Passengers sick again, cruise line cancels sailing

Last weekend nearly 700 passengers, on three different ships, contracted the flu-like Norovirus causing Princess and Royal Caribbean cruise lines to delay departure of this week’s sailing for extensive cleaning. Now, another outbreak on one of the same ships has caused its cancellation, mid-sailing, and an early return to port for even more cleaning.

Princess Cruises Crown Princess was on a seven-night Caribbean cruise when the outbreak occurred and will skip calling at the ports of Curacao and Aruba to come back two days early.

“In consultation with the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), who has informed us that there are widespread outbreaks of Norovirus occurring in the US, it was agreed that the best course of action to stop the spread of the illness is for the ship to undergo a two-day extensive sanitization,” said Princess Cruises in a statement on their website.

To make that happen, Crown Princess, scheduled to return to Fort Lauderdale on Saturday, February 11 will come back two days early, ending the current sailing on Thursday, February 9th.

Passengers on the current sailing will receive a full refund, assistance re-booking flights if they had been booked through the cruise line as well as hotel accommodations if necessary and 25% of what they paid as a credit to use on a future cruise.”On the current sailing 114 passengers (3.70% out of 3,078) and 59 crew (5.01% of 1,178) have reported gastrointestinal illness,” said Princess. On the previous cruise, 364 passengers (11.73% of 3,103) and 30 crew (2.57% of 1,168) were affected.

The move by Princess is unusual but not unprecedented. Norovirus, which causes vomiting and diarrhea, is a common illness that is easily transmitted in closed environments like nursing homes, schools and cruise ships.


Photo: Princess Cruises

Frommer’s reveals top destinations for 2012

What destination are you dreaming of for 2012? The staff at Frommer’s have just unveiled their list of top travel destinations for the coming year. Included in the list is a little something for everyone: large metropolises, secluded beach towns, colorful riverside villas, and more.

But Frommer’s didn’t just rely on their expert editors and author’s for this years list–they also polled readers to find out where they wanted to visit in 2012. Click through the gallery below to see Frommer’s (and their reader’s) picks–including one surprising midwestern city that is the only spot in the United States to make the cut.
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Other Winners:
Top Family Destination: Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Top Cruise Destination: Tromso, Norway
Top Beach Destination: Hanalei Beach, Kauai, Hawaii
Top Adventure Destination: Moab, Utah
Top Food & Drink Destination: Lima, Peru
Top City Break Destination: Chicago, Illinois
Top Endangered Destination: Aysen Region, Chile
Top Value Destination: Albanian Riviera
Top Destination to Get Lost: Whitsunday Islands, Australia

Photo of the Day (12.12.10)

The faded colors and textures of Flickr user clee130’s photo from the Caribbean island of Curaçao caught my eye today. I love the bright red shirt and hat of the fisherman, the grimy patterns streaking the side of his boat and the soft green textures of the glassy water behind him. Add the slightly off-center “tilt” of the camera and you’ve got a relatively simple image with a lot of intriguing details lurking just below the surface.

Taken any great photos during your own travels? Why not share them with our readers by adding them to the Gadling group on Flickr? We might just pick one of your shots as our Photo of the Day.

Curacao and St. Maarten become autonomous countries: what it means for travelers

Get ready for two new passport stamps: the former Netherlands Antilles has dissolved, and Curaçao and St. Maarten are now autonomous countries. Smaller islands such as Bonaire will now become Dutch municipalities. Aruba, the biggest of the ABC islands, has been a similarly autonomous state since 1986. It’s not a major status change for residents, as Curaçao has been self-governing for more than 50 years, but it will mean greater independence from the Dutch monarchy and more control over their own finances and local courts.

So what does this mean for travelers? The new independent status means more tax dollars for both Caribbean islands, meaning more money for tourism infrastructure and development. Curaçao, with one of the only UNESCO World Heritage sties in the Caribbean, has already seen huge growth in visitors from North America, up 40% this year. Development so far in Curaçao has been conservative and thoughtful, with many well-kept public beaches and no mega-hotels or high-rises spoiling the scenery. Even the island’s newest resort, the 350-room Hyatt Regency Curaçao Golf Resort, Spa, and Marina, barely makes a dent in the landscape; let’s hope the island maintains its charm.

