Thursday May 1st 2014

Happy First Birthday CLIA UK & Ireland - yes it was a whole year ago that CLIA UK & Ireland was formed... thank you for all of your support - read our Birthday Message to you here!

In more serious news - Norwegian Cruise Line announced bigger profits at the start of 2014 - read here - much extra profit is down to the addition to the fleet of Breakaway and Getaway.

Good to see Norwegian also announcing some ex-UK sailings in 2015 with Norwegian Epic; meanwhile MSC Cruises are building their beds in the Med for 2015 with Divina, Preziosa, Fantasia and Armonia coming over from the Caribbean.

Closer at home, there was an announcement by Fred Olsen Cruise Lines this week of their Christmas events at Tilbury - great chance for some festive cheer!  Read here.

With the Maiden Voyage for Regal Princess up and coming on May 20 - she has just finished her sea trials and is now back in the ship yard: read here.

There is continuing itinerary news coming from the industry - this week we saw that Holland America Line are positioning Volendam and Rotterdam over in Asian waters in 2015-16 - read here.

As great fans of social media ourselves, we read with interest that the investment in wifi technology on cruise ships will be a game changer for the industry as people share streaming content and images.  Read the comments from Royal Caribbean here.

Meanwhile fabulous to see Carnival Cruise Lines on the front page of Travel Weekly this week, and inside there is a great interview with Andy Stuart - one of the keynote speakers at this month's Selling Cruise Conference: see the digital edition online here.

Great to see so many of you on Tuesday at our River Cruise Expo, and at the Agent Achievement Awards!  Have a great Bank Holiday Weekend!