Power Cruising

www.bizjournals.com -- (JACKSONVILLE) Carnival Cruise Lines’ launch of a newer and bigger ship from Jacksonville reflects the local industry’s growing potential to attract larger ships and more lines.

The industry leader’s move to replace the 1,486-passenger Celebration on Sept. 20 with the 2,052-passenger Fascination was spurred by the increased attractiveness of the area, which a third of the nation’s population can drive to within a day, said Tony Orsini, the Jacksonville Port Authority’s senior director of cruise operations.

Orsini said “the industry is watching” to see how the authority and Carnival will handle the Fascination’s expected annual 170,000 passengers, 38 percent more than the Celebration’s capacity. The economic impact of the new ship isn’t known, but a 2006 study completed by John C. Martin Associates LLC found that the smaller ship’s presence created 400 jobs and had a $40 million annual impact on Northeast Florida.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Ron Gumm has made the best of 10 days spent with his apartment-like boat docked near here — taking in museums, scenic drives, eateries and, of course, the Gateway Arch — but he was eager to head down the Mississippi River.

If only he could.

Rivers swollen by this month's torrential remnants of Hurricane Ike continued idling the North Carolina retiree and other boaters making "The Great Loop," a generally yearlong circumnavigation of eastern North America that takes them into Canada and eventually south to the Gulf Coast for the winter.

Dozens of boats — many part of the nine-year-old America's Great Loop Cruisers' Association — remained stalled Monday along the Mississippi and Illinois rivers, unable to pass stretches of inland waterways the Coast Guard began closing to recreational traffic last week because of debris and unsafe currents.

Midwest runoff from Hurricane Ike was still feeding the swollen rivers, said Lt. Chuck Mellor of the Coast Guard's St. Louis office. "Even though the rains aren't here anymore, the river's still high," he said. "And it's taking several days to lower itself."

www.boston.com -- Would you pay thousands for monthly Internet service?

You would if you used a month's worth of service on a cruise ship. The best deal you can get on the Web on a Royal Caribbean liner is $55 for 150 minutes. Calculate that over a month, and it could be more than $16,000.

No one would pay that, of course, but the point is this: On a cruise, there may be such a thing as a free lunch. But virtually nothing else is.

Vacationing on the high seas means running into hidden costs that only cruise veterans may know about. That wouldn't be me. I've done two voyages and was stunned both times by what costs extra and what's included.

To newbies: Insist on knowing the schedule of fees before you go. It won't necessarily reduce your costs, but you'll be less shocked when you're hit with them.

"The way cruise lines put it, they're not hidden costs; they're optional costs," said Paul Motter, editor of Cruisemates.com, an online trade publication. "No one is required to drink or go ashore. You choose to do it."

The Boston Globe -- After cruising more than 5 million nautical miles, circling the globe 26 times, and making more than 50 port calls to Boston since its maiden voyage in 1969, the Queen Elizabeth 2 - the grande dame of the high seas and the world's most traveled ocean liner - is chugging toward retirement.

On the ship's last call in Boston, Captain Ian McNaught could not contain his pride, saying, "She's as good as she was on Day 1. There won't be another ship that will last this long, I can assure you of that."

She appeared yesterday, in so many ways, a relic of a bygone era, when trans-Atlantic journeys were made on ocean liners, not airplanes, and the cruise industry catered to a landed gentry. The wine-colored velvet seating in the bar beside the main dining room is nothing if not a throwback. There's a "theatre," spelled in the British way, bathrooms for "gents," and a tuxedo rental shop. The ship boasts nearly as many crew as passengers.

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — When the 1,020-foot Explorer of the Seas cruises through North Atlantic waters next year, it'll spend more time off the coast of New England and less time near Canadian shores, and it's not because of better vistas.

Royal Caribbean International and other cruise lines have begun charting a new course in search of routes that eat up less fuel. Already one of the industry's biggest costs, record fuel prices have cut heavily into the bottom line.

The impact of shifting itineraries will certainly have implications beyond the bottom line of cruise operators, creating winners and losers in port towns all along the way.

When cruise ships pull into Maine's Bar Harbor, passengers spend an average of $105 each while ashore, according to a 2002 University of Maine study.

Explorer of the Seas can carry more than 3,000 passengers.

A ship even half that size could mean nearly $160,000 per visit. That means big money in Portland, which expects more than 30 visits next year from ships that can carry between 1,000 and 3,000 passengers.

