Little Stirrup Cay
Little Stirrup Cay or CocoCay, Bahamas, is one of the Berry Islands, a collection of cays and small islands and is located 55 miles north of Nassau. It is used for tourism by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd exclusively; the island is less than less than 200 yards from north to south. It has a population of 38; the east end is the center of recreational activities with beaches fronting a coral basin where manatee and numerous fish can be seen. There is a rocky inlet on the north side of the island large enough for the cruise ship tenders to operate from. Nature trails run the entire width of the island. Little Stirrup Cay is adjacent to Norwegian Cruise Line's private island. Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. which owns Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Cruises, assumed the lease of the island upon acquisition of Admiral Cruises and renamed it Coco Cay, one of the first cruise lines to lease islands for their exclusive use. Royal Caribbean and Celebrity cruise ships anchor off the island and bring passengers ashore by tenders.
Activities available to guests include swimming, kayaking, scuba diving, WaveRunner piloting. Royal Caribbean extends its children's programs onto the island including a Fisher-Price-sponsored Power Wheels track for young children; the Dave Matthews Band played there in'09, Brad Paisley played there in'12, Flogging Molly played there in 2017 at the Island Stage. On March 14, 2018 Royal Caribbean announced plans for a $200 million overhaul of the island. Plans include the addition of two water slide towers, a wave pool, fresh water pool, zip lines, private cabanas and a permanent dock for ships; the changes will allow Royal Caribbean's Oasis Class ships to visit the island. Prices for cruise travelers who will visit the island starting May 2019 will range from $39 to $1,599. However, the island will feature many free amenities. Aerial photos of Little Stirrup Cay A former caretaker writes about life on the island About the Stirrup cays Images tagged with "Coco Cay" at Flickr Cococay.info - Bahamas Island
San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan is the capital and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it is the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of the United States, with a population of 395,326. San Juan was founded by Spanish colonists in 1521. Puerto Rico's capital is the third oldest European-established capital city in the Americas, after Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic, founded in 1496 and Panama City, in Panama, founded in 1519. Several historical buildings are located in San Juan. Today, San Juan is Puerto Rico's most important seaport and is the island's manufacturing, financial and tourism center; the population of the Metropolitan Statistical Area, including San Juan and the municipalities of Bayamón, Cataño, Canóvanas, Toa Alta, Toa Baja and Trujillo Alto, is about 2.6 million inhabitants. San Juan is a principal city of the San Juan-Caguas-Fajardo Combined Statistical Area; the city has been the host of events within the sports community, including the 1979 Pan American Games.
In 1508, Juan Ponce de León founded the original settlement. It was named after the Province of Cáceres in Spain, the birthplace of Nicolás de Ovando the Governor of Spain's Caribbean territories, Today it is part of the Pueblo Viejo sector of Guaynabo, just to the west of the present San Juan metropolitan area. A year the settlement was moved to a site called Puerto Rico, Spanish for "rich port" or "good port", after its similar geographical features to the town of Puerto Rico of Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands. In 1521, the newer settlement was given its formal name: Puerto Rico de San Juan Bautista; the ambiguous use of San Juan Bautista and Puerto Rico for both the city and the island in time led to a reversal in practical use by most inhabitants: by 1746 the name for the city had become that of the entire island, leading to the city being identified as Puerto Rico de Puerto Rico on maps of the era. San Juan, as a settlement of the Spanish Empire, was used by merchant and military ships traveling from Spain as the first stopover in the Americas.
Because of its prominence in the Caribbean, a network of fortifications was built to protect the transports of gold and silver from the New World to Europe. Because of the rich cargoes, San Juan became a target of the foreign powers of the time; the city was witness to attacks from the English led by Sir Francis Drake in 1595 and by George Clifford, Earl of Cumberland, in 1598. Artillery from San Juan's fort, El Morro, repelled Drake. After a few months of English occupation, Clifford was forced to abandon the siege when his troops began to suffer from exhaustion and sickness. In 1625 the city was sacked by Dutch forces led by Captain Balduino Enrico, but El Morro withstood the assault and was not taken; the Dutch were counterattacked by Captain Juan de Amézqueta and 50 members of the civilian militia on land and by the cannons of the Spanish troops in El Morro Castle. The land battle left 60 Dutch soldiers dead and Enrico with a sword wound to his neck which he received from the hands of Amézqueta.
