It looks like 1982 all over again, with Great Britain and Argentina locked in an escalating conflict over the Falklands. Only this time, instead of naval ships with big guns, cruise ships armed with tourist dollars and pounds are being used. 

Falklands shoreline with cruise ship

On Feb 21, 2010, the Scottish oil rig Ocean Guardian starts drilling for oil in the waters off the Falklands.

The Argentine government’s response to the British incursion into waters they consider their own was to lay a bureaucratic blockade to all cruise ships passing through Argentine waters enroute to the Falkland Islands.

Argentina now requires that all ships heading towards the Falklands acquire a permit from Argentinian authorities.

On Feb 22, the Star Princess with 2600 passengers on board will dock at Port Stanley in the Falklands. After that, it heads to the Argentine port of Ushuaia.

When the Star Princess set sail from Buenos Aires – the Argentinian capital, no one asked for the new permit. But the situation has worsened considerably in-between, with the Scottish oil rig now in position, and a statement from Prime Minister Gordon Brown that the UK had “made all the preparations that are necessary to make sure the Falkland islanders are properly protected”.

Cristina Kirchner, Argentina’s President, didn’t back off either, and is quoted as saying that “”The Malvinas [Spanish for Falkland Islands - Isla Malvinas] will never be surrendered.”

It’s a high-stakes game of chicken, and everyone is hoping that Argentina doesn’t actually start bullying the cruise ship. Cruise ship tourism is the second largest contributor to the Falkland economy, after fishing. Cruise ships bring over 60,000 visitors every year to the Falklands. Also, many Antarctic cruises set sail from Ushuaia, so the standoff hurts Argentina just as much as the Falklands. 

With the British about to tap into an estimated bonanza of 3.5 billion barrels of oil and nine trillion cubic metres of gas in the waters off the Falklands, neither side can afford to back off. If Argentina doesn’t do anything, it loses the Falklands in a very significant way, and it also makes them look weak. 

On the other hand, if they actually ask the Star Princess for the permit, Britain will be forced to respond, and things will get ugly very fast, and it could land the passengers of the Star Princess – mostly British, into a lot of trouble.

Even if the Star Princess completes its trip without being hassled, eight more cruise liners are scheduled to sail between Ushuaia and the Falklands before the season closes this year at the end of March, and each one offers an opportunity for Argentina to escalate the conflict.

The question also remains as to whether it was wise to send in a cruise ship packed with 2600 innocent passengers into the middle of a possible conflict zone.

Royal Caribbean International announced that Oasis of the Seas, the world’s largest cruise ship, has been outfitted with Cisco’s Unified Wireless Network, powering devices, digital media systems and offering pervasive coverage throughout the ship, from bow to stern. 

Cisco network onboard Oasis of the Seas

George O’Meara, senior vice president, Cisco Services, US and Canada, said that “A new technological benchmark within the travel industry has been set with Oasis of the Seas. With the Cisco network as the platform, Royal Caribbean is today setting the industry standard for the connected cruise line of the future.”

Listed below are highlights of the services onboard Oasis of the Seas which make use of the Cisco network.

1. Oasis waitstaff use wireless point-of-sale (POS) devices, allowing guest purchases to be  processed anywhere on the ship.

These devices are also used to obtain electronic waivers from guests for shipboard activities such as rock climbing, ice skating or riding the zip line.

2. More than 1,000 Oasis crew members are outfitted with Cisco Unified Wireless IP Phones (model 7925G).

3. A wireless phone will be available for rental to guests aboard Oasis of the Seas cruises beginning sometime in 2010. The phone will let guests call or text other guests and view daily events.

4. The phone will also operate as a real-time tracking device to locate children registered in Royal Caribbean’s Adventure Ocean program, who will wear a tag that sends the phone a wireless signal of their exact location. 

5. Over 900 Cisco wireless access points offer pervasive coverage.

In addition, Cisco powered digital media systems add interactivity to a medium which usually simply delivers entertainment and informational content.

More than 300 interactive digital signs running on the Cisco network are located across the ship, allowing guests to view dining menus and restaurant availability, watch videos about spa treatments and other services, and check showtimes in the various theaters.

RCI also says that the Cisco network is flexible and scalable enough so that Royal Caribbean can easily add amenities and services to meet future growth.

Oasis of the Seas photo by Nick Hobgood

Related posts:-
Oasis of the Seas Names Seven Godmothers
Hotels Seek to Improve Wireless Access

Richard Fain, chairman and CEO, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. officially takes ownership of Oasis of the Seas .

