Oceania Cruises purchased by Apollo Management

Wouldn't it be nice, when you go shopping, to come home with, say, a hotel chain, ski resort, and a satellite radio company? Now that's power-shopping. Apollo Management, with over $16 billion invested, has pockets plenty deep enough to have done all that--and it just added Oceania Cruises to the trophy case with an $850 million majority investment.

Oceania chairman and CEO Frank del Rio, who remains a stakeholder in the company, explained that the rock-solid financial footing gives the cruise line the capital resources to play with the big boys, such as being able to order capital-intensive new ships.

Oceania's current three midsize, 684-passenger ships are simply super, successfully delivering on the company's premise of a near-luxury experience at premium pricing, sailing around the world to Europe, China and the Far East, Australia, New Zealand, South America, Central America and the Caribbean.

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Windstar sold by Carnival Corp.

Windstar Cruises, one of our personal favorite cruise lines around here, is being sold by Carnival Corp. to Ambassadors International, the company that runs the Majestic America river cruise company. Pending regulatory approval, the sale will be complete quickly, by April.

Carnival's CEO Micky Arison explained that the company has had long-standing plans to exit the niche cruise market, and this divestiture fits with their strategy. Ambassadors, meantime, says they plan to maintain the unique, relaxed luxury of the Windstar experience.

Windstar's fleet includes three computerized sailing ships, two 150-passenger vessels and one accommodating 300. The deal was for $100 million, comprised of $19 million cash, $60 million financed, and $21 million of assumed debt.

Did we mention that we love Windstar? So listen here, Ambassadors, you better not mess up a good thing... we're keeping an eye on you!

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Disney Cruise Line adding two new ships

With only two mid-sized ships, those booking a Disney Cruise get an education in the law of supply and demand: a very popular product, plus not-too-many staterooms, equals consistently higher prices and scarcer availability. So Disney's announcement that it's building two new ships, for delivery in 2011 and 2012, more than doubling current capacity, has perked up sea-loving mouse-ears everywhere.

Disney's first experiment in cruising, partnering with now-defunct Premier Cruises on land-and-sea Disney vacations aboard The Big Red Boat, worked so well that Disney decided to build two of its own ships, delivered in 1998.

Since then, Disney cruises have been well-reviewed by passengers, and apparently by Disney's bean-counters too. "Since our maiden voyage in 1998, Disney Cruise Line has been a huge success for our guests and for our shareholders alike," explained Disney president and CEO Bob Iger. "It has brought our unparalleled family vacation experience to the high seas, and has also generated high margins and double digit returns on invested capital. We're excited to announce the expansion of our fleet, which is a logical next step in what is a real growth business for us."

Substantially larger than Disney's existing 83,000 ton vessels, the new 122,000-ton ships will each have 1,250 staterooms, and a construction contract was awarded to Meyer Werft in Papenburg, Germany.

For now Disney is holding back details about any new onboard goodies, other than assuring that their Imagineers are working hard to delight and amaze the families who will undoubtedly swarm onboard.

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Senior citizens from cruise fight off would-be muggers, kill one

A group of Caribbean-cruising senior citizens, including a former Marine, turned the tables on three armed attackers Wednesday, scaring two off and killing the third.

After arriving in Limon, Costa Rica, onboard Carnival Liberty, the twelve seniors set out together to tour the area with a van driver they had hired independently. After one of the would-be robbers, reported as Wagner Segura, 20, pulled a gun on the group, the seniors jumped on him and--according to conflicting reports--either asphyxiated him, broke his neck, or both. The other two muggers fled.

Then the plucky seniors put Segura's body on their tour bus, and delivered him to the authorities. Police didn't detain the cruisers, concluding that they acted in self-defense, noting that Segura was a known criminal.

Carnival Cruise Line reports that, after learning of the incident, they dispatched a ship's officer to assist their guests and escort them back to the ship. The cruise passengers all elected to continue on with their vacation.

Carnival also pointed out that this group was not on a ship-sponsored tour.

