to tighten up relationships by sharing experiences through photos and videos aimed to create events and memories. Carnival promised to help make those dreams come true for fans giving away anything from cruise vacations to appearing on stage with a favorite band.

Cruise ship home ports- not always the goldmine they promise

by Chris Owen on
When cruise lines base ships in a coastal city, good things usually happen because cruise ship home ports generate good things. Just one cruise ship from any major cruise line can mean $millions in jobs and tourism dollars. Being a cruise ship home port can greatly enhance the image of a city too. Not every city is cut out to be a cruise ship home port but the ones that are, expect to be one for quite a while. Imagine their surprise in Mobile, Alabama when the one cruise ship they had gave notice; they are sailing away to be based elsewhere.

“We have made the very difficult decision to discontinue our cruise operations from Mobile effective October 22, 2011.” said Gerry Cahill, president and CEO, Carnival Cruise Lines


A difficult decision indeed. Cruise lines have a stake in the success (or failure) of a cruise ship home port as well. A lot of time and resources go into choosing a home port in the first place then the process of supplying the ship, booking passengers, arranging ports of call and other ongoing activities take place.

“We are extremely grateful for the many years of tremendous partnership, support and cooperation provided by the Alabama Cruise Terminal team, the local leadership in Mobile, area travel agents and the community at large.” added Cahill, noting “Unfortunately, we have not been able to achieve favorable financial results with this program.”

And that is the end of that.

They tried and they tried again but it just did not work out for Carnival in Mobile, Alabama begging the question: “Was Mobile a good choice for a cruise port in the first place?”

Well it certainly seemed so at the time. City leaders and government officials courted Carnival, built the new Alabama Cruise Terminal, but are left with an empty facility and a $26 million construction bill to pay. Mobile’s mayor is in Miami, trying to work things out with the cruise line as we see in this report from local television station WKRG.

WKRG.com News

The issue at hand seems to be all about the prices being paid for a sailing aboard the Elation. While the ship sailed full, prices were lower than needed by the cruise line to reach the level of profitability they need to make staying there worthwhile.

So off to New Orleans the Carnival Elation goes.

Right now, New Orleans has the Carnival Triumph, a newer, bigger ship with more to offer, selling for about the same price.

Right now, a 5-night ride on the Elation goes for a starting price of $379 per person + tax on a mid-April sailing while the Triumph is has a starting price of $359 per person +tax. About the same.

But Carnival Triumph is moving to Galveston where a 5-night sailing in April of 2012 will start at $499 per person + tax. A much higher price. Take that $100 or so per person times the 2000 or so passengers on each sailing of the ship and we’re talking millions of dollars a year.

Other factors go into the decision to move a ship too.

“Additionally, the itineraries from Mobile require much higher relative fuel costs to operate and those fuel costs will become even more unfavorable with the implementation of the new ECA requirements starting in 2012.” said Cahill which brings up a whole other topic as cruise lines scramble (reposition ships, in this case) to make ends meet.

Cruise lines are already absorbing the higher price of fuel rather than pass it along to passengers in the form of the highly-unpopular fuel surcharge and nothing will be left off the table as an option to keep prices down.

This is by no means a Carnival-exclusive method of operation. While these decisions are tough ones for cruise lines to make, the very nature of their “mobile assets” makes moving ships a viable, if not prudent way to do business.

The entire U.S. west coast cruise industry has been transformed as ships from many lines were redeployed to more profitable waters. The common fear reported earlier with these moves is that less supply of ships in North America will force higher prices as cruise vacations continue to be in high demand. This move of the Carnival Spirit takes yet another ship from the U.S. West coast who recently lost Royal Caribbean’s Mariner of the Seas to Europe.

A realignment of assets among cruise lines and less capacity in North America could mean fewer choices and higher prices. Travel authority Arthur Frommer called the shifting of capacity to European waters “the biggest development in cruising” noting “you’ll see far fewer cabins and berths in the Caribbean.”

It may all boil down to an overzealous push by local leaders to attract cruise ships in the first place. The seductive allure of the considerable tourism dollars that just one ship can mean might cause government officials to look beyond elements of the deal that might come back to haunt them later.

In the case of the Carnival Elation in Mobile, Alabama, the cruise line, by contract, had to give the city just 90 days notice if they were moving a ship. There are those who might question the wisdom in agreeing to those terms when doing so included building a new cruise terminal the city would be obligated to pay for years into the future.

When would-be port cities throw their hat in the ring for consideration to be a home port for a cruise ship, they naturally want to portray their city favorably. Sometimes too favorably.

Both Brownsville, Texas and Savannah, Georgia have made similar bids for cruise line attention. Critics of the idea sounded off when preliminary feasibility studies came back painting a bit rosier picture of what might be than reality would indicate.

“The reality is they have as much chance to get a cruise ship to visit as they do in luring the Lakers from Los Angeles” said cruise industry expert Stewart Chiron CEO, CruiseGuy.com speaking of a feasibility study done by Brownsville, Texas. “These results are based on the cow jumping over the moon, planets aligning and may also require peace on earth!” he added.

In the end, it all seems to boil down to money. The same money cities dream of coming out of a depression, honestly wanting to create jobs, fill hotels and put their city on the map.

Chiron concludes the big question is “Where will the cruise lines be able to reap the highest yields?”

Apparently not in Mobile, Alabama.

The unexpected: part of traveling, even on cruise ships

by Chris Owen on

If we travel by air, we hope our flight will be on time, our luggage makes it with us without damage and that no one sits next to us in that vacant seat. Once at our destination, we hope for good weather, friendly people along the way and the opportunity to make great memories that will last a lifetime. That’s pretty much universal regardless of what we’re doing. Still, the unexpected does happen and there are two ways to look at it when plans go awry. We can be disappointed and allow deviations from our plans to ruin our travels or we can accept those deviations, regroup and move along, often ending up with a richer, more fulfilling experience than we ever dreamed of, let alone planned on.

Be it Backpacking, Hiking, Camping, Climbing, Scuba Divng, Skiing, Surfing or Biking, we hope for the best. Smart travelers prepare for the worst too and usually end up with an experience somewhere between good and great if we did our homework. We know things can go wrong and do what we can to avoid situations where that might happen. All-inclusive vacation packages or cruise vacations promise to take a lot of the guesswork out of the equation but sometimes the unexpected happens with those as well.

Earlier this week, Carnival Pride was docked at Port Canaveral earlier when an 85-knot guest of wind blew the ship out of position and caused some minor damage. The result was a late departure from Port Canaveral and a modified itinerary that skipped good-port Nassau, leaving not-so-good-port Freeport, Bahamas as an overnight visit.

This was not the cruise that passengers paid for, true. But travelers, and cruise passengers in particular, often forget that the very nature of travel brings upon us the unexpected from time to time. That is part of the deal as well. It’s not spelled out in any contract or brochure but the unexpected happens. Sometimes, even with the best of preparation, the unexpected happens and there is nothing we can do to prevent it. We can, however, roll with those unexpected changes and make the best of it. Often, it is the unexpected that elicit some of the best travel experiences that we will be talking about long after the end of that vacation.

Andy Hayes (@Andrewghayes) is the managing editor of SharingTravelExperiences.com and recommends:

  • Always Take the High Road. Being a total jerk doesn’t do anybody any favors, and usually works against you. Remember, it isn’t usually the employee you’re dealing with who caused the issue (and even if it was, still…). Be firm and friendly.
  • Get on the Phone. If you’re stuck in long queues (esp at the airport), get on the phone as sometimes a phone agent can be easier to reach and can get you a manager to authorize off-policy changes. It is better to deal with someone in person though, so use the phone option as a backup.
  • Accept what you can’t change. When the weather or mistakes or whatever means that you just aren’t going to get home on time, or you’re going to miss out on something special, try to find the inner peace to accept it. Yeah, it sucks, but if you let that negative energy fester it can spoil your entire vacation.
That’s good advice that can be applied to just about any travel situation. Often, the difference between “I had a lousy time” and “That was awesome!” have to do with how we look at the unexpected. We can choose to be mad about changes that come our way or we can choose to take those changes in stride, determined to get the most out of every situation we are in, regardless of what that might be.

While cruise lines publish itineraries far in advance of sailing, like a hiking trip, variables along the way can change what actually happens. A gust of wind made a real impact on the cruise experience of passengers on that Carnival ship earlier this week.

A similar gust of wind might have altered the plans of someone on a camping trip, blowing their tent down. If you have ever camped much, you know that happens. You take precautions by pitching that tent in the right direction, using long enough stakes set deep and at an angle to keep them in the ground. But every once in a while you might come back from a hike and find that tent blown down. It happens. You get over it. You move along. It is certainly nothing that will ruin your day or the entire trip.

Cruise passengers need to have that same attitude about itineraries, on-board programs, off-the-ship activities and the like. The unexpected is part of traveling, a part not to be feared but just dealt with when it happens. If possible, turn it in to a good thing, a shared experience with others. It’s often just how we look at it.

Flickr photo by Sparkles Tuey

Cruise lines offering new itineraries world-wide

by Chris Owen on
A common concern among those who cruise often is wanting to see new ports on new itineraries. Carnival Cruise Line came up with some new ones recently that answer the call. Other lines as well hear passengers loud and clear, offering a new, diverse menu if itineraries for their ships as well.

Carnival’s latest itinerary update includes a change to sailings on the Carnival Valor, based in Miami year-round. This one is significant because it brings back 8-day, adds 6-day sailings that and will have the first Southern Caribbean sailings from Miami.

“What’s significant is the 8-night Southern Caribbean itinerary. This will be the first from Miami and follows Holland America’s industry first 7-night Southern Caribbean from Ft Lauderdale” said cruise expert Stewart Chiron, CEO CruiseGuy.com.


Between now and December 2011, Carnival Valor will operate seven-day voyages which depart Sundays from Miami, alternating to the Eastern and Western Caribbean. Beginning in January 2012, the ship will add six-day cruises that depart on Sunday and return the following Saturday and eight-day cruises depart on Saturday and return the following Sunday.

Three different four-port, eight-day cruise itineraries will be offered and include Eastern/Western Caribbean cruises calling at Grand Cayman, Ocho Rios, Grand Turk and Nassau, Eastern Caribbean cruises featuring stops at St. Thomas, Antigua, Tortola and Nassau and Eastern/Southern Caribbean cruises to Grand Turk, La Romana (Dominican Republic), Curacao and Aruba.

Celebrity Cruises Eclipse will sail from Southampton boasting new destinations such as Reykjavik in Iceland, Genoa in Italy, and Ponta Delgada in the Azores. The 2012 return of the popular ship will bring revised cruise itineraries in response to guest demand including a series of eight and fourteen night cruises.

“Celebrity Eclipse is the most popular ship in the Celebrity Cruises fleet for UK and Irish holidaymakers, and we’ve further enhanced itineraries and destinations to keep guests coming back” explains Dominic Paul, Vice President & Managing Director, UK & Ireland.

New calls will be made to rarely-visited St Lucia in the 2012-2013 season too when Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Sun makes regular visits to the island.

Cruise lines headed back to Alaska this year in a big way with many sailings selling out fast in answer to built-up demand.

Last year, the Alaska legislature, on the heels of a low-capacity season, voted to lower the previously raised head tax on cruise passengers. Later in the year, Princess Cruises announced a fourth ship to be added to it’s popular Voyage of the Glaciers run after two years of running a reduced capacity.

“We are particularly appreciative of the efforts of Governor Sean Parnell and the Alaska state legislature that have resulted in meaningful progress toward resolving the challenges facing Alaska’s recovery as a cruise destination,” said Princess President and CEO Alan Bucklew.

Disney Cruise Line is sailing north to Alaska with Disney Wonder as the line will double its size by adding Disney Dream which debuted this year and Disney Fantasy in 2012. Another first-timer to Alaska, Oceania Cruises will send their Regatta on a series of departures from San Francisco, Vancouver or Anchorage.

Flickr photo by LaBellaVida

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