Housewives Desperate to Escape?

Hi Everyone,

I received this press release from Princess and thought it would be of
interest. It really must be survey day. g If you have missed any of
my news' postings, they are available on my web site.

Best regards,
Ray
LIGHTHOUSE TRAVEL
800-719-9917 or 805-566-3905
http://www.lighthousetravel.com


Housewives Desperate to Escape?
Three "Nurturing" Professions Ranked Most Overworked in Survey
Commissioned by Princess Cruises to Launch "Help Someone Escape
Completely" Contest

Santa Clarita, Calif. (May 25, 2005) -- Nurses (55%), teachers (44%),
and homemakers (43%) were ranked by U.S. adults as the top-three most
overworked professions in the Escape Completely study recently
commissioned by Princess Cruises to assess U.S. adult consumer
opinions about people's need to "escape." Topics covered in the survey
ranged from ways people escape stress in their daily lives and the
situations from which people most often want to escape, to a ranking
of the top individuals in people's lives who most need a vacation
escape, and more. Findings include:

# Keeping Away From The Joneses...More U.S. adults ranked "neighbors"
(40%) among the top-three people in their lives from which they most
need to escape, surpassing even their boss (34%) and their immediate
family (spouse/partner: 32%; child/children: 31%).

# It's All About Me. When asked to rank the top-three people in their
lives who most need a vacation escape, 79% of U.S. adults placed
themselves among the top three, while only 58% placed their
spouse/partner there.

# It's "Cell" Not "Yell." People talking on their cell phones too
loudly in public places was the personal habit of others that makes
the largest number of U.S. adults most want to escape (58%).

# 40 Truly IS Fabulous. When respondents were asked to name the
celebrity who they would most want to accompany them on a vacation
escape, "A Cast Member from Desperate Housewives" beat out "A Cast
Member from Sex in the City" two to one (6% to 3%).

# Venus Is Probably Neater. Women are 10 times more likely than men to
escape from stress in their daily lives by organizing a closet (11% to
1%).

# Guys, Take Etiquette Classes Before That First Date. Women are more
likely than men to most want to escape people who eat with their
mouths open (46% to 34%), talk with their mouths full (43% to 32%), or
slurp their drinks (27% to 19%).

# The Verdict On Attorneys? Guilty...Of Not Being Overworked. Only 4%
of respondents ranked attorneys among the top three most overworked
professions.

# "Better Late than Never" Doesn't Cut It...42% of respondents want to
escape from people who are habitually late, compared with only 4% who
wanted to escape habitual early birds.

# In order to escape stress in their daily lives, women are three
times more likely than men to... Go shopping (32% to 11%) Talk on the
phone (30% to 10%) or Read a trashy novel(12% to 4%).

The Escape Completely survey is helping Princess Cruises to kick off
an unusual type of contest that will bring out the "nurturer" in
everyone. From now until August 31, 2005, Princess is conducting the
"Help Someone Escape Completely" contest, which asks people to
nominate an especially deserving person in their own lives to win a
seven-day cruise vacation for two to either the Caribbean or the
Mexican Riviera. Princess is offering the contest in celebration of
its 40th Anniversary this year, and to underscore that significant
milestone, 40 winners will be chosen from among the nominees. Full
contest details can be found at www.princess.com/escape, where
nominators can tell their story using a maximum of 500 words on the
easy-to-use entry submission form. Winners will be announced in
October 2005.

Jan Swartz, Princess' senior vice president of customer service and
sales, says that the survey and contest were developed in keeping with
the company's brand positioning -- which ensures that its passengers
"Escape Completely" while cruising with Princess. According to Swartz,
"we know that people want to truly escape when they're on vacation, to
leave their everyday routine and responsibilities behind and enjoy a
meaningful break where they can both indulge and rejuvenate. We
thought that the Escape Completely survey would help uncover some
salient -- and humorous -- facts about this need." (Additional survey
findings attached).

Now, with the "Help Someone Escape Completely" contest, Princess
Cruises is offering to provide a vacation escape for some passengers
who deserve to leave their cares behind and experience some serious
relaxation and pampering. Says Swartz, "All too often, the people we
know in our lives that could most use a vacation are the people who
are not in a position to take one...whether the reason be financial,
time constraints, or just personal circumstances." Princess hopes that
this contest will help provide the impetus that these people need to
take a refreshing break from their everyday lives. Adds Swartz, "It's
infinitely easier to make time for a vacation when it's already been
planned and paid for...all one has to do is pick a date."

One of the pioneers of the modern-day cruise industry, Princess
Cruises began as a one-ship company operating cruises to the Mexican
Riviera in 1965. Celebrating 40 years of operation in 2005, the Los
Angeles area-based company ranks as one of the largest cruise lines in
the industry, with 13 ships sailing on approximately 150 different
itineraries around the globe, and calling at more than 280 ports on
all seven continents. The line became a household name in the mid
1970s when one of its ships was cast as the "star" of the long-running
television series The Love Boat. Today, Princess is a leader in the
rapidly growing cruise market and one of the best-known names in North
American cruising. Additional information is available through a
professional travel agent.

