Cruise Industry

Picture 25,000 cruise passengers disembarking in Baltimore each year to walk the Inner Harbor, shop at Harborplace, dine at nearby restaurants and visit the attractions."

On a recent Caribbean cruise, I joined a guided rain-forest hike in Nevis, went horseback riding across the beaches and hillsides of St. Barts and climbed a mountain in St. Kitts. For my next cruise, I am vacillating between a barge trip in France with cycling at every stop, and an African adventure that combines sailing the Indian Ocean's pristine Seychelle Islands with a wildlife safari in Kenya. Or maybe I'll choose the golf cruise along the Atlantic Seaboard's Intracoastal Waterway that provides games at five courses between Charleston, S.C., and Jacksonville, Fla.Welcome to surf and turf, cruising style.

Is bigger better?That is a question the cruise world will soon find out. Next month, the world's largest cruise ship, the 102,000-ton Carnival Destiny, takes to the seas. It will sail the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean on its way to the Caribbean. It is too large to fit through the Panama Canal.Passengers on the Destiny probably won't be thinking about the Panama Canal, however, because this ship will be a wonder in itself. The Destiny will also have many innovative design features -- features that just may help attract more vacationers to the sea because it will appeal to those who think a cruise is too confining or sedentary.

Cruise portThe same crowds of tourists that flocked to the Power Plant and the Brokerage, the same "big bucks" that the Fishmarket brought to the city, are what will flow into this insane idea for a major cruise port at the Inner Harbor.As your article of Dec. 11 pointed out, the only two major itineraries that could be used for cruise ships based in Baltimore would be northeast passage cruises to Montreal and cruises to Bermuda.At this time, northeast passage cruises are a minor part of the cruise industry.

They're equipped for pleasure, with their lavish dining rooms, sun decks and casinos. Their uniformed crews promise romance and adventure.But beneath the "Love Boat" exterior, cruise ships also can be floating classrooms, offering an easy way to explore foreign lands so that passengers learn without realizing it.That was my experience when I took a cruise to the "birthplace of Western civilization," Greece, and parts of Turkey.Ever since I studied architecture in college in the 1970s, I wanted to visit the monuments of antiquity I had read about, starting with those on the Acropolis.

Destination-intensive cruises are just one of many different theme excursions that the cruise industry has created to lure more passengers.Other theme trips include cruises for gourmet cooks, country and western music lovers, dieters, wine tasters, gardeners and investors. There are even ones for chocoholics.All have been designed to appeal to vacationers seeking "enrichment," in one form or another.According to the Cruise Lines International Association, the industry's trade and marketing association, 64 percent of the passengers polled in a recent survey said they want their trips to be learning experiences.

It looks like smooth sailing ahead for the cruise industry. Not only is consumer interest in cruising at an all-time high, but the ranks of "hot prospects" also have grown substantially, according to a new study conducted for Cruise Lines International Association.The study says that almost 44 million people believe they will "definitely or probably" take a cruise vacation within the next five years, and that the vast majority see themselves sailing within the next two years.Among the "hot prospects," the average age has come down (42)

Don't look just yet, but more cruise liners could be docking in Baltimore.Eyeing potential economic development benefits, Maryland lawmakers reversed Monday a long-standing law that forced cruise ships to shut down their casinos while sailing the six hours up the Chesapeake Bay to Baltimore."

Leaning back in her swivel chair at the Spirit Cruises office overlooking the Potomac River in Washington, Kathleen Malloy took the surprise call last August. The brass at Spirit's headquarters delivered some disturbing news: Based on skirmishing that already had developed, Ms. Malloy was warned to expect a fierce battle with a long-established rival when she launched the company's cruise business in Baltimore."Harbor Cruises didn't want us coming into the harbor. They'd been here so long.

CROSSING & CRUISING. By John Maxstone-Graham. Scribner's. 311 pages. Illustrated. $30.The other experts on passenger ships have disappeared in the wake of John Maxstone-Graham.Mr. Maxstone-Graham has the job you want. Half the year, accompanied by his wife Mary, he floats about the world on cruise ships, checking out their sight lines, cuisine, entertainment and comfort level. He hobnobs with captains, pursers, fellow passengers, and he almost never goes ashore. The destination is of less importance to Mr. Maxstone-Graham than the vessel.

