The cruise industry has weathered economic and terrorism storms over the past 25 years and now faces another: lower bookings industry-wide following the January 13 Costa Concordia disaster which is still unfolding.
Earlier this week industry giant Carnival Corporation (which owns Costa Cruises, Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Seabourn, AIDA Cruises, Cunard Line, [...]
02 February
A week after Costa Concordia ran aground in Italy, Carnival Corporation has launched a comprehensive audit and review of all safety and emergency response procedures across all of the company’s cruise lines. The company owns nine cruise lines including Costa Cruises, Carnival Cruise Lines, Princess Cruises, Holland America, Seabourn Cruises, Cunard Line, P&O Cruises, Aida [...]
20 January
Like most cruise writers, in January my advice was to book early because the cruise industry expects prices and occupancy to increase in 2011. Europe, especially, was the hot ticket we all said.
But that isn’t what happened. Instead, in short order airline prices climbed astronomically along with the price of fuel; uprisings in Egypt, Tunesia [...]
12 May
*** Royal Caribbean Discovers Cruisers Love to Drink. It seems that while Royal Caribbean operates fleet of passenger ships very successfully, the company is off the mark in anticipating how much cruisers drink. Captain Greybeard, an industry expert who writes for the Mirror, a U.K. newspaper, reports that three weeks after Royal Caribbean announced packages [...]
12 April
If your spouse wont vacation anywhere that doesn’t have a golf course nearby, here’s an opportunity to lure him/her on a cruise: Azamara Club Cruises has launched escorted an all-inclusive golf tours and cruises program that that features some of the world’s premier golf courses. Azamara Club Cruises operates two 694-guest ships, Azamara [...]
02 February
The brand new Disney Dream was christened in Florida yesterday by Jennifer Hudson with press and travel agents turning out to welcome the 2500 -passenger vessel. The 130,000-ton ton ship will home port in Port Canaveral and will sail on three- and four-night Bahamas voyages which feature a stop in Disney’s private island, Castaway Cay.
Disney [...]
20 January
If you love the biggest, tallest, longest new cruise ships rolling out of European shipyards at a brisk pace, enjoy it now because it’s not gonna last. Through 2011 we’ll welcome eight new ships which will end the decade-long expansion of the cruise industry.
Yesterday, Queen Elizabeth (left) officially named Cunard’s [...]
13 October
I came across a survey that focuses on Americans summer vacation plans and the results aren’t terribly surprising given the state of the economy:
Public opinion polling firm StrategyOne recently surveyed more than 1,000 Americans about a range of topics and found that less than 3 in 10 Americans (28%) plan to take a summer vacation [...]
20 July
While we think violence, political strife and terrorism in countries thousands of miles away don’t affect us personally, it’s not always true. Especially those booked booked on a luxury Eastern Mediterranean cruise this year.
ISRAEL: Princess Cruises canceled the Pacific Princess‘ scheduled port call in Haifa, Israel today after an international incident erupted this week. [...]
02 June
According to Reuters, a planned strike in the port of Piraeus, Greece, this Monday threatens to cause major problems a half dozen vessels scheduled to call in the port. Piraeus is the main port for Athens and the point of embarkation and disembarkation for many ships sailing in Turkey and the Greek Isles.
If the seamen [...]
28 May
Cruise Deals
Cruise 1st offer a range of cruise deals all over the world.
Find cruises to suit your tastes and destinations at expedia.com
ShipCritic Blog is a labor of love by Anne Campbell, a journalist who has been covering the cruise industry since 1993. Why a blog? This newfangled technology is the best way of interacting with cruisers, both first timers and veterans, who also share a passion for seeing the world by ship.