The Dutch ships at sea were boarded by Puerto Ricans. After a long battle, the Spanish soldiers and volunteers of the city's militia were able to defend the city from the attack and save the island from an invasion. On October 21, Enrico set the city ablaze. Captains Amézqueta and Andrés Botello decided to put a stop to the destruction and led 200 men in an attack against the enemy's front and rear guard, they drove Enrico and his men from their trenches and into the ocean in their haste to reach their ships. The British attack in 1797, during the French Revolutionary Wars, led by Sir Ralph Abercromby, his army laid siege to the city but was forced to withdraw in defeat as the Puerto Rican defenses proved more resilient than those of Trinidad. Various events and circumstances, including liberalized commerce with Spain, the opening of the island to immigrants as a direct result of the Royal Decree of Graces of 1815, the colonial revolutions, led to an expansion of San Juan and other Puerto Rican settlements in the late 18th and early 19th century.
On May 8, 1898, United States Navy ships, among them the USS Detroit, USS Indiana, USS New York, USS Amphitrite, USS Terror and USS Montgomery, commanded by Rear Admiral William T. Sampson arrived at San Juan Bay; the USS Yale captured a Spanish freighter, the Rita in San Juan Bay, thus being the first hostile encounter between the warring sides in Puerto Rico. On May 9, Yale fought a brief battle with an auxiliary cruiser of Spain, name unknown, resulting in a Spanish victory. Around this time, Captain Ángel Rivero Méndez was assigned the command of the Spanish forces in the fortress of San Cristóbal in San Juan. On May 10, the Yale returned to San Juan Bay, Rivero-Méndez ordered his men to open fire upon the USS Yale using an Ordoñez 15 centimeter cannon, thus becoming the first attack against the Americans in Puerto Rico during the Spanis
Carnival Imagination
Carnival Imagination is a Fantasy-class cruise ship operated by Carnival Cruise Line. Built by Kværner Masa-Yards at its Helsinki New Shipyard in Helsinki, she was floated out on July 1, 1995, christened Imagination by Jodi Dickinson. During 2007, in common with all of her Fantasy-class sisters, she had the prefix Carnival added to her name, she sails three- and four-day itineraries from Long Beach, California, to Catalina Island, to Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico. 3 day cruises depart every Thursday, with a stop in Ensenada, Mexico, 4 day cruises depart every Sunday, with stops in Catalina Island and Ensenada, Mexico. The ship underwent an extensive multimillion-dollar renovation in September 2016. Smith, Peter C.. Cruise Ships: The World's Most Luxurious Vessels. Barnsley, South Yorkshire, UK: Pen & Sword Maritime. ISBN 9781848842182. Carnival Imagination official website
Deadweight tonnage
Deadweight tonnage or tons deadweight is a measure of how much weight a ship can carry, not its weight, empty or in any degree of load. DWT is the sum of the weights of cargo, fresh water, ballast water, provisions and crew. DWT is used to specify a ship's maximum permissible deadweight, although it may denote the actual DWT of a ship not loaded to capacity. Deadweight tonnage is a measure of a vessel's weight carrying capacity, does not include the weight of the ship itself, it should not be confused with displacement, which includes the ship's own weight, nor other volume or capacity measures such as gross tonnage or net tonnage. Deadweight tonnage was expressed in long tons but is now given internationally in tonnes. In modern international shipping conventions such as the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea and the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution From Ships, deadweight is explicitly defined as the difference in tonnes between the displacement of a ship in water of a specific gravity of 1.025 at the draft corresponding to the assigned summer freeboard and the light displacement of the ship.
