Add Greece to a growing list of destinations charging fees for cruisers to visit on a day in port. Mykonos and Santorini are charging 20 euros per passenger for the summer season from July 1 to Sept. 30. The tax goes down to 12 euros in October and just 4 euros in the winter months.
Margaritaville at Sea says it is implementing a series of “impactful initiatives” designed to strengthen its commitment to the trade, including a full-scale push to reward, engage and empower travel advisors through an expanded Travel Trade team, improved sales tools, and exclusive perks, including FAMs and advisor rates.
“I have a friend who just returned from a month in Thailand, China and Vietnam and she dealt exclusively with cash. Brought a wad of C-notes and paid on the spot. Used safes in the hotels for passport, and a belly bag for the day’s cash. Is this something I should do on my coming river cruise on the Rhine?”
Viewing the vast arrays of food on offer in buffets on Carnival Cruise Line ships, you may not realize the world’s largest cruise company has managed to cut food waste by 44 per cent in the past five years.
Celebrity Cruises is investing more than $250 million to completely modernize a well-loved class of ships. Guests can look forward to eight new experiences, including four new-to-sea spaces, and many redesigned favorites which elevate everything that makes these ships unique.
Viking’s got good news and that could mean you’ll have a tough time finding available space on one of their ships. But there are many more ships on the way and its fleet will soon top 100 ships.
By Wallace Immen/ First-time cruisers are driving fast growth in cruising, with 31% of passengers in the last two years being new to cruise. But there’s also a rising tide in repeat cruising, the latest annual report of Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) finds.
Streamlining the guest experience for cruisers joining excursions ashore, Carnival Cruise Line announced plans today to bring an innovative digital platform to its tour operator partners that eliminates physical tickets and provides enhanced functionality.
Bigger, badder, bolder. Those are the lofty goals Royal Caribbean wants to hit with its massive new destination for its cruises to Mexico. Perfect Day Mexico in Costa Maya will be Royal Caribbean’s largest private water park development, featuring the tallest water slides in the Americas, a river more than a mile long and six enormous pools. They’re promising 12 eateries and 24 drinkeries — including six swim-up bars.
Emirates and MSC Cruises have extended their long-term strategic partnership aimed at enhancing the air-sea traveller experience, supporting Dubai’s cruise ambitions to become a major cruise hub, and exploring future opportunities for joint growth across the airline’s extensive network.
Ponant Explorations and Paul Gauguin Cruises are celebrating the “indispensable role of travel advisors” during Travel Advisor Appreciation Month in by offering a special booking incentive that gives agents the opportunity to earn up to US$1,000 in gift cards per new booking made in May.
They call the atrium Starlight and its design swirls into the heavens. Regent Seven Seas Cruises is taking inspiration from the past and looking to the future with the showy interiors of its newest ship Seven Seas Prestige.
MSC Cruises Canada is expanding ‘Fly&Cruise’ program for the summer and winter 2025-26 seasons. Designed to let Canadian guests seamlessly book both their flights and cruises together, the package solution aims to provide stress-free and flexible vacation experience for clients while also adding commissionable air rates for travel advisors. The program is supported by airline partners including Air Canada, Air Transat and WestJet and includes cross-Canada gateways.
Proclaiming a “bold new chapter of polar exploration,” G Adventures will introduce a new expedition vessel for the upcoming Antarctica season. Currently chartered through Danish maritime company SunStone, the presently named ‘Ocean Adventurer,” will replace G’s ‘Expedition’ ship and take its name in tribute to the signature “little red ship.”
Known for decades for its land/coach tours, Trafalgar has announced that it is expanding into river cruising, starting in 2026. The company will debut in Europe with two river cruise journeys along the Rhine and Danube, with travel advisors now able to book the trips (ahead of the general public).
A surf and turf burger in the Waves Grill tops a thick patty of wagyu beef with medallions of lobster. A spicy salad in Red Ginger stacks strips of crispy duck with succulent cubes of watermelon and cashews. And wherever you go there are decadent pastries that are tiny works of art.
