Travel & Leisure magazine annually polls readers about their favorite hotels, airlines, destinations and cruise lines.   In the cruise categories,  cruise lines are selected by category:  large ship, small ship and river boats.
Here are readers picks for large ship cruise line.  (Note:  Crystal, Regent, Oceania & Azamara ships carry fewer than 1000 passengers and, in [...]

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Oh dear.
I just returned from a cruising aboard the 5,100-passenger Norwegian Dream to learn that the head of Holland America admits he’s “thinking” of building a 3,000-passenger cruise ship.  You don’t say something like this to a journalist unless it’s  certain that the formal announcement will follow in a few months.
And while the biggest ships [...]

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Don’t get me wrong:  I love the Caribbean, especially in January.   But it’s a big planet and there are regions best visited by cruise ship.   While I prefer to visit most of Europe on my own (six hours in Florence or Rome?),  my most memorable cruises were in Hawaii, the Baltic and Greek [...]

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Silversea Cruises will carry very special guest speakers when leading figures in Middle East politics, culture history and religion sail on Silver Wind during the 2011 World Leaders Symposium.  Sailing December, 29, 2011 from Amman, Jordon, the cruises’ notable participants include former U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker, III, former Egyptian first lady Jehan [...]

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Cruising aboard a luxury ship is the sort of rarefied travel experience most of us can only fantasize about. There are only a few cruise lines – the priciest afloat – where one finds caviar and bubbly served before dinner by a white-glove butler or very seasoned room steward. Men in black tie and women in [...]

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Since many cruisers do care about marine ecology and are concerned about harming the oceans’ delicate ecosystems, I’m passing along an editorial that appeared in the New York Times.
As the New York Times says, “what’s the point of visiting the natural wonders of the nautical world if you leave a terrible stain behind when you [...]

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If you let a bunch of foodies run a cruise line what you end up with is Oceania Cruises.   The company’s top execs — CEO Frank Del Rio and President Bob Binder — were in town to announced that renowned chef Jaques Pepin will have his own restaurant on Oceania’s Marina, a 1258-passenger cruise ship [...]

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Whenever I encounter a person who proclaims “I love to travel but I wouldn’t be caught dead on a cruise ship!!”, my response is “boy, do I have a ship for you!” Then I steer them towards small ships where where they will encounter nary a typical cruise ship activity (formal nights, floor shows, discos, assigned [...]

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***  Cruise West, which operates a fleet of small ships, has announced 12 Japan itineraries for the 2008/09 season.  The Spirit of Oceanus will sail on 12-day/11-night itineraries visiting Japan’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites, port towns, islands and holy shrines with short stops in South Korea.  Sailing round-trip from Kobe, the ship will make four departures in October 2008, [...]

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The 694-passenger Azamara Quest will winter in Asia in 2009/10 sailing on 14- to 18-night itineraries with overnight stays in ten ports. 
Alternating itineraries of 14-night Southeast Asia sailings between Hong Kong and Singapore in January and February 2010 will feature three night overnights on every voyage, plus additional overnights in Bangkok and Ha Long Bay.  [...]

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