cruises

Tourism representatives from Niagara County again were traveling to Ireland to promote the Erie Canal, communities on the historic waterway and the region.

Scheduled to make their third annual trip to the Jan. 24-27 Holiday World Travel Show in Dublin were Michael and Sharon Murphy, owners of Lockport Locks & Erie Canal Cruises.

Also planning to attend was Elizabeth Davis, sales and marketing manager for Niagara Tourism and Convention Corp. in Niagara Falls.

The Murphys also are representing Canal New York Marketing & Business Alliance Inc., an organization that promotes communities and events along what Murphy calls "The Canal the Irish Built."

Some lines are brilliant at coming up with memorable names. Others, well …

"I find it inexplicably weird that cruise lines can't be more creative," says industry watcher Carolyn Spencer Brown, editor of Cruisecritic.com.

The fast-growing cruise industry has launched dozens of ships in recent years, and dozens more are on order. That makes a catchy name all the more crucial to stand out from the crowd. But as the number of ships grows, finding a winner seems to be getting tougher.

As Spencer Brown points out, the latest crop of names is uninspiring at best. And some lines even are resorting to copying names already in use by others.

Royal Caribbean, for instance, recently launched Liberty of the Seas, just two years after rival Carnival launched its own ship named Liberty. Of course, maybe it was payback for Carnival's use of the name Legend on a new ship in 2002, seven years after the arrival of Royal Caribbean's Legend of the Seas.

In fact, Carnival is becoming somewhat of a serial copier. This summer, the line will launch the Carnival Splendor, echoing Royal Caribbean's Splendour of the Seas. Carnival's next ships also will ring familiar: Carnival Dream and Carnival Magic feature words already in use by Norwegian and Disney.

"Boy, does it get confusing," says Spencer Brown, ticking off other names used by multiple lines, such as Dawn, Jewel, Mariner, Navigator, Freedom, Crown and Pride.

A few years ago, a little film called Bonneville premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. A year went by, and then the film popped up at a few more festivals. Finally, SenArt Films grabbed the feature, and it's finally making its way to the big screen this year. You'd think that it must be some sort of super-indie to create pretty much zero buzz and not find any takers for well over a year after its premiere, but it's actually a film that has quite of few big-name actresses in it -- Joan Allen, Kathy Bates, Jessica Lange, and Christine Baranski. (On the male side of things, there's also Tom Wopat, yes that Wopat, and Tom Skerritt.)

Now that it will hit screens this February, The Hollywood Reporter has posted about the film's unique marketing campaign. You'd think with a road trip movie named Bonneville, they might have some sort of car promotion, or maybe even a big party in Bonneville, PA. Not in the least. Instead, they are teaming up with Princess Cruises and hosting sneak previews on a number of the line's ships. It will be shown on oceanic trips to destinations like Australia, Thailand, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, and Argentina.