TheQueen Mary 2 was
transporting an item so precious last week that it was locked in a
steamer trunk, guarded by ship security and then, upon arrival in
New York, loaded into an armored truck and driven to a secure and
undisclosed location. The Crown Jewels, perhaps?
No, merely the
first J.K. Rowling-signed U.S. copy of Harry Potter and the
Half-Blood Prince, on its way to an awards ceremony for
public libraries. Leave it to the wizards to place their trust in
an old, romantic style of transatlantic travel -- the broomstick
set obviously is less-than-impressed with Muggle
aviation.
Meanwhile, the
Queen Mary 2s 2006 winter season out of Fort
Lauderdale consists of an unusual route south: The Queens speed
enables it to reach Barbados and then work up through St. Kitts and
St. Thomas.
TC heard San Juan
mentioned as a possible fourth port, although Cunard doesnt have it
listed. Regardless, one south Florida producer told TC that the
itinerary was dynamite -- it would have an exclusive arena with
those ports in seven-day roundtrip Fort Lauderdale
[offerings].
And more cruising:
New Yorks Economic Development Corp. may finally
be getting around to those promised upgrades to its cruise
terminal, but theres already a crisp new Web site, www.nycruiseterminal.com, to supplant the old www.nypst.com.
As for the
upgrades, the site has a link to future improvements, which gives
some info on the planned changes.
TC wouldnt use the
phrase detailed info, however. We learned, for example, that the
proposed cruise terminal in Brooklyn will have areas for passenger
processing by federal agencies.
Look for
British Airways to resume accepting plastic as
payment for negotiated corporate fares in the U.K. The carriers
decision three years ago not to accept credit cards for those
discounted fares overseas led to a dispute with American
Express in U.S. district court. The parties ended the
court action last year, but negotiations continued.
The latest victim
of the corporate restructuring taking place at Air
Jamaica is none other than the public relations spokesman
and media contact, and TC hears that other corporate types there
may soon be looking elsewhere for work. Just how many people does
it take to run an airline -- or how few?
With
hurricane season back again, TC caught wind (yes,
pun intended) of a bizarre plan dreamed up by a scientist at MIT,
along with German and Russian weather specialists, to cool the
ocean with man-made tropical cyclones that would rob hurricanes of
their energy sources. The plan involves offshore barges mounted
with jet engines pointed at the sky. The engines create an updraft
that reduces the water temperature, which then diminishes a
hurricane to a tropical rainstorm.
Sounds weird, but
so did space travel.