The big news this year is the Caribbean, which will see record capacity of more than nine million passengers, despite increasing competition from a global marketplace.

For 2015, we expect Europe to be the story with the Allure of the Seas spending the summer season, the Norwegian Epic starting year-round service, the Anthem of the Seas spending her first summer out of the UK, new ships from Costa and P&O, and a new generation of AIDA ships in. Carnival Cruise Lines is expected to be back in 2016. And we are awaiting megaship orders from MSC.

Next will be Asia. Several ports there have already stated that they can handle Oasis class ships. Meanwhile, Star is on a building spree with two newbuild orders for 2016 and 2017.

In addition, Quantum of the Seas will launch service from Cape Liberty this fall, followed by the Anthem, which moves to Port Everglades for the winter season 2015-2016.

So while the industry is developing globally, the two main markets and sailing regions, the Caribbean and Europe, are seeing exciting developments, with growing anticipation for Asia as well.

Another big story is about money as all three publicly traded companies are in the process of streamlining their operations for improved future earnings and have expressed optimism for the near and long term. If all goes according to plan, earnings should be on significant upward trajectory.

More headlines can be found behind the scenes, such as the CSMART bridge and engineering training and simulator facility, to the latest food and beverage trends and shipboard entertainment offerings, to the contemporary lines targeting affluent consumers and the luxury lines diversifying into soft expedition cruising, and real-time decision software driving onboard revenue.

There is much more in this issue we hope you will find to be of interest.

Bon Voyage

Angela Reale Mathisen & Oivind Mathisen
Publishers

Excerpt from Cruise Industry News Quarterly Magazine: Spring 2014