Thursday Feb 13

It has been a tale of three ships this week - with big announcements from P&O Cruises over their new ship Britannia, with Royal Caribbean announcing 2015 summer itineraries for Anthem of the Seas as she is based in Southampton, and with the official christening of Norwegian Cruise Line's Getaway.

Here is the TTG story on the Norwegian Getaway launch that took place at her home-port of Miami: read here

Meanwhile, Anthem of the Seas announces a series of sailings for 2015, including plenty of taster cruises at the start of the season.  This, according to Travel Weekly, will help travel agents attract new to cruise guests. You can read the full story and itineraries here.

And as if that wasnt enough new ship excitement for the week, P&O Cruises held a star-studded event for Britannia in London on Wednesday night (here are our pictures from the night - view here) a ship that, according to Travel Weekly will define the cruise line itself: read the full story here.

In other cruise news, Holland America Line have appointed top Australian chef Mark best to their Culinary Council - read here; Celebrity Cruises announce a new Suite Class experience being rolled out in 2015 that includes a suites only restaurant, VIP lounge, unlimited internet access and so on: read here.

There has been a lot of investment in new resources for travel agents announced this week - here is the re-launch by Norwegian Cruise Lines website story from Cruise News UK: read here.

And here - and widely covered across the trade press are the stories on new initiatives from your very own CLIA UK & Ireland on online resources (read here) and a brand new UK river cruise event (read here).

Innovation remains key to the success of the cruise industry - here is a great story on new virtual balconies by Royal Caribbean (read here); but despite that innovation there remains the Myths that need to be 'busted' here is that story from the US: read here

Finally, a reminder that the CLIA Informer is available for reading here.

Happy cruising.