Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Cruise Needs' Instagrams of the Week

#crownprincess #princesscruises #cruiselife #cruiseship

A photo posted by Denis (@denismariner) on

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Report: child drowns on Liberty of the Seas

Cruise Law News and Cruise Junkie are reporting that an eight-year-old child drowned Monday on the Liberty of the Seas. This is another reminder that all cruise companies need to add lifeguards during all pool hours. It won't prevent all swim accidents or drownings, but it will prevent many. Disney is investing in more lifeguards. Why can't other lines?

Monday, December 21, 2015

Video tips for Disney Cruise


There are plenty of people getting ready to take their first Disney Cruise after Christmas. Here is a short video with some good tips for making the most of your cruise.

Friday, December 18, 2015

Cruise Needs' Tweets of the Week

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Princess is making you sleepy


We love sleeping on a cruise. The rocking and the rumble are unique to cruising and never fail to put us to sleep. Princess is taking it one step further with their new bed designs. In the video above, the company's design team explains the innovations and what guests can expect.

Aside from the bed investment, this video is another example of Princess successfully using their YouTube videos in ways other cruise companies do not.

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Cruise Needs' Instagrams of the Week

All these beautiful cruise ships overwhelm the senses 😍🌴 #RoyalCaribbeanCruise #CarnivalCruise #DisneyCruise #RCCL #CCL #DCL

A photo posted by 🎅🏼 Cruise Ships of 2015 🎄 (@cruiseships2015) on

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Can Cruise.Me change cruise booking?

Have you ever booked a cruise online? Considering all the things we do with a few touches, booking a cruise is still a bit of a technical challenge. This is the problem Cruise.Me hopes to solve. After a long build up, the company finally rolled out its site and is receiving very positive feedback.

Cruise.Me put an emphasis on better content, mobile interfaces and a process that allows bookers to search in new parameters. If you want to search by price, you can do that too.

Even though they have built a great interface, Cruise.Me still has some marketing challenges ahead. The majority of cruise passengers have relationships with travel agents and are successfully booking cruises without Cruise.Me. What will drive them to switch to more self booking? How will the older demographic even find Cruise.Me? What is to stop the major cruise sellers -- the large agencies and the cruise companies themselves -- from copying Cruise.Me's interface and selling the cruises themselves?

Cruise.Me is not perfect but it is an important company for the industry. We need new innovations and new approaches. Hopefully Cruise.Me can drive that innovation.

Monday, December 14, 2015

Cruise Fever's Allure of the Seas Review


Cruise Fever always does a nice job with their reviews and this video of the Allure of the Seas is no exception. It captures all the unique points of Royal Caribbean's largest ship and points out some of the finer details. The video also mixes in plenty of still shots with the action video from an actual cruise. If you are researching a potential trip on the Allure, be sure to watch this video.

Friday, December 11, 2015

Cruise Needs' Tweets of the Week

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Good tips on drink packages

Cruises sell drink packages as a deal to customers. It takes one of the worries of cruising -- expensive alcohol tabs -- and makes it a known, controllable cost. But is it worth it? It depends on how much and what you plan to drink. Fran Golden has a helpful list of things to know regarding drink packages. Read her overview and remember to always know what your deal includes.

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Cruise Needs' Instagrams of the Week

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas on #CastawayCay! (Photo: @zminneci11) #DisneyCruise

A photo posted by Disney Cruise Line (@disneycruiseline) on

Pool Bar & Buffet onboard #NorwegianEpic 😍.

A photo posted by Jamie (Ed Explores) (@explorewithed) on

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Celebrity adds rooftop terrace

Celebrity Cruises added a rooftop terrace to the Celebrity Infinity. The Celebrity Summit will add a similar lounge during its March renovations. While enhancements like this are pretty standard for ships, it is an important step for Celebrity. The line is none for its quality, but with new competitors entering their space -- like Viking -- they will need to match the experiences. The terrace is unlike anything they've had before and will be used for various activities including movies. 

Initial feedback from travel agents and the media was very positive. It will be interesting what regular passengers think. 

Monday, December 7, 2015

Princess' smart YouTube strategy now includes Cat Greenleaf


We've mentioned before that Princess uses their YouTube channel well. In addition to the typical cruise videos, they also post unique takes on their own ships and bring in unique perspectives. In this series of videos, they follow TV host Cat Greenleaf as she takes her family on their first cruise.

With so many other TV hosts being cruise veterans, Greenleaf's fresh takes are welcome.

Friday, December 4, 2015

Cruise Needs' Tweets of the Week

Thursday, December 3, 2015

Ship of the future or nonsense?


Pictures of the "peace boat" -- an eco friendly ship -- buzzed around the cruise world Thursday. The image showed a modern ship adorned with solar towers and hybrid engines. The Japanase-based NGO behind the images say the ship will be ready in 2020. It would be the world's greenest cruise ship.

Details on the ship's voyage and other features will supposedly be release in the coming weeks. But what is the reality of the ship? Until a major backer comes out and supports it, this is all still just a design.

But if any of the cruise companies believe that passengers will pay a premium for a green ship, this funny-looking thing might get built.

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Small fire on Grand Princess alters Hawaiian cruise

Per Gene Sloan, the Grand Princess suffered a small engine fire on Monday. This forced the ship to cancel a planned stop in Hilo. After regaining power, the ship sailed to Honolulu so the fire could be investigated. Princess has yet to announce what other stops on the 15-day cruise will be missed.