Since the cruise industry takes the week between Christmas and New Years as vacation, I must rely on the general media for news.  Cruise ships and Paris Hilton are similar: anything that happens is big news.   

Apparently the British consider a ship cursed if the bottle of champagne smacked against the hull fails to break.  So imagine the British press’ glee when Camilla’s first attempt to break a bottle of bubbly against Queen Victoria’s hull failed.  ’Camilla’s Curse!!!’ was the major story to emerge from the official Cunard naming ceremony.

This week some 80 passengers on Queen Victoria’s Canary Island cruise caught Norwalk virus.  My favorite headline is the Evening Standard’s: “‘Curse of Camilla’ Cruise Ship Struck by Winter Vomiting Bug”.  Even at my best I can’t come up with a wonderful headline like that.  

Here’s a cruise I’m glad I missed.  A Norwegian expedition vessel, the MS Fram, lost power while cruising near the coast of Antarctica and bumped into an ice berg.  Fortunately the ship wasn’t damaged and was able to continue its cruise when power was restored.  This story is no laughing matter. 

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