mercedes

Thinking about trading up to a luxury line? Now's your chance. Super swanky The Yachts of Seabourn has slashes rates sharply -- up to 65% -- on a handful of winter cruises. In the latest sign of the struggle lines are having selling cruises during the economic downturn, Seabourn has marked down 10 cruises scheduled to take place between November and March to as little as $1,349 per person, based on double occupancy (that's per cruise, not per day). The catch: You've got to book fast. The deals are available this week only. The $1,349-per person fare is available on Seabourn Spirit’s five-night cruise from St. Thomas to Fort Lauderdale on Dec. 16. A five-night Seabourn Legend voyage roundtrip out of St. Thomas departing March 20 is similarly marked down to $1,499 per person. The seven-night Seabourn Legend voyage roundtrip out of St. Thomas is available for $1,999 per person. Also on sale: -- The 14-night Seabourn Legend voyage from Ft. Lauderdale to Caldera, Costa Rica, departing Nov. 23 (starts at $3,599) and a similar 14-night Seabourn Legend voyage back from Caldera to Ft. Lauderdale departing Dec. 7 (also starting at $3,599). -- The 12-night Seabourn Spirit voyage from Lisbon to Ft. Lauderdale departing Nov. 15. Starts at $2,765. -- The 14-night Seabourn Pride voyage from Singapore to Hong Kong departing Feb. 13 (starts at $4,999) and a similar 14-night Seabourn Pride voyage back from Hong Kong to Singapore departing Feb. 27 (starts at $5,249). The subsequent 14-night Seabourn Pride voyage from Singapore to Hong Kong, departing March 13, is marked down to $5,249. -- The 12-night Seabourn Odyssey voyage roundtrip out of Ft. Lauderdale, departing Nov. 28. Starts at $3,999.

Cheryl congratulations. Doc dancing with you here in MD.

Rose, so glad that you had a wonderful cruise, great pictures, thanks for sharing.

Keith and Rita, congratulations on the new booking.

Isaac Levy certainly knows a good thing when he sees it! The 90-year-old resident of Redondo Beach, Calif., has been sailing on Carnival Cruise Lines' four-day Baja Mexico itinerary once a month for the past 14 years, dating back to when the cruise ship Holiday first began the program from Southern California in 1995. Aside from taking an annual break from Carnival cruising during the summer, Levy has sailed on nearly 100 four-day "Fun Ship" Baja cruises over the past 14 years, most recently on the 2,052-passenger Carnival Paradise which currently operates the program. Levy (third from left) is pictured here with several members of the Carnival Paradise's management team, including F&B Manager Ganesh Khalipe (far left); Guest Services Manager Kua Ngamkamolrat (second from left); Captain Vito Garuccio (third from right); Cruise Director Felipe Couto (second from right); and Housekeeping Manager Malgorzata Palucka. Carnival Paradise sails year-round from Long Beach, Calif., offering four-day cruises departing Mondays to Ensenada and Catalina Island and three-day cruises departing Fridays to Ensenada.

Holland America Line's latest Signature of Excellence innovation has received rave reviews by guests on ms Veendam. Similar in size to the premium line's spacious outside-view staterooms, the new, unique lanai accommodations were recently added to the ship and feature large sliding glass doors with direct access to the Lower Promenade wrap-around teak walking deck. Lanai staterooms will be added to ms Rotterdam this year and three other ships by 2013. "We are very pleased with the lanai staterooms and the enthusiastic response from our guests," said Richard D. Meadows, CTC, executive vice president, marketing, sales and guest programs. "They have a nice layout and direct deck access and enhanced views are a major benefit. "On the Statendam-class ships we have fewer verandah options than on our Vista or Signature ships," added Meadows. "So lanai staterooms offer a great value with outside deck access." The addition of 38 lanai staterooms on Veendam are a key feature in the latest round of Signature of Excellence enhancements at Holland America Line. Thirty-two new verandah staterooms also were built on the aft portion of the ship, along with eight new inside staterooms. All staterooms aboard Veendam received new decor, modern wall sconces, carpeting, drapes, pillows and bed runners and resurfaced desks and vanities. Bathrooms saw an "extreme" makeover with new vanities and cabinetry. Each lanai stateroom also features reserved deck chairs outside sliding glass doors that have a one-way mirrored coating to ensure privacy. A final stateroom enhancement was the creation of 15 spa staterooms -- 12 outside converted to verandah in drydock and three other inside -- featuring a variety of exclusive spa amenities. The rooms offer their own ambiance with a decor reflecting natural elements and soft earth-tones. A counter-top water feature in each stateroom provides a natural, ambient background sound and artwork reflects serene images in nature. Exclusive spa treatments and a spa room service menu are offered only in these staterooms. Except for Veendam, completed at the end of April 2009, and Rotterdam, to be completed in December 2009, stateroom enhancements will be completed in two phases. First, in a series of drydocks in 2010 and 2011, Maasdam, Statendam and Ryndam will receive stateroom upgrades. The second series of drydocks in 2012 and 2013 will add lanai staterooms and new accommodations on the aft portion of the ships, as well as forward verandah and spa staterooms. Veendam's capacity increased to 1,350 as a result of the stateroom additions. Guest capacity on Rotterdam will be 1,404. Capacity on Statendam, Maasdam and Ryndam will increase to 1,350 during future drydocks.

