The Freedom of the Seas will be a very powerful vacation offering when she enters service next spring, according to Adam Goldstein, president of Royal Caribbean International. “It is a fantastic product,” he continued. “We are confident it is the right product for the right time.”

We chose Costa Magica for our cruise this year because it had been 10 years since we sailed the Mediterranean (also on Costa) and that was prior to the Carnival acquisition.

The itinerary was attractive and it also afforded us a few days in as Civitavecchia is the homeport. The ports of call were Savona, Barcelona, Tunis, Palma de Mallorca, , Valletta, and Palermo.

The cruise industry may be sailing in the wake of a tremendous growth forecast for the Asia/Pacific region predicted by the World Tourism Organization (WTO), which estimates that Asia/Pacific will see nearly 400 million international tourist arrivals annually by 2020, compared to 153 million in 2004. Anticipated to increase at a rate of 6.5 percent per year, the WTO predicts that the region will be second only to Europe in terms of foreign visitors and that the world’s top destination will be China.

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.
“With 20,000 crewmembers and a turnover of some 4,000 a year, if you do not have training programs it would be very difficult to run as smooth an operation as we do.

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.

Unfortunately, these are all things that can – and do – happen aboard cruise ships, and to the millions of passengers who set sail each year. So it comes as somewhat of a surprise that for the most part, travel agents say they receive very few complaints when their customers return home after a cruise. It could be that the passengers who do have a beef  take it directly to the cruise lines, but by and large, cruising seems to leave people very satisfied.