The key to creating a memorable dining experience for passengers is training, according to Natko Nincevic, senior vice president of hotel operations at Carnival Cruise Lines.

               At Costa Crociere, CEO and Chairman Pier Luigi Foschi’s management philosophy has raised the bar for the industry. Earlier this year, Costa announced Green Ship certification for its entire 11-ship fleet by RINA, in addition to receiving Best 4 certification last year – both are voluntary, Foschi pointed out.

    In order to meet demand, the cruise lines need to introduce 10 to 12 new ships annually in the years to come, said Patrick Boissier, CEO and chairman of Chantiers de l’Atlantique. “The cruise industry is a wonderful business, it continues to grow, and it still has huge potential,” Boissier added.

    In a perfect world, Norwalk virus doesn’t exist. Neither do bedbugs. Bad weather is a mere figment of the imagination, and seasickness? Not a chance.

                European cruising is on the upswing. According to the European Cruise Council (ECC), 2.8 million Europeans sailed on ocean cruises in 2004 – an increase of 5 percent over 2003. Fred Hitchins, director of IRN Research, the company that provides the ECC with its statistics, pointed out that while 2005 will see some increase, 2006 and 2007 will grow at a higher clip. But in addition to the prospect of future growth, yet another trend exists among European cruisers, travel agents in the top four European source markets told Cruise Industry News: the demand for newer ships.

    Further diversification of homeports and cruise lengths continue at Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises, according to Jamie Haller, director of deployment and itinerary planning.
    "The most significant development at Royal Caribbean in 2005," he said, "is our expansion in the Northeast and our continuing diversification of cruise lengths. We now have regular sailings ranging from three to 11 days and up to 14 days when you include our more exotic programs."

                11.1 million passengers are forecast to cruise on the fleet of the member cruise lines of the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) in 2005, according to the organization's Chairman Andy Stuart, who is also executive vice president of marketing, sales and passenger services for Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL).
                 Stuart broke the 11.1 million down into 9.4 million passengers originating in North America and 1.7 million originating overseas. He also described the forecast as "realistic" and based on a fleetwide occupancy rate of 105 percent. All the fundamentals of the business are very strong, he added.

With so many different nationalities represented among cruise ships' crews, seafarers' and maritime workers' unions clearly play an essential  role when it comes to crafting labor (and various other) agreements for workers at sea. Most  major cruise lines, say experts and union officials alike, have collective bargaining agreements on board their vessels and work readily with the unions to resolve any issues that affect cruise ship workers - anything from negotiating pay to dealing with sexual harassment on board.

Caribbean cruise capacity stays flat in 2005, compared to 2004 when it was up 5 percent; 2003, 13 percent; and 2002, 16 percent.
    According to estimates by , cruise ships will be able to carry 6.5 million passengers in the Caribbean (including the Bahamas, but excluding Panama Canal cruises) this year.
    But the Caribbean continues to attract more cruise traffic than any other region and will have 52 percent of the worldwide passenger capacity in 2005.

"We are focusing on sharpening our message of how good we are," said Bob Dickinson, president and CEO of Carnival Cruise Lines. "When people cruise with us, they rate us significantly higher than people who have not cruised with us. We have a gap between reality and perception.
 "We were bottom feeders for many years, but in the past few years we have improved. But many people assume we are what we were 25 to 30 years ago.

Captain Hagen Damaschke said that he sees himself as a people's captain, as opposed to one that sits in an ivory tower hidden away from passengers. Damaschke pointed out that socializing is one of his favorite things to do onboard the Europa because getting to know his passengers helps him to do a better job.