The hype has been enormous — seminars touting the retractable roofs, interior balconies, ziplining, aqua theater, an elevator bar and a promenade that features real grass the employees have to mow. Heck, they’ve even signed Rihanna to provide entertainment in December. But despite the webinars, CLIA classes, brochures and emails telling the travel industry between the lines that Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas will invigorate profits, it’s now looking like … well, hype.

Even the world’s largest ship can’t overcome the plummet in discretionary income to persuade folks to book sooner than a few weeks out in this fourth quarter. Travel agents are telling Cruise Week that at the end of October, there’s still plenty of vacancy on Oasis for Christmas and New Years sailings, even though the $1.5 billion vessel is the most talked about new cruise ship to come along in years, the publication points out. This includes everything from the inside Category Q spaces to balcony categories, although the suites at the top of the pricing chain are sold out.

It’s the same story for the first quarter of 2010, too: suites sell, while agents paddle to get vacationers to commit to the rest of the ship. That 40 percent additional space to entertain as many as 6,360 passengers per sailing may turn into 40 percent more booking headaches as the recession continues.

And since Oasis also carries another accolade — world’s most expensive cruise ship — slow bookings can’t be too welcome within the accounting department at Royal Caribbean, particularly with sister ship Allure of the Seas hot on its heels in the shipyards.  Oasis is scheduled from December 2009 to April 2010 to offer 7-night trips from Ft. Lauderdale to St. Thomas, St. Maarten and the Bahamas. Beginning in May, the itinerary changes to Haiti, Jamaica and Mexico out of Port Everglades, one of the few large enough at the moment to allow Oasis to dock.

“It’s in the DNA of our company, about every 10 years, to take more or less a fresh sheet of paper and create the greatest cruise ship in the world,” CEO Adam Goldstein has said. He’d better hope he also reinvents American travel habits in the next 12 days as well.

Photography: Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

On Oct 21, 2009, the Clean Cruise Ship Act of 2009 (S. 1820) – which would ban the release of raw, untreated sewage in U.S. waters, including the Great Lakes – was introduced in the US Senate by Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL). Nearly identical legislation was introduced in the House by Representative Sam Farr (D-CA).

Cruise Ship

Currently, cruise ships are allowed to discharge waste three nautical miles from shore. The Clean Cruise Ship Act would establish a no-dumping zone in waters within 12 nautical miles of U.S. shores and strengthen standards for treatment of waste outside of this zone.  The bill would also establish an onboard monitoring program to ensure that ships comply with the law.

Three good reasons for the cruise industry to wake up and smell the waste -

A) Sen. Durbin is the Assistant Senate Majority Leader – effectively the no. 2 in the Senate, and he represents Illinois and has excellent relations with President Obama.

B) Rep. Sam Farr is co-chair of the Congressional Travel and Tourism Caucus – which basically means the guy who’s supposed to be protecting your interests is pulling the rug out from under you.

C) The issue is too big to be left alone - the U.S. is close to hitting ten million annual cruise passengers. The average cruise ship produces over 1.2 million gallons of wastewater every week, and there are more than 230 cruise ships operating around the world, generating millions of gallons of wastewater daily.

A single ship can produce over 200,000 gallons of human sewage; one million gallons of graywater from kitchens, laundry and showers; more than 10,000 gallons of sewage sludge; more than 130 gallons of hazardous waste and over 25,000 gallons of oily bilge water that collects in ship bottoms.

Sen. Durbin had put up the same bill in 2008, but the Senate apparently had better things to do at that time. While introducing the bill, he explained why he feels strongly about this - ” Under the current system, these ships can directly dump their waste into our oceans and the Great Lakes with minimal oversight.  Vacation cruises can be a wonderful way to see the world, but we cannot afford to leave the destruction of the oceans in the wake of these ships.”

Sen. Durbin’s legislation is supported by environmental groups including Friends of the Earth; Earthjustice; Oceana; Surfrider; Campaign to Safeguard America’s Waters; and Northwest Environmental Advocates.

Neesha Kulkarni, Legislative Associate at Friends of the Earth, added that “Advanced technology is available to treat this waste, but the cruise industry has failed to install this equipment on a majority of its ships.”

And Rep. Farr chimed in with his own recriminations – “Big cruise ships make for big pollution; it’s an unavoidable truth. Unfortunately, responsible disposal of that waste hasn’t always been a given. The cruise ship industry is way overdue to take responsibility for its actions.”

The US House has also approved legislation requiring cruise lines to improve their passenger safety record, with new and stringent requirements related to crime prevention and reporting. This bill (HR 3619) is also now heading for the Senate for approval.

In short, it’s time for the cruise industry to clean up it’s act, or Congress is quite willing – and likely, to do it for them.

Photo by ccgd