Next week, Croisières de France will be advertising on the Paris Metro. The marketing campaign will encompass over 200 posters. Earlier I wrote about how Royal Caribbean was taking to the subway for their latest marketing campaign.  

Princess cruises has announced that the Crown Princess will return to port early due to an outbreak of norovirus. The ‘cruise ship bug’ has already struck 114 passengers and 59 crew members. The 113,000 grt ship will arrive back in Port Everglades on Thursday, 2 days early. She will stay docked for 2 days while crew thoroughly sanitize the entire ship.

On her last cruise 364 passengers and 30 crew got sick.

photo: wikimedia

Here’s what is left of the aft glass dome over the aft pool.

Look at the center pool area. It looks like they wedged the retractable dome open in that area. Just something I noticed.

Good morning everyone. Here’s the latest:

• Unfavorable weather will not relent. Therefore, officials will call off the search for the remaining bodies. Currently there are 15 pax and crew still missing.
• Costa parent company Carnival Corp., disclosed the financial impact of the disaster.
• Bookings for non-Costa brands are down 14-17%
• Deductibles and other costs could range from $155 million to $175 million ($0.20 to $0.22 per share).
• Salvaging of the wreck could take up to 10 months. By that measure, she’ll be off the rocks shortly before Thanksgiving.
• CruiseLog has Research firm Susquehanna as saying that future Cruise pricing likely to be "in flux" as a result. They go on to state that Mediterranean prices have already dropped.
• Despite the fact that we are in “wave-season,” it’ll be interesting to see how cruise prices react to a more hesitant market. Wave-season is the most popular time of the year to book cruises.
• In just less then a month from now, the Costa Neo Romantica will emerge from her drydock with a distinctly new look. She will be picking up the Concordia’s routes, sailing 7-Night Mediterranean. Starting in May, the Costa Magica will pick up those routes.
• The launch of Costa Fascinosa in May will now be a “low-key affair.”

• Divers have recovered a 17th body from inside the wreck on deck 6.
• 

• Weather continues to hamper recovery and prelim work on the ships fuel tanks.
• Smit is scheduled to start pumping out the heavy bunker fuel midweek.
• AP has the first photo I’ve seen of the actual evacuation from the outside. From here we can tell just how bad the list was.
• 
• USA Today has former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board Jim Hall as saying that this disaster “should be a shot across the bow that things need to change."

Spokespeople for two of the lines, Princess Cruises and Holland America, said they would have no comment on the subject. A spokeswoman for Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises, which are sister lines, said on Tuesday that she would look into the matter but by Wednesday afternoon had not gotten back with answers. A spokeswoman for Carnival acknowledged the questions but also did not get back with answers despite repeated requests.

It really shouldn’t take that long to get a typical PR-type answer from spokespeople of MAJOR lines. Here’s a freebie I just made up “[insert any line here] would not and have not engaged in such dangerous maneuvers.”

	From: My Cruise Stories
	From: Mikey’s Cruise Blog
	From: Huntsville Grapevine

From the looks of it, it’s supposedly a Guest Blog entry from a Captain John L. Beath of My Travel Tastes. Only thing is, Guest Blog entries are always going to original content and not just ‘copied’ from other posts. You be the judge. Is there something fishy here?

Digging even deeper by looking at the HTML of the site I see my above suspicions about the photos are correct. Using the My Cruise Stories site as an example: the image code is in blue. Notice 3 of them are from Grapevine without and note of contribution or any reference to the actual source.

Costa released the below, following claims that they only offered survivors of the Concordia a refund and 30% discount on a future cruise:

============================================

With reference to news reports on discounts and promotional offers, Costa Cruises feels bound to point out that the company has never offered any discount on future cruises to guests who were on board the Costa Concordia for the cruise of January 13th and involved in the tragic accident. The information published by a newspaper and reported in various news outlets is totally unfounded, as is confirmed by the English passenger who was quoted by the newspaper.

Costa Cruises reiterates that after the tragic accident the company’ s priority has always been to provide the maximum possible assistance and solace to the people involved. From the outset the company has been fully aware of and saddened by the suffering and hardship endured by guests and crew members and has acted with this firmly borne in mind.

On a joint basis with rescue teams, the Company worked to provide evacuated passengers and crew members with all the necessary assistance to ensure they were able to return home. Subsequently it contacted guests by telephone, after they had returned home, to check on their physical and emotional wellbeing, and to confirm that they will receive a refund for the cruise and all material expenses relating to it.

As already announced, the company welcomes discussion with its guests and all consumer protection associations to determine indemnity for the hardship endured, with the support of tourism sector trade associations with which it has been in contact for days. Driven by its sense of ethics and the values of fairness and responsibility which guide it, the Company has also given all customers with bookings for future Costa cruises the possibility, if feeling afraid, to cancel their cruise booking by giving notice no later than February 7th. All travel agents who work with the Company were informed of this days ago.

Costa Cruises would also like to clarify that starting on the day after the accident, all advertising initiatives planned were cancelled out of respect for those affected by this tragedy. The Company was unable to stop only one postal promotion which had already been sent to some customers at the end of December.

Costa Cruises is incredulous at the disgraceful and unfounded assertions made about the Company without any form of verification.