‘Bill of rights’ helps protect passengers
Industry addresses emergencies, equipment failures
The U.S government has been pushing the cruise industry for a passenger “bill of rights.” Finally, last week the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) — the umbrella organization for major cruise lines — addressed the issue.
There are 10 items on your list of rights, especially important for emergency or mechanical failures.
According to CLIA, its 26 members all agreed. Here are four of them: 1. The right to disembark a docked ship if essential provisions aren’t able to be provided on board.
2. The right to a full refund if a trip is cancelled due to mechanical problems or a partial refund for trips that are cut short.
3. The right to get timely updates about itinerary changes if a mechanical failure or emergency disrupts a trip, as well as updates on attempts to deal with mechanical problems.
4. The right to transportation to the scheduled final port or a passenger’s home city if a cruise ends early because of mechanical issues.
The International Cruise Line Passenger Bill of Rights is posted portsandbows.com.
At the end of May every year, the U.S.’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration makes its annual predictions for the upcoming hurricane season.
This year, NOAA says there is a 70-per-cent likelihood of 13 to 20 named storms with winds of 39 m.p.h. (63 km/h). It adds that seven to 11 of the storms may reach hurricane status (winds of at least 74 m.p.h. or about 119 km/h), including three to six major hurricanes with winds of 111 m.p.h. (179 km/h) or higher.
These ranges are well above the seasonal average.
Alphabetically, here are the names that will be used as hurricanes develop in 2013: Andrea, Barry, Chantal, Dorian, Erin, Fernand, Gabrielle, Humberto, Ingrid, Jerry, Karen, Lorenzo, Melissa, Nestor, Olga, Pablo, Rebekah, Sebastien, Tanya, Van and Wendy.
As one who was the “weather guy” for a few decades on radio and television, I have been amazed at the almost yearly improvement in hurricane forecasting — not only their speed but when they’ll make landfall — 24 hours out.
With that kind of accuracy, hurricanes are mainly just a pain in the neck for the cruise lines. In a few cases, cruise lines may have to reroute ships to new ports, sometimes skip a port or infrequently delay a departure. In the case of skipping a port, if there’s time to make arrangements they will look for a new port.
I was on a ship that had to bypass Grand Turk due to storms, and within an hour the captain announced docking space had been secured for the next day in Nassau — problem solved.
I’ve heard of cruise lines raising prices of private restaurants after a year, but never after one cruise.
Norwegian Breakaway, the line’s newest ship, must have broken some kind of record in raising the price after one cruise.
The Ocean Blue eatery went from $35 to $49 for its second cruise. The old price will apparently be honoured for passengers who had booked the restaurant online before the announcement.
And finally there’s a princess coming to Canada next year — a Royal Princess at that, just not the one you probably have in mind.
Princess Cruises has announced its new ship, the Royal Princess (to be christened in a couple of weeks), will sail four seven-day cruises from New York to New England and Canada starting from Sept. 27 to Oct. 18, 2014.
Ports include New York, Newport, Boston, Bar Harbor, Saint John and Halifax. Prices start at $999, not including government fees and taxes.