> >
> > Everything comes down to money, doesn't it.
> > They can probably hire Indonesian and Filipino crewmen cheaper, too.
> > Howard
>
> Yea, I'd guess that too...
>
> A funny thing about ships and registration : Paul Martin, ex-minister of finance of Canada, is also the owner of the Canadian Steamship Lines.
>
> All registered in some fiscal paradise.
>
> The minister of finance.
>
> 'tienne

I think I have the cruise lines all figured out. They give you a good price on cabins plus meals, then expect to make most of the profit on gambling, drinking, and pictures. But I don't drink or gamble and even though I find myself looking into a camera several times a day, I don't buy very many pictures. $20 for a candid mugshot is too much. So I get a bargain on a cruise. That was the way it was in Las Vegas up until recently. Hotel rooms and food were dirt cheap. The big money was booze and gambling. I may go back to Vegas someday, but never as cheaply as before. I should stick to cruise ships.

On this last trip we stopped in the Cayman Islands, one of the biggest off-shore banking sites in the world. Grand Cayman is small in spite of the name, but it still has hundreds of banks.
Howard