Cruise Bruise Blog
April 9, 2009
April 9, 2009
Disembarking At Malaga Spain Far From Paradise

While Malaga, Spain has been pleased with the 460,000 cruise ship passengers expected to disembark there this year, too little has been done to ensure more passengers will hear good things and want to come there as well.

Apparently the town council's action on ensuring passengers came ashore and spent money was focused on giving them leaflets to help them get around. Even that, apparently was not enough for the mostly English speaking 7,200 passengers aboard four cruise ships arriving their recently.

The effort by council still resulted in passengers being "confused" and having hard time finding their way back to the cruise ships. I suspect the real confusing began as soon as they disembarked in seeing the leaflets did not accurately describe the town.

Reports of rubbish, empty bottles and urine puddles at the port welcoming the passengers is due to a popular ‘botellon’ public drinking area located nearby.


April 9, 2009
Antarctic Cruises In Danger Of Becoming Extinct

A 40km ice bridge at the Antarctic Peninsula's Wilkins ice shelf collapsed on Sunday, raising fears among scientists that the 13,680sq km shelf is in danger of disappearing.

These signs and the increasing number of cruise ships getting into trouble with groundings plus the sinking of the MS Explorer while raiding the pristine environment for corporate profits has numerous nations discussing regulation of the cruise industry in Antarctica.

About 46,000 tourists visited Antarctica last year – most of them on cruise ships in the Antarctic Peninsula region.

New Zealand is leading the charge for change. New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully said tourist ships posed a major risk to life and the continent's fragile environment.

”If nothing is done, it will be only a matter of time before there is a disaster in the Southern Ocean,” he said. “The international community must take steps to ensure that never happens.”

Back here at home, at a conference in Baltimore, Maryland U.S. diplomats including Hillary Clinton are proposing amending the 50-year-old Antarctic Treaty. The move would seek to mandate, under international law, the current voluntary restrictions on tourism.

The State Department says the plan would "minimize the likelihood of marine oil spills" in the Antarctic and "ensure that tourism is conducted in a safe and environmentally responsible manner."


April 9, 2009
Labor Unrest In Bermuda To Hurt Cruise Ship Season

Larry Jacobs, transportation chief for the tourism ministry in Bermuda, says that a work-to-rule protest by bus drivers will prevent most sightseeing tours in the Atlantic island, where the cruise ship season starts tomorrow.

Jacobs said that the labor unrest "will impact the number of cruise visitors wishing to go on sightseeing tours and also hotel visitors and residents wishing to charter."

The protest began in early February over safety concerns about roadways around Hamilton's bus terminal.

All this atop the problems with the proposed extension to the North Arm of King's Wharf, Ireland Island North.

Stuart Hayward, chairman of Bermuda Environmental and Sustainability Taskforce  say, "A key problem ingredient has been the flawed Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), first submitted in June 2007."

Mr. Hayward said, "At virtually every step, this project has been delayed due to failed attempts at shortcuts, each of which has only added to the delays and prompted further shortcut attempts.

"It is distressing to find that the Ministry of Tourism, rather than facing head-on the procedural and environmental requirements of assessing the impact of the entire scheme, chose again 'retroactively', to split the scheme into three so-called phases, enabling it to push ahead with each phase without having to address or account for the overall impact of the entire scheme.

The internal problems have resulted in delay after delay on the project, which has increased costs.


April 9, 2009
Norwegian Cruise Lines Reports Huge Loss For 2008
Norwegian Cruise line's CEO Kevin Sheehan said the company "achieved record results" in 2008, in what he said was an "extremely challenging economy."

Yet, the privately held company reported a $211.8 million loss in 2008. That is some "record results".

It just goes to show how something really bad, can be spun as really good, if you use the right words.