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Carnival Cruise Line
Carnival Cruise Line is an international cruise line with headquarters in Doral, Florida. Its logo is the funnel like the funnels found on their ships, with red and blue colors; the funnels are shaped like a whale's tail. Carnival is the largest cruise line in the world, based on passengers carried annually, annual revenue, total number of ships in fleet. Carnival is one of ten cruise line brands owned by the world's largest cruise ship operator, the American-British Carnival Corporation & plc. In 2018 Carnival Cruise Line was estimated to hold an 8.9% share of cruise industry revenue and 22.0% of passengers. It is the largest fleet in the Carnival group; the ships fly flags of convenience. Its headquarters are in Miami, the United States; the North American division of Carnival Corporation has executive control over the corporation and is headquartered in Doral, Florida. Carnival Cruise Line was founded in 1972 by Ted Arison. To finance the venture, Arison turned to his friend Meshulam Riklis, who owned Boston-based American International Travel Service.
Arison and Riklis set up the new company as a subsidiary of AITS. AITS was to promote the new venture. In 1974, due to regulatory issues, Riklis sold AITS's interest in the company to Arison for $1, but subject to Arison taking over the substantial company debts; the split enabled Arison to enter into new relationships with independent travel agents. He promoted his cruises to fun-loving younger people; the format was successful financially. Until 1975, the line consisted of the Mardi Gras. In 1975 another ship was acquired, the Carnivale. In 1996, Carnival Destiny of 101,000 GT became the largest passenger ship in the world at the time and first to exceed 100,000 tons. In 2001, Robert H. Dickinson President and CTC, participated in a BBC documentary, Back To The Floor. Dickinson went to work at the lowest crew levels on the MS Imagination in the Caribbean, where he shadowed a Romanian cleaner, Alina. In 2004, Carnival Corporation ordered for a development program for Carnival's new ships, the Pinnacle Project, calling for a 200,000 GT prototype, which would have been the world's largest cruise ship at the time.
The ship was cancelled and after that they came up with a project called Next Generation. In 2009, Carnival released their biggest ship at the time, the Carnival Dream, a new 128,000 GT ship. Carnival Dream entered service on 21 September 2009. After several voyages in the Mediterranean, she was set to offer weekly Caribbean cruises from Port Canaveral from 5 December 2009. A sister ship, Carnival Magic, debuted on 1 May 2011. On 1 December 2009 it was announced, it entered service in June 2012 and its homeport is now Galveston. On May 10, 2010, Carnival selected a name for their new Dream-class vessel in 2012 - Carnival Breeze. On 26 October 2012, it was announced that Carnival had ordered a brand new 133,500 GT ship for their Carnival Cruise Line brand; this ship, built by Fincantieri, was the largest ship they have built. It sailed its maiden voyage on May 1, 2016; the new ship was named Carnival Vista. In January 2017, Michael Thamm was appointed CEO of Carnival Asia to oversee operations in China and the surrounding region.
A sister to Carnival Vista, Carnival Horizon, joined the fleet with their inaugural voyages from Trieste and Barcelona, Spain on May 1, 2016 and April 2, 2018, respectively. Queen Latifah is the Godmother of Horizon for its christening in New York on May 23, 2018. Carnival Panorama is set to join the fleet in December 2019. In February 2018, the company's officials unveiled a major port development project in Ensenada, Mexico. In 2016, Carnival extended their contract with Port Everglades cruise port to 2030; the port began a $54 million renovation in anticipation of the deal. The agreement brings over $200 million in personal income. In 2018, Carnival brought the Carnival Fantasy to Alabama. Economists anticipate an increase in tourism to revenue at an estimated $35 million; the company has been paying wages under $1.50 per hour to employees with low-to-nonexistent benefits, such as holidays or minimal vacations. Monthly salaries of the high-paid workers are around $1,300. Employees report strenuous working conditions such as 14-hour shifts with no days off.
