John Heald, Carnival’s Senior Cruise Director and author of the “Blog Thingy”. Photo courtesy of Carnival Cruise Line.

A quick scan of the today’s headlines is enough to make even the most happy-go-lucky person reach for a stiff drink.  At the turn of the century, an “ocean voyage” [...]

Guests onboard Fred.Olsen’s Balmoral. Photo © 2009 Aaron Saunders 

Anyone who set foot on a cruise ship in 2008 remembers two words that stuck fear into their hearts: fuel surcharge.  With the price of crude oil hitting record highs, lines were forced to being charging a per-passenger, per-day [...]

Oceania vessels at sea. Photo courtesy of Oceania Cruises 

It seems lately that as one line announces plans to leave the West Coast, another announces their intentions to visit the region for the first time.  In this case, the latter can be said of Oceania Cruises, which [...]

On Wednesday, when the officers on watch onboard Carnival Ecstasy noticed what looked like a submerged bouy directly in their track, they took immediate action to avoid collision as the ship returned to Galveston after another successful Caribbean cruise.

The degree of the turn needed to correct the vessels course, however, was such that [...]

With thousands of flights across Europe canceled due to the volcanic eruption in Iceland, travelers looked for alternate methods of transportation: rail, car, and yes, ship.

In fact, it didn’t take people too long to realize that Cunard‘s Queen Mary 2 had just begun her regular transatlantic crossing schedule, sailing six, seven, and eight-day [...]