So, there's this movie coming out, The Hobbit, a little thing about a little guy who does big things. It's based, of course, on J.R.R. Tolkien's cult classic, and is a prequel follow-up to Peter Jackson's blockbuster Lord of the Rings film trilogy. The expectation is that the new film will do quite well, and lift a lot of other boats in the process — including a little business venture in which the "Hobbiton" set from the films is being preserved as a tourist attraction.

Located on a private sheep and beef farm near Matamata on New Zealand's North Island, Hobbiton — the little village in the Shire that Rings and Hobbit characters Bilbo and Frodo Baggins call home — will be a shore excursion opportunity for guests of Crystal Cruises' New Zealand/Australia cruises this December and January. Participating guests from Crystal Symphony's December 20 and January 29 voyages from Auckland will get a private, after-hours, guided tour of the village movie set and then dig into a New Zealand barbecue on the grounds of the Green Dragon Inn, with local beer and wine on the menu and waitstaff dressed in their Lord of the Rings finest.

"We are always looking for unique, boutique ways for our guests to immerse themselves in a world different from their own," said John Stoll, Crystal's VP of Land & Port Operations, in a press release. "With The Hobbit opening mid-December, this is an extraordinarily timely opportunity."

The Hobbiton dinner and village excursion costs $265 per person. The December 20 holiday voyage overnights in Auckland before sailing through Tauranga, Napier, Christchurch, Dunedin, Sydney (double overnight), Melbourne (overnight), and Dusky, Doubtful, and Milford Sounds. Fares for the 16-night cruise start at $8,505 per person, and include a New Year's Eve extravaganza in Sydney Harbor. The January 29 voyage also begins with an Auckland overnight, then overnights in Tauranga before visiting Napier, Wellington, Picton, Christchurch, Dunedin, and the Sounds, before concluding with an overnight in Sydney. Fares for the 13-night sailing start from $4,480 per person.

And if the Hobbit business doesn't draw you to the excursion, maybe this will: At the farm, you can also apparently cuddle and bottle feed the lambs. Baaaaaaa!

Claiming "strong demand" for its Hawaii cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line has announced that fares for new Hawaii bookings will increase beginning January 1, 2013. Assuming it's true, this represents something of a turnaround for NCL, which bet big on Hawaiian riches in the early 2000s by positioning three ships in the market full-time. When the expected crowds failed to materialize (and when problems appeared instead, such as the difficulty of maintaining the American crews required to sail entirely within U.S. waters), the line was forced to scale back its operation in the 50th state. For the past five years, Pride of America has been the only NCL ship operating there — and that, according to NCL, did the trick.

“Because she is US-flagged and crewed, Pride of America is in the unique position of being the only cruise ship that can sail to the four islands of Hawai`i from Honolulu without visiting a foreign port,” said NCL CEO Kevin Sheehan. “As a result of this unique offering, there is strong, ongoing demand for the ship, propelled by record-breaking guest satisfaction scores. This is a spectacular one-of-a-kind itinerary and the cruise delivers an incredible value for the money compared to the high cost of land-based vacations in Hawai`i.”

So, they want more money from people wanting to sail it. According to reports, the new fares will be approximately 10 percent higher than the old. On the other hand, guests will get a little more bang for their buck, since NCL will also be renovating Pride of America beginning in March, adding shipwide wifi, new flat screen TVs in all staterooms, an upgraded fitness center, updated decor and new carpeting throughout, new directional signage, and more. There will also be a newly added "Moderno Churrascaria" Brazilian-style steakhouse, but that'll cost extra.

In honor of Veteran's Day, Princess Cruises has announced a special, first-ever cruise designed to raise money for veterans' causes, with $500,000 of the monies collected for passenger fares being matched by a further $500,000 direct from Princess's coffers. The money will be shared equally by two groups, Operation Homefront, which provides emergency financial and other assistance to families of military service members and wounded veterans, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF), which promotes healing and education about the impacts of the Vietnam War, and is building an education center at Vietnam Veteran's Memorial in Washington, DC.

"We are humbled by such a generous gift and grateful to our friends at Princess Cruises, and we're looking forward to the voyage," said Jan C. Scruggs, founder and president of the VVMF. "We thank the company for honoring America's military members, past and present, and for supporting our efforts to ensure their sacrifices and stories will always be remembered."