Retirement benefits were revoked in October 2013. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, three of the Carnival cruise ships were chartered by the United States government for six months to serve as temporary housing until the houses can be rebuilt. After being chartered for six months, their planned voyages were cancelled, passengers were refunded. Holiday was docked in Mobile and Pascagoula, Ecstasy and Sensation were docked at New Orleans, Louisiana; the six-month contract cost $236 million. The contract was criticized, because the vessels were never utilized, Carnival received more money than it would have earned by using the ships in their normal rotation. Since 2017, Carnival Cruise Line has been on probation, after having been found to "illegally dumping oil into the ocean from its Princess Cruises ships and lying about the scheme." Carnival Cruise Line had to pay a $40 million fine. By 2019, the US prosecutors found that "ships have dumped gray water into Alaska’s Glacier Bay National Park, prepared ships in advance of court-ordered audits to avoid unfavorable findings, falsified records and dumped plastic garbage into the ocean."
Carnival Cruise has acknowledged these incidents. As a result, a US federal Judge "threatens to stop Carnival ships from docking in US." See al
Carnival Elation
Carnival Elation is a Fantasy-class cruise ship operated by Carnival Cruise Line. Built by Kværner Masa-Yards at its Helsinki New Shipyard in Helsinki, she was floated out on January 4, 1998, christened as Elation by Shari Arison Dorsman. During 2007, in common with all of her Fantasy-class sisters, she had the prefix Carnival added to her name, she sails year round on four- and five-night cruises to the Bahamas out of Jacksonville, Florida. Carnival Elation is 855 feet long, she has a guest capacity of 2130 and a crew of 920. Elation was the first cruise ship to be equipped with an Azipod propulsion system; the pods give Elation better maneuverability compared with her sister ships. On November 5, 2011 Carnival Elation was moved from Mobile, Alabama to New Orleans, replacing Carnival Ecstasy, moved to Port Canaveral, Florida. With Elation relocated to New Orleans, Carnival ceased operations in Mobile, Alabama until the Carnival Fantasy returned to the port in 2016. In October 2017, Carnival Elation completed a month long dry dock during which she had an extra deck added and various modifications to her public facilities.
In June 2018, Carnival Elation was named the "Best Refurbished Cruise Ship" at the TravelAgeWest WAVE Awards. 1998–2003: Seven-night cruises to Mexico from Los Angeles, California. 2003–2006: Seven-night cruises to the Western Caribbean from Galveston, TX. 2007–2010: Three-, four-, five-night cruises to Mexico from San Diego, CA as only year round ship from that port. 2010–2011: Four-, five-, seven-night cruises from Mobile, Alabama to Western Caribbean replacing Carnival Fantasy. 2011–2016: Four- and five-night cruises to the Western Caribbean from New Orleans, Louisiana replacing Carnival Ecstasy. 2016–May 2019: Four- and five-night cruises to the Bahamas from Jacksonville, Florida replacing Carnival Fascination. May 2019: Four- and five-night cruises to the Bahamas from Port Canaveral, Florida replacing Carnival Sunshine. On March 9, 2013, Elation was followed into port by a tug after a steering malfunction during a cruise. On September 10, 2017 the Carnival Elation responded to a distress call and rescued one person from the sea, forced to abandon a vessel during Hurricane Irma.
On January 19, 2018 a woman aboard the Carnival Elation ship plunged from the 14th deck several decks down from her cabin and died from the fall. Media related to Carnival Elation at Wikimedia Commons Official website
Freeport, Bahamas
Freeport is a city and free trade zone on the island of Grand Bahama of the northwest Bahamas. In 1955, Wallace Groves, a Virginian financier with lumber interests in Grand Bahama, was granted 50,000 acres of pineyard with substantial areas of swamp and scrubland by the Bahamian government with a mandate to economically develop the area. Freeport has grown to become the second most populous city in the Bahamas; the main airport serving the city is the Grand Bahama International Airport, which receives domestic flights from various islands of the Bahamas as well as several international flights from the United States and Canada. Freeport is served by domestic Bahamian ferry services to other islands; the Grand Bahama Port Authority operates the free trade zone, under the Hawksbill Creek Agreement signed in August 1955 whereby the Bahamian government agreed that businesses in the Freeport area would pay no taxes before 1980 extended to 2054. The area of the land grants within which the Hawksbill Creek Agreement applies has been increased to 138,000 acres.
