Carnival strikes deal with EPA on emissions

Posted on 6 September, 2013 by Spacejunkie2

Carnival strikes deal with EPA on emissions

By Tom Stieghorst

Carnival Corp. has reached an agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to avoid using costly low sulfur fuels on 32 of its 102 ships.

The fuels are the main way the cruise industry is expected to meet stricter air pollution rules of the North American Emissions Control Area that take effect in 2015.

Under the agreement, Carnival will install exhaust scrubbers on the ships during a trial period, an alternate way to curb emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxides and particulates.

Carnival said it will spend $180 million to buy and install the equipment for some ships sailing for Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises and Cunard Line. Which ships will get the technology has not been announced. Carnival has been testing a scrubber on Cunard’s Queen Victoria ship.

In addition to the EPA, the U.S. Coast Guard and Transport Canada support for the program, Carnival said. Armed with those key endorsements, it will now ask flag states that oversee various ships to allow the trial to proceed.

As part of the agreement, Carnival committed its ships to use shore power or less polluting marine gas oil for fuel while docked in U.S. ports.

Previously, the EPA had rejected a cruise industry proposal that would have let some ships burn high sulfur fuel as long as average emissions were lowered in a geographic area to meet the standard.

An agreement on the Emissions Control Area (ECA) is critical to cruise markets like Alaska, where cruises operate almost entirely within the 200 mile ECA zone, and costs for low-sulfur diesel can be double the charges for traditional fuel.

Disney Cruise Line bans smoking on balconies

Posted on 19 August, 2013 by Spacejunkie2

Disney Cruise Line bans smoking on balconies

By Tom Stieghorst

Disney Cruise Line is telling customers and agents that as of Nov. 15 it will no longer permit passengers to smoke on balconies.

Guests already booked in verandah balcony cabins will be contacted by e-mail about the change.

Disney will impose a $250 penalty on passengers who are found to be smoking on the balcony or in their stateroom.

Smoking will still be allowed in designated open-air spaces on deck, Disney said.

We have just come of a Carnival cruise and they allow passengers to smoke on the balconies, we don’t smoke but every time we went on our balcony all we could smell was the different types of smoke from pipes, cigars and cigarettes, this ruined our private open space that we have paid for. Smoking should be banned from all public areas, and a smoking area should be set up out of the way of non-smokers and children.

The contented Carnival cruiser

Posted on 2 August, 2013 by Spacejunkie2

The contented Carnival cruiser

By Tom Stieghorst

In most businesses, customer satisfaction looks like a bell curve.

On one end, there are a few loyal patrons who can’t stop raving about their experience. There’s a big group in the middle who are moderately content, and then a few very unhappy campers.

At this point, the public may think most Carnival Cruise Lines passengers are all in the last group, and that taking a cruise with Carnival is a risk that few sane vacationers would accept.

But there are plenty of Carnival passengers in the other two groups. This fall, the company plans to feature some of them in an ad campaign to reboot public perception about Carnival.

To that end, it is collecting testimonials on its Facebook page from customers who have enjoyed their cruise.

There were plenty of them on a recent Carnival Sunshine cruise I took in the Mediterranean. The ship had an admittedly rough start after emerging from a drydock in May. Areas of the ship weren’t ready for passengers, due in part to last-minute sabotage of some cabins, company President Gerry Cahill said at a media briefing.

But the cruise that I was on was uneventful. *TomStieghorst

There were no fires, no illness outbreaks, or rogue waves, or missed ports of call, or mechanical breakdowns or any of the other misfortunes that tend to draw media attention to a cruise.

It was smooth sailing, literally, on a flat Mediterranean Sea. Passengers were largely unaware of a hearing that took place during the cruise, in which Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) outlined his bill to give them more rights.

Typical, perhaps, was a group I lunched with on a port call in Marseille, France. Some said that after booking Carnival, they monitored news about the company to be sure they hadn’t made a mistake. None felt they had.

A honeymoon couple said they chose the Sunshine cruise for the port-intensive itinerary, which included Marseille, Rome, Florence, Naples, Venice, Dubrovnik, and Messina, in Sicily, in nine days.

An older couple picked Carnival for the low price and good value.

The group wasn’t giddy, but they did seem satisfied. Ads with real folks like these, talking from first-hand experience, could be just what Carnival needs to bring the discussion about cruising closer to reality.