Cruise Bruise Blog
October 29, 2008
October 29, 2008
Murder Aboard Queen Mary 2
Early reports say a man, age 38,  was arrested last night aboard the Queen Mary 2, after he strangled his lover in his cabin during a drunken rage. The couple, both from the Philippines worked aboard the cruise ship, she was his supervisor. Initial reports say she told the crew member she was breaking it off, he could not take the rejection and attacked her. The victim is said to be a woman age 32, but no other details are available at this time. At the time of the attack, the ship was in Hamburg, Germany for repairs. When more details become available, this case will be added to the main data base with it's own case page. A link will be here. Another murder aboard the Queen Mary 2 is here. More murders are here

October 29, 2008
Cruise Lines Warning Bookings Are Way Off
The cruise industry has taken a huge hit as Americans struggle to put food on the table, and fear of financial Armageddon has families and the retired alike holding back purchasing to ensure they can meet their basic needs. The results are  cruise ship bookings being canceled and new bookings off in double digits. RCCI says in their Q3 report, they have "significant deterioration recently in new bookings due to economic and financial turmoil." That statement summarizes an industry that only sees bookings when people have "extra" money.

October 29, 2008
Hawaii Hit Hard By Tourism Loss
Tourism to Hawaii is off by 20% over the same month last year, according to the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism report for September 2008 tourism. Visitors from the eastern U.S. were the greatest loss with a down turn of 26.2%, the worst decrease seen since 9/11/2001. West coast U.S. tourist arriving were down 21.5%, and visitors from Japan were down 19.8%. Visitors from Canada were off only 6%. The number of cruise ship visitors arriving to Hawaii were down by over 21,000 for the month of September.

October 29, 2008
Alaska Local Says Cruise Industry Destroyed Ketchikan, Alaska
Reasons stated were the town was too congested, quaint shops along the downtown business corridor once open year around are now owned by out of people from out of state, who only open the shops in the summer for cruise ship passengers, traffic is horrendous in the summer and people have become ignorant, rude and unfriendly due to their hostility towards the flood of cruise ship passengers. The critique of the damage the cruise industry has done to Ketchikan was made by a worker from the NOAA Ship Fairweather and was used as a defense to keep the cruise industry away from Kodiak, Alaska.