Freeport is a 230-square-mile free trade zone on Grand Bahama Island, established in 1955 by the government of The Bahamas. Birthplace of S. D. N. C; the city of Freeport emerged from a land grant comprising 50,000 acres of swamp and scrub to become a cosmopolitan centre. The Grand Bahama Port Authority operates the free trade zone, under special powers conferred by the government under the Hawksbill Creek Agreement, extended until August 3, 2054; the agreement increased the land grants to 138,000 acres. Freeport is located just 80 miles off the coast of Palm Beach, on the major EW–NS shipping routes; this has positioned it as an ideal centre for international business. A growing number of international companies use Freeport for a business site. Parks include the Rand Nature Centre, named after its founder James Rand; the Lucayan National Park is 40 acres in extent and includes five ecological zones stretching from the south shore to the pineyard. There is an extensive underwater cave system beneath the park.
One cave entrance is accessible by stairs at the national park, while other caves are accessible for certified scubas. Freeport features a tropical rainforest climate, similar to South Florida's. According to Köppen Climate Classification, more with mild winters and hot, humid summers. Do temperatures drop below 60 °F. Average temperatures range in the low to upper 80s, with water temperature varying between 72 to 78 °F; the winters are mild and dry, while the summers are hot and wet. Although a freeze has never been reported in the Bahamas, snow was reported to have mixed with rain in Freeport in January 1977, the same time that it snowed in the Miami area; the temperature was about 4.5 °C at the time. Tourism, which topped over a million visitors a year, has diminished since 2004, when two major hurricanes, Hurricane Frances and Hurricane Jeanne, in 2016, Hurricane Matthew, hit the island. Several cruise ships stop weekly at the island. Much of the tourist industry is centered on the seaside suburb of Lucaya, owing its name to the pre-Columbian Lucayan inhabitants of the island evidence of whom has been found on the island.
Freeport features at least two Junkanoo festivals near New Year's. The city is promoted as Freeport/Lucaya. Most hotels on the island are located along the southern shore facing the Northwest Providence Channel. Primary shopping venues for tourists include the International Bazaar near downtown Freeport and the Port Lucaya Market Place in Lucaya. Recovery from the 2004 hurricanes took nearly a decade. Janine Antoni - conceptual artist Robert Antoni - novelist, professor Sebastian Bach - Canadian singer, frontman of the band Skid Row Andre Deveaux - NHL player Kevin Foxx - comedian/writer Tynia Gaither - sprint Olympian Jeffery Gibson - 400mH world champ medalist & Olympian Shavez Hart - sprint Olympian Jack Hayward - British businessman Raymond Higgs - Olympian Jumper Buddy Hield - NBA player Jonquel Jones - WNBA player Johnny Kemp- Singer/Songwriter Justin Hill - British writer Michael Mathieu - sprint Olympic medalist Demetrius Pinder - sprint Olympic medalist Mate Pavic - Croatian professional tennis player Vasek Pospisil - Canadian professional tennis player Magnum Rolle - NBA Player Alonzo Russell - sprint Olympian medalist Nivea Smith - Sprint athlete Teray Smith - Sprint Olympian Donald Thomas - high jump world champion and Olympian Andrae Williams - sprint Olympic medalist Latoy Williams - sprint athlete Chavez Young - baseball player Mary Star of the Sea Church, Freeport Barratt, Peter.
Grand Bahama. IM Publishing, Freeport, 2002 ISBN 0-9717351-0-7 The Grand Bahama Port Authority web site Official Tourism Site of Grand Bahama Island >yields 404 Not Found error on 5/23/18 Official Site of the Grand Bahama Island Tourism Board "Freeport," Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2008. "Fast Facts," Grand Bahama Port Authority, http://www.gbpa.com/index.php/freeport, c.2008. Official Bahamas Tour Center
Carnival Corporation & plc
Media related to Carnival Fascination at Wikimedia Commons
