There has been a lot of hand-wringing, click-bait articles, and outraged-thumbnail’d YouTube videos lately about the upcoming 2027 refit of Queen Mary 2 (QM2). Updated deck plans have revealed that Cunard plans to add another block of staterooms to the…
The headline for 2026: container ships now own ten of the fifteen slots, and Royal Caribbean’s Icon-class is the only thing standing between them and a clean sweep of the top spots. The supertankers that used to fill out this…
If you have read our guide to what is actually included in a cruise fare, you already know that the headline price of a cruise and what you will actually spend are often two very different numbers. Packages are where…
Windstar Cruises is best known today for its intimate sailing yachts, but the concept dates back to a remarkable experiment in the 1980s. Wind Star, Wind Song and Wind Spirit were not simply small cruise ships with sails added for…
When it comes to ranking the largest cruise ships in the world, size is measured in gross tonnage (GT), not gross register tonnage (GRT), an older measurement system phased out decades ago under international maritime convention and no longer used…
One of the most confusing parts of booking a cruise is figuring out what you are actually paying for. Two cruises can appear to have similar fares at first glance, yet the final cost can be dramatically different once drinks,…
Hero of the Seas, debuting in August 2027, is Royal Caribbean’s fourth Icon-class cruise ship and one of the largest passenger vessels ever built. Constructed at Meyer Turku in Finland, the ship measures about 250,800 gross tons, with capacity for…
Wind Spirit is unlike almost every other cruise ship sailing today. Carrying just 148 guests, she offers an experience that feels far closer to a private yacht than a traditional cruise ship. Originally built in 1988 as one of a…
The sea route connecting New England to Nova Scotia is one of the oldest continuously contested ferry corridors in North America, and its story is really the story of seven different companies and vessels trying to solve the same problem:…
Next week, CruiseInd returns to Windstar Cruises for another voyage through the Mediterranean. While I had the opportunity to sail aboard the magnificent Wind Surf last year and produce a complete tour of the ship, this voyage marks my first…