To debut its new line of cruise wear,
called the Blue Collection, Celebrity
Cruises President Dan Hanrahan hit the catwalk as part of
a fashion show during a two-night sailing from Miami on the
Century.
Hanrahan donned a
red, nylon golf jacket and a blue-and-white-striped polo shirt and
strutted his stuff to Right Said Fred's 1990s club hit, "I'm Too
Sexy," much to the delight of his audience.
With
adversity comes initiative. Take, as an example, the case
of makers of zip-top plastic bags. TC hears that Hefty,
manufacturer of Hefty OneZip bags, and Glad
Products, maker of Food Storage Zipper Quart bags,
are both expected to distribute millions of free, one-quart plastic
bags at major airports this holiday season so passengers can comply
with the Transportation Security Administration's carry-on
regulations.
The giveaways began
with the Thanksgiving travel rush and will run through New Year's.
TSA's carry-on formula is 3:1:1 -- liquids or items of three ounces
or less must be placed in a one-quart, clear, sealable bag, one bag
per passenger.
So will this
handout diminish the mountains of mascara, tubes of bronzer and
bottles of perfume littering the TSA-confiscation bins at each
security checkpoint?
And if so, will TSA
employees, rumored to scavenge from the mountains, become
grumpier?
Oceania
Cruises this month has put its money where its mouth is
and secured $400 million in financing to buy its three-ship
fleet.
TC understands that
Cruiseinvest, the company that owned the three
ships after buying them at auction when Renaissance Cruises
declared bankruptcy, will cease to exist after it sells the ships,
its remaining assets, to Oceania for a total of $375
million.
Cruiseinvest's
investment may seem like an exception in an industry where
companies don't usually buy ships they're not planning to use, but
according to someone familiar with the transaction Cruiseinvest was
widely viewed as a debt recovery vehicle.
And Oceania always
intended to take ownership of the vessels. According to TC's
insider, the vessels were chartered to Oceania at an escalating
price. It was more and more expensive to charter them, so buying
them increasingly became the more attractive option.
Coral
Hotels & Resorts, which is firmly entrenched in the
Dominican Republic with four all-inclusive properties, may be
eyeing Latin America and Mexico
as possible expansion areas.
Coral and Hilton
recently dissolved their four-year marketing alliance. That and a
new trade agreement between the Dominican Republic and Latin
America could be just the impetus for Coral to move outside home
base.