Baltimore will become a year-round cruise port when behemoth Carnival Cruise Lines begins weekly sailings that it expects will handle 115,000 passengers annually, beginning in September 2009. Miami-based Carnival Corp., the world's largest cruise line, said yesterday that the 2,124-passenger Carnival Pride will offer a pair of seven-day itineraries to such destinations as the Turks and Caicos islands, the Bahamas and Florida, through August 2011. It will be the northernmost port where Carnival offers year-round cruises.

A cruise ship fire March 23 that killed one person and injured 11 has prompted an investigation that could bring about changes affecting consumers and the cruise industry. The 3 a.m. blaze aboard Princess Cruises' Star Princess, sailing from Grand Cayman to Montego Bay, Jamaica, swept through 100 cabins on the four-year-old vessel, melting balconies along three upper decks, charring interiors and leaving a large blackened section on the port side of the 18-deck mega-ship. Now officials are asking how this could have happened on a comparatively new cruise ship, built to the highest international safety standards designed to prevent such a disaster.

So you finally booked that Caribbean cruise. Splurged on a sexy new bikini. Picked up a paperback of that steamy best-seller. While you're shopping for sunscreen, you also may want to consider a few items to help keep you on deck instead of in the sick bay: in particular, antiseptic wipes and anti-diarrheal medication. Winter marks the height of cruise season, and coincidentally, a time when gastrointestinal illnesses make their rounds among people in close quarters. After years of battling the problem, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Since the beginning of 2000, cruise lines have spent -- give or take a few nickels -- about $20.3 billion to build 55 gleaming new mega-ships to get you to ports in Alaska, the Caribbean, Mexico and beyond. It seems 2005 will be the year you get to pay for them. More than likely, the cruising industry will focus much of its energies this year on new ways to recoup what it spent during half a decade of deep discounting and almost manic shipbuilding. Expect fuel charges, service charges and, um, charge charges, as well as more options on your "inclusive" vacation that will cost extra.

With many travelers afraid to fly, the battered cruise-ship industry is beginning to send liners to secondary ports such as Baltimore in hopes that vacationers will be willing to drive or take a bus - instead of a plane - to board their vessel. The question for Baltimore and other cities hoping to profit from the trend is whether the business will stay once the memory of Sept. 11 begins to fade from the nation's consciousness. The answer could affect whether state transportation officials decide to invest in a new cruise-ship passenger terminal in the Inner Harbor.

If buying and enjoying a cruise were only a matter of learning port from starboard and fore from aft, consumers could rest easier. Instead, anyone contemplating a vacation at sea faces a battery of unfamiliar and easily misunderstood terms. Is it good or bad to be repositioned? Should your dinner portions be measured in gross register tons? Here's a quick cruise vocabulary guide. Brochure rates: What nobody should pay. This is the seafaring equivalent of hotel "rack rates" - the fare figures that cruise lines put on their printed materials, even though most passengers, buying through travel agencies, pay 20 percent to 40 percent less.

Picture 25,000 cruise passengers disembarking in Baltimore each year to walk the Inner Harbor, shop at Harborplace, dine at nearby restaurants and visit the attractions."

On a recent Caribbean cruise, I joined a guided rain-forest hike in Nevis, went horseback riding across the beaches and hillsides of St. Barts and climbed a mountain in St. Kitts. For my next cruise, I am vacillating between a barge trip in France with cycling at every stop, and an African adventure that combines sailing the Indian Ocean's pristine Seychelle Islands with a wildlife safari in Kenya. Or maybe I'll choose the golf cruise along the Atlantic Seaboard's Intracoastal Waterway that provides games at five courses between Charleston, S.C., and Jacksonville, Fla.Welcome to surf and turf, cruising style.

Is bigger better?That is a question the cruise world will soon find out. Next month, the world's largest cruise ship, the 102,000-ton Carnival Destiny, takes to the seas. It will sail the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean on its way to the Caribbean. It is too large to fit through the Panama Canal.Passengers on the Destiny probably won't be thinking about the Panama Canal, however, because this ship will be a wonder in itself. The Destiny will also have many innovative design features -- features that just may help attract more vacationers to the sea because it will appeal to those who think a cruise is too confining or sedentary.

They're equipped for pleasure, with their lavish dining rooms, sun decks and casinos. Their uniformed crews promise romance and adventure.But beneath the "Love Boat" exterior, cruise ships also can be floating classrooms, offering an easy way to explore foreign lands so that passengers learn without realizing it.That was my experience when I took a cruise to the "birthplace of Western civilization," Greece, and parts of Turkey.Ever since I studied architecture in college in the 1970s, I wanted to visit the monuments of antiquity I had read about, starting with those on the Acropolis.