Good time to book a summer cruise in Europe...Tragic accident on cruise ship

By all accounts, this is a good time to visit Europe. With the economies in Greece, Ireland, Portugal and other countries still in something of a mess, there appear to be good deals in those countries.

That's been the case for a while, but what's new is a report I saw in USA Today this week about how summer cruises in Europe are another big deal for the summer.

A lot of cruise companies pulled their ships out of troubled spots around the globe over the winter and positioned themselves in Europe. But they don't seem to be getting the business they expected.

USA Today's Gene Sloan, who writes a regular cruise report and blog, said this week that industry watchers report "lower-than-expected demand for summer cruises in Eruope is behind a rash of unusual, last-minute discounts - and more deals could be on the way."

Celebrity Cruises, which has five ships in Europe this summer instead of the usual four, is said to have a "fly and sail" promotion, while Crystal is offering a "standby fare" promotion.

"The cruise lines are going into panic mode," said Mike Driscoll, editor of Cruise Week. "They have moved all this hardware over there and they need to fill the beds."

Good stuff. For consumers, anyway.

TRAGIC TALE AT SEA

This was truly awful to read about. A British woman, 73-year-old Janet Richardson, was on the 800-passenger Ocean Countess off the coast of Norway in late March when she became quite ill. She was suffering internal bleeding, so a rescue boat was sent to get off the bigger ship.

During the transfer, Richardson's stretcher was dropped into the frigid waters of the North Atlantic. It took several minutes to rescue the poor woman. She was taken to hospital and apparently was recovering, but word came this week that she had died.

A very bizarre and heartbreaking accident, for sure.

 

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