While Portland stands to reap big rewards from the itinerary changes, port cities along Canada's Atlantic coast could be on the losing end.

USA Today -- Last week it was Gustav causing trouble for the cruise industry; this week it's Hanna.

Even before the slow-moving storm reached hurricane status Monday it was forcing cruise lines to alter itineraries, and the list of ships affected by the storm continues to grow as it churns toward key ports in the Bahamas.

In the latest change, Royal Caribbean says two Florida-based ships that normally stop at CocoCay, the line's private island in the Bahamas, will instead head to Key West, Fla., this week -- a switch that some cruisers might consider an upgrade. Royal Caribbean's Sovereign of the Seas , which departed Port Canaveral on Monday, will visit Key West on Wednesday. The line's Majesty of the Seas , which departed Miami on Monday, will visit Key West on Thursday.

A third Royal Caribbean ship, Mariner of the Seas, also is skipping CocoCay this week but will not substitute another port (the ship will go ahead with its scheduled calls in St. Thomas and St. Maarten). A fourth Royal Caribbean ship, Liberty of the Seas out of Miami, also is being affected by the storm in that it's switching the order of its port calls.

The Chicago Tribune -- WASHINGTON - Laurie Dishman, a 37-year-old food-services manager from Sacramento, said it was time to face her fears head-on, so she took a therapeutic trip to the Port of Miami last weekend.

It was the first time she'd gone near big ships since 2006, when she was raped on a cruise by one of the ship's janitors. Back then, she was appalled when the crew responded by telling her that she needed to control her drinking. So on Sunday, at one of the busiest ports in the nation, she handed out more than 300 pamphlets to people as they began their vacations, warning them of danger.

"There are no laws out there," Dishman said in an interview. "All kinds of things can happen on this floating city in the middle of the ocean, and there's no security. There's no protection. You think you have American rights when you board a ship, but you don't."

The industry is fighting back, saying that Americans are safer on cruise ships than they are on land and that no regulatory changes are needed.

www.dailymail.co.uk -- It sounds like an unforgettable magic trick - sawing a cruise ship in half.

But this is no illusion, as the owners of this 916ft liner really did cut it open to extend its length by 73ft.

Such measures may seem extreme, but the £30million cost of the job is just a fraction of the £500million - and years of labour - needed to launch a new ship.

This remarkable extension to the giant cruise liner, called the Enchantment of the Seas, provided 151 more cabins.

The overhaul also added new facilities, such as suspension bridges over the pool deck, as well as trampolines and a 108-seater restaurant.

As the cruiser is 12 decks deep, construction crews had to work around the clock for six days to divide it in half.They used blow torches and circular saws, and even cut a swimming pool in two along the way.

The Boston Globe -- For Dean Rubin, there's nothing better than taking off on a pleasure cruise from Beverly Harbor on a boat he doesn't own.

"You go down, and the boat is waiting for you," Rubin said. "You enjoy the harbor, come back, get your stuff, and walk away. There are no hassles at the dock. You just get out of the boat and go home."

He and his wife, Tracy, of Beverly, are part of a new trend: Membership clubs that let people get out on the water without the expense and responsibilities of boat ownership.

Mike Saunders brought the trend to Massachusetts in 2005 when he opened a Freedom Boat Club franchise at Marina Bay in Quincy. He now owns similar franchises in Plymouth and Beverly, and there also are locations in Newburyport, West Dennis, Falmouth, and Rhode Island. The Navigator Club in Charlestown, owned by Edward Mancini, offers similar memberships.

Saunders compares it with a country club membership. Just as golf club members call to reserve tee times, boat club members call to request any of the seven boats the club keeps on the Beverly dock. The boats include bow riders, cruisers, fishing boats, and a sailboat.

(AP) —A federal agency has failed to justify a proposal targeting foreign cruise ships visiting Hawaii that critics say would have altered cruise ship itineraries and imperiled tourism dollars and jobs, both in Hawaii and on the mainland, the White House ruled.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection filed the proposal late last year aimed at protecting U.S.-flagged cruise ships operating from Hawaii by reducing foreign ships' time in the islands, but critics said it would have led to fewer cruise ship visits at mainland ports as well.

Following public comments, a modified proposal was crafted, but it was rejected this week by the White House Office of Management and Budget.

The OMB said Customs and Border Protection failed to demonstrate a compelling need for the changes. The agency also failed to show the cost and benefits of its proposal or show that it analyzed regulatory alternatives, OMB said.