Tourists Shaken Up In Wild Horse-Drawn Carriage Ride

A spooked horse took off with a family of seven on a wild carriage ride without its driver in Salt Lake City, the Salt Lake Tribune reports. Nobody was seriously hurt.

Man Ejected From Cruise For Criticizing Art Auctions

Just ran across a story about a teacher who got thrown off a Royal Caribbean cruise ship for distributing a flier that questioned the value of art being auctioned on board.

This happened more than a week ago, which will show you how alert I’ve been lately. (I blame the rain; I’m always mowing.) The flier is posted on the Fine Art Registry site, which has been in a long and bitter dispute with the auction company, Park West Galleries.

This is just the latest in a controversy that leaves me wondering whether the cruise lines are making enough money on this to make it worth the damage to their reputations.

Welcome To New York & Sorry About The Police Chase

I just can’t decide which is my favorite headline regarding the French tourists who got lured into an unlicensed van at JFK and ended up in wild ride as the driver tried to elude a police chase.

New York Daily News: French tourists get ride of their lives from renegade livery driver

or

WPIX-TV: Illegal Airport Van Take French Tourists on Hell Ride

Passengers Drop Deck Furniture On Pirates

It is deeply disturbing that the seas are not safe from piracy in 2009, but somehow heartening to read about cruise ship passengers throwing tables and chairs onto the pirates trying to board their ship.

The Australian newspaper The Age reports that passengers “threw plastic tables and chairs at AK-47-wielding pirates who were trying to board” the MSC Melody off the East Coast of Africa over the weekend. The ship’s security forces returned fire from the pirates, who were driven off.

A Spanish warship responded to the cruise ship’s distress call, chased down and captured nine Somalis suspected in the attack and turned them over to the Seychelles Coast Guard, according to Reuters.

The attack occurred 650 nautical miles off the coast of Somalia, outside the area where pirates normally operate. The CEO of the company that owns the Melody said it will no longer route ships along the East Coast of Africa, The Australian reports.

Weird Travel News

Odd things are always happening in the world of travel. The latest round includes bee attacks, naked tourists, squalid amusement parks and boozy tour bus rides.

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