Time 2 Cruise

U.S. Airlines has joined the party in charging for the second checked bag. Don't think this is a short term thing. Airlines are slowly moving to " unbundle " things that have been taken for granted until now. In the near future I see all airlines becoming low cost airlines. Frequent flyer programs are going to the way to get perks. I would not be surprised if in the future it will cost for every bag you take on board whether its checked or carried on. The future is here.

A common item brought and bought on board a cruise ship is gel hand sanitizer. It brings up the question of how affective it is when on a cruise. The answer is it depends on what you are trying to avoid. Alcohol based sanitizers work great (up to 99% effective) on bacteria. The problem is that the big culprit, norovirus , is a virus. Its not to say that you should not take hand sanitizer with you on vacation. Its great to have every protection you can think of however when it comes to virus protection, the best thing to do is to wash your hands with soap and and hot water often and especially before eating. Another thing to do is to keep your hands away from your face as much as possible. It sounds easy, but keep tract of how often your hands come close to your face in a day and you may be surprised how often you unconsciously do so. We take hand sanitizer with us on vacation because when in port there are times that finding a place to wash ones hands and any protection is be...

Its has to be good to hear some feel good news with all the bad press that has been playing out lately. It looks like the satellite TV on board cruise ships is getting better, starting with Oceania. For anyone that has been on a cruise, they know how crappy the TV can be on board. Fuzzy pictures, and lack of channels are common. This may sound petty to some, but when you are winding down in your stateroom or watching a sporting event in one of the bars, it can be frustrating. Improved satellite channels will make a great vacation just that much better. Oceania is going to even have On Demand for those that don't want to miss their favorite shows while on vacation. Many people are tied to their TV's and if this gets them out of house and on the ship, then its a smart move by the cruise line and watch for others for follow suit.

We spent the last weekend in Downtown Detroit and chose not to rent a car. This worked out really well for us. Cab from the airport to our hotel was $40 each way. A car would have been easily $80 or more for the 3 day weekend from Friday to Sunday. Our hotel was the Mariott at the Renaisance Center which has access to the Detroit People Mover. The DPM is a light rail system that runs a continuous loop that stops at or within walking distance of most of the popular destinations around the downtown area for just 50 cents a ride. If your goal is to just stay in the downtown area, this is the way to go. We were able to go to a hockey game on Friday night and a concert on Saturday night both at Joe Louis Arena with ease. The system runs about 30 feet above ground so it is not impeded by travic and vice versa. Detroit also has 3 casinos, 2 of which are accessable from the DPM. Being February, it was cold, in the 20s all weekend, but with heated platforms, waiting for the trains to ...

As it stands now, if the rules as interpreted are to go in affect, any foreign flagged cruise ship that sails between 2 different U.S. ports would have to spend at leas 48 hours in a foreign port and at least 50% of its time in a foreign port. The best example would be a Hawaii cruise leaving from San Diego. The 14 day cruise which spend 8 hours at each of up to 7 ports around Hawaii not to mention the time in San Diego would have to add a port such as Ensenada for 48 or more hours to justify the trip. Right now there are only 3 ships that would not have to do this. The Pride of Aloha, Pride of Hawaii and the Pride of America. All three Norwegian ships. Many believe that favoritism is the reason for the new rules. But under the interpretations, all of Norwegians other ships which are foreign flagged would have to follow the rules that the other cruise lines would as well. Adding to the turmoil is that the Pride of Hawaii has been removed from service to Hawaii, and the Pride of...

A recent announcement by Southwest Airlines states that they are going to donate unclaimed baggage to the Salvation Army. I think it’s a great idea, but it brings up an interesting question. Where is the unclaimed baggage coming from? Dumb question if you think about it, but take a step back for a second. Is unclaimed baggage from someone that jumped off the plane and said to them self that they don't need their stuff anymore or is it really lost luggage that after being lost (leave it to you to think about who loses luggage) it then goes unclaimed? I can only guess at the amount of money that airlines spend tracking down people to return lost luggage. I just hope that they still put in the effort before donating it.

I have to say that this may become one of the biggest topics in 2008 in cruising. Suggested changes or interpretation changes in the Jones Act, a 120 plus year old law, would have a major impact on the U.S. economy well beyond cruise passengers just not getting to visit Alaska or Hawaii. I just read that Catalina Island off the coast of Los Angeles takes in about $119,000 each time a cruise ship is in, bringing in millions of dollars a year. That would all go by the waste side. If you are not familiar with what is going on. There is a proposal that would cause any cruise ship that visits 2 or more U.S. ports to spend a specific amount of time in a foriegn port. That time could be required to be as long as 48 hours. For ships that tend to spend no more than 8 to 1o hours in a port, this would cause major hiccups. Small towns in Alaska, Catalina Island, Hawaii, and some Eastern U.S. cities would be affected with loss of taxes, port fees, hotel revenue etc... With cruising incre...

Looks like a good number of people have complained about the fuel charge that has started officially on most cruise lines cruises this month. Enough to get the Florida Attorney General to look into it. While I do not think that much will be done about the charge itself, it will be interesting to see if anything happens with anyone that booked their cruise prior to the anouncement. Cruise lines gave booked guests a chance to cancel if they booked prior, or pay the fuel charge. I talked about this in November and December when all this was going down. Cruise lines were even sharing a portion of the fuel charge with travel agents that got their booked passengers to pay. If they are sharing the money then it did not go towards fuel. We will have to keep an eye on this one and see what happens.

United Airlines has anounced that they are going to start charging $25 for the second checked bag of passengers. Well, they are for passengers that are not part of their frequent flyer club programs that is. Just another stick it to the passenger in what is becoming a trend with airlines and one that I don't see changing any time soon. Its getting so that when you go to search for flights you will have to not only look at the price of the flight but see how much its going to set you back to take your clothes with you.

South America is supposed to be a popular destination this year. But with the way things are going, longer trips may be on hold for some if only for cost reasons. Because of this, trips to South America which add time to cruises may suffer a little. While this may be true for some, the avid cruiser is probably not going to let the economy get in the way of visiting new ports. While only time will tell how well the cruise lines will do, it looks like the economy is not going to slow them down that much. As I mentioned in a previous post the cruise lines have strong bookings so far this year, but many of the bookings were made prior to the recent changes of fuel charges. We don't plan to make any South American tips this year either, but Europe is on our radar, so I have to say from a personal standpoint that the economy has not affected our vacation plans YET.