Celebrity Cruises has just announced it’s 2009 Alaska season with innovative itineraries, including the cruise industry’s first round-trip Alaska cruise out of Los Angeles.
Highlights of the season include:
*  Three Celebrity ships, Infinity, Mercury and Millennium, sailing from five ports, will offer passengers an upclose encounter with Hubbard Glacier, the only advancing glacier in the state.
*  Celebrity Mercury will make a 14-night [...]

Bookmark to:

Homeland cruising has proved to be one of the most popular trends, making it easier for cruisers to drive or take local transportation to their ship.  In 2009, Royal Caribbean has scheduled New England/Canada, Bermuda and Caribbean cruises from three Northeast ports, including New York, Boston, Norfolk and Baltimore.  Explorer of the Seas will continue [...]

Bookmark to:

Carnival Cruise Lines is teaming up with Whodunit Productions, the leading organizer of mystery cruises at sea, for a series of “Whodunit Cruises” aboard the 2,052-passenger “Fun Ship” Carnival Paradise from Long Beach, Calif., in 2008 and 2009.  Eight different three-day “Mystery Cruises” will be offered, the first of which will depart, appropriately enough, on Halloween – [...]

Bookmark to:

For the cruise industry, Europe has turned into a goldmine thanks to the weak U.S. dollar.  Add to that, Europeans themselves, who have healthier economies than the United States, are taking cruises in increasing numbers.
Royal Caribbean has announced that it is adding another ship to the region for the 2009 summer and fall seasons and [...]

Bookmark to:

The new Ruby Princess will be delivered earlier than previously expected, announced Princess Cruises.  The line’s next new ship will now debut one week prior on November 8, 2008, creating a new inaugural voyage, a seven-day Western Caribbean sailing taking passengers to Ocho Rios, Grand Cayman, Cozumel and Princess Cays.  The 113,000-ton vessel is a [...]

Bookmark to:

Due to the weak U.S. dollar, Europe cruises have grown in popularity and most cruise lines will increase capacity in Europe next year as well. 
With its largest European deployment ever slated for 2009, Celebrity Cruises announced five ships, including two new vessels, will visit the region in a single European season for the first time in the [...]

Bookmark to:

In a New York Times article about cutting back during the economic downturn, one woman said she’d probably stop getting her sheets dry cleaned.  Well, sure, I guess that’s one way.  My ideas of cutting back are a bit more down to earth: take mass transit instead of taxis, cook more and eat out less, etc. 
So many of [...]

Bookmark to:

On Wednesday, ShipCritic runs the best cruise bargains of the week.  If you see a terrific bargain, pounce: the best deals go first and, in some cases, only a handful of staterooms are available.  Unless otherwise indicated, rates are per person, double occupancy and do not include taxes and fuel surcharge.  Happy Hunting! 
CARIBBEAN
Sail round-trip from New York [...]

Bookmark to:

*** Princess Cruises has announced that Caribbean Princess will return to New York in Summer 2009 for a second season of the line’s popular roundtrip sailings to Bermuda and the Caribbean.  The ship will then change directions in late summer to head north for a season of roundtrip Canada & New England sailings.  Caribbean Princess’ [...]

Bookmark to:

Two things happened last week:  the news (Spitzer! Bear Sterns Nearly Collapses! Escalation of Hillary vs. Obama! More Foreclosures! Dollar Sinks Lower! Gasoline $110 per barrel!) and, at an annual cruise industry confab, Carnival and RCI CEO’s essentially said, ”Downturn?  We don’t see that.” 
HUH?   In a rapidly tanking economy, when consumer confidence is low, people are still taking vacations?  
According to Cruise [...]

Bookmark to: