F2 WHAT’S THE DEAL?
This week’s best travel bargains around the globe.
LAND
Sanibel Harbour Marriott Re- sort & Spa, on a peninsula over- looking Florida’s Sanibel and Captiva islands, has a Two Cents Special deal. Stay two days at the regular rate and pay 2 cents for the third night — well, 2 cents plus a $15 resort fee. With the dai- ly resort fee and taxes, rate starts at $193 per night double; with the deal, a three-night stay comes to $401. Book by July 31 using rate code PK3. Travel Aug. 22-Sept. 30. Info: 800-627-7468,
sanibelmarriott.com.
www.
More than two dozen proper- ties on the Caribbean island of Cu- racao are offering assorted free- bies, including hotel nights, breakfasts, car rental and div- ing. You must reserve through one of the booking partners listed on the Curacao Tourist Board’s Web site (see below). Room rates and offers vary. At the Breezes Cura- cao All Inclusive, for example, book a garden-view room for four nights at $310 per night double and get the fifth night free, for a total cost of $1,240 for two people, including meals, drinks, fees and taxes. For all deals, book by Sept. 1; stay Aug. 15-Dec. 18. Info: 800- 328-7222, wow.
www.curacao.com/
SEA Norwegian Cruise Lines is of- fering special airfare rates for select cruises on its newest ship, the Epic. Book a balcony cabin on a seven-day Caribbean cruise and receive round-trip air from Wash- ington to Miami for $99 per per- son ($146 with taxes), about $65 less than the going rate. Several sailings are available. On the Aug. 21 round-trip cruise from Miami to the Western Caribbean, total cost with air is $1,265 per person double, including fees and taxes. Info: 866-234-7350,
www.ncl.com.
AIR
Air Tran is having a sale on routes throughout the United States and the Caribbean. Sam- ple round-trip fares, including taxes: Reagan National to Atlan- ta, $179; Washington Dulles to Los Angeles, $251; and Dulles to Aruba, $491. Cheapest fares are on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays; 10-day advance pur- chase required. Book by July 27 for travel through Nov. 17. Other
airlines are matching on select routes. Info: 800-247-8726, www.
airtran.com.
Lufthansa has a sale on flights to Europe during late summer and early autumn. Sample round-trip fares, with taxes, in- clude Washington Dulles to Vero- na, Italy, for $767; to Bergen, Nor- way,
$870; and to Marseille,
France, $818. Other airlines are matching on select routes. Pur- chase by July 23 for travel Aug. 29-Oct. 23. Info: 800-645-3880,
www.lufthansa.com.
PACKAGE
With Virgin Vacations, take an eight-day trip from Washington to Barcelona for $1,014 per person double or $2,299 per couple, in- cluding taxes. Package includes round-trip air from Washington Dulles, six nights at the three-star HCC Covadonga Hotel in the city center and daily continental breakfast. Purchased separately, airfare would be $762 per person, hotel $763 for six nights and breakfasts $132 each, a savings of $253 per couple. Travel Sept. 3- Oct. 20. Info: 888-937-8474, www.
virgin-vacations.com. —K.C. Summers
Submit travel deals to whatsthedeal@
washpost.com. Please include your phone number and e-mail address. Prices were verified Thursday afternoon when the Travel section went to press, but deals sell out and availability is not guaranteed. Restrictions such as blackout dates and advance purchase may apply.
KLMNO
V1 V2 V3 V4
SUNDAY, JULY 18, 2010
Finally making waves about cruise line security THE NAVIGATOR
Christopher Elliott
Security Act, which promises to make cruising safer. Maybe you don’t think of a
A
floating vacation as a dangerous activity — after all, the last headline-grabbing sinking of a cruise liner was that of the MS Sea Diamond, which ran aground near Santorini, Greece, back in 2007. Two passengers disappeared and were presumed dead in that incident. The cruise industry also contends that it has an outstanding safety record when it comes to onboard crimes such as theft and assaults. Just one little problem: The
federal government doesn’t require cruise lines to report these crimes in a meaningful and systematic way, so we have to take them at their word. And some passengers don’t. Laurie Dishman counts herself among them. She alleges that a janitor on a Royal Caribbean cruise raped her in 2006. “I felt humiliated,” the marketing director for a winery near Sacramento told a congressional hearing the following year. “I could not believe what had happened.” Dishman’s riveting testimony exposed the shortcomings of cruise ship security, prompting her representative, Doris Matsui (D-Calif.), to sponsor the new legislation. “It became grossly apparent that current law was not protecting American passengers while at sea,” said Mara Lee, a spokeswoman for Matsui. The Cruise Vessel Safety and
Security Act will address that problem by requiring cruise lines to report crimes promptly to the FBI and to post a link on their Web sites to a Transportation Department Web site listing crimes that have occurred on cruise ships. “This
JOHN WARD ANDERSON/THE WASHINGTON POST
A “living statue” performer on Barcelona’s Las Ramblas pedestrian avenue.