Sailing round-trip from Galveston aboard Caribbean Princess, November 5–9, 2013, the four-night cruise will visit Progreso, Mexico, and include guest lecturers, special topic panels, a Stars and Stripes Sailaway, service branch get-togethers, a film festival, and other activities themed on the U.S. military, its veterans, and its active-duty personnel.

Cruise fares range from $604 to $1,704 per person, double occupancy. More information on the cruise is here.

As noted here last March, Carnival has big plans for its 1996-vintage Carnival Destiny, socking some $155 million into a 49-day dry dock makeover that will completely transform the ship from a triumphalist 1990s chest-thumper into a cool, breezy millennial renamed Carnival Sunshine.

Due to commence in late February at Italy's Fincantieri shipyards, the extra-long refurbishment will implement all of the "Fun Ship 2.0" enhancements that Carnival began rolling out last fall in what amounts to a partial rebranding for the Fun Ship line: 21st century fun, rather than 20th. When it first announced the ship's refit, Carnival described the planned changes as “a variety of exciting innovations unique to this vessel . . . [including] a reconfigured layout, the addition of a partial deck and the expansion of two other decks within the forward section of the ship, providing the opportunity to incorporate a number of new and exciting on-board spaces." This week, the line began putting flesh on those bones, describing some of the venues and amenities with which it will be outfitting the ship:

There will also be:

• A full-service pan-Asian restaurant with an open viewing kitchen.
• Shake Spot, serving milkshakes, floats, tropical fruit shakes, and liqueur-infused “adult shakes and floats.” Guests can purchase an all-inclusive “Shake Lover’s Package,” too, if they're not too worried about the ol' waistline.
• JavaBlue Café, a caffeinated pig-out spot serving cappuccinos, lattes, espressos, and various liqueur coffees, plus dangers like extra-large cinnamon buns, giant cupcakes, and huge slices of red velvet cake.
• Pizzeria del Capitano, an expansion of the Cucina del Capitano family-style Italian restaurant, where guests can get hand-tossed, pizza anytime of the day or night. Five different thin-crusted pies will be available: margherita, pepperoni, quattro formaggio, mushroom, and prosciutto.

Plus all the Fun Ship 2.0 venues:

• Guy’s Burger Joint, a free-of-charge poolside venue developed in partnership with Food Network personality Guy Fieri serving hand-crafted burgers and fresh-cut fries.
• BlueIguana Cantina, a complimentary poolside Mexican eatery serving fresh-made burritos and tacos.
• Fahrenheit 555, a steakhouse.
• Cucina del Capitano (“The Captain’s Kitchen”), serving Italian favorites served family-style. The venue gets its name from the fact that some menu items were sourced from Carnival captains’ family recipes.
• A casual poolside eatery, the Lido Marketplace, offering favorites from around the world, including paninis, pizza, and a deli counter.
• A new casual dining option, “The Comfort Kitchen,” located within the Lido Marketplace and offering American-style comfort-food entrees and side dishes.
• The RedFrog Pub, serving beer, rum drinks, and island-inspired pub fare in a British-West-Indies-meets-Key-West ambiance.
• RedFrog Rum Bar, a poolside adaptation of the RedFrog Pub, offering rum-based frozen drinks and beers and a fun Caribbean vibe.
• BlueIguana Tequila Bar, a fun outdoor watering hole offering a laid-back Mexican atmosphere and tequila-based frozen drinks and beers.
• EA SPORTS Bar, showing live sporting events and offering EA SPORTS video games on a 16-screen video wall.
• Alchemy Bar, a vintage-themed cocktail pharmacy where mixologists “prescribe” various concoctions and mix up custom drinks for guests.
• The Library Bar, a cozy venue offering full bar service.
• The Sunshine Bar, an elegant lounge with “sun-splashed interiors,” located at the lobby level of the ship’s atrium and offering cocktails, dancing, and live music.
• A new cigar bar, with plush decor, fine cigars, and a variety of brandies, cognacs, and liqueurs.
• Carnival’s Seaside Theatre, a poolside 270-square-foot LED movie screen that will show nightly “Dive In Movies,” along with concerts, sporting events, and other programming.
• Piano Bar 88, a piano bar that adds theme nights to the usual sing-along format.
• Punchliner Comedy Club Presented by George Lopez, featuring comedians evaluated and vetted by the room’s namesake TV personality, who’s Carnival’s new “curator of comedy.”
• Cherry On Top, an over-the-top candy shop.

