It's wine time at Celebrity Cruises. From now through December 15, as part of its new "Celebrity Life" enhancements, Celebrity will be presenting a Wine Harvest Celebration that includes wine tastings, wine appreciation classes, silent wine auctions, presentations by wine experts, and more, with some events complimentary ... Read More »

Old dog, similar tricks: This week Mr. Gerry Herrod, who founded Ocean Cruise Line in 1984 and Orient Lines in 1993, announced the formation of a new cruise line, Voyages to Antiquity, which will concentrate on cultural cruises in the Mediterranean. The line's inaugural season is set to begin May 4, with 16 departures on 9 ... Read More »

Since its creation in 2001, SeaDream Yacht Club has stuck mostly to a few sailing regions that are ideal for its brand of ultra-luxe small-ship travel: the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, the Grenadines, the Greek Isles, the French Riviera. It's tried or at least tried to plan others now and again -- South America, the ... Read More »

No big secret here: One of the things I enjoy most about working the cruise beat is the ships themselves -- which probably goes back to when I was a kid and decided I wanted to be an architect, or maybe a naval architect. And who's to say I wouldn't have made it, too, if my sixth-grade hadn't told me I couldn't because I ... Read More »

A picture = 1,000 words, they say, so here's a picture: That's Royal Caribbean's enormo new Oasis of the Seas -- all 16 decks and 225,282 gross registered tons of her -- entering the port at Ft. Lauderdale this morning after a 14-night transit of the Baltic, the North Sea, and the Atlantic, through storms that battered her ... Read More »

Want a good snapshot of the cruise business today? If so, Port Everglades is the place to be and now is the time to be there. Just in the past week, the port has seen the opening of the new, enormous Terminal 18; the arrival of MSC's Poesia (the newest, largest ship the Italian line has ever positioned in the U.S.); and the ... Read More »

Back in June, MSC Cruises announced that when its 2,550-passenger MSC Poesia (accent on the "sia") arrived in Ft. Lauderdale for her first Caribbean season, she'd be greeted by none other than Three's Company actress Suzanne Somers, hoisting a plaque that would be inscribed: "On behalf of the diverse inhabitants of the New ... Read More »

Big ship, big homeport: Last Friday, at Fort Lauderdale's Port Everglades, city, county, and corporate officials gathered to cut the ribbon on Cruise Terminal 18, a facility designed expressly to accommodate Royal Caribbean's new Oasis of the Seas, which begins cruising from the port in December. Spreading out over 240,000 ... Read More »

We're still fourteen months out from the first sailings of the new, 2,500-passenger Disney Dream, but the early bird gets the worm: Today, Disney Cruise Line opened bookings for the vessel, which will be its first new ship since 1999's Disney Wonder. Dream's maiden voyage will depart Port Canaveral, Florida, on January 26, ... Read More »

As I happily noted a few weeks ago, a new line is about to launch that will emulate the good parts of now dead, buried, and discredited (but oh-so-fun while it lasted) Windjammer Barefoot Cruises. Operating the lovely little 12-passenger brigantine Diamant, Island Windjammers will begin its cruising life on November 15, ... Read More »