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Rosie O'Donnell cruise causes cancellations for those already booked

A cruise ship getting chartered is not newsworthy. Neither is the cruise line cancelling the reservations of people who booked the sailing before the cruise charter. But it is newsworthy when Rosie O'Donnell is the person doing the chartering for her gay- and lesbian-friendly family vacation company, when the cruise sails in less than five months, and when the cruise line's compensation to the bumped passengers seems weak.

That's what just played out with Norwegian Dawn sailing July 7 for a Bermuda cruise.

Rosie's R Family Vacations completed a full-ship charter with Norwegian Cruise Line. And since Norwegian agreed to it, naturally Norwegian also knew it would need to cancel the existing reservations of people who were already booked, and offer them some kind of compensation.

Of course, these folks could rebook their trip on Rosie's cruise, but their preferred accommodations might not be available, prices are somewhat higher, and some will be uncomfortable on a gay- and lesbian- targeted cruise.

It's very unusual for a ship to be chartered so close to the sailing date. That means more people booked already, and thus more people inconvenienced by having their vacations now cancelled. Most full-ship charters happen about a year out, as opposed to less than than five months in advance like this one. We're also sure it helped that R Family Vacations and Norwegian Cruise Line have a longstanding business relationship.

As far as we've been able to ascertain, Norwegian is offering the cancelled people $100 per stateroom on board credit to rebook on a different date. Some people may find that fair, but certainly plenty others won't, who for example may face airfare change fees and other inconveniences.

Anyway, the many pundits bashing Rosie about this have their ire somewhat misplaced. Rosie's company asked Norwegian whether they could charter the ship, and Norwegian agreed. Any ire about the inconvenience to Norwegian's previous customers belongs with Norwegian. Even so, Rosie's publicists should have been able to foresee some blow back on this. Hopefully they'll charter farther in advance next time.

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Who better than you to decide what cruise should go on sale?

If you love to cruise as we do, you come across special offers every day--shipboard credits for this cruise, a complimentary shore excursion with that cruise--but seemingly never on the cruise you want to book. Which is why we're proud to introduce Vote the Boat, where you, our customers, get to decide which cruises should be put on sale. Here's how it works...

Every week or two we'll hold an election. Anyone is welcome to cast their vote for the cruise they'd like to see put on sale. When the polls close and the votes are counted, we'll declare a winner, and create a special promotional offer just for that cruise. Everybody who voted in that election (even if they didn't pick the winner) will be eligible to take advantage of the promotion on the winning cruise. Sadly, we don't have the budget for fancy victory parties after each election.

Click here to try it out.

Naturally it can't be all fun. There is fine print (like, the promotion can't be applied to previous bookings, not every single cruise will be eligible), and since the technology is brand-new, we figure some technical problems may occur (hanging chads, recounts, delayed results) but we'll iron those out quickly.

Finally, we're interested in your feedback and suggestions on Vote the Boat, so please add your comments to this post and let us know what you think!

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Pride of America breaks moorings, takes short, unscheduled trip

The Maui News reports that Norwegian Cruise Line's Pride of America busted loose Monday from her pier in Kahului, Maui, and had to suffer the indignity of being pushed back to the dock by a tugboat. While nobody and nothing was injured, the mishap could have ended quite badly.

Besides the tremendous force of mooring lines snapping, the ship's gangway was pulled away along with the ship, thankfully with nobody on it. The unscheduled jaunt took about 90 minutes before the ship was safely tied up again. The coincidental lack of other ships in the area is credited with sparing any ship-to-ship fender-benders.

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Regal Princess cruise cancelled after "touching bottom"

Princess Cruises is paying to fly 1,500 passengers home, and granting full refunds plus future cruise credit, after cancelling a 12-night Panama Canal cruise from Acapulco due to damage to one of the ship's ballast tanks. Sunday, sailing from the Mexican port of Huatulco, the damage was caused when the vessel "touched bottom," said Princess, which we guess is polite terminology for, "kind of ran aground, just a little."

It's not yet known whether the next sailing of Regal Princess, scheduled for March 1, will be affected as well.

Although less important in calm seas, ballast tanks are critical to the ship's stability in heavy weather. The bridge crew can rapidly pump huge quantities of water from one side of the ship to the other as needed to counterweight the force of wind or waves.