ABOUT THE SURVEYHarris Interactive® fielded the online survey on
behalf of Princess Cruises between April 13 and 15, 2005 among a
nationwide sample of 2,271 U.S. adults aged 18 or older. The data were
weighted to be representative of the total U.S. adult population on
the basis of region, age within gender, education, household income,
race/ethnicity and propensity to be online. Though this online sample
is not a probability sample, in theory, with probability samples of
this size, one could say with 95 percent certainty that the overall
results have a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Sampling error for the results of men (1,021) is plus or minus 5
percentage points and for the results of women (1,250) is plus or
minus 4 percentage points.

ABOUT HARRIS INTERACTIVE®Harris Interactive Inc.
(www.harrisinteractive.com), the 15th largest and fastest-growing
market research firm in the world, is a Rochester, N.Y.-based global
research company that blends premier strategic consulting with
innovative and efficient methods of investigation, analysis and
application. Known for The Harris Poll® and for pioneering
Internet-based research methods, Harris Interactive conducts
proprietary and public research to help its clients achieve clear,
material and enduring results.

Harris Interactive combines its intellectual capital, databases and
technology to advance market leadership through U.S. offices and
wholly owned subsidiaries: London-based HI Europe (www.hieurope.com),
Paris-based Novatris (www.novatris.com), Tokyo-based Harris
Interactive Japan, through newly acquired WirthlinWorldwide, a Reston,
Virginia-based research and consultancy firm ranked 25th largest in
the world, and through an independent global network of affiliate
market research companies. EOE M/F/D/V

Additional Escape Survey Findings

# Women & Food: A Love-Hate Relationship...U.S. adult women are more
than twice as likely as their male counterparts to consider "quantity
of comfort food eaten" as an indicator that they are experiencing a
high level of stress (43% to 20%), and four times more likely to feel
that way about chocolate (24% to 6%).

# Either Way, They're Driving People Crazy...While 52% of respondents
most want to escape from people who tailgate, nearly the same
percentage of respondents most want to escape from people who drive
too slow in the fast lane (51%).

# The Boss is a Real Dog. The percentage of U.S. adults who would rank
their boss among the top-three people in their lives who most need a
vacation escape is nearly the same percentage of adults who would rank
their pet among the top three (6% to 4%).

# Mom, I Love You But...When asked to choose the top-three people in
their lives who most need a vacation escape, 79% of U.S. adults ranked
themselves among the top three, while only 32% ranked their mothers in
the top three.

# Overall Greatest Stress Indicators: Being Tired, Cranky, and
Bloated...The three most common things that U.S. adults say indicate a
high level of stress in a typical day for them include: ...Hours of
sleep lost (55%) ...Number of disagreements with people close to them
(40%) ...Quantity of comfort food eaten (32%)

# The Myth About "Monsters-in Law"...When asked "Who in your life do
you most often need to escape from?" more people ranked their own
parents among the top three than their in-laws (26% to 23%).

# Voted In, But Not Stressed Out...Only 2% of U.S. adults ranked
politicians among the top-three most overworked professions.

# Five Alarm Surprise...Homemakers(43%) and waiters/waitresses (39%)
beat firefighters (20%) approximately 2 to 1 for being ranked among
the top-three most over worked professions.

# "Low-Tech" Stress Reduction...The three most common ways people said
they use most often to escape the stress of daily life were watching
television (60%), listening to/playing music (49%), and taking a
shower/bath (35%), whereas only 5% escape stress by visiting a chat
room.

# Retirement is Truly Bliss...While only 10% of people said they "do
not face any stress," nearly half of those people are retired (49%).

# A Debt-Trimental Situation...More than one-quarter of U.S. adults
said bills/debts is the situation which they need to escape from the
most (28%).

# America's Diverse Palate...The three most popular items that people
named as the one food they would choose if they could eat only one
food on their vacation escape were steak (22%), lobster (20%), and
pizza (12%).

# Don't Talk About Needing a Vacation...Nearly half of US adults (47%)
think that no TV talk show host deserves a vacation escape.

# Just Say "No" to Paparazzi...More than one quarter of U.S. adults
(26%) would not want to take ANY celebrity with them on a vacation
escape.

# Read the Signs, Dummy...More than one quarter of US adults (28%)
want to "escape" from people who bring more than 10 items to the "10
items or less" lane at the grocery store.

Ray Goldenberg quoted from a survey:


# It's "Cell" Not "Yell." People talking on their cell phones too
loudly in public places was the personal habit of others that makes
the largest number of U.S. adults most want to escape (58%).



Cruise lines are trying to get cell phones onto the ships. It'll make
lots of people lots of money. Must be a good thing!

Ben S.

