"Missing honeymooner's" wife and parents divorce over $1 million settlement

Solving the case of what befell "missing honeymooner" George Smith is starting to seem about as likely as OJ finding the "real killer" of Nicole and Ron. In the latest chapter of the bizarre case, Jennifer Hagel-Smith, George's wife, and George's parents, have fallen out subsequent to her acceptance of a $1 million settlement from Royal Caribbean.

George's parents and sister were reported by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel to consider Jennifer's deal a "sell out" that they plan to challenge in court, while Jennifer plans to set aside $25,000 of the million for a fund in her husband's memory. The parents' attorney, a fellow named Brett Rivkind, whose firm's Web site describes itself as "cruise personal injury lawyers," has made a career of suing cruise lines. Since the deal remains subject to a judge's approval, who knows whether the deal will take place.

The presumption is that George fell or was pushed overboard in July 2005 during his honeymoon cruise aboard Brilliance of the Seas after a late night of drinking. New spouse Jennifer, meanwhile, was found sleeping in a public hallway elsewhere on the ship.

When Royal Caribbean was told the following morning the George could be missing, they promptly involved the FBI as well as local Turkish authorities, and a nearby vacationing FBI agent came onboard to assist. Those facts seem accepted by everyone.

Our bottom line? Royal Caribbean seems to bear no fault for George's death through any action, or lack of action, and followed both the letter and the spirit of the law in working with authorities to help unravel the truth. Royal Caribbean has aggressively defended its actions, so we were surprised they offered this settlement, although we're sure at this point they would prefer for the story to finally go away.

We'd like to know what really happened, although unraveling that seems less likely all the time

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Grand Cayman provides overpriced overnight accomodation -- behind bars

They never learn. Two Carnival Victory passengers came ashore with more than sunscreen and cameras last week in George Town Harbor in Grand Cayman. A drug K-9 alerted officers to the couple, who upon searching were found to be carrying marijuana, and admitted to having more onboard the ship.

According to Caycompass.com, the two were held overnight in jail, fined about $1,800 each in US dollars, and released, after having been threatened with more jail time. The magistrate said that while US prisons might not have room to accommodate drug users, than the Cayman Islands had plenty of space available and would be happy to use it.

We hear these stories regularly, fortunately not involving our customers--so far! Drug laws in foreign countries can be downright draconian, and it's simply not worth it to risk jail time in a faraway prison.

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Crazy story we missed... Norwegian Pearl caused pan-European power outage

We don't generally dredge up old news, but this story seemed hard to believe until we verified it. The brand-new Norwegian Pearl cut power to millions of Europeans in November last year. How, you might ask? So did we!

The outage started with the planned shutoff of a 380,000 volt power line over the River Ems so that the newly-built Norwegian Cruise Line vessel could pass safely underneath on her way from the German shipyard to the North Sea. This seems to have caused a cascading power grid failure like falling dominoes.

After all the dominoes were counted, a large part of Western Europe, including parts of Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, and Spain, were without electrical power.

Included in the blackout were 5 million French residents Paris, Lyon and elsewhere. In addition, over 100 electric trains in Germany and Belgium were brought to a halt.

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Trans-fats going overboard at Royal Caribbean

Good riddance to health-killing and unnecessary trans-fats at Royal Caribbean, the first cruise line to announce such a phase-out, which will be complete by year-end. Partially hydrogenated frying oil will be eliminated immediately, after a successful experiment with trans-fat-free oil onboard Navigator of the Seas last November.

"Vegetable oils that have undergone hydrogenation result in a type of fat that doctors have linked to serious health risks including diabetes, high blood pressure and increased cholesterol levels," explained Michael Bayley, senior vice president, Total Guest Satisfaction. "If we can offer guests a healthier serving of the foods they love by switching to trans-fat-free oils, while maintaining the same level of satisfaction, why wouldn't we make the switch?"

Royal Caribbean is working jointly with its suppliers to ensure that trans-fats are off the menu entirely by year-end.

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Port of Miami security false alarms: two in two days

Two days in a row blaring headlines trumpeted possible terrorist activity at the Port of Miami, yet each case turned out to be much ado about nothing.

The cause of the first case? "Just miscommunication," say the authorities. And the cause of the second? A box of garden-variety sprinkler-system parts misidentified as plastic explosive by an electronic sensor.

On Sunday morning a man driving a tractor-trailer into the port, which handles cargo as well as cruise passengers, aroused suspicion when due to a language barrier, authorities thought he said he was alone, when in fact there were two other men with him. Did we mention that two of these men were Iraqi, and one was Lebanese?

In the end it turned out that the three are in the country quite legally and proceedings against them have been dismissed, but in the meanwhile the FBI, Immigration, Customs, Coast Guard, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement were all alerted. Authorities peeked inside the trio's container using a high-tech device and concluded it contained what the manifest said it did: car parts. End of story.

Monday, a pallet bound for Royal Caribbean's Majesty of the Seas triggered a plastic explosives alert after being tested by an electronic device. The ship was evacuated, the suspect box was taken away and blown up by authorities, but in the end this too was a false alarm. The sprinkler-system parts in the box had meant no harm to anyone.

Given that we're all 46 times more likely to drop dead as a result of falling down than from a terrorist attack, according to Wired, we really wish that cooler heads would prevail at mainstream media outlets to wait for confirmation of suspected security risks like these--before going crazy scaring everybody with "terrorist alerts" as the press did this week with these incidents.

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"Savor the Caribbean" with Celebrity culinary cruises

Celebrity Cruises' Millennium will host a variety of guest chefs and restauranteurs as part of the line's "Savor the Caribbean" series. Special events will include hands-on cooking classes, culinary-inspired shore excursions, and a Bacardi-sponsored class on how to make the pefect mojito cocktail. Two cooking classes are offered on each sailing and are limited to eight participants. Classes are an additional $59 per person.

The special culinary guests include Allen Susser, creator of "Palm Tree Cuisine"; Cindy Hutson, known for her fusion of South American, Asian, Caribbean, and North American cuisines; Chef Johnny Vinczencz, a Florida chef known for his Caribbean-influenced cuisine; and Norman Van Aken, owner of three restaurants and a past James Beard award winner.

The "Savor the Caribbean" series will be a part of the Millennium's seven-night Eastern Caribbean sailings from January 7 through March 4. The cruises depart Ft. Lauderdale and call at the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and St. Thomas. For more information on Savoring the Caribbean, visit SureCruise's theme cruise showcase.

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