Two respected leaders in the travel and tourism industry, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. and ITM Group, are teaming to form a new destination company, to be called Holistica.

Holistica will create an inclusive model for destination development that works holistically – thus the name – to meet the needs of coastal communities, local governments, and land, sea, and air travelers.

Carnival Cruise Line announced the appointment of the senior officers for Mardi Gras, currently under construction at the Meyer Turku shipyard in Finland and set to debut in summer 2020.

Mardi Gras’ senior officers will include:

In the wake of the new U.S. government policy change towards Cuba, Carnival and Royal Caribbean have both cancelled their sailings to Cuba.

Royal Caribbean

For all 2019 sailings on both Majesty of the Seas and Empress of the Seas, Royal Caribbean has secured alternative ports and is in the process of communicