I have no news, but wanted to thank you for keeping it at the top. I am so anxiously
awaiting the Spring 2009 Magic cruises. I just want to switch my dates. We haven't done Eastern or Western yet so I don't care where we'll be but just want it done. With only a handful of connecting rooms on the ship, I am anxious until I get ours booked.
I think many people want to make their plans and we know
DCL read these posts so keeping it up shows them what we want.
I can tell you one place they will NOT go to:-
Cruise Lines Reject Grand Bahama
Oct 17, 2007
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The Bahama Journal - Major cruise lines are rejecting Grand Bahama as a port of call because it has little to offer tourists, according to Minister of Tourism Neko Grant, who met recently with officials of major cruise lines.
At a town meeting held at the Foster B. Pestaina Centre on Monday night, Minister Grant told local stakeholders in the tourism industry that after trying to convince cruise lines to make Grand Bahama one of their ports of call, their response was "no thanks".
He hit local taxi drivers, tour operators, vendors, business persons and artisans with the cold, bitter truth that major cruise lines like Disney said they would never even consider Grand Bahama because their customers feel harassed, ripped off, and say they have nowhere to go.
Minister Grant said the cruise business has declined in The Bahamas and other parts of the Caribbean by three to five percent, while it has increased in Europe by 25 percent.
"Disney
they said Grand Bahama [isnt] for us. Your ground transportation is a mess. Youve got to remember that people who sail on our ship go to Disney Land before or after, and Grand Bahama is not a place where we want our passengers to go because if theyve been to Disney Land, we take them into Nassau, and weve got work to do there; we take them to our private island, and we come into Grand Bahama Island. It doesnt matter what happened before they left Orlando, what they experience in Grand Bahama ruins everything," Minister Grant said.
Minister Grant said hundreds of destinations offer the same thing The Bahamas offers and Grand Bahama must do things differently to not only make people want to come here, but to make them want to come back.
He said cruise lines were told about the things the government will be doing to correct the problems in Grand Bahama, especially with regard to ground transportation and tours.
"They said good. Call us when you fix it. Save yourselves the embarrassment and call us when you fix it," Minister Grant said.
He said that recently, Carnival Cruise Lines had to refund thousands of dollars to disgruntled passengers who visited Grand Bahama and had an horrific experience.
"The question is, if we continue our nonsense, will they continue to come?" he asked.
Director General of Tourism Vernice Walkine told tourism stakeholders Grand Bahama has the best potential of any island, but she said most tourists arent getting good service.
"
Disney Cruise Lines has said to me, Im not coming back to Grand Bahama ever, ever, ever, full stop. How do you respond to that? What am I supposed to say to them? They arent wrong. They are absolutely right because their guests have the worst experience on their entire itinerary. Carnival has said the same thing," Ms. Walkine said.
"We rank lowest in terms of satisfaction out of all of their ports of call. Why? Whats wrong with us?" she asked.
Ms. Walkine said The Bahamas must take note of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative put in place by the United States because this put a different twist on the local tourism market.
Under the new rules, Americans traveling from the region by air must present passports upon their re-entry into the United States.
Ms. Walkine noted that for many years tourists did not need a passport in order to re-enter the United States from the Bahamas.
"So, for years we have had the very good fortune to be the destination that Americans would think of first when they want a quick get-away," Ms. Walkine said.
"They could get up on a Friday morning, pack a couple of things in a bag, grab their drivers license and hop on a plane with no problem. Well, that changed. They now have to have passports and this has had a dramatic impact on our business, and in particular Grand Bahama."
She said that now that they have passports to travel, the Americans can now travel anywhere in the world.
"So all of a sudden our competitors are not just the Caribbean, its the world. Americans are exploring all over the place. The Caribbean has been popular for many, many years but its like been there, and done that," Ms. Walkine said.
) Caribbean, Alaska or Northern Europe
DH and I normally do not get to vacation during the summer months because of work restraints. We have been able to slip away for a long labor day weekend and a week in Oct. but even that was hard. As wonderful as our customers are, it is still hard for some of them to realize that we may need vacation time too! If, however, 
