Cruise Bruise Blog
May 24, 2009
May 24, 2009
British Airways Airliner Nearly Collides With Cruise Ship
A British Airways plane had to abort its landing after Princess Cruises' Crown Princess strayed off course into the flight path as it sailed from Gibraltar.
Shocked passengers watched as the plane pulled out of its final approach and climbed over Crown Princess in the harbor.
The airport runway in Gibraltar juts out into harbor, running the width of the peninsula between the Mediterranean Sea and the harbor.
“By the time we did the final turn, it was obvious to me that we would not clear the ship,” one passenger said.
He said the pilot told passengers over the plane’s PA system that he had aborted because of the passenger ship.
May 24, 2009
Cruise Ship Passengers Miss Cruise After Flight Delay
Karen Heltebran and her two friends from Pennsylvania missed their cruise after their flight from Pittsburgh International Airport aboard Continental Airlines to New York was going to be delayed.
The trio were suppose to fly out at 1130 hours, but there was some kind of problem with the airliner. They waited for two and half hours before the got a flight out. That two and half hours made the difference between board the ship and missing it.
By the time they arrived in New York, their ship had sailed, and they lost the money spent on their cruise. A local travel agent said this is a risk you run when you book your flight separately from the cruise line.
Joe Weigler of Shadyside Travel says, “Customer service with airlines has declined greatly over the last few years."
Continental Airlines didn’t offer a refund on their flights, either. The women said they were offered a $50 voucher towards a future flight.
A thus another reason for flying into the port of departure the day before the cruise is to leave, and planning to leave the port of departure upon return, the day after. Delays are very common these days.
May 24, 2009
Journalist Turned Homemaker Says NCL Freestyle Cruise Stunk
It is a common phrase, to remark about something unfavorable by saying, "It Stunk". But, a journalist turned homemaker who calls herself Mother Of Bun (MOB), says the cruise really did "Stink" in an open letter to Norwegian Cruise Lines.
MOB says that the entrance to an eating area often smelled like sewage and she began smelling it as she walked up the staircase to the area.
But, the stink she says didn't end there. The ports of call she says seemed alot like a "roofless outhouses in July - hot, stinky and dirty".
She says she paid lot of money for "crap" food and paying extra would only reward the passenger with "ok food".
Tips was sore point with her as well. Though the tips were included, constantly the passengers were being hounded for more tips. Though she did give an extra tip to a friendly bartender and her cabin steward, having to do so after already having the tips added onto her bill was sore point.
She adds on cheesy decor, outdated movies, too many loud announcements to go to lame activities, a rude shuttle bus driver, and that really annoying fact, the camera she left in her cabin, was stolen and never returned by the cruise line.
She finished her letter by asking that line quit sending her promotions for future cruises because she will never cruise with them again.
May 24, 2009
Galveston Texas Ship's Pilots Seek Pay Raise Cruise Industry If Fighting
In Texas, pilots are a government-regulated monopoly. The pilots at each port form an association, which charges ships for pilotage, pays the pilots and ferries them out to meet the ships.
Pilots headquartered in Galveston, Texas, fifteen in all, have asked for a pay increase, with the cruise lines fight it, just as happened in Florida recently. They point out that they earn less than the 90 pilots headquartered in Houston, Texas.
“We pilot the same ships as the other Texas pilots do. We attend the same schools. We don’t want to be the highest-paid pilots in the country, but neither do we want to be the worst-paid.” said Capt. Chris Gutierrez, who heads the Galveston-Texas City Pilot Association.
The pilots’ application asked for annual increases of 8 percent for two years, 7 percent for the following three years, and a cost of living adjustment each year, increases on per-ship charges for communications, education and transportation, Ike recovery surcharge of $87.31 per transit to cover the damages their station received during Hurricane Ike.
The increase of 3 percent a year for three years is what is being offered by The West Gulf Maritime Association, who handles the contract negotiations. They say that a surcharge for the damage from Ike is unfair, but don't say how the 15 pilots are suppose to fund those repairs, without a decent pay increase.
The association calculated that a Carnival cruise ship would have to pay $10,968 in pilot fees to dock at Galveston, a 24 percent increase from the present price. After five years, the cruise ship would have to pay $15,995.
One industry study estimated the Galveston-Texas City pilots earn about $335,000 a year before taxes and benefits are deducted, and the Houston pilots earn about $460,000 a year.
Pilots go up to the wheelhouse and advise the captain on the way in, the way the shoaling is and the tides and where the dangers are. Some of the ships are a few feet off the bottom of the channel, and if there’s a little shallow area, may not know where it is and, if you hit it, it could be disastrous.
Such a disaster has resulting in groundings and sinkings of cruise ships that have result in loss of passenger life, such as in the Sea Diamond Sinking and Queen Of The North.
The job these pilots do is essential to passenger and cruise ship crew safety, of no less importance than that of a cruise ship captain, who is responsible for the lives of thousands on every voyage.
Why would the cruise industry think these pilots should not be compensated for their expertise and knowledge, that is well-beyond what their own ship's captains have? Cruise Line Profits at the expense of safety is the answer.
