City again banks on cruises to assure fleet commercial gains. (Spotlight on Long Beach).LONG Beach is again looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. ocean liners to give it an economic boost. The city is pinning its hopes on the April 3 opening of a Carnival Cruise Lines This article or section needs sources or references that appear in reliable, third-party publications. Alone, primary sources and sources affiliated with the subject of this article are not sufficient for an accurate encyclopedia article. terminal adjacent to the venerable Queen Mary Queen Mary, Queen Marie, or Queen Maria may refer to: Queens Britain England
attractive feature, magnet, attractor, attracter, attraction - a characteristic that provides pleasure and attracts; "flowers are an attractor for bees" whose surroundings having seen better days. The $40 million project built by the cruise line A cruise line is a company that operates cruise ships. Cruise lines have a dual character; they are partly in the transportation business, and partly in the leisure entertainment business, a duality that carries down into the ships themselves, which have both a crew headed by the includes a 1,000-foot-long pier where ships will dock, a 50,000-square-foot terminal inside the former Spruce Goose Dome and a 1,450-space parking garage. Carnival's new boarding area, which will replace its current San Pedro docking facility Noun 1. docking facility - landing in a harbor next to a pier where ships are loaded and unloaded or repaired; may have gates to let water in or out; "the ship arrived at the dock more than a day late" dockage, dock , includes a waiting area and customs and immigration immigration, entrance of a person (an alien) into a new country for the purpose of establishing permanent residence. Motives for immigration, like those for migration generally, are often economic, although religious or political factors may be very important. station. Two 2,052-passenger ships will be stationed at the new Carnival pier: the Ecstasy and the Elation elation /ela·tion/ (e-la´shun) emotional excitement marked by acceleration of mental and bodily activity, with extreme joy and an overly optimistic attitude. . This fall, Carnival will replace the Elation with the Carnival Pride This article or section needs sources or references that appear in reliable, third-party publications. Alone, primary sources and sources affiliated with the subject of this article are not sufficient for an accurate encyclopedia article. . A smaller $1.5 million project next to the Queen Mary includes space for 10 food and retail carts along a landscaped walkway. Plans for larger retail stores and restaurants are a few years away. Developers hope the new facilities, projected to bring 350,000 passengers annually, will feed into two new retail, restaurant and entertainment developments across Queensway Bay near the Long Beach Convention Center and Long Beach Aquarium. CityPlace, a $75 million 454,000-squarefoot retail complex anchored by Nordstrom Rack, Wal-Mart and Ross Dress For Less, opened last fall at 300-600 Long Beach Blvd. The $32 million Pike at Rainbow Harbor retail and restaurant complex with a 14-screen movie theater at Aquarium Boulevard and Pine Avenue will open at the end of the year. The city provides regular water taxi water taxi n. A ferryboat that takes passengers to a variety of possible destinations instead of operating over a fixed route. rides across the bay to the larger retail centers, as well as free service from 19 Passport shuttle buses, some of which link downtown with the Queen Mary. "A lot of people tend to show up early in the morning even though embarkation doesn't start until early afternoon and departure until late afternoon," said Jennifer de la Cruz de la Cruz is a common surname in the Spanish language meaning 'of The Cross.'
In expanding the area, Queen's Seaport and Carnival is pulling off what Walt Disney Co. failed to do from 1988 through 1992. Plans to create its Disney Sea Project south of the Spruce Goose Dome were shelved and the lease returned to the city after the state lands and coastal commissions refused to grant a permit to create a 25-acre parcel on which the resort would sit. Joseph Prevratil, president and chief executive of Queen's Seaport Development Inc., which operates the Queen Mary, acknowledged some concern about the sluggish travel and tourism industry, but added that "Carnival will be delivering 6,500 people a week. That's certainly worth the risk. There are shopping centers that don't (attract) that many people." Prevratil, who spearheaded negotiations for Carnival's move in 1999, had signed a 66-year agreement with the city to lease the Queen Mary and the adjacent 47 acres of land in exchange for 5 percent of all revenues (including space leased to Carnival), totaling $35 million annually. Carnival saw enough business potential around the Queens Highway area to make the $40 million in improvements. Prevratil's history with the Queen Mary dates back to 1982 when he was vice president of operations for Wrather Port Properties Ltd., which leased the ship. Wrather opened the $14 million Spruce Goose Dome in 1983, using Howard Hughes' famous huge wooden plane, which it leased from the Aero Club, as a sister attraction to the Queen Mary. Together, the two attractions generated $50 million annually until Disney took over the lease in 1998 as part of a deal to buy the Disneyland hotels from Wrather, which had been licensing the Disney brand name. When Disney decided not to renew its lease of the Queen Mary in 1992, the Aero Club donated the plane to a museum in Oregon. Prevratil, meanwhile, formed Queen's Seaport to take over the Queen Mary lease from the city. Long Beach purchased the ship from the British government in 1967 after it completed 1,001 crossings of the Atlantic Ocean. Some $10 million has since been invested to refurbish the vessel. |
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