I was surfing, looking for new things related to Royal Caribbean, and I was happy to find that Rachel Hancock, of the Crown and Anchor Society, has setup a page at Gather.com. I certainly recommend folks here drop by and join-up! The site is harmless, good for networking, and it is a tie to the C&A that has been lacking. Tell her Nathan sent you!

On Castro.

The Hollywood writers strike ends, and suddenly there is news about Castro in Cuba. And people actually wonder if Castro is dead or not.

Word today, from Cuba, has Fidel Castro not continuing as the nations leader. Most observers, analysts, and Las Vegas bookies, figure Fidel’s brother Raul, will run the country as he has, from this point forward. So there is not much to indicate a sudden change in how Cuba deals with the west. Some feel the rise of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez during recent years, is in fact, part of a large-scale plan to create a new political bulwark, which, working jointly with Cuba, might continue and expand the sphere of influence the communists in both countries wield. Others feel the fact that Castro hasn’t been declared dead, is part of a long planned process to transition the government to new leaders. Making the new leadership known and established, before the seminal event of Castro dying, helps prevent any sudden attempts to overthrow the government.

Until Castro is openly known to be dead, and enough political change in both the U.S. and Cuba takes place, the economic embargos levied against it, are not likely to be removed. Plus, it will be some time after that, until we see Cruise ships porting in new exotic locations in Cuba.

Charity Begins at Homeport.

Royal Caribbean has teamed up with a UK based charity, in conjunction with the arrival of Independence of the Seas at Southampton. The ship will be the anchor point for fund raising operations for Sports Relief, a group that works with children. Its another sure sign that Royal Caribbean’s move to deploy ships in the UK is a long-term one. This comes the same week as another partnership for foster kids was announced in Miami.

The interesting thing about the news, was that the venue chosen for the announcement was a lake, due to be used in the 2012 Olympics, and involved a British gold medalist. I’m very interested in that personally, as with Vancouver games in 2010. Both games will have many chances to cruise aficionados to cruise and enjoy the Olympics.

Piering into the future of Labadee.

News from several sites, has Royal Caribbean building a $27,000,000 pier at Labadee, which can accommodate the new Genesis class of ships. The odds favor that they will also use the pier to end the practice of tenders to Labadee. No loss there, if you like to get off the ship in a hurry. But as somebody who hasn’t gone to Labadee the last three times my ship was there, I’ll miss the natural bottleneck that kept the ship from filling up too fast.

I Do.

Azamara and Celebrity are going to offer marriages at sea, performed, in true romantic style, by ships captains. Pony up $2,500 and this joy could be yours! No word if Royal Caribbean International will offer the services. Its been some time since people could get married by the master of a ship. The age of government regulations, and practical considerations have kept that from being the case.

I Sue.

The cruise industry has drawn the ire of the Florida Attorney General. As you may know, recently the lines levied additional charges to cruise fares. These were typically retroactive to a certain date, though most lines also included on board perks to soften the blow to passengers. The retroactive aspect of these charges seems to have been the trip wire that, in an election year, managed to get the state of Florida to pay attention. Granted, if you charge anything for anything on, or for a cruise, some people will howl with discontent.

Accusations of collusion, conspiracy, anti-trust issues, and other hot-button words won’t likely get the lawsuits and investigation very far though. Anybody expected a refund check can likely forget about it. With oil hovering about the $100 mark, these charges are likely to stay, until and unless the lines can work the costs into the basic fares. The odds are that won’t happen soon. To do so, there would have to be a change to travel agent commission structures, to account for fuel charges. The reason these charges are aren’t part of the fare already, is because the lines would have to pay higher commissions based on that new price.