Not that this relates to the story at all, but even though it's one of the oldest vessels in the Princess fleet, Regal Princess is also one of the most beautiful. Her distinctively sleek and gorgeous lines were designed by Italian (of course) architect Renzo Piano.

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Carnival cancels New Orleans return for Triumph

Carnival will not be moving Carnival Triumph back to New Orleans in September as it had planned. Although the cruise line stated it had wanted to return the mega-liner to The Big Easy, weak bookings jinxed its plans. Carnival's Fantasy, already sailing from New Orelans, will remain.

Carnival said that travelers seem to still be taking a hesitant about cruising from New Orleans, undoubtedly driven by persistent reports of slow or stalled recovery efforts. We haven't been to New Orleans lately to judge for ourselves, but since the vast majority of cruise passengers simply "pass through" their embarkation city anyway, there seems to be no major reason to avoid the port.

Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line also have vessels sailing from New Orleans already.

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Cruise ship doctors are independent from the cruise line, says Florida Supreme Court

The Florida Supreme Court overturned a lesser court, and concluded that cruise lines cannot be held liable for negligence on the part of ships' doctors, who generally are independent contractors. The case about a 1997 incident involved a woman with misdiagnosed appendicitis causing a rupture, infection and sterility.

The patient felt that the cruise line bore responsibility for the onboard physician's malpractice. The cruise line argued that the onboard doctor is an independent contractor, not under the supervision of the cruise line.

We can see both sides of this one. As a cruise passenger, we might think the cruise line is responsible for overseeing medical care. But on the other hand, they're a cruise line, not a medical organization, and can't be expected to exercise medical judgement. It would be like expecting a hotel to accept liability for a doctor they helped track down for an ill guest.

At any rate, the court's reasoning was that federal maritime law does not allow cruise lines to be held liable for their onboard independent medical professionals.

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So how big an extension cord do you need for an entire cruise ship, anyway?

Everybody who's ever been on an interstate behind a tractor-trailer knows that diesel engines create visible, stinky pollution. And cruise ships, when docked, rely on diesel engines to generate power for the ship. So it's welcome news that both Princess Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line will instead be plugging into shore-side electrical power in pollution-prone Los Angeles.

They'll shut off their diesel engines when docked, starting in 2008 when the required equipment is installed in LA. Ship upgrades are also required.

The technical term for the process is cold-ironing, but fancy terminology aside, it does simply amount to plugging the ship into a shore-side outlet with a massive electrical cord. This same technique has been used successfully in the port of Juneau, Alaska for several years by Princess.

If anyone out there has an actual photo of the connection, we'd love to see it!

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Carnival Fantasy struck by barge in Mississippi River

Saturday morning, a rice barge sideswiped Carnival Fantasy on the Mississippi River near New Orleans as it returned from a cruise. Nobody was hurt, but the incident left a 30-foot gash, thankfully above the waterline, on the vessel's port side. The ship then docked at its pier without further incident.

No ships' services were effected, and Carnival optimistically boarded the next group of passengers for their cruise departing later in the day, clearly expecting that repairs would be quick. Unfortunately that optimism was misplaced, as the passengers were told later Saturday that the trip would need to be cancelled.

The guests were invited to remain on board Saturday night with the planned full slate of dining and entertainment. Carnival provided a full refund, credit on a future cruise, and credit for airfare change fees, which is fair given that the whole mess wasn't remotely Carnival's fault.

Although Carnival doesn't cancel many cruises on the day of departure, as luck would have it we personally experienced another such example back in 2000 on the Carnival Destiny sailing from Boston. The ship had been experiencing propulsion difficulties which Carnival expected to resolve within hours. In the end, the problems proved intractable, and we spent two nights onboard the ship tied up to the pier in Boston, enjoying all the same activities if we'd been at sea. Now it wasn't the four-night Canada cruise we'd been expecting to enjoy, but given the circumstances, we thought Carnival made the best of the bad situation.

