TRAVEL BRIEFS
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo.
Yellowstone's Dunraven Pass scheduled to open
Dunraven Pass in Yellowstone National Park is scheduled to be open for the season.
The pass is on the road that connects Tower/Rossevelt and Canyon. At nearly 8,900 feet, it is the highest elevation roadway in Yellowstone.
Once the pass opens, all park entrances and interior roads will be open for the season. Park officials warn that visitors should still be prepared for winter and spring weather conditions and say that snow tires may still be required on some roadways.
NEW YORK
JetBlue to launch Boston-Phoenix nonstop service
JetBlue will offer nonstop service from Boston to Phoenix beginning in September, the airline said Tuesday.
JetBlue, based in New York, has been ramping up service at Boston's Logan International Airport as it attempts to become more entrenched in the Northeast.
JetBlue Airways Corp. is offering introductory fares starting at $99 one-way for travel on the new nonstop route.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.
New Mexico Hispanic art museum temporarily closes
The art museum at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque is closing for a month.
The 11,000-square-foot art museum will be shut down through June 17 for a thorough cleaning of exhibition space and art work because of a fire in the adjacent forested area along the Rio Grande in central New Mexico in April.
Cultural center officials say the museum and art work were not damaged, but the center is being cleaned to remove any smoke residue.
The National Hispanic Cultural Center is part of the state Department of Cultural Affairs.
MILWAUKEE
Milwaukee museum
features quilt exhibition
A new exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Museum will feature one of the world's finest collections of early American quilts.
Featuring rare textiles of the late 1700s and early 1800s, it's called "American Quilts: Selections from the Winterthur Collection" and it runs through Sept. 6.
Quilts make political statements, celebrate marriages and document the textile trade.
Many of the 40 quilts were collected by Henry Francis du Pont, one of the 20th century's most avid antique collectors and horticulturists. They were featured in the Winterthur Museum & Country Estate in Delaware.
The museum will present the quilt designed in 1987 by AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin honoring Milwaukee residents who died from AIDS. The NAMES Project Foundation AIDS Memorial Quilt will be on view June 8 through June 20.
CHARLESTON, S.C.
South Carolina gets first home-ported cruise liner
A new era in tourism opened in South Carolina on Tuesday as the first cruise liner to be permanently based on the state's coast arrived.
The gleaming white Carnival Fantasy operated by Carnival Cruise Lines arrived in port as the sun broke through the morning clouds, a sail boat fired a cannon in salute and a tug boat sent arcs of water spraying into the air.
"Today is an historic and meaningful event for Charleston," said Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. "Charleston is one of the oldest ports in North America and has always had ships calling."
"A world class cruise line, Carnival, has chosen a world class city, Charleston, as a homeport," added Jim Newsome, the president and CEO of the South Carolina State Ports Authority.
In the past, only a handful of passenger cruises have sailed from Charleston in the winter.
But Jim Berra, Carnival's chief marketing officer, said Charleston is a good place for summer cruises, which is a growing market.
"We think it is, simply because the draw in the summer in Charleston is so strong," he said. "You're offering the guests time either pre- or post-cruise in an amazing city and then you have the chance to do a five, six or seven night cruise onto the Bahamas or Key West," he said.
"It would have been harder if you didn't have the natural gravitation to Charleston as a tourist destination," he said.
Berra said the Charleston cruises will attract passengers from Atlanta, the Carolinas and Tennessee and save passengers the drive to Jacksonville, Fla., or a flight to south Florida to catch a cruise.
The Fantasy carries 2,056 passengers and was full when it embarked late Tuesday afternoon for a five-day cruise to the Bahamas.
Some passengers were already boarding before midday while local officials and cruise line representatives exchanged small gifts during a reception in one of the lounges aboard the ship.
Tourism is an $18.4 billion industry in the state, and a study for the South Carolina State Ports Authority in February found the cruise industry will mean $37 million for the state economy this year.
There will be 67 cruise calls in Charleston this year, but that number will increase now that the Fantasy has arrived. During the next 12 months, the Fantasy itself will call 67 times, Berra said.
The State Ports Authority is planning a new cruise terminal in a renovated building on the waterfront, opening the site occupied by the current aging terminal and surrounding area to redevelopment.
Newsome has said he hopes the new terminal can open in about two years.
