Posted on 09/11/2006 11:59:28 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
MIAMI – Authorities were investigating the disappearance of an Ohio woman who was reported missing Monday from a Carnival Cruise Lines ship.
The 37-year-old woman, whose identity was not released, had been on a four-day cruise to Key West and Mexico.
The Miami-based cruise line said relatives last saw the woman Saturday night, but did not report her missing until Monday, when the ship returned to Miami. FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela said, however, that she was not aware of any delay in reporting the disappearance. “It doesn't look like foul play,” said Orihuela, whose agency is investigating the case.
The disappearance from the Carnival cruise ship Imagination was the latest missing person case involving a cruise this year.
Elizabeth Galeana, 22, of Naples, Fla., apparently fell off a cruise ship in July and drowned. Her body was found off the coast of Italy last month. In May, Daniel DiPiero, 21, of Canfield, Ohio, fell off a cruise ship to the Bahamas after a night of heavy drinking with friends.
The International Council of Cruise Lines, an industry lobbying group, reported earlier this year that a review of data from 15 lines showed 24 reports of missing people between 2003 to 2005.
One of the highest profile cases involving a cruise ship disappearance occurred last summer, when George Allen Smith IV, 26, of Greenwich, Conn., vanished from his honeymoon cruise in the Mediterranean after an apparent late night of drinking. Bloodstains were found on a canopy that covers lifeboats. No one has been charged and no body has been found.
I was in Mexico City for a few months on an IBM assignment. I would never go back to that filthy third world country. Especially on vacation. Brussels, Luzern, London, Sydney for me on business or pleasure.
No, I just made it up. It never happens. Right?
I've been on a lot of cruises and it's rare to see people really drunk. They get a little lit and have fun. Myself included.
Cruises look less and less a good idea for a vacation to me, and they never were all that appealing. - My graduating class was planning (a few of them anyway) to take a cruise right about the time of the hurricanes last year. The class leaders kept beating the drum about making reservations even after the worst natural disaster in this country in decades. I was frankly just as glad when the cruise ships were commandeered for relief workers and other disaster housing. Nothing wrong with a group taking a cruise, but after all these years and in light of the disaster I had hoped we were operating as adults by now.
How badly do you want to know?
Nice one!
We took a cruise line where every room on the ship had a balcony, so even in "steerage" we had one. We'd have a glass of wine and watch Sweden go by, looking at the lovely little country houses and the sailboats, as we slowly approached Stockholm.
It was one of my lifetime goals to see the Hermitage. It still is. ;)
My husband and I agreed that we want to go back to St. Petersburg in about ten years; they will have come much further by then, and so will the Hermitage.
The tour groups are huge in the Hermitage during the summer, so that was part of the issue. We could not just "linger" in front of individual paintings, as I prefer to do in museums.
What also surprised me was that, due to limited funds, there is absolutely no climate control in the Hermitage. We were there on a pretty warm day (made warmer by the crowds of people), and I was astonished to see things like a Leonardo painting right next to an open window.
In addition, paintings were hung rather unimaginatively, and the lighting in many rooms consisted of a single row of fluorescent tubes running around the perimeter of the room!
The good news: actual maintenance of the museum and the Winter Palace are getting a lot of attention, and a new coat of stunning teal blue/green paint is going up on the exterior over the lifeless grey that was there before (on the Neva side). St. Petersburg overall is getting a "new coat of paint", and a lot of refurbishment of the major boulevards was done in advance of the G8 meeting, which occurred about three weeks before we arrived.
St. Petersburg was the focus of our trip, and really the reason we took this as our first cruise; we were advised by people who knew that most of the hotels and service are not really up to the standard that we are accustomed to, and in many parts of the world it's nice to see things and then go back to the kind of service provided on the ship.
St. P. is really working on being a tourist attraction, but there are still some rough edges; the port building which we went through each time we debarked was a particularly hideous example of Soviet bureaucratic architecture, and the customs officials who looked at our passports each time were also left over from the Soviet period, in appearance and attitude. My husband and I started referring to it as "Checkpoint Charlie" (jokingly, since we both have been through the REAL Checkpoint Charlie and it was far more grim).
Snorkeling on coral reefs
Hiking through ancient Mayan ruins
Floating in tubes down a river running through large cave systems
Sliding across zip lines & rappelling down cave walls in tropical jungles and
SHOPPING!
And that's just in Belize.
Sounds like you took the fijord cruise. They say its stunning. Cheers.
Outside cabin with a balcony is the way to go if ya can get it..
My husband and I just got back from our first cruise -- to Alaska -- and had an outside cabin with a balcony. It was great to sit out there and watch the scenery go by! We really enjoyed it. I don't see how anyone can fall overboard -- those railings are high.
Actually, we took a Baltic Cruise, and Sweden was the last stop. I think the fjords are more on the Norway side; I'd love to go and find out. We will definitely do the Alaska cruise sometime, and next I think will be the Mediterranean.
We had a wonderful experience on Regent (http://www.rssc.com); at 700 passengers it is not a huge floating city like some lines.
That's http://www.rssc.com
The semicolon got included in the url and made it invalid.
http://thehoneymooncruisemystery.blogspot.com/
please help if you have information. thank you.
it's all pertinent to this missing womamn...
But she was drunk, and I last saw her at 11PM, going for a breath of fresh air... scary.
I guess living in or near a big city affords me those options at a much better price, without having to ride on a floating trailer park.
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