Wonder Crew Member Missing- confirmed

Disney Cruises today confirmed that a female crew member has gone missing from the Disney Wonder.  The woman, who had been employed by DCL since last year, didn't "return for her scheduled shift."  She was assigned to the youth program, though the line has not said in what capacity.

A thorough search of the ship has been conducted, and the crew member's collegues have been interviewed. 

At this point they are not ruling out the possibility that she went overboard.

The Wonder is currently sailing on a 7 night Mexican Rivera itinerary, and is due to return to Los Angeles on Sunday morning.

Legend of the Seas revised Itinerary (Japan Earthquake)

Due to the situation in Japan, and in consideration of the damaged nuclear pants, Royal Caribbean has announced a revised itinerary for Saturday's sailing of the Legend of the Seas.

The ship will sail from Shanghai as schedued, but will now call at the following ports:

• Cheju Island, South Korea on Sunday, March 20
• Hong Kong, China (overnight) from 8:00 p.m. Tuesday, March 22 until midnight on Wednesday, March 23

According to the announcement on Royal Caribbean's website, guests who sail on the revised itinerary will be given an onboard credit, while those who opt out of the sailing will receive a full refund.

Ecstasy to Homeport at Port Canaveral

Sailing from Port Canaveral by CruiseReady

The Carnival Ecstasy will be added to Port Canaveral's fleet of homeported cruise ships on November 7, 2011. This will mean that Carnival will be sailing three ships year-round from Florida's Space Coast. She'll be joining her sister antasy class ship, the Carnival Sensation, and the much larger and newer Carnival Dream.

This is good news for our area, and we need it, because of the wind-down of America's manned space-flight program at the cape, and the accompanying reduction of the work force and Kennedy Space Cener.

NEW ITINERARIES!

The Carnival Ecstasy will offer some new short (four and five night) cruise itineraries that cruisers should find interesting.

FOUR NIGHT itineraries will call at the ports of Nassau and either Half Moon Cay or Freeport, departing each Thursdays.

FIVE NIGHT cruises will visit Nassau, Freeport and either Half Moon Cay or Key West, sailing on various Mondays and Saturdays.

The community here will be pleased to welcome this new addition to our home fleet, and smile as we wish Bon Voyage to cruisers experiencing this "new" ship and her new itineraries.

For more about Port Canaveral and some of  the cruise ships homeported there, see Two Dreams Come to Port Canaveral. 

Additional articles on cruise ships and cruising

Thinking of Japan

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Japan in this most difficult time. May you find comfort in one another and help from friends around the world.

For those who have friends and loved ones at sea right now, you will be relieved to know that it appears that all cruise ships at sea are safe. It's those on land who need our thoughts, prayers, and help right now.

Please see an article by Libby Zay, , Cruise Updates Following the Japan Earthquake and Hawaii Tsunami, for status reports from the major cruise lines.

A Cruising Lens of the Day on Squidoo

Those interested in finding web articles about cruising might try surfing over to Squidoo. I've written a few articles there. Squidoo calls them 'lenses,' though. So, Here's a bit of an explanation about Squidoo for those who aren't familiar with it. And then, I have some big news about that. (For me, anyway)

(Surfer Squid courtesy of GeekGreek's Squidoo Graphics lens.)

Here's the scoop on Squidoo.

It's fun, but a lot of work. It's a platform for sharing your knowledge on any subject you choose. You do so by writing articles, called lenses, each addressing a focused topic. In that respect, a lens is like a blog entry, but it goes a lot farther, and has more permanence to it, and I like that.

You can join Squidoo, become a lensmaster, and write lenses too. There's even a way to earn a little money doing it. Or, you can just read what others have written, and participate by commenting, rating, and sharing the lenses that interest you.

Now, My Big News

So far, I've published 18 lenses, about half of them on cruising. That's not many in the world of Squidoo. "Giant Squids" have published at least 50, and many of them over five times that.

HOWEVER, in spite of my small stature there, this squid-of-few-lenses recieved a high honor on March 1st. My Picking the Best Cabin for Your Cruise lens was chosen as the Lens of the Day - out of the tens of thousands of lenses there!

I hope you have a moment to give it a read ... or at least a scan. There's a couple of polls you can vote in, and a place for your comments at the end, too.

Finally, an apology and word of explanation to my regular readers.

Between getting my feet wet at Squidoo, and tending to my hubbys needs during two (minor) eye surgeries, time has been limited. So, please accept my apologies for my lack of attention to Cruising Musings in the last couple of weeks.

No, I'm not abandoning blogging for Squidoo, just trying to find a balance. I know you are all very well aware that there's only so much time in an on-line day!

I'll be referencing some of my Squidoo lenses in future blog entries, too, from time to time. I'll be doing quite a few cruise related lenses, so it's all good!