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Old December 9th, 2008, 02:18 PM posted to rec.travel.cruises
Jeff Gersten
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Posts: 534
Default German cruise ship to avoid pirates by debarking passengers andflying passengers to the next port

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/200...n-pirate-turf/

snip
A week after pirates fired on one cruise ship near the Horn of Africa, a
German cruise company has decided to play it safe in dangerous waters.

Hapag-Lloyd cruises announced today that a ship sailing from Genoa,
Italy, to Dubai would unload 300 passengers and crewmembers before it
reaches the Gulf of Aden, the lawless stretch of water off the Somali
coast where pirates have menaced passenger boats, boarded cargo ships
and hijacked a Saudi tanker loaded with $100 million in oil.

The passengers — who are mostly German, with six Americans among them
— will board charter flights to Dubai, where they'll stay at five-star
hotels for a few days, the company said. Meanwhile, the M.S. Columbus
will through the gulf with a skeleton crew, and if all goes well,
rendezvous with the passengers in Oman.
end snip