Remember that brand new Berlin airport that was supposed to open in 2011? It's still not open and now doesn't appear likely to begin accepting passenger flights until the second half of 2017, German officials announced Friday.
The airport has had four postponed opening dates, one of which came only weeks before the airport had expected to host its first passenger flight. German news network Deutsche Welle writes: "Originally, the project was to be finished in 2011, but it was held up by serious planning mistakes and faulty construction, including a fire protection system that didn't work."
Now, the ongoing problems in getting airport up and running have become a "national embarrassment" for Germany, a country that prides itself on its efficiency. As Deutsche Welle says in its report on the subject, the repeated delays have made Berlin's airport planners "the butt of many jokes, and not a little resentment, for putting Germany's reputation for engineering prowess at risk."
ARCHIVES: Berlin airport fiasco an embarrassment for Germans (April 2013)
ARCHIVES: A visit to Berlin's long-delayed new airport (July 2014)
As for the new projected opening date — still more than two years away — airport officials sounded an optimistic note.
"We are determined to complete the project. We want the airport to fly," Hartmut Mehdorn, then-CEO of the airport company, said Friday as the airport revealed its latest projected opening date for 2017.
And, yes, that's "then-CEO" for Mehdorn, who surprisingly stepped down from that role on Monday. He pledged to stay on until a successor is found or until June 30. Still, the move is the latest in a long string of setbacks for the German capital's long-anticipated new airport. The airport, officially dubbed the Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER), is to replace Berlin's two smaller airports, Tegel and Schoenefeld.
In resigning, Mehdorn offered a somewhat cryptic explanation that "speculations about his person" that exceeded "tolerable levels," according to Deutsche Welle.

DEUTSCHE WELLE: Berlin Airport: The five biggest mistakes
Few other details were given for his decision, though Deutsche Welle reports "observers have repeatedly spoken of major differences with the board over the timing of the airport's opening and its size." The news network adds the airport board reportedly balked at Mehdorn's plan to make the new airport bigger. Mehdorn apparently was concerned that the new facility would become too small to handle Berlin's increasing air traffic.
Regardless of the reason, Mehdorn's resignation caught German officials off guard.
"I'm very surprised by this step," Frank Henkel, the Berlin senator for internal affairs and member of the airport company's supervisory board, says to The Wall Street Journal. "Everyone was aligned last Friday that progress in the construction was most important, not personal issues."
Stay tuned …

Carnival Cruise Lines continues to add longer and more unusual itineraries as it rolls out its schedule for next winter.
Carnival repeat cruisers have been clamoring for something different than the prevailing routes in the Caribbean.

For the first time, Carnival will visit the island of Tobago, which lies some 1,620 miles south of Miami. That's too far to make sense on a shorter trip, so Carnival is including it on an 13-day cruise Carnival Sunshine cruise in February 2016 that sails round trip from Port Canaveral. The itinerary also will include stops in St. Maarten, Dominica, Barbados, Grenada, Martinique, St. Kitts and St. Thomas.
Tobago is the less-developed half of the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is mainly a beach and diving destination.
In another intriguing itinerary, Carnival Glory leaves Miami on Halloween next year and stops in Aruba, Bonaire, Grenada, Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua, St. Thomas and St. Maarten, before returning to Miami two weeks later.
The line's latest unveiling of 2015-16 voyages includes 11 cruises that are longer than Carnival's typical five- to eight-day trip. In all, six ships will offer itineraries of between 10 and 14 days from October 2015 to February 2016, Carnival said. The brand offers more than 1,600 Caribbean cruises annually.
For a deck-by-deck look inside the Carnival Sunshine, click through the carousel below.

The most popular river cruise route in 2015 is a Dutch waterways voyage from Amsterdam, but Myanmar is the up and coming river cruise destination next year.
That's according to the well-known Cruise Holidays travel agency chain, which surveyed 1,300 of its agents to come up with the list.
The Holidays Cruise Trends report is an annual, in-depth look at actual cruise bookings made for the year ahead. The "Windmills and Tulips" itinerary through Holland on the Mosel, Rhine, Main and Danube rivers was also the most popular cruise in the year-end 2013 survey.

RELATED: 10 best reasons to take a river cruise
CRUISE SHIP TOURS: Cruising down Myanmar's Irrawaddy River
Second on the list is a cruise on the Rhine, Main and Danube rivers through central Europe, followed by a cruise in the Rhine River valley along the border of Germany.
When it comes to cruises outside of Europe, Myanmar made the list of five most popular cruises for the first time. The country, also known as Burma, has begun to relax its approach tourism after years of suspicion by its military rulers. Cruises from Mandalay and Pyay in Myanmar are tied as the fourth most popular non-European river cruises next year, following two river cruises in China and a cruise on the Mekong River in Vietnam on the agency's list.
"We believe the growth of the European river cruise traveler has created this demand from those looking to collect new destination experiences," said Kevin Weisner, senior vice president for sales at Cruise Holidays' parent company, Vacation.com.
Cruise Holidays also reported on bookings for ocean cruises, saying 50.5% of all bookings for next year were in the Caribbean region, followed by Europe at 12% and Alaska at 7.8%.
To see what it's like to cruise in Myanmar, click through the carousel below.

MSC Cruises has announced plans for another round of "baseball greats" voyages this winter in the Caribbean.
The three baseball-themed sailings, to be headlined by well-known players from decades past, will take place on the 3,502-passenger MSC Divina out of Miami and last seven nights apiece. Take our photo tour of the MSC Divina.

Now in its 10th year, MSC Cruises' baseball-themed cruise series is hosted by former New York Yankees pitcher Stan Bahnsen and offers passengers the chance to meet and interact with such players as Ken Griffey Sr. and Amos Otis. Activities include player-hosted trivia games, question-and-answer sessions with players, passenger pitching contests and storytelling sessions.
RELATED: MSC orders two 'revolutionary' new ships
Players also host pitching, hitting, fielding and base-running clinics. Autograph sessions take place at the end of the cruises.
The baseball sailings will take place on Feb. 7, Feb. 21 and March 7. More information is available on MSC's website.
For a deck-by-deck look at the MSC Divina, click through the carousel below.

Azamara Club Cruises is out with a new promotion that brings savings of $1,000 per couple.
The two-ship line's Choices Promotion, unveiled today, gives customers a choice of either a $500 per person ($1,000 per couple) on-board spending credit or a $500 per person ($1,000 per couple) airfare credit.

Alternately, customers can choose an upgrade from a Club Interior to a Club Ocean-view cabin, or from a Club Ocean-view to a Club Veranda cabin, also worth about $1,000 per couple.
PHOTO TOUR: Inside the Azamara Journey
The airfare credit is available when booking with Azamara's ChoiceAir program.
The promotion is available on select sailings through 2017 when booking by March 31. More information is online at Azamara's website.
For a deck-by-deck look at an Azamara ship, click through the carousel below.

The Azamara Quest is one of two upscale, 694-guest, 30,277 gross ton ships offering an all-inclusive, destination-rich cruise experience for Royal Caribbean-owned Azamara Club Cruises. (Photo: Peter Knego).