Saturday 10 August 2013

END OF THE LOVE BOAT

End of the affair: 'The Love Boat' sails its final voyage

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Published: Friday, 9 Aug 2013 | 5:34 PM ET
By: Harriet Baskas
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Source: Dashers | Wikipedia
The Pacific Princess, aka "The Love Boat," in 1987.
The MS Pacific, a cruise ship later known as the Pacific Princess but best known for its starring role in Aaron Spelling's 1970s television comedy, "The Love Boat," has made its last voyage.
The 561-foot ship was built for an estimated $25 million in 1970 and put into service in 1971. Decommissioned five years ago and deemed too costly to renovate, it was sold for scrap to Turkey's Izmir Ship Recycling for about $3.3 million.
According to Reuters, the vessel limped into a ship-breaking yard on Turkey's Aegean Sea coast on Tuesday after taking on water and requiring the aid of additional tugboats to reach port.
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While today's cruise ships are more luxurious than the original Love Boat and carry far more passengers (more than 5,000 versus its 640), the vessel's role in the TV show "helped make the concept of cruising popular," said David Rubin of DavidTravel. "And we now have as a selling point the fact that the best ships are much nicer than the Love Boat experience and offer top quality and many exotic ports."
When the show was popular, "it introduced cruising to a nontraditional cruise audience—which was at the time made of up the clichéd 'newly wed and nearly dead,' " said Carolyn Spencer Brown, editor-in-chief of Cruise Critic. "The show made cruising sexy again and brought new life to the industry. It was fun, exotic and glamorous."
It not only helped spread the word about cruising, "but ultimately, any benefit the major players gained was just from the free advertising the show offered by being aired," said Jaime Katz, a cruise industry analyst at Morningstar.
And while it may have been time for the Love Boat to permanently sail off into the sunset, some in the cruise industry and others who enjoy cruises are still sad to see her go.
"Our former little 640-passenger ship has since been eclipsed by larger and more amenity-filled ships, but she will always remain a treasured part of our company's past," said Julie Benson, vice president of public relations for Princess Cruises.
"Sure, there were blemishes—small cabins, noisy engines …" wrote ShipsAreTheBest on the Cruise Critics online comment board. But, the poster added, "she still has a special place in my heart."
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Friday 9 August 2013

FAMILY

My family his decreased over the years through deaths, lost a few pets too.....Also lost family who have decided that is the way it is going to be...fine by me...who needs drama queens and arseholes in their life...NOT ME!!!

SEE YA!!
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LOL

Passengers' fury as BA jet makes two emergency landings

British Airways Boeing 747sBritish Airways said a replacement aircraft had taken the passengers back to the UK

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Passengers have accused British Airways of putting lives at risk after a plane had to make two emergency landings with the same fault.
The Boeing 747 flight to London first had to turn back to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Wednesday owing to a problem with the wing flaps.
When the same plane took off on Thursday after repairs, the problem reoccurred and it turned back again.
BA said it would never operate a flight unless it believed it was safe.
One of the passengers, Sean Casey, told the BBC that paramedics were brought on board to treat some of the passengers after the second emergency landing.
He said it was "scandalous" that BA ground staff at King Khalid International Airport had been "unable to assist or advise" on "how they were going to get people to their final destination, many passengers have lost thousands of pounds as their onward flights, holiday accommodation and car rental has been paid and lost".
Mr Casey said: "Credit to the BA pilot - he did very well - and the crew on the plane."
But he added: "I feel BA put 300 lives at risk by putting us on the same plane 24 hours after trying to fix a fault."
'Terrifying'
Another passenger, Ahmed Hamad, also said "over 300 lives were put [at] risk by BA", adding that after the second emergency landing "there were lots of upset passengers and some trouble on board, and a few passengers refused to leave the aircraft".
Problems began with a four-hour delay before the plane bound for Heathrow took off on Wednesday from the Saudi capital, Mr Hamad said.
Then 30 minutes into the flight the captain announced they would have to turn back because of a problem with the wing flaps.
The pilot dumped fuel to make the plane lighter before turning back to Riyadh, Mr Hamad said, but "the speed of the landing was very fast".
On Thursday, after the plane had been fixed and passed as safe by engineers, the same problem occurred again just 20 minutes into the flight, Mr Hamad said, and turned back again.
Abdulaziz al Dabaan, a businessman from Riyadh, told the BBC the landing of the first aborted flight had been "terrifying".
"It kind of hit the runway," he said. "A lot of people were worried because of the announcement and because they could see the plane was ejecting fuel. It landed heavily on the back carriage and then smacked down on the front carriage."
'Gesture of goodwill'
After the second flight had turned back, he added: "I was really scared and I lost my faith in BA so I decided to cancel my flight and went home.
"I was travelling to London for the Eid holidays. I had six days off including two days travelling.
"I was going to visit my sister and her niece who I haven't seen since last summer. My heart aches a bit about that. I tried to get another flight but they were all booked."
A BA spokesman said a replacement aircraft had now taken the passengers safely to London.
The company said in a statement: "Our customer service teams are contacting customers directly to offer compensation, expenses and complementary tickets as a gesture of goodwill.
"The safety of our customers and crew is always our first concern and due to a technical problem, the decision was taken to return the aircraft to Riyadh.
"Our crew and customer service teams are doing everything they can to care for customers, and we provided overnight hotel accommodation."
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