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Princess dual-ship Christening in Santorini only a few months away

Only a few months remain until a ship Christening ceremony with two firsts. The May 12, 2007 event marks the first time that Princess Cruises has ever held a dual-ship Christening, and the first time a Christening has been conducted at the picturesque Greek Isle of Santorini.

The ships Emerald Princess and Royal Princess carry 3,100 and 710 passengers, respectively, illustrating the wide range of vessels owned by the line. Emerald Princess is a newbuild from the Fincantieri shipyard in Montfalcone, Italy, while Royal Princess was originally built in 2001 as the popular R8 from now-defunct Renaissance Cruises, and most recently was in the fleet of Swan Hellenic.

Both the Royal Princess and the Emerald Princess will cruise the Mediterranean for the 2007 season, and sail to ports in the Greek Isles, the Crimean Coast, Egypt and the Holy Land, and to selected ports on the Adriatic Sea. For more information, contact SureCruise.com.

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Two more cruise lines jettisoning trans-fats

Royal Caribbean's announcement a few weeks ago that it was moving away from unhealthy trans-fats in its cuisine spurred a response from Carnival, a direct competitor in the contemporary cruise market segment, and ultra-luxury line Crystal.

Carnival's press release is amusing, if you read between the lines. Its first sentence declares, "Carnival Cruise Lines, which led the cruise industry by initiating measures two years ago to remove trans fats from its menus, is taking that program to the next level." The clear message to the across-town rival? You kids at Royal Caribbean may have gotten press first on this subject, but we at Carnival were quietly way ahead--two years ago.

While both Carnival and Royal Caribbean have reduced trans-fats, and have plans in place to continually reduce their usage, Crystal is further ahead of the curve.

Crystal put an upscale twist on their announcement, saying not only that trans-fats are totally eliminated effective immediately, but also that a new "oil sommelier" will offer flavored, infused oils to diners to complement their meals. You know how a cruise ship wine sommelier will frequently wear their silver tasting cup as a necklace? What do you suppose an oil sommelier would wear?

Experts say that trans fatty acids are not required and provide no known benefits, increase LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol), and also lower levels of HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol), increasing the risk of heart disease.

So, good riddance!

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Vessel runs aground in Antarctica, spills light marine diesel

Norwegian Coastal Voyage's ice vessel Nordkapp hit underwater rocks at Deception Island, Antarctica, on January 30 and damaged the outer of its two hulls. The damage was minor, nobody was injured, and the ship was never in any danger. But, during the process of transferring diesel fuel from a damaged tank to an undamaged one, 100-200 gallons of the diesel spilled.

By February 6, all traces of the spillage are reported to be gone since light marine diesel "easily evaporates and rapidly degrades," according to a statement from the company. The Gabriel de Castilla research station, the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators, the cruise ship Hanseatic, and the passenger ship Polar Star all have coordinated inspections of the area and found no trace of discharge.

After the incident, the Nordkapp was able to safely move off the rocks and set an anchor, whereupon the 294 passengers and 76 crew members on board were transferred to sister ship Nordnorge. Meanwhile, the Nordkapp was temporarily repaired, and sailed to Buenos Aires for permanent repairs.

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Princess pays $750,000 for likely collision with whale

Princess Cruises has agreed to pay $750,000 to settle federal charges that Dawn Princess killed a whale near Glacier Bay in 2001 -- without admitting that the ship actually hit the animal.

Princess' statement explained, "A few days after this encounter, a dead humpback whale was discovered in the Glacier Bay area. Although we are not certain that the Dawn Princess hit the whale, based on the circumstances, we have agreed to pay."

Since the event, Princess has implemented speed regulations for its ships in the area and also began "whale avoidance training" for its captains.

The cruise line did plead guilty for failing to operate the ship at a slow, safe speed near the marine mammals on July 12, 2001. At the time, the federal regulation on speed was a new one.

Witness statements suggest that two whales were first spotted about 700 yards away, headed straight toward the vessel, which maintained its course. While one whale dove prior to reaching the ship, the other did not, and some passengers below deck were reported to have heard a loud thud. A humpback whale, killed by massive skull fractures according to a necropsy, was found four days later.

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