Imagine you walk into a port ready to cruise and you're greeted by name.  The check-in process you're used to has transformed into a seamless stroll onto the ship.  Once onboard every crew member knows your preferences, you never have to unlock your door or turn on a light, and the idea of handing over a card for a purchase seems pedestrian and laborious.  At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas today, Carnival Corporation announced their new Ocean Medallions, which promise just this on your next cruise experience.

This week's video is a bit different, as not much news came about in the world of cruising during this holiday week.  We discuss changes at Paradise Cruise Lines and my predictions for 2017.  

Be sure to follow us on Periscope so you can catch us live for these and other interactive broadcast.  We'll be live tomorrow from Port Everglades this weekend, talking ship and watching sail-aways!

In this, the third in our weekly video series keeping you up to date on the world of cruise news, we cover new builds from MSC, Virgin Voyages, and Carnival.  We also talk specifics on Cuba sailings for Norwegian, Regent, and Carnival.  We also announced that we'll be back on Independence of the Seas on January 5th, 2017.  

Be sure to follow us on Periscope so you can catch us live for these and other interactive broadcast.  We'll be live tomorrow from Port Everglades this weekend, talking ship and watching sail-aways!

This is the second in our new weekly video series keeping you up to date on the world of cruise news.  Be sure to follow us on Periscope so you can catch us live for these and other interactive broadcast.  We'll be live tomorrow from Port Everglades broadcasting sail-aways of ships from Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Princess, Celebrity, and Holland America.

Carnival Cruise Line announced this week that they're testing updated dining policies on the Carnival Glory and Carnival Conquest.  On those vessels, dining times which had previously been 6:00pm and 8:15pm have been updated to 6:00pm and 8:00pm. saying that the change will enhance the dining experience for all guests.  Makes sense yet?  This will help: Carnival also announced that persons arriving more than 30 minutes late for dinner will not be seated in the main dining room, and be referred to the buffet dining area.  Presumably, the fifteen minute-shorter gap between first and second seating will be easy to accommodate as they can now guarantee that no meal service will begin more than 30 minutes after the scheduled time, and the final meals should end a bit earlier.

It's time to try something new.  We're going to start getting you weekly (or maybe bi-weekly) updates on what's going on in the cruise world.  This will take place live on Periscope and then get cross-posted to YouTube.  Take a look below and get all caught up.  We did run into some technical issues with the camera feed, but we'll work on that for next week.  Please subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Periscope so you can catch our live sail-away interactive broadcasts as well as next week's news.

After many months of anticipation, and subsequent to Carnival Corporations' approval for Fathom, Royal Caribbean International, Azamara Club Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Oceania, and Regent Seven Seas have gained approval from the Cuban authorities to travel to Cuba.

Today in Saint Nazaire, France, Celebrity cut the first piece of steel for the 2,900 passenger Celebrity Edge, the first of the new Edge class of ships, to begin sailing in the fall of 2018.

Royal Caribbean's Harmony of The Seas, the world's largest cruise ship, sailed out of her new home port of Port Everglades today and Royal Caribbean invited everyone to Dr Von D Mizell Eula Johnson State Park to see her off.  Check out our description, pictures, and videos below.  Catch us live next time by downloading Periscope and following @CruiseHabit.

If Google or Facebook has ever noticed you type the word "cruise", you're likely already aware of today's festivities just miles from Port Everglades. As such, we'll keep this short and offer some links to videos and other articles.