The Costa Concordia Cruise liner ran aground on a sand bar near the Island “Isola del Giglio: off the west coast of Italy, killing six and endangering 3,000 passengers and a crew of 1,000. Several hundred remain on the aground, but severely listing boat. Several were injured during the rescue. For more information see this article by CNN

While looking for news about the boat, we ran across this promo for the Concordia in Costa’s US website. Next, you may find this description of the rescue posted on the Costa UK website to be of interest.

From Costa Cruises
Saturday, January 14th

“The Guests had to embark today in Savona and in subsequent ports will be contacted directly by Costa Cruises.”

The taxi driver strike in Greece that we reported on Monday has been extended and is causing chaos for travelers, especially those on cruise ships.

The Belfast Telegraph reports that taxi drivers have blockaded the port at Corfu and will not allow tour buses through to take the cruisers on their tour of the island. The same appears to have happened at Iraklio on Crete. Those travelers who have paid thousands of dollars for the “cruise of a lifetime” must not be too happy with the striking drivers. Finally, another set of taxi drivers have blocked major roads out of the city of Thessaloniki and similar actions are happening around the country.

Revenues from tourism have been one of the relative strengths in the economy of Greece, but the civil unrest this summer is causing a precipitous decline in these monies. Greece can be a wonderful vacation spot, but it appears that summer of 2011 may not be quite the right time for a visit.
The taxi strike must appear as a crushing blow to the many hotel chains, restaurants and tour companies that had been hoping that 2011 would be a comeback year for tourism in Greece. Unfortunately, it appears that goal will not be realized. We can only hope that 2012 is better for the country, its travel industry and for the millions of our fellow tourists interested in visiting this sometimes enchanting country.

USA Today and other sources are reporting that Princess Cruises has decided to cancel port calls at Puerto Vallarta for the rest of the year. The reason for the change in schedule is “safety” and Puerto Vallarta now joins Mazatlan on the list of dropped ports in Mexico.

Although the Princess line has de-emphasized cruises of the Mexican Rivera over the past few years, the current action is yet another bad omen for tourism in Mexico. The Mexico Tourism Board is, understandably, unhappy about the situation and its response is outlined in this article from PVNN.

I apologize for the delay in posting this story.  When I attempted to post it over a week ago, I found that our Wordpress installation was dysfunctional.  It took several days to repair, but now we are back up and the blog is operating thanks to the help of our friends at HostMySite.com.  The reference to dates in the text is off, but I think you will understand my message.

One of the saddest stories in the travel provider world surrounds the problems that Ambassadors International is having maintaining the Windstar line of ocean cruisers.  Windstar is our favorite small-ship cruise line, as we like the ship-size, the itineraries and the type and level of service that Windstar provides.  Although the cruises are not “cheap”, neither are they pretentious.  You generally get great, though unobtrusive service and mix with a crowd of people small enough to make meaningful friends and life-long acquaintances.

A few years ago, Ambassadors, which then  ran an travel-based event management company, purchased Windstar to accompany its venture of US river cruising called the Majestic Line (now defunct).  Unfortunately, Ambassadors appears not to have had the wherewithal to manage a complex business and began shedding units to continue its operations.  It now appears to be solely focused on Windstar.

Today, Travel Weekly  posted an article that confirmed industry rumors -  Ambassadors may need more cash to stay afloat, I guess that’s the industry phrasing for avoiding bankruptcy, which for many companies is a prelude to financial default and ceasing operations.  A few weeks ago we saw another report that indicated that Ambassador’s accounting firm believed that the company was close to no longer being a “going concern”.

In turn, we have noticed that Windstar is really reducing fees for some of their current cruises and have a suggestion for you.  If you are booked on a future Windstar cruise, be sure to purchase trip insurance that covers a company ceasing operations during your travels.  Some travel insurance companies cover default but not bankruptcy.  What you need to do is explain the situation to your agent and ask them to arrange coverage that will get you home if the cruise line is unable to operate due to financial problems.

Windstar provides a great vacation experience.  We hope they make it.