And finally, there will also be massive changes to existing rooms:

• All staterooms will be fully revamped and feature a new tropical decor that’s all bright colors and soothing pastels.
• Newly designed kids’ play areas will cater to kids in three age groups (2–11, 12–14, and 15–17).
• Cloud 9 Spa will be redesigned and offer an elaborate thermal suite, the latest exercise equipment, and a large menu of treatments.
• Main dining rooms will be completely renovated, offering a look that's consistent with the new light, open feel of the recent Carnival Breeze, the ship that Carnival says is a model for the new look they'll be implementing over the coming years. Check out the rendering of the aft dining room:

Following her transformation, Carnival Sunshine will embark on a schedule of 9-, 12-, and 14-night Mediterranean voyages from Barcelona and Venice (April to October 2013), then sail transatlantic to begin a schedule of year-round 7-night Caribbean cruises from New Orleans, beginning November 2013.

Guess if the world is gonna look at you judgmentally anyway, you might as well try to control the message. And thus comes www.theparbucklingproject.com, a new website launched this week by Costa Cruises, Titan salvage, and Italian offshore contractor Micoperi to track the removal of Costa Concordia from the waters off Giglio, Italy, where she capsized in January.

Available for the most part in both Italian and English, the site provides information, photos, and videos related to the removal project, which will involve pulling the ship upright, stabilizing it in place while the hull is repaired, then removing it to another site for scrapping. The site's name, "The Parbuckling Project," refers to the technical term for rotating the wreck into an upright position.

It's pretty fascinating stuff, particularly the renderings and video animations showing how the ship will be refloated. It all looks so clean and tidy — which Concordia is decidedly not, having been half-submerged in the sea for ten-plus months. Quoth the Bard:

Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.

Luxe line Silversea's Silver Cloud has returned from a three-week dry dock in Palermo, Italy, where nearly every part of the 1994-vintage vessel was renovated and updated: suites, public spaces, dining venues — the whole enchilada. The goal was "a fresh and contemporary classic atmosphere." Did they hit the mark? Let's look at some before-and-after shots:

That's the La Terrazza specialty restaurant, which serves casual breakfasts and lunches at indoor/outdoor tables, and in the evening serves an Italian menu created on “slow food” principles — sustainable and fresh, sourced from the sailing region. As part of its refurbishment, La Terrazza got a remodeled buffet area, new banquettes along the walls, and more tables for two.

Here's another before-and-after:

That's The Bar, a social hub that has a band or DJ for dancing on most evenings. Its refurbishment was all cosmetic, with a new teal/brown/beige color palate.

Other refurbished areas include Le Champagne, a restaurant created with the folks at Relais & Châteaux and serving six-course, regionally inspired wine-pairing menus. Post-refurb, the room sports a redesigned layout, new backlit wine displays, new wood flooring, new fabrics and window treatments, and an upgraded entrance design. Check it out:

Silver Cloud's lobby was redone in warm earth tones, a color palette that carries through most areas of the ship. On deck 8, the Panorama Lounge got all new furniture, carpet, curtains, and reconditioned wood flooring. The ship's main restaurant, called The Restaurant, was refreshed with new chair upholstery, new window treatments, and reconditioned hardwood flooring. Outside, the jogging track was newly resurfaces and the pool deck got new deck furniture. There's also a new outdoor dining option, as the old Pool Bar and Grill was expanded and enhanced to present a concept known as The Grill on Silver Spirit, Shadow, and Whisper, where guests grill their own meat or seafood on a preheated volcanic rock that's brought right to their table.

Cloud's suites were also redone, getting new carpets, headboards, curtains; new beds outfitted with Pratesi linens; custom mattress that are soft on one side and firm on the other (and can be flipped to accommodate guest preferences); new sofa and chair upholstery; and new outside veranda furniture. Suite bathrooms were also redone, getting new flooring, new marble appointments, and either a new bath/shower combination or a new walk-in, glass-enclosed rainforest shower with sitting area. Top suites (Owner's, Grand, and Royal) have a new "wet room" bath configuration with a rainforest shower that's separate from the bathtub, and looks like this:

All photos courtesy of Silversea. Before-and-afters mocked up by me.

