TRAVEL NEWS

• Royal Caribbean Cruise Line will position its 3,114 passenger Voyager of the Seas in New York next summer. This ship is the first of RCCL's 142,000 ton mega-ships and will offer alternating five-day Canada and nine-day Caribbean cruises between May 16 and October 22, 2004.
                                                                                                         Reservations are now open.
  

• RCCL has moved the date of the maiden voyage of its second 142,000 ton mega-ship, the Mariner of the Seas to November 16, a week earlier then expected.  This sailing will include Nassau, San Juan, and St. Maarten.  On November 23, the ship will begin regularly scheduled seven-day sailings, alternating between eastern and western Caribbean.
                                                                                                         

• Holland  American Lines will use Norfolk, VA, as a homeport providing a base for the Maasdam with 16 cruises to the Caribbean in 2004.  The 10-day and 11-day sailings will visit the eastern and southern Caribbean.    
   

• HAL is also expanding its sailings into the Caribbean next year with 10 ships conducting 191 cruises. This is an increase from 163 cruises this year.  Besides Norfolk they will be adding Baltimore and Philadelphia departures.
   

• HAL will also be using Athens, Greece as a departure point for the first time next year.  Their ship, the Westerdam, will be docked in Athens and used as a floating hotel for the Olympic Games.  The Oosterdam will sail in Alaska, and the Amsterdam will make three voyages to Antarctica.
   

• Princess Cruise Lines will begin sailing from Galveston, TX  November 13, 2004 until April 9, 2005. The 109,000 ton Grand Princess mega-ship will offer seven-day cruises to the western Caribbean including Belize, Costa Maya, Cozumel and Grand Cayman.  With the addition of Princess, this brings to three, along  with Carnival and RCCL, the total of lines sailing from Galveston.
   

• Silverseas will make its first venture into Alaska next year with 11 cruises ranging in length from seven to 14 days.  The Silver Shadow will sail from San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver and Anchorage. Between January and may the Shadow will have itineraries in Australia and Japan.  The Silver Cloud, Silver Wind, and Silver Whisper will summer in Europe.   
   

• Carnival Cruises has a new way of taking care of your kids.  They are beginning a children's dining program that provides supervised meals for the kids while the parents enjoy a quite meal on their own. After dinner the kids can participate in Camp Carnival activities until 10pm.  
  
  Also, Carnival will be sailing its new ship, the Miracle, from Baltimore on seven-day itineraries to Key West and the Bahamas.  In November, 2004, the Miracle will move to Tampa to replace the Inspiration on seven-day cruises, and the Inspiration will move to four and five-day itineraries from the same port.
   

• Celebrity Cruise will be sailing from Norfolk, VA and Philadelphia, PA next year.  The Horizon will sail to Bermuda from Norfolk on 11 seven day cruises between April 24 and May 29, then again from September 5 until October 2.  During the summer this same ship will sail from Philadelphia to Bermuda. This will leave only the Zenith sailing from New York
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• Viking Rivers Cruises will offer five different itineraries along the Yangtze River in China beginning in March.  These will be on their new ship the Century Star.
   

• American West Steamboat Company has launched it's second ship, the sternwheeler Empress of the North.  It's presently sailing the Inside Passage of Alaska between Seattle and Juneau.  This is the first sternwheeler to offer overnight cruises in Alaska in over a century.

• This might be of interest to those of you who love to scuba dive.  St. Eustatius, one of the tiniest islands in the Caribbean now has the largest artificial reef.  Recently a 300-foot-long ship, formley used by AT&T to lay underwater cable was sunk 90 feet off the south shore of the island.  This ship joins more than 200 other wrecks that already lie offshore.

• A movement is afoot in Congress to bring back a tax deduction, abolished in l993, for accompanying spouses on business trips.  The bill known as S.1408 in the Senate, and H.R. 1313 in the House, would enable business travelers to deduct the full cost of meals, air fare, and lodging for spouses who travel with them.