Passport deadline extended

A much-delayed deadline requiring Americans to have passports to travel between the U.S. and the Caribbean, Canada and Mexico will be delayed again, although not by much.

The new deadline, which applies only to air travel, is Jan. 23.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security missed a 60-day advance deadline for publishing the new rule in the Federal Register, meaning it couldn’t be implemented as planned, on Jan. 8.

Department spokesman Jarrod Agen said the agency missed the deadline because it was doing “an internal review of the policies.”

The rules were last changed Sept. 29 by action of Congress, which left the Jan. 8 deadline intact for air passengers, but moved the deadline for sea and land crossings to June 1, 2009.

The January rule requires a passport; the 2009 rule permits travel with either a passport or a new document called a PASS card that has yet to be issued.

Travel agents and other industry experts have urged people who plan to travel to the Caribbean, Canada or Mexico next year to obtain passports as soon as possible.

For details and application forms for passports, visit www.travel.state.gov.

-- Jane Engle

Stricken ship sails again

THE Carnival Liberty sailed again Tuesday after an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness in 19% of its passengers during its last sailing, a 16-day transatlantic voyage from Rome.

“As of the end of the voyage Sunday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., 536 passengers of a total of 2,804 were ill,” said Lisa Beaumier, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

“Preliminary testing was positive for norovirus,” Beaumier said. She expects definitive findings in the next week or two. Norovirus, a common contagious virus, causes gastroenteritis. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

Carnival stepped up its routine cleaning and disinfection procedures, said Jennifer de la Cruz, a company spokeswoman, a normal procedure during illness outbreaks on a ship.

CDC inspectors boarded the ship again Tuesday before approving the next cruise.

-- Kathleen Doheny

Lanai lodge

reopens

THE Lodge at Koele, one of three hotels on the Hawaiian island of Lanai, reopened as the Four Seasons Resort Lanai, the Lodge at Koele, after three months of renovation.

The 102-room hotel, owned by Castle & Cooke Resorts, which owns most of the island, has changed operators several times since opening in 1991, said Brad Packer, spokesman for the lodge and Four Seasons’ other Lanai resort, on Manele Bay.

In the first phase of a $50-million refurbishment, more than half the rooms at the Lodge at Koele “have been completely transformed,” and its three restaurants have new menus, Packer said.

Published room rates start at $295 a night. (800) 819-5053, www.fourseasons.com.

-- Jane Engle