Without a doubt, looking at what 2009 holds for the cruise industry is a guessing game, so a Ouija board is as good a tool to use as any.
2008 was a tumultuous year from an economic perspective in the United States, particularly during the last quarter of the year, when it seems it suddenly occurred [...]

John Heald, Carnival’s most popular cruise director, has been with the company for 21 years as of next month. That is a very long time to be working at sea — let alone working for the same company, but he loves his job.
“They talk about a call to the sea, you know?” he told [...]

More than nine years ago, with a burgeoning cruise industry, Anne Campbell and Paul Motter began a venture they were calling CruiseMates.com. At it’s beginning I was invited onboard and given the opportunity to begin putting my cruise ramblings “to paper“.  It was a rather odd change of direction in my life. Though I had [...]

The trend in mass market cruising these days seems to be going back to the old-style class system of cruising, where the passengers onboard the same ship can receive entirely different cruise experiences based upon what they are willing to pay. 
In the days of ocean liners, the more you paid for a stateroom, the higher the [...]

As promised last week, I am going to populate this blog entry with some photographs I took on a recent stop in Nuku Hiva, a rustic island way out in the Pacific Ocean, which is part of the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia.
I’ve set up a gallery at the CruiseMates site.  You can go here:  [...]

It’s difficult to assign specific things which the cruise industry universally does badly. Each of the lines seems do have varying policies on how to react to certain situations, and some handle the various situations better than others.
I believe there was a time - until the mid ’90s - when the cruise line’s customer service [...]

I just got back from hosting my first CruiseMates cruise. After nine years of running Cruisemates and three at the helm (so to speak) I finally got around to being a host on a cruise where our readers join us and sail on a cruise together.
Normally, our respected cruise director “Kuki” is in charge of leading [...]

In today’s world of cruising the majority of the cruise lines are beginning to issue cruise tickets and documentation online. One fills out their guest registration online, via the cruise line’s web sites, and once final payment is made, you can print out all the documentation you need. The latest term in cruising; E-docs.
For veteran [...]

I write some of the cruise reviews for CruiseMates.com. In preparation for writing a review, I leave myself daily notes… using words and phrases to serve as reminders of a particular event; be it a part of dinner or dinner service I want to comment on, or the condition of a furnishings, or staff interaction, [...]

I love all things cruising, so I’m happy to have been asked to write this weekly cruise blog. I am Rita, an assistant editor here at CruiseMates and a regular contributor.
Unlike most cruisers, I love long voyages. For this reason I am also partial to Holland America Line.  I also am interested in some of [...]