Dateline NBC to Air an Update to “Man Overboard” Update January 6

On July 5th 2005, sometime around 4:30am George Allen Smith IV went missing from Royal Caribbean’s Brilliance of the Seas. It was supposed to be a honeymoon cruise for him and his wife Jennifer Hagel who had been married in late June.  Instead of being a week of celebrating the start of a new union this Mediterranean cruise onboard the Brilliance would be their final days together.

It has already been the subject of an episode of NBC Dateline, a basis of a Lifetime movie and a book entitled “Man Overboard: Inside the Honeymoon Cruise Murder“, written by Joan Lownds and the catalyst to the reformation of cruise industry safety standards.  I dare say the coverage this happening received was one of the most important moments in recent cruise line history.

Although all of the details of the investigation aren’t vivid in my mind I can tell you this was one of the highest profile instances of cruise crime ever.  As newlywed Jennifer Hagel lay unconscious in a stairwell of one area of the ship, her husband George went overboard never to be found.  To this day no one knows for certain whether it was the result of an accident or foul play.

I don’t want to butcher the story by providing incorrect details but I do recall it involved lots of money, alcohol, 3 Russian nationals and an ominous looking blood smear.  Even more sadly it also involved a business entity who seemingly did not care.  Tune in to NBC Dateline tonight to see an update of the story that ran 5 years ago complete with new evidence and never before aired photos.

 

Princess Cruises Once Again Impresses With a New Blog For 2012

In 2011, Princess Cruises launched a blog entitled, “50 essential experiences”. The purpose of the website was to have their cruise experts share with the rest of us what they consider must see destinations. They asked employees that have been with the company 15-plus years which destinations and experiences whould they put on their bucket lists. In the end they ended up with “50 Essential Experiences”, a compendium spanning three dozen countries and six continents.

The website really is an interesting read one that any serious cruise buff should find interesting. So, if you get some time click over to 50 essential experiences to compare the Princess list to your bucket list.

So, you may be wondering, what is Princess doing in 2012 to follow up on the success of its award-winning blog? Well, they are creating another blog of course. Yesterday Princess Cruises launched another blog, this one called “Inspired to Cruise: A Year of Reasons to Get Away From the Everyday.” This year, over the course of the next 12 months you will be able to hear 52 stories from 52 different passengers telling you what inspired them to cruise.

But Isn’t Princess Just Rehashing Last Year’s Idea?

Well, this blog differs from the 50 essential experiences blog because that story was one where employees told you what wowed them. This year’s blog is purely passenger driven.

“Our passengers regularly share deeply personal stories with us about why they’ve cruised, and we wanted to share some of the most remarkable ones,” Jan Swartz, Princess Cruises executive vice president said in a statement.

The first blog entry posted Wednesday, January 4 is by Nancy Chamberlain-Fox is a great way to kick things off and affirmation of the statement “If you love something, let it go. If it comes back to you it’s yours forever. If it doesn’t, then it was never meant to be.”

It begins:

“He was my high-school sweetheart, my first husband for only five years and now, almost three decades later, my groom once again. After 27 long years apart, we were taking our first cruise together a second-chance honeymoon”

Do yourself a favor and visit http://inspiredtocruise.com/ to not only read the rest of  Nancy’s amazing story but also many more throughout the year.

New Year Resolutions and Goals for Starting 2012 Off the Right Way

Now that 2011 is in the books and I have had a day to actually sit down and think about what I want to acomplish in 2012, I think I have brainstormed a solid plan.  You see, on this blog from time to time, I post information that I believe is useful, but still there just isn’t nearly the amount of interaction that there should be. Sure, I do my best to answer any emails I get and I also do Mailbag Monday’s when I get questions I feel can help multiple readers of the blog, but I still believe I could do more.

Quite a while ago I created theintelligentcruiser.com Facebook page and the TICruiser twitter account, but neither of them get used as much as they should. In fact, I am just plain terrible when it comes to those social websites. It’s something I have known for a while but have failed to address.  In 2012 all that is going to change.

I’m sure you have heard the saying, “admitting you have a problem is the first step”. Well, that is exactly what I am doing right now, admitting that my lack of Facebook and twitter interaction is not just a problem but also an opportunity for improvement. So, I guess my New Year resolution for this blog in 2012 is to foster a lot more interaction.  My goal is to build more of community that encourages discussion amongst each other.  I truly think the greatest way to derive value from any website and particularly a blog is through group discussion and sharing.  So, in 2012 creating more of a community will be the focus.

Where you can find me on the internet

• Obviously my cruise information blog -- subscribe the blog to get updates delivered to  your inbox
• Theintelligentcruiser.com Facebook page -- like my facebook page or just drop in to say hello
• The blog twitter account -- follow me @TICruiser on twitter

Now I realize, Rome wasn’t built in a day, but it is a brand new year and there i no better time to get started building than now.  Here is to having a fantastic, vacation filled, New Year.