Hong Kong Disneyland aims for attendance

Hong Kong Disneyland
aims for attendance

HONG KONG — Hong Kong Disneyland plans to add four new shows and launch a discount ticket for transit tourists on a trial basis in 2008 amid news its 2007 attendance plunged.

The park also said in a statement it will open a previously announced attraction, the classic Disney ride “It’s a Small World,” this coming spring.

Hong Kong Disneyland said the four new shows are “Muppet Mobile Lab,” which features the puppet characters, a show based on the hit Disney TV movie “High School Musical,” an interactive show featuring the character Crush from the animated movie “Finding Nemo,” and a presentation showcasing drawings and art work.

The new discount tickets for transit passengers, priced at $25, will launch this month.

Carnival gives Mobile
customer service award

MOBILE, Ala. — Carnival Corp. has presented its top Port of the Year customer service award to Mobile while negotiating a new contract with the Alabama port that has been home for the Holiday cruise ship since 2004.

The award is based on feedback from customer comment cards.

Carnival spokesman Vance Gulliksen in Miami said Mobile’s embarkation team “gives new meaning to the term ‘Southern hospitality.”’

Cruise Services USA Inc., a shore services company, has 35 to 50 employees at the Alabama Cruise Terminal downtown.

The Charleston, S.C.-based company has been under contract with Miami-based Carnival for almost two years, Walter Thorn, president of Cruise Services, said. Thorn said he’s proud of reaching the top during the company’s first full year in Mobile.

Airlines let customers
offset greenhouse gas

HONG KONG — Environmentally conscious travelers on Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. can buy their plane tickets and offset the amount of greenhouse gas spewed out by each flight, all with the click of a mouse.

The Hong Kong-based carrier and its sister airline, Dragonair, are the latest airlines to provide jet setters with a way to reduce their carbon footprint.

Travelers logging on to either of the airlines’ booking systems can tap in the origin and destination of their flight and calculate how much heat-trapping carbon dioxide they are responsible for releasing into the environment.

Flat Rock writes
its own history books

LITHONIA, Ga. — One of the nation’s oldest black communities where slaves and their descendants have lived for two centuries is writing its own history books.

The long forgotten community of Flat Rock — which was removed from state maps 150 years ago — has opened an archives center in a 100-year-old frame house in south DeKalb County.

The contents of the center are almost entirely church and family records gathered by two community activists who have worked for three decades to chronicle Flat Rock’s history.

Associated Press