Does anyone else here think that Desperate Housewives is an overhyped
show? I watched it and my wife doesn't want to watch it next season.
Besides too many plot lines and characters that go nowhere, it is
flippant. I'd like to see it fail and be cancelled next year, but TV is
in a sorry state, so I'm not that confident of what would replace it.

What does this have to do with cruising? Ask Princess about the reference.

Ben S.

"Benjamin Smith" wrote

Does anyone else here think that Desperate Housewives is an overhyped
show?

I got bored after a couple of episodes and stopped watching.

I seldom get caught up in a television series for very long (even got tired
of the Sopranos) but this year I got hooked by two series.... "Lost" and
"Deadwood". I almost got interested in "Carnivale" but they lost me
somewhere in the dust bowl and I moved on.

Keeping it on topic, I doubt either series will ever be shown on MUTS
(Princess or Carnival). And those who disagree with me **** **** by choice.
(Deadwood watchers won't need anyone to fill in the starsvbg)

"Ohmigod, Ethyl! That Scum Sucking Travel Agent just wrote **** **** on
the r.t.c.!!!!! Why I remember back when all we had to look out for was
that Frix feller!!!!


--
George in PA http://www.countryside-travel.com

The Mother of All Group Cruises 2 - http://www.moagc2.com/
May 2006, Caribbean Princess - http://cruisemaster.com/caribprin.htm
October 2006 - SLEAZY 4!

"Benjamin Smith" wrote

Does anyone else here think that Desperate Housewives is an overhyped
show?

I got bored after a couple of episodes and stopped watching.

I seldom get caught up in a television series for very long (even got tired
of the Sopranos) but this year I got hooked by two series.... "Lost" and
"Deadwood". I almost got interested in "Carnivale" but they lost me
somewhere in the dust bowl and I moved on.

Keeping it on topic, I doubt either series will ever be shown on MUTS
(Princess or Carnival). And those who disagree with me **** **** by choice.
(Deadwood watchers won't need anyone to fill in the starsvbg)

"Ohmigod, Ethyl! That Scum Sucking Travel Agent just wrote **** **** on
the r.t.c.!!!!! Why I remember back when all we had to look out for was
that Frix feller!!!!


--
George in PA http://www.countryside-travel.com

The Mother of All Group Cruises 2 - http://www.moagc2.com/
May 2006, Caribbean Princess - http://cruisemaster.com/caribprin.htm
October 2006 - SLEAZY 4!

Benjamin Smith wrote:
Ray Goldenberg quoted from a survey:


# It's "Cell" Not "Yell." People talking on their cell phones too
loudly in public places was the personal habit of others that makes
the largest number of U.S. adults most want to escape (58%).



Cruise lines are trying to get cell phones onto the ships. It'll make
lots of people lots of money. Must be a good thing!

I think it will might make a few corporations money. It will COST lots
of people lots of money. It might work for local (to find someone on the
ship), but where would the bandwidth come from for outside calls?

On Thu, 26 May 2005 00:13:34 GMT, mrtravel
wrote:

It might work for local (to find someone on the
ship), but where would the bandwidth come from for outside calls?

Hi Everyone,

Cell systems have already been installed on a few ships and it will be
on many others. Crew and passengers have been using cell phones for
many years while in port or close to shore. This really is not
anything new.

Best regards,
Ray
LIGHTHOUSE TRAVEL
800-719-9917 or 805-566-3905
http://www.lighthousetravel.com

Ray Goldenberg wrote:

On Thu, 26 May 2005 00:13:34 GMT, mrtravel
wrote:


It might work for local (to find someone on the
ship), but where would the bandwidth come from for outside calls?


Hi Everyone,

Cell systems have already been installed on a few ships and it will be
on many others. Crew and passengers have been using cell phones for
many years while in port or close to shore. This really is not
anything new.

Really, people have been using cell phones from port for many years...
WOW.... Thanks for sharing. Pity the fool that think it is just as
cheap to call from the Caribe as their home town. Puerto Rico and USVI
might be include in standard US nationwide rates, but Antigua generally
isn't.
Seriously, close to shore is fine. But I was referring to beyond the
reach of shore cell locations. It's not like a majority of people are
going to pay the ship much more money than they would for a cell call
from port. I was referring to ships at sea a bit beyond the range of
connecting to the normal cell networks.

On Thu, 26 May 2005 01:31:58 GMT, mrtravel
wrote:

But I was referring to beyond the
reach of shore cell locations. It's not like a majority of people are
going to pay the ship much more money than they would for a cell call
from port. I was referring to ships at sea a bit beyond the range of
connecting to the normal cell networks.

Hi Everyone,

Yes, this is what I said in my earlier posts. The cruise lines have
already begun implementing the systems that work at sea. A search of
some of my previous press releases will give the details.

Best regards,
Ray
LIGHTHOUSE TRAVEL
800-719-9917 or 805-566-3905
http://www.lighthousetravel.com

On Wed, 25 May 2005 23:07:33 GMT, Benjamin Smith wrote:

Does anyone else here think that Desperate Housewives is an overhyped
show?

Pure crap.