WITH WAVE
KICKING OFF, several companies
are launching ad campaigns. Royal Caribbean International is among
them; the line kicked off its winter-weather ad campaign last week.
The 30-second ads will run on select national TV stations and show
consumers bundled up in their winter clothes and then switches to
bathing suit-clad cruisers. But in addition, the ad buy strategy
has an unusual twist: the ads will air on TV stations in New York,
Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia when local stations activate their
storm coverage units for severe winter weather, Royal Caribbean
said. In addition, banner ads will appear on the local forecast
pages of weather-focused Web sites such as Weather.com and
AccuWeather.com when icy or snowy conditions exist in those four
markets.
CRYSTAL
CRUISES: A revised drydock
schedule for the Crystal Harmony prompted Crystal Cruises to add a
cruise in Alaska and cancel two voyages in the fall, on Nov. 25 and
Dec. 5. The new Alaska cruise, departing May 9, is the lines only
12-day, roundtrip Vancouver cruise, and it includes a maiden call
in Whittier and three glacier calls: Glacier Bay, Hubbard Glacier
and Columbia Glacier.
RADISSON SEVEN
SEAS CRUISES (RSSC) officially
said it has extended its contract to manage the Paul Gauguin in
Tahiti another year, until January 2007. The 320-passenger Paul
Gauguin was sold this fall to a joint venture between tour
operators Grand Circle Corp. and Vantage Deluxe World Travel, which
had planned to move the vessel at the end of 2005 to destinations
such as South America, Europe and Antarctica. But in a statement,
RSSC said its management contract for the vessel had been extended
for an additional year, and the ship will continue to sail around
the Tahitian Islands.
THE SUPREME
COURT set a Feb. 28 date to hear
oral arguments in the Spector vs. Norwegian Cruise Line case, which
seeks to determine whether foreign-flagged cruise ships must comply
with Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Two separate
U.S. appeals courts have issued opposing opinions on the case,
which originated in Houston in 2000.
ALTERED
COURSE: A Few cruise lines with
ships in the tsunami-ravaged region of southern Asia altered course
last week:
· Star Cruises amended the itineraries
of its SuperStar Virgo and SuperStar Gemini to avoid calling in
Phuket, Thailand, until further notice. Given the magnitude of the
natural disaster ... Star Cruises has decided on the change in the
best interests of its passengers, the line said in an early
statement.
· Star Clippers
relocated the Star Flyers homeport from Phuket to Singapore for the
Jan. 8, 15, 22, 29 and Feb. 5 seven-day sailings and will sail in
Malaysia. The line said it expects the sailing ship will return to
Phuket in mid-February.
· Swan Hellenics
Minerva II's Jan. 1 cruise was altered; the ship will no longer
call in Colombo, Sri Lanka; Male, Maldives; and Port Blair, India.
A spokeswoman said future cruises will be affected, but revised
itineraries were not yet available.
· The Seabourn Spirit
is scheduled to cruise to Phuket and Yangon, Myanmar, in
mid-January. It is too soon to assess the extent of damages and the
effect on that cruise at this point, the spokesman said.