Coast Guard ships would-be migrants back to Cuba

by Chris Owen on

Seventeen Cubans found at sea over the last week, some in in home-made rafts, were returned to Cuba Saturday morning. An eighteenth would-be migrant was taken to the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to determine if asylum in a third country is possible.

While most were intercepted by the U.S Coast Guard, six were saved from a sinking raft by Royal Caribbean’s Monarch of the Seas last Monday when a passenger on board spotted them in distress. “We gave them medical treatment. They were dehydrated,” said Royal Caribbean’s Cynthia Martinez adding “They were on the ship for less than 24 hours”

The Miami Herald reports that in the course of the week they were moved first on Monday to a 45-foot response boat, the 87-foot patrol boat Cutter Shrike, and then to the 110-foot Ocracoke out of St. Petersburg, Florida.

Shipping would-be migrants back to Cuba falls under the United States Wet Foot/Dry Foot policy. Dating back to the Clinton administration, the policy states that Cubans intercepted/rescued at sea are taken back to Cuba while those who make it to shore are allowed to stay.

Flickr photo by gnr

Allure of the Seas hosts 5K run on St Maarten

by Chris Owen on

Focusing on a healthy lifestyle is nothing new for Royal Caribbean. Their ships have world-class rock climbing walls, ice skating rinks, full-size basketball courts and more. This week the spotlight turns to running and active lifestyle activities as guests aboard new Allure of the Seas are invited to participate in the line’s first “Royal 5K St Maarten run”.

New Allure of the Seas will be making a vitality-themed swing through the islands this week on a 7-night sailing encouraging 500 passengers to get off the ship and run in different events as the cruise progresses.

On the starting blocks Monday, is a Fun Run on the Bahama island of Nassau featuring breathtaking views of Paradise Island.

As the week continues there will be a one-mile race on Allure’s .46 mile running track where participants will attempt to set record time for a mile at sea. On-board seminars with top-shelf icons of the running world will be part of it all featuring Frank Shorter, 1972 Olympic silver medalist.

“I know from past experience how much fun it is to combine a cruise vacation with my passion for running,” said Shorter.

Other elite athletes along for the sailing include Sean Jefferson, six-time All-American track star at Indiana University, Bart Yasso, America’s “Mayor of Running” and others.

The event culminates with a 5K run on St Maarten Thursday and all of it will be aired on ESPN’s Caribbean network January14th and on ESPN2 January 15th. Commentators for the Royal 5K St. Maarten show are Joanna “Jo” Ankier, a former British record-holder and Annette Raveneau, a reporter and producer for Univision Network and Entravision Communications.

Talk about some different scenery for your run, this beats a treadmill at the gym any day.

Flickr photo by 666ismoney

Women gaining (a little) ground as cruise ship captains

by Chris Owen on

She’s not the first lady captain of a cruise ship, but when Inger Klein Olsen (pictured) takes the helm of Cunard Line’s Queen Victoria on December 15, she’ll join a small group of women in a male-dominated occupation.

“While we are far from being the first shipping company to have a female captain, it is nonetheless noteworthy when such a long-established British institution as Cunard makes a break with its captaincy tradition,” said Peter Shanks, president of Cunard Line.

43 year-old Captain Olsen joined Cunard in 1997 as First Officer on board the line’s Caronia and was then transferred to the Seabourn fleet in 2001, sailing on the Seabourn Sun and Seabourn Spirit before being promoted to Staff Captain on the Seabourn Pride in 2003.

Female cruise ship captains are few and far between.

The worlds very first female captain of a major cruise line ship was Karin Stahre-Janson back in 2007 on Royal Caribbean’s Monarch of the Seas. Since that time, few other women have been named master of the vessel on a number of lines.

Earlier this year, Sarah Breton became the first female captain of a UK-based P&O Cruises ship in the company’s 173 year history.

“But as Mark Twain drily observed, ‘the folks at Cunard wouldn’t appoint Noah himself as captain until he had worked his way up through the ranks.’ Inger has certainly done that,” Shanks continued, “and we are delighted to welcome her as our first woman driver.”

Photo courtesy Cunard Line

Royal Caribbean revises tipping guidelines

by Chris Owen on

Saying it was the first time in 13 years that they had an increase in their guidelines, mega-line Royal Caribbean today raised the amount of suggested gratuities for on-board staff members on all it’s ships.

Beginning July 1, 2011 the line is revising tipping guidelines to suggest that guests pay $11.65 per person per day, up from a suggested $9.75.

Tipping on Royal Caribbean is not required but the line offers a number of ways to get it done. Guests can either prepay gratuities for their entire cabin in advance of sailing, elect to have that amount automatically added to a guests on-board charge account or choose to use envelopes provided by the line to present cash gratuities to crew members at the end of the cruise.

In a statement, Royal Caribbean said “Gratuities will continue to be given at the discretion of each guest, except for guests who choose My Time Dining, which require prepaid gratuities”

Tipping guidelines vary among lines. Compared to most other cruise lines, the Royal Caribbean plan offers the most flexibility. Carnival Cruise Line, for example, automatically adds gratuities to guest accounts, requiring them to visit the Pursers desk when on board to have them removed should they choose to present tips directly to crew members.

Flickr photo by Uhuru1701

Cruise lines focus on the arts

by Chris Owen on

It’s often a little-noticed detail on board today’s cruise liners: the artwork that adorns everything from stateroom walls to stairways. While passengers do everything from climb a rock wall to just enjoy a day at sea with a good book, all around them is art that has been carefully selected to create a theme or set the mood of a ship.

New Allure of the Seas stirs up quite the buzz on everything from the ship’s sheer size to the tiny details that go into much of what they do. Cunard’s Queen Mary 2, a classic ocean liner with an elegant air, boasts the work of top-shelf artists from around the world. Carnival Cruise Line pays diligent attention to a theme for each ship that separates one from another in their fleet.

What was once simply a way to make a ship look less like a ship and more like a hotel has become a central focus of cruise lines that invest heavily in the arts.

Royal Caribbean’s new Allure of the Seas is one of those ships that has a central theme carried throughout. On Allure its all about “Wonders of our World Cultures” with artwork depicting scenes from all over the planet.

The artwork onboard Allure of the Seas, over 9800 pieces in all, has been created by artists from over twenty different countries such as Norway, Korea, Germany, South Africa, the Netherlands, Iceland, Spain, Colombia, Thailand and the United States. The diversity in artist nationalities in itself adds to the colorful and sophisticated aspect of the curatorial vision of Wonder of our World Cultures.

With pop-artist icon Peter Max along for the ride on inaugural sailings and an on-board Britto store with works from Romero Britto, Royal Caribbean is serious about what they do with art at sea. Sister line Celebrity Cruises has a similar focus on the arts, announcing recently some new additions to onboard programming on new additions to their Solstice-class ships. On those new-builds, the line will offer hands-on instruction from experts in drawing, painting and beading, as well as the art of food with culinary-themed classes.%Gallery-109473%