SAINT NAZAIRE, France -- Thinking of booking one of the super deals on cruises that have been floating around the marketplace this year? You might want to act sooner rather than later. Yet another cruise line CEO is saying cruise prices have bottomed and may be heading up. "The pricing has started to show limited signs of moving in the right direction," says Norwegian Cruise Line CEO Kevin Sheehan. "We think we've seen the market bottom." Speaking with a small group of cruise writers in France this weekend during ceremonies to mark the "float out" of the line's much-awaited new ship, the Norwegian Epic, Sheehan and other NCL executives said they saw growing signs the worst days of the current downturn are over. "We haven't seen any deterioration (in pricing) in the last couple months," Sheehan says. Just last month, executives at industry giant Carnival also noted prices may finally have bottomed. "We have started tweaking pricing on a variety of brands," Carnival Corp. CEO Micky Arison told Wall Street analysts during a conference call to discuss second quarter earnings. "Pricing is being taken up." Cruise lines began dropping prices drastically late last year in reaction to a sharp slowdown in bookings brought on by the economic crisis, and fares for many itineraries have remained unusually low through this spring and summer. NCL's Sheehan noted that pricing in Alaska, in particular, had dropped substantially for the current summer. Carnival -- the parent company of more than half a dozen brands including Carnival, Holland America, Princess Cruises and Cunard -- noted in its June conference call that the prices it's getting for cruises departing in the third quarter still are substantially below the level of a year ago. Prices for fourth quarter cruises are down year-over-year, too. But Carnival said there definitely has been an improvement in pricing off the lows as demand for cruises returns.

A small cruise ship on a voyage around Norway leaked a large amount of oil today into the world-famous Geiranger Fjord, according to news reports. The Associated Press quotes a Norwegian official on the scene as saying the oil, which spilled from the 352-passenger Spirit of Adventure, is in a slick big enough to be clearly visible from land. The news service says local authorities have been able to contain the oil and hope to pump it from the water before it can spread. Geiranger Fjord, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is one of Norway's most popular tourist attractions and is visited each year by a number of cruise ships. The 29-year-old, 9.570-ton Spirit of Adventure, which sails one- and two-week voyages to Norway each summer, caters mostly to travelers from the United Kingdom. Veteran cruisers may remember the vessel as Peter Deilmann's Berlin. It was taken over and revamped by UK-based cruise operator Saga in 2005 and is now part of Saga's parent company, Acromas.

A Dubai company's grand plans to open the historic QE2 as a floating luxury hotel in the city may be falling apart -- a victim of the economic downturn. The Associated Press today reports the cash-strapped owner of the retired Cunard Line ocean liner is weighing plans to send the vessel as far away as South Africa as an alternative to financially struggling Dubai. "In addition to alternative locations in Dubai, other ports in the Middle East and Africa have also expressed an interest in hosting this impressive maritime icon," a spokesperson for Nakheel tells the news service in an email confirming the ship could move. The 40-year-old, 1,777-passenger vessel, which retired in November, currently is languishing at Dubai's downtown Port Rashid. South Africa's Business Day newspaper reports financially struggling Nakheel has applied to anchor the ship in Cape Town. Nakheel, one of main developers responsible for Dubai's rapid growth in recent years, has been laying off employees and canceling projects as the economic downturn takes a toll on the once highflying city. Nakheel bought the retiring QE2 from Cunard for about $100 million.