Carnival Sells Hurricane Cruises To Nowhere

by Allison Kade on

Lots of people pine after cruises to Mexico, the Bahamas and around the Mediterranean.

But have you ever wanted to go on a cruise to nowhere?

Hurricane Sandy has disrupted normal cruise routes, and Carnival has one creative solution. Rather than letting the disrupted schedules keep their ships grounded, the cruise operator has decided to capitalize on the situation: ships lying fallow, people getting restless.

USA Today reports that, using a cruise ship stranded in Baltimore by Hurricane Sandy, Carnival has created a $129-per-person, weekend-long “cruise to nowhere,” in which the boat will basically sail out and return, enabling passengers to enjoy the cruise experience without actually, you know, going somewhere.

Given the widespread power outages and downed transportation systems along the East Coast in Sandy’s wake, there are doubtless plenty of people with cabin fever (pardon the pun) who would love to get out on the open ocean for a little while.

Funny enough, Carnival’s website has a drop-down menu called “find cruises to …” If you want to take this cruise, there’s actually a drop-down option for “cruise to nowhere.”

The $129 price is for a windowless cabin; ones with balcony views start at $179 per person based on double occupancy. Though it does beget the question – how much “nowhere” is there to gaze out at?

[Photo credit: Flickr user El coleccionista de instantes]

Hurricane Sandy Aftermath: On The Ground In New York City

by Allison Kade on

For tourists and locals alike, the post-Sandy vibe in New York City is unusual, even eerie.

With subway lines down throughout the city, slow bus service and intense traffic – everyone’s who’s got a car is currently using it to get around – the remaining signs of wreckage from the storm make for a spooky Halloween. The city’s weird mood is backdropped by the continuing lack of electricity in lower Manhattan, which makes the normally iconic NYC skyline totally dark (you can see it here, if you click through to the 16th image).

Yesterday afternoon, there were hundreds or even thousands of pedestrians walking across the Williamsburg Bridge, which separates powerless Manhattan from a neighborhood in Brooklyn where electricity is flowing and residents are carousing as though a Frankenstorm didn’t just pass through. Children in costume walked the bridge with their parents to go trick-or-treating; for many, walking is the only viable way to get out of lower Manhattan, with public transportation at a near standstill.

The spooky pre-Halloween vibe was perpetuated in the Lower East Side by shops and bodegas that were open for business but totally dark inside. Katz’s Deli, a New York icon, burnishes a sign announcing it’s open – but that it doesn’t have power and, no, you can’t use its restroom.

With nothing to do inside, residents flock to the streets, chatting with their neighbors and walking aimlessly, all with a restless air that reminds me of a post-apocalyptic movie scene. Street lamps are dark at night, and the lack of traffic lights means policemen are directing traffic at crowded intersections. Cars are fending for themselves at mid-sized intersections.

The disquieting restlessness feels like the quiet before a storm of its own. On Halloween, of all nights, I can’t decide whether this is particularly appropriate, or especially haunting.

[Photo credit: Allison Kade]

Photo Of The Day: Hurricane Sandy In Red Hook

by Elizabeth Seward on

When Hurricane Sandy hit New York City on Monday night, Red Hook, a vibrant neighborhood in Brooklyn, was hit badly. Red Hook is a Zone A neighborhood in NYC and thereby was under mandatory evacuation before the storm hit. It’s a good thing Red Hook was evacuated because Hurricane Sandy flooded the neighborhood with 5 feet of water. Those who don’t live or own businesses in Red Hook still frequently make the trip to visit Brooklyn‘s Ikea or Fairway. In fact, I go there for groceries every few days. As you can see in the background of this photo, taken by photographer Ben Britz, the Ikea is just a backdrop now to a littered harbor where the pictured boat was one of many tossed astray by the storm. Stay tuned for more photos of the damage from Hurricane Sandy.