TRAVEL
ny day now, the president is expected to sign the Cruise Vessel Safety and
will be the first time in the history of the cruise industry when a cruise ship is required to report a crime in international waters,” said James Walker, a maritime lawyer based in Miami. “The public can finally see the criminal database and determine which cruise ships have the highest crime rates.” Cruise lines will have to install peepholes in cabin doors and raise guard rails on many ships, and add on-deck video surveillance and an emergency sound system on all new ones. The legislation also mandates better crime-scene response by requiring ships to carry rape kits and anti-retroviral medications and to have a trained forensic sexual assault specialist on board. “In effect, passengers on cruise ships will start to obtain the same protection they would expect if they were at a resort here in the United States,” said Ken Carver, the chairman of the International Cruise Victims Association, which advocates for victims of crimes at sea. This law is undoubtedly a
good start at regulating a business that has skirted many government regulations in the past. But is it enough? I asked the Cruise Lines
International Association (CLIA) about the measure, and the trade association sent me a surprisingly supportive prepared statement. This regulation, it said, would bring “greater consistency and clarification to many industry practices and existing regulations,” which include current requirements to report serious crimes to the FBI. “The safety and security of our guests and crew is CLIA’s number one priority,” it added. When I hear a trade organization that resisted this law nearly every step of the way talking like that, I can’t help
being a little skeptical. (The cruise industry insists it cooperated.) So I asked Alexander Anolik, a former lawyer for several cruise lines who now practices in San Francisco, whether the Cruise Vessel Safety and Security Act holds water. “It will make cruising safer,” he said. “But it doesn’t go far enough.”
Scott Berkowitz, the president and founder of the Washington-based Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, which supports the measure, said that he’d like future legislation to address legal jurisdiction when a crime is committed on a cruise ship. “This can result in huge practical barriers to prosecution, such as requirements that the victim travel to another country — at his or her own expense — several times for hearings and a trial,” he said. But the law represents a critical and essential step forward, and Dishman says it will help others like her. “If this law was in place when I was brutally raped, there would have been evidence for a prosecution and the assailant who raped me would not be free,” she told me.
LUCI GUTIÉRREZ FOR THE WASHINGTON POST He’d like to see higher ship
rails, for example. The law will require them to reach 42 inches above the deck, but they’d prevent more passengers from falling overboard if they were 54 inches.
Also, Anolik says the law should make more ships retrofit their cabins with essential safety features such as peepholes, security latches and time-sensitive key technology. Anolik said cruise lines are probably unhappy with the legislation, because in his experience, they try to “make sure every crime is hidden.” It’s hard for me to tell
whether CLIA is being a dignified loser or whether it got some important concessions when the bill was being marked up. It probably doesn’t matter. Advocates for passengers see this as an important first step in improving cruise ship safety — not the last port of call.
Royal Caribbean has said it has a “zero-tolerance policy regarding any criminal activity” on its ships, adding, “Any allegation of a crime is treated seriously and reported to law enforcement.” The company reportedly settled a lawsuit with Dishman in 2008. Still, cruise experts agree that
laws can only go so far in protecting you. Passengers should continue to pack their common sense when they go cruising, which includes taking practical steps such as securing valuables, drinking in moderation and staying away from a ship’s dark corners. Even with these new measures in place, and the possibility of future regulation, one thing seems certain: Just because the ship isn’t sinking doesn’t mean that it’s safe.
Elliott is National Geographic Traveler magazine’s reader advocate. E-mail him at
celliott@ngs.org.
Editor: Joe Yonan • Deputy Editor: Zofia Smardz • Art Directors: Marty Barrick, Alla Dreyvitser • Staff Writers: Andrea Sachs, Nancy Trejos • Editorial Assistant: Becky Krystal • Travel Advertising: Joseph E. Teipe Jr., 202-334-6250 • To respond to one of our articles: E-mail
travel@washpost.com, call 202-334-7750 or write us: Washington Post Travel section, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071. • Manuscripts: Because of the volume of mail we receive, the Travel section cannot return or acknowledge unsolicited manuscripts, article proposals and photographs.
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