Who’s number one? It depends who you ask as Florida’s big cruise ports keep going for records. Greater Miami and Miami Beach have just branded the city the ‘Cruise Capital of the World’ to celebrate milestones that include the opening of the world’s largest cruise terminal and the arrival of several huge new cruise ships.
Ponant Explorations is planning a world-first circumnavigation of Antarctica aboard the cruise company’s luxury icebreaker, ‘Le Commandant Charcot’ – a journey the company calls an “unprecedented feat” that will take place between January and March 2028.
By Wallace Immen/ While Champagne’s traditional, it was premium Canadian whisky anointing the Great Lakes cruise ship Victory 1 in a recent christening ceremony at the Port of Toronto, where Godmother Emily Coleman broke a bottle across the bow of the first of two ships offering round trips between Toronto and Chicago.
Caution: Don’t take a course in Oceania Cruise’s Culinary Centre on a full stomach. You’ll learn why soon enough. I’m just a guy whose past culinary achievements have been grilling burgers at summer barbecues and frying eggs at breakfast.
AmaWaterways christened its newest luxury river cruise ship, AmaSintra, which set off on its inaugural voyage along the Douro River in Portugal. The launch of the vessel further strengthens AmaWaterways’ presence in Europe and bring to three, along with sister ships AmaDouro and AmaVida, the company’s number of ships in the top trending destination.
AmaMagdalena has inaugurated the first-ever luxury river cruises on Colombia’s Magdalena River. The historic launch is a significant milestone for AmaWaterways, introducing a new region to its offerings beyond Europe, Asia and Africa and a pioneering tourist development in South America.
Explora Journeys, the luxury lifestyle ocean travel brand of the MSC Group, has unveiled Explora Club, its new guest loyalty program. Structured in five levels – Classic, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond – repeat guests can earn an incremental suite of benefits, ranging from priority access and bespoke events to personalized gifts and exclusive savings designed to enhance their time both on board and ashore.
MSC Cruises named its new flagship MSC World America Wednesday night in a dazzling ceremony at the line’s new state-of-the-art MSC Miami Cruise Terminal. The event culminated with the ship’s Godmother, Drew Barrymore, cutting that the ribbon that broke the bottle on the ship’s bow in a maritime tradition that wishes it good fortune.
With cruise lines busy christening a new generation of ships, older members of their fleets are moving on to new roles. On the same week in April that Norweigan Cruise Line showcased its shiny new 3,600-guest Norwegian Aqua, it announced that veteran fleet-mates Norwegian Sky and Norwegian Sun are going to be transferred to Cordelia Cruises to sail in Asia and the Middle East.
Building on a period of expansive growth, Carnival Cruise Line has outlined a strategic plan for the next five years, including new ships, fleet enhancement deployment and exclusive destinations.
With the prominent Seatrade cruise show taking place in Miami this week, news from the sector is coming fast and furious. Among the first off the mark was Emerald Cruises, part of the Scenic Group portfolio, which unveiled a major multi-ship expansion for 2027 and revealed that the cruise line will make its first-ever appearance on the Seine River, offering curated itineraries from Paris through Normandy
MSC Cruises inaugurated the world’s largest and most advanced cruise terminal on Saturday (April 5) at PortMiami. Aiming to set sets a global benchmark for cruise infrastructure, the new MSC Miami Cruise Terminal as the first in the industry to implement a complete biometric journey with digital identity verification for a seamless embarkation experience.
Since when did finding a spot to lay down a beach towel on an island made of sand become a competitive sport? We’re about to find out on a day docked at the only cruise port in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
MSC Cruises and Chantiers de l’Atlantique marked significant milestones for three World Class ships on Friday in Saint-Nazaire, France, with the delivery of MSC World America, the coin ceremony of MSC World Asia, and steel cutting for the newly named MSC World Atlantic.