[Photo Credit: Ben Britz]

Birth Of A Hotel: No Sandy Setbacks On Hotel Construction, At Least In DC

by McLean Robbins on


Our featured hotel in the Birth of a Hotel series, Capella Washington, D.C., Georgetown, narrowly escaped major damage during Hurricane Sandy. The hotel secured much of its construction equipment in advance of the storm, as shown in the photo above, but also was lucky to be just before “closing” stage, when the building is finally sealed and the roof finally put into place.Georgetown also escaped much of the predicted damage, as the photo below indicates. While water levels did rise significantly, the nearby waterfront didn’t flood to the extent forecasted.

We can just see a bit more mud than usual in the C&O Canal, behind the hotel.


Compare this situation with that of another hotel in the construction phase, the future Park Hyatt New York. Readers have likely seen the photo of the crane dangling above One 57th. We’re fairly confident that this will delay that hotel’s opening by a few months.

The Birth of a Hotel” is a Gadling-exclusive series that details what happens as a hotel prepares to open. Follow along with the articles and updates at “The Birth Of A Hotel” page, here. We’d also love to hear from you, our readers. If you have a topic about hotel development or trends that you’d love to see explored, email us or leave a comment below.

[Image Credits: CapellaDC, General Manager Alex Obertop, CarolJoynt, JessyeAnne]

Trouble Booking Post-Sandy Air Travel? Try Using Twitter

by Jessica Marati on

The other day, a friend spent 40 minutes on the phone trying to rebook a trip from Orange County to New York City, only to have his request denied. But when we tried reaching out to the airline on Twitter, it took only 10 minutes for a response. After a few 140-character direct messages back and forth, we successfully switched flights within the hour.

Twitter can be a fast, easy and efficient way to get airline customer service, particularly in the aftermath of disasters like Superstorm Sandy. But not all Tweets are created equal. Here are a few factors that can help your message get noticed.

Using hashtags

Hashtags allow Twitter users to participate in larger conversations on topics and events. For example, a search on the hashtag #Sandy will bring up all Tweets related to the storm. Other useful hashtags include: #frankenstorm, #travel, #airlines, cities like #nyc or #boston and airport codes like #jfk and #ewr. If you include a hashtag in your Tweet, chances are your message will surface beyond your immediate network – which can be harmful to airlines if the sentiment is negative.Mentioning other airlines

It sometimes helps to stir up a little healthy competition. In this particular situation, we mentioned American Airlines in our Tweet to JetBlue, stating that American’s change policy included flights on October 28, while JetBlue’s policy started on October 29. We concluded:

@jetblue first time I’ve ever wished I flew @americanair instead. No way to change flights w/ fee waiver for a 10/29 redeye? #frankenstorm

Within a few minutes, we received a response from JetBlue asking us to send the confirmation code by direct message so they could see if we qualified for a change fee waiver, which we did. To boot, American Airlines sent us a cheeky Tweet asking why we had “cheated on them” and wishing us well.

Your follower count

The higher your follower count, the wider the network your angry Twitter messages will reach. As a result, Twitter users with more followers may well have their messages bumped to the top of the customer service queue. The same goes for users with high scores on Klout, an engine that attempts to measure a person’s social media influence. Airlines already use Klout to issue perks like airport lounge stays and even free flights; it’s not out of the question that they use Klout scores in their social media customer service platforms too.

Perfecting your message

Set aside the impulse to be rude and aggressive, and feel free to shelve the emoticons while you’re at it. Twitter’s 140-character message limit forces you to pare down your request to the bare essentials, and it helps to be direct and concise about your needs. Try to avoid messages like this:

@airline i am so bummmmmmed that i can’t change my flight!!! ur customer service sux. :(

Instead try something like this:

@airline trying to change #LAX-#JFK fl 204 fr 10/31 to 11/3 bec #sandy. phone agent says no flights on 11/3 but i see flights online. help?

[Photo Credit: Flickr user Shawn Campbell]