Dept. of Transportation grows teeth, fines airlines for trapping passengers

If you travel to a cruise, you need to fly. If you fly, odds are good you've been inconvenienced by an airline. And the odds just went up a bit that when the airline really steps out of bounds, they'll have to pay.

You undoubtedly recall one or more of the several episodes of truly bad airline behavior, stranding passengers for hours on the tarmac trapped in stinky planes, sometimes within easy walking distance of a terminal. The Department of Transportation, for the first time, handed down substantial penalties of $175,000 to the airlines involved in one incident--Continental, Continental partner ExpressJet, and Delta partner Mesaba Airlines.

ExpressJet operated a Continental flight on August 8 that was diverted due to bad weather to Rochester NY. There it sat on the tarmac for almost six hours with its passengers unable to escape due in part to the non-cooperation of Mesaba, who was manning the airport terminal at that time of night.

The flight's captain does come out of the story smelling good, so to speak, having repeatedly pleaded for relief for the aircraft's passengers.

We all hope that this marks the beginning of a trend of the DOT smacking down airlines for bad behavior, as the airlines have proven time and again of doing the right things when left on their own.

"I hope that this sends a signal to the rest of the airline industry that we expect airlines to respect the rights of air travelers," said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. We hope so too!

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Relive the 80s: Cruise with Rick Springfield

There's a theme cruise for everybody, including Rick Springfield fans. Remember Jessie's Girl? How about Waiting for a Girl Like You? Well, you can relive those highlights live and in person about the Rick Springfield & Friends Cruise aboard Carnival Destiny on November 12, 2009.

Rick told Oprah about the cruise recently, which will also include Richard Marx, soap stars Doug Davidson and Brandon Barash, and original MTV VJ Mark Goodman.

Since, as frequent cruisers are aware, only about half a ship's guests can fit into the showroom at a time, the big concert will be ashore at the Playa Mia Beach Resort. Plus, Rick says he'll do plenty of mingling with fans while aboard.

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Sully suggests airline add the easy-find tabs back into the emergency procedures manual

Did you know that, as a cost-cutting move, US Airways had removed the easy-find tabs from their emergency procedures manual? If you didn't catch Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger's interview with Jon Stewart last week, it's worth the time.

The best part is at about 17:50 into the episode. Sully explains that as a cost-cutting move, the airline had removed the easy-lookup tabs from the emergency procedures manual. So co-pilot Jeff Stiles had to hunt, while the plane was heading for the Hudson River, for the section covering "oh cr*p we've lost both engines and are crash-landing in the water."

Jon also praised Sully for using his fame for the cause of good, improving air safety, as opposed to, say, Jon Gosselin's use for his fame.

Photo of Captain Sullenberger courtesy of Ingrid Taylar under Creative Commons 2.0

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Gay cruise prods straight couple to sue cruise line

An Italian husband and wife are suing Grimaldi Lines for a refund, reports The Daily Mail, after finding themselves aboard "Italy's first all-homosexual cruise."

It seems the unnamed couple booked the cruise direct with the cruise line, and were not informed of the theme for the 3-day trip from Civitavecchia (Rome's port) to Barcelona. The couple added that they ran into friends onboard whom they had not previously known were gay.

And we wonder what these gay friends thought when they saw this couple onboard?

Anyway, the public debate has the couple demanding compensation due to "lost satisfaction" caused in part by the media circus surrounding this cruise, whereas the cruise organizers claim that the couple is simply homophobic.

The original article is worth a look to enjoy the promotional photos from the cruise.

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Daily Cruise Deal via Twitter

Customers have been asking us how to see last-minute price drops on cruises, so we're happy to introduce our Daily Cruise Deal feed in Twitter. One day, one killer cruise deal. Follow us!

Every morning, we'll review over 30,000 departure dates from the major cruise lines and look for the ONE very best deal that's available, to Tweet in Daily Cruise Deal. These cruises will almost always cost less than $50 per person, per night, and sometimes under $30. Crazy good prices.

Twitter is the perfect communication avenue, since it's instant, and these prices frequently sell out in hours or days. Enjoy!

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Titanic-themed cruise, anyone?

Naturally the 100-year anniversary of the Titanic tragedy would be seen as a marketing opportunity, in this case to sell a "memorial cruise" sailing April 8, 2012 from Southampton, England. Is it just us, or is this cruise tempting fate?

A British travel firm offers this "voyage of a lifetime" following the original Titanic itinerary, arriving at the Titanic tragedy site on April 14th/15th for a memorial service, before continuing to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the original planned destination, New York.

The Web site also promises in the future to offer Titanic memorabilia.

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Details emerge in killing onboard Carnival Elation

Newly released court documents shed more light on the events leading up to the murder of Shirley McGill by her husband Robert onboard Carnival Elation in July. For one, Mr. McGill confessed repeatedly to both Carnival staff and the FBI, and for another, he was extremely drunk. Given the confessions, we're not thinking his plea of innocence is going to work out for him.

The Los Angeles couple had spent the day drinking in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, along with another couple from the ship, leaving Mr. McGill very drunk, according to the court filings.

Back onboard the ship later that night, the couple ran into Mr. McGill sitting on deck smoking a cigar, and noticed blood on his hand. This set into motion a chain of events where ship's security found Mrs. McGill dead in the stateroom bathroom, and Mr. McGill confessing to ship's security and then the FBI.

Mr. McGill's attorney has been rolling out the "he was drunk and wasn't responsible" defense along with the "his confessions shouldn't be admitted" defense.

More details from the San Diego Union Tribune.

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