Norwegian Cruise Line pioneered the first (and so far only) ice bar at sea aboard 2010's Norwegian Epic, and I guess the chill got into their bones because this week they announced that the upcoming Norwegian Breakaway will have it's own icy bar space, this one themed on New York, the ship's year-round homeport.

Kept at a constant 17 degrees Fahrenheit and outfitted with a bar, seating, and glasses made entirely from ice, the room will feature ice sculptures of the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty, and the Chrysler Building, and will serve NYC-themed specialty cocktails like the Yellow Cab (made from vodka, peach schnapps, and orange juice), the Rock Center (ice wine, vodka, blue curaçao, and club soda), and the Central Park (citron vodka, ice wine, and lemon/lime soda).

Some 25 guests will be able to chill at the ice bar at any one time, with entrance by reservation only and at extra cost (a charge which includes two signature cocktails). As at Epic's ice bar, guests will be provided with hooded coats and gloves to keep warm.

Breakaway’s christening ceremony will take place in New York on May 8, 2013. On May 12, the ship will begin her summer schedule of 7-night Bermuda cruises, then in October switch to a winter schedule of Florida/Bahamas and Southern Caribbean voyages, all from New York.

Disney Cruise Line continued expanding its selection of sailing regions and ports this week, announcing that Disney Wonder will homeport in Galveston, Texas, in October, November, and December 2013, sailing a series of Bahamas and Western Caribbean cruises. In a first for Disney, those Western Caribbean cruises will include calls in Jamaica — specifically Falmouth, Jamaica, which is certainly the most "Disney" of Jamaica's ports.

Here're the dates and facts:

• 7-night Western Caribbean: Sailing round-trip from Galveston October 5 and 19 and November 2, 16, and 20, 2013, visiting Falmouth, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel.
• 7-night Bahamas: Sailing round-trip from Galveston September 28, October 12 and 26, November 9 and 23, and December 7 and 14, 2013, visiting Key West and Disney's private island, Castaway Cay.

Rates for Wonder's Galveston cruises start at $840 per person, double occupancy.

With its two 112-passenger luxury ships repositioning from Europe to the Caribbean for winter, SeaDream Yacht Club is busy trying to add a little spice to its already indulgent meal, touting extras designed to appeal to its typically well-moneyed clientele. Topic of the day? Golf.

For winter 2012/2013, SeaDream will be offering golf excursions at a dozen great courses:

• El Conquistador Resort, when calling at Fajardo, Puerto Rico
• Mahogany Run, when calling at Cruz Bay, St John, U.S. Virgin Islands
• Temenos, when calling at Sandy Ground, Anguilla
• Costa Caribe, when calling at Ponce, Puerto Rico
• Teeth of the Dog, when calling at La Romana, Dominican Republic
• Dorado Beach Resort’s East Course, when calling at Arecibo, Puerto Rico
• Las Lagunas Country Club, when calling at Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
• Royal Isabela, when calling at Mayaguez, Puerto Rico
• St. Lucia Golf Resort & Country Club, when calling at Rodney Bay, Saint Lucia
• Trump International Golf Club, when calling at Canouan, Grenadines
• Golf De La Martinique, when calling at Grande De Anse, Martinique, French West Indies
• The Four Seasons, when calling at Charlestown, Nevis

Golf excursions come at an additional cost. More details here.

Here comes another Norwegian: This week, at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany, the second of four upcoming Norwegian Cruise Line vessels got its official kick-off as block number 34 — the first of 73 "block" sections of hull and superstructure that will be welded together to create the 146,600-ton Norwegian Getaway — was lifted into the yard's building dock. As has become traditional, several NCL officials welded a special commemorative "lucky coin" to the 530-ton structure before it was laid down.

Owing to a new, more efficient construction process, Getaway is expected to take only 12 months to build, putting her debut at mid-January 2014.

"Today we placed the first of the 73 blocks that form the structure of the ship,” said Bernard Meyer, managing director of Meyer Werft, in a press release. “We are proud to begin the construction of Norwegian Cruise Line’s second Breakaway class ship and to continuing our partnership with one of the most innovative cruise lines in the world.”

Following her debut in a little over a year, Getaway will begin sailing weekly 7-night Eastern Caribbean cruises from her year-round Miami homeport.