The remaining two Renaissance ships have been sold in Gibraltar to Liberia-incorporated Grand Seaway.
All the ships have now been sold and there is strong interest from a leading cruise line (not mentioned) to buy (not lease) four of the ships.

HAL is changing it's smoking policy. Smoking will no longer be permitted in the smoking area of the dining rooms and enclosed Lido restaurants. Alternative resaurants will continue to be non-smoking. Most of the ships will change over between Feb. 1st and 15th with the Amsterdam changing on April 30th.

Royal Caribbean International has implemented a Youth Evacuation Plan (YEP), designed to assist children under 12 and their parents in reuniting should they be in separate locations on a ship when they are called to muster stations. Children will wear color-coded wristbands that indicate their proper muster stations, as well as the appropriate exit crew members can use to assist a child in reaching his/her muster station, where parents can meet them. Parents will be given a YEP info sheet and a separate wallet card, on which the youth staff will write the family's muster station number.

Crystal Cruises sets entertainers for their Jan 17th world cruise. Some of those will include Joel Gray, Lorna Luft, John Davidson, Maureen McGovern, Johnathan Winters, CNN's Garrick Utley and serveral Olympic medallists, among them Nadia Comaneci, Bert Conner and Rafer Johnson. Richard Herd of Seinfield will perform a one-man show about Cecil B. DeMille.

Royal Caribbean International will feature a holiday theme for it's ice shows on the Voyager Dec. 23rd, Dec. 10th and Dec. 30th. Explorer on Dec. 22nd and Dec. 29th. Adventure on Dec. 23rd and Dec. 30th. The "Happ Holidays" show will bring together the entire entertainment staff ... a cast of more than 50
from the ice skating troupe, Wave Review singers and dancers, Krooz Komics, musicians, youth staff and cruise staff. Children will be invited on stage during a medly a holiday songs and may participate in a similar theatre production by the Wave Review singers and dancers.

Silversea Cruises has won the "Worlds Best Small Ship Cruise Line" award in the annual "World's Best" readers poll conducted by Conde Nast Traveller. This is nothing unusual for Silversea.

Celebrity Cruises' newest ship, the Summit, has been awarded a perfect score under the intensive Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and U.S. Public Health (USPH) vessel sanitation ship inspection program. A branch of the CDC, USPH makes unannounced inspections of cruise ships sailing in U.S. territory twice annually. The inspection covers all areas of the ship inlcuding food preparation and handling, methods of food storage, genaral cleanliness, water purity, toxic substance control, pool and spa quality, plumbing, ventilation, just to mention a few. The line had previously received perfect scores for it's Mercury, Century and Galaxy.

Enjoy,

Paul