News Roundup: August 4

Before I begin the News Roundup for today, I know you're all asking: Where's the photo-tour and review of the Celebrity Summit? 

It's coming - never fear!

There were some mitigating issues on our recent Celebrity cruise that were very contrary to the awards and accolades normally received by the line.  Any follower of the cruise industry knows how celebrated the line and its ships are, particularly their newest set of vessels in the Equinox Class.  The review is written, but I'm waiting to hear back from Celebrity on a few points - I think it's important to give them an opportunity to respond before anything is published.

The photo tour should be up in the next few days; the full review will appear on Saturday.

On with the news:

Bart de Boer's excellent ShipParade site has a complete photo-tour of Holland America's newest addition to the fleet: the MS Nieuw Amsterdam.  Sister ship to the highly-successful Eurodam, the Niewu Amsterdam continues to refine and enhance not only the design of Holland America's popular ships, but the onboard product as well.  The 2010-built ship is also the fourth vessel in the company's history to bear the name, and if early reviews are any indication, the ship is well on its way to becoming as popular as her predecessor, the 1983-built former Nieuw Amsterdam which left the fleet in 2003 and now sails as Thomson Spirit.

Of interest to air travelers, Mexicana has filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States, and insolvency proceedings in Mexico.  The largest and oldest airline in Mexico, Mexicana operates a variety of routes to North, Central and South America and is a member of the Oneworld airline alliance.  While Mexicana has stated it will operate a full schedule while it restructures its finances and operations, passengers slated to travel from North America to Mexico or South American destinations on the carrier should watch the situation closely, particularly if they are on a codeshare flight - a flight sold under one airline but operated by Mexicana.  As part of the Oneworld Alliance, American Airlines has flights that may be code-shared with Mexicana.  Some news articles are still reporting (erroneously) that Mexicana is part of the Star Alliance - it was, but left to join Oneworld in November of 2009.

An odd situation in Bermuda: Bernews reports that, after a confusing incident yesterday in which police in  St. George's, Bermuda received reports of a weapon at the cruise ship terminal where passengers aboard Holland America Line's Veendam were disembarking by tender, no weapon was found.  The incident, which Bermudan authorities took very seriously, inconvenienced dozens of passengers trying to get to and from the 1,258-passenger ship.  It is not clear who reported the incident, and authorities are looking for the help of the public in the matter.

Finally, it seems the heat got to be too much last week at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal.  YourName.com reports that dozens of longshore workers called in sick during a turnaround day for Princess Cruises' Caribbean Princess. Adding to the hot weather were the scorching emotions of embarking and disembarking passengers, who faced delays of up to four hours due to the lack of workers.