CRUISE PASSENGER MISSING

06 MAY 2011: The US Coast Guard has ended a search for a cruise ship passenger believed to have disappeared somewhere between Mexico's Baja California coast and San Diego. The search was suspended after closed-circuit video showed the woman jumping overboard.The missing passenger is a 65-year-old woman whose name has not been released. Read more...

MOTOR CITY

06 MAY 2011: There is a market for Great Lakes tourism and the city of Detroit plans to benefit from it. The Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority has invested $21.5-million in a new port with the hope of attracting cruise ships that currently stop in Toronto and Chicago. Read more...

POWER HUNGRY

11 MARCH 2011: When Port Metro Vancouver implemented shore power for cruise ships at Canada Place in 2009 they became the first in Canada and the third in the world to do so, setting a standard in environmental innovation. The reduced emissions from cruise ships are the equivalent of removing 1,000 cars off the road for a full year. Read more...

CHANGES CONTINUE

25 MAR 2011: Princess Cruise Line’s Ocean Princess will call on Okinawa in southern Japan on April 15 although all of its ships scheduled prior to that visit have been cancelled. The Sun Princess and Diamond Princess ships were scheduled to visit Japan next week but have had their itineraries altered to avoid the country still devastated by the earthquake and tsunami of two weeks ago. Read more...

MORE CHANGES AT SEABOURN

06 MAY 2011: In January this year, Carnival’s Seabourn moved its headquarters from Miami to Seattle where it became more tightly integrated with Holland America line.   As a consequence, a new unified sales force will represent both brands.  In Canada, that means Seabourn and Cruise Strategies will discontinue their partnership at the end of this year. Read more...

ALL INCLUSIVE

25 MAR 2011:  Crystal Cruise Lines is introducing an “All inclusive” option. The luxury liner will be eliminating the "As you wish" shipboard spending credits that were up to $2,000 per couple as it adopts payment structure used by its competitors to include drinks and gratuities. And that “All inclusive” approach is good news for travel agents. Read more...

OVERREACTION

25 MAR 2011: The decision made by Princess, Holland America, Disney, Carnival and Norwegian Cruise Lines to cancel Mazatlán as a port of call was an overreaction says Julio Birrueta, director of Marketing Mazatlán Tourism Trust. Read more...

ACROSS THE POND

25 MAR 2011: The apparent trend of some American cruise lines moving to European waters this summer was confirmed at the annual Seatrade Cruise Shipping Convention meeting in Miami Beach this week.  Two years ago USA Today called Europe the “hottest story in cruising” and it appears that it remains “hot” today. Read more...

BLOODY HELL

25 MAR 2011: A woman from Indiana who travelled on an unspecified Carnival ship is suing the cruise line for moving too fast. Doris Beard filed a claim stating,” "due to the speed of the ship I became very sick, my body swayed terrible on the ship I had bleeding, which I had not has (sic) in three years. Read more...

GOING BACK

06 MAY 2011: Princess Cruises will re-establish sailings to Egypt starting on 15 May and continuing until November barring any further unrest in the country. The cruise line has determined that it is safe to return to the Egyptian port that had been dropped from 18 itineraries since February. Read more...