Last week, the Departments of Homeland Security and of State issued the final rulemaking concerning the requirements of passports for land and sea border crossings under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. After years of development following 9/11, this ruling is the end of the process and can be considered FINAL.

Effective June 1, 2009, the following rules take effect for cruise passengers:

U.S. citizens on cruise voyages that begin and end at the same U.S. port (closed-loop itineraries) must show proof of citizenship* and government-issued photo ID (such as a driver’s license). A passport will not be required for passengers that fall into this category.

*Documents include: Original or certified copy of birth certificate; Naturalization papers; Consular Report of Birth Abroad issued by Department of State

All other passengers and/or itineraries (such as cruises which begin in one U.S. port and return to a different U.S. port or any cruise that begins or ends in a foreign port) will require a passport or other recognized document. For a list of accepted documents, see www.travel.state.gov.

The good news for a majority of cruise passengers – American citizens that leave and return on their cruise from the same U.S. port – is that the travel document requirements will remain largely unchanged from how the industry is operating today.

CLIA continues to encourage travelers to obtain passports to allow the broadest travel opportunities. Your can visit www.travel.state.gov to obtain information on how to apply at more than 9,000 passport acceptance facilities in the United States.

 

 

 

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Carnival Corporation & plc has announced a voluntary refund of the company’s fuel supplement for applicable U.S. bookings that were made prior to November 7, 2007 under an agreement with the Florida Attorney General’s Office. The fuel supplement, announced November 7, 2007, was applied to all U.S. bookings for voyages departing on or after February 1, 2008 for cruises on Carnival Cruise Lines, Costa Cruises, Cunard Line, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises and The Yachts of Seabourn.

The company will now refund the fuel supplement for those guests who were already booked at the time the supplement was announced. Refunds for affected guests will be implemented based on cruise departure date according to the following schedule:

For cruises departing on or prior to April 4, 2008, guests will receive a refund in the same form they used to purchase their cruise;

For cruises departing from April 5, 2008 through June 23, 2008, guests will receive an on-board credit;

For cruises departing on or after June 24, 2008, guests’ bookings will be adjusted to eliminate the fuel supplement.

The fuel supplement remains in effect for all bookings made on or after November 7, 2007. The $5 per person per day fuel supplement applies only to the first and second guests in a stateroom and will not exceed $70 per person per voyage.

 

Carnival Cruise Lines has added a new eight-day Eastern Caribbean cruise option from New York aboard the 2,124-passenger Carnival Miracle. The cruise will feature port calls to Grand Turk, the private island of Half Moon Cay, and Nassau. The new cruise route will be offered approximately once a month from May through September 2009 and will complement the ship's existing Eastern Caribbean cruise schedule from New York featuring stops at San Juan, St. Thomas and Tortola.

 

 

 

Oceania Cruises launched a series of specialty food and wine-focused shore excursions called Epicurean Immersions. Produced in conjunction with culinary experts at Food & Wine Trails of Sonoma, Calif., these tours offer in-depth looks at local food and wine legacies. Each tour showcases culinary treats at estates, centuries-old wineries and traditional restaurants; many are not open to the general public or only known by the most seasoned of travelers. Many of the tours include meals at wineries or private homes.

 

Culinary tours are offered in Italy, Greece and the south of France in virtually all 2008 and 2009 western Mediterranean voyages. A variety of half- and full-day tours are available in Venice, Florence, La Spezia, and Sorrento, Italy; Corfu and Santorini, Greece; and Provence, France. Participation is typically limited to 25 or 30 guests.

Each tour is led by wine experts, cookbook authors, and food and wine academe such as Judy Francini, Pamela Sheldon, Judy Witts, and Padraig Fournier.

 

 

 

Princess Cruises' Tahitian Princess, one of the small vessels in the fleet, will be renamed Ocean Princess in 2009 to reflect the ship's new deployment on worldwide itineraries. The renaming will take place while the ship is out of service during a routine maintenance period in Singapore in November 2009. During next year's fall season, Pacific Princess, another smaller vessel, will cruise from Papeete, Tahiti, where the Tahitian Princess has been based. Tahitian Princess joined the Princess fleet in 2002, and has been primarily deployed on sailings in the South Pacific, particularly French Polynesia and Hawaii. Beginning this summer, the ship sets off on new worldwide deployments, featuring a Connoisseur’s cruise in Alaska, a World Cruise in early 2009 and a season of Northern Europe sailings next summer. Following the 2009 renaming, Ocean Princess will sail on a series of Asia voyages to be announced separately.