When you think of cruising most people think about leaving from South Florida, Seattle, or perhaps a large city in Europe.  There are many other ports out of which you can cruise, and recently Carnival announced they’re greatly increasing their capacity at some of them.  We look at why this is important, and what we think it might say about the popularity of cruising as well as the economy...

Today the Celebrity Equinox was host to a historic event, as Francisco Vargas and Benjamin Gray became among the first same-sex couples to be legally married at sea on a major cruise line.  An intimate ceremony was officiated by Captain Dimitrios Manetas and the couple exchanged vows against the rose wall in Blu Restaurant, a specialty dining venue on Equinox.

Today at the STX Shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, France, the Celebrity Edge came one step closer to entering service as she was floated out of her mounting dock, getting her first taste of the sea.  The careful maneuver required seven tugboats to safely position the 1,004 foot (306 meter) vessel to the Saint Nazaire Joubert Dock where her construction will continue ahead of schedule...

Recently, Celebrity Cruises recently announced that the much-anticipated Celebrity Edge is ahead of schedule and will begin sailing earlier than expected.  While this is generally great news, there are some who may be less than thrilled, and this made us stop and wonder - what is a "maiden voyage?"

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (parent company to Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, and Azamara Club Cruises) made some big announcements this week around the technology in and on their ships. The “Sea Beyond” event was hosted this Wednesday in NYC, and RoyalCaribbeanBlog.com was there to get the scoop.  Nobody covers Royal Caribbean like they do, so you should first get the whole story by checking out their coverage of Sea Beyond.  These announcements however really had us thinking (we love cruising and technology) so we couldn’t let it go without jumping in and providing our take…

Continuing to build momentum in a quickly changing world of alternative-fueled ships, Carnival Cruise Line has signed another in a series of agreements today with Shell to be their supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG) for North America's first fully LNG powered cruise ships. The ships will be largest for the cruise line, at 180,000 gross tons, and due to sail in 2020 and 2022.  They'll be fueled through Shell's LNG Bunker Barge (LBB).  The LBB was recently announced as part of a plan to develop a global LNG bunkering network (bunkering is a nautical term referring to fueling-up ships) to support the growing number of LNG-powered ships being constructed, allowing them to refuel along the south-eastern US coast...

The Fincantieri's Sestri Ponente ship yard in Genoa, Italy today hosted Virgin Voyages Founder Sir Richard Branson and CEO Tom McAlpin accompanied by the singing of Boy George.  The event served as both the keel-laying ceremony for Virgin Voyages' first 110,000 gross ton ship and a party to announce additional details around the highly-anticipated cruise line. 

*Updated With Video* 

Today, Celebrity Cruises announced that their captains are now able to perform same-sex marriages at sea.  This is great news - but why isn't everyone doing it?  It has to do with flags...sort of.  Let's learn a little but about about today's announcement and dig into why we don't see it happening across all cruise lines...

Miami-based Carnival Corporation & PLC, the world’s largest leisure travel company and parents to numerous cruise lines announced that they’ll be deploying new connectivity to their ships which will be enabled by SES Networks.  

The service – delivered in connections with SES networks – will use geostationary earth orbit and medium-earth orbit constellations, managed services, and shipboard technologies to deliver reliable and high-speed connections at sea.  By combining multiple sources of bandwidth, over different bands and different satellite systems, connected to an “unprecedented volume” of shipboard access points, the aim is to deliver guests what they want when they want it, regardless of...

Carnival Corporation & PLC announced today that they’ve signed a memorandum of agreement with Fincantieri shipyard to bring a new vessel to Cunard Line.  The yet unnamed vessel will be the largest in the Cunard fleet with an expected delivery date in 2022.  While the new ship will be the 249th to fly the Cunard flag in Cunard’s 178 year history, she will only be the fourth ship in the current fleet, alongside Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth, and Queen Mary 2...