In other news for Curaçao, the island is planning to enter the space tourism game with flights to space in 2014, perhaps the new tourism revenue stream will speed up the process.

[Photo credit: Flickr user Jessica Bee]

The Kura Hulanda Museum in Curacao – looking back on a dark history of slave trade


If you were going to study slavery, you might not think to look in Curacao, but the Kura Hulanda Museum has the most extensive collection of slave-related artifacts and replicas I’ve ever seen, anywhere. The museum, located at Hotel Kura Hulanda, also houses the largest collection of African artifacts and anthropological exhibits in the Caribbean. It seems impossible, considering that about half of the Americans I’ve spoken to don’t even know where Curacao is.

(It’s in the Dutch Antilles by Aruba, and very close to Venezuela. Venezuela is on the north coast of South America. Curacao is below the hurricane belt, which makes it an ideal beach destination for the June through September months.)

So. Inside Hotel Kura Hulanda, a charming historical neighborhood-turned-hotel with unique rooms and gorgeous antique furniture from all over the globe, is the Kura Hulanda Museum, which is owned and curated by hotel owner and entrepreneur Jacob Gelt Dekker. He hand-picked each item for the collection while traveling the world, and continues to add to it whenever he comes across something special. He’s not without skill — the result is an incredible, gut-wrenching teaching institution for all of the Caribbean and beyond.

Those who know a little about the history of slave trade have probably come across Curacao in their studies. The Dutch West India Company made Curacao a major hub for human trafficking in 1662 and it remained as such for the next 200 years. By the time the Dutch abolished slavery (1863), the economy had become entirely reliant on slave trade. Abolition crushed the prosperity of the island for many years, that is, until oil was discovered there in 1914.
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It’s a strange history for what many would call a strange island. The green landscape is filled with bright, colorful buildings made in traditional Dutch styles, and the major landmarks include a fort full of bars and a floating pontoon bridge which opens and closes to allow cruise ships to dock, as well as the oldest synagogue in continuous use in the entire Western hemisphere. You might expect such an unusual island to brush its history as a slave trade hub under the rug. In fact, that’s just what many feared was happening until the Kura Hulanda Museum opened in April of 1999.
Now, visitors can explore a labyrinthine exhibit through modern buildings, courtyards and shacks with a vast slavery collection including KKK uniforms, brands and unfathomable torture devices — some replicas, some real. There’s a basement converted into a replica of a slave ship slave’s quarters.

The first gallery is about the origins of man, with priceless ancient treasures collected by Dekker. My guide, Yflen, explained to me that the point of this gallery is “to remind you that we all come from the same place.” The impressive exhibit features ornate clay tablets and tax collector slabs, zoomorphic vessels, terracotta deities and fascinating relics from Iran, Ethiopia, Syria and other know habitats of early man.

Then, you enter the first courtyard and are presented with this beautiful face:

Walk around a bit and visit a shack full of skull replicas and the astonishing spider dolls (see: Kura Hulanda’s spiders – an unforgettable hotel exhibit), and take another look at this stunning sculpture by Nel Simon.

It is from here you can begin your journey into a horrifying history of torture and abuse — things we don’t like to, but must, remember. Along with the sinking feeling of seeing what awful things human beings have done and do to each other comes a strong sense of the importance of learning about those things. Being there is a way of honoring the people who suffered; recognizing the significance of that suffering.

The museum ends in an expansive gallery of African artifacts, celebrating the unique and fascinating cultures from which the slaves were torn. My heart still breaks when I recall the story that Yflen told me: slave catchers would figure out where the children from a village went to play, then fill that area with concealed metal traps. A child would inevitably get caught and the adults would come to rescue him or her, only to be caught themselves. Perhaps you already knew that story; perhaps you know one of the thousands of others.

The Kura Hulanda Museum takes you on an emotional and richly educational ride. It’s one thing to have a dark history of slave trade, and another thing entirely to put it out in the light for all to see.

[Photos by Annie Scott.]

My visit to the Kura Hulanda Museum was sponsored by Kura Hulanda, but the ideas and opinions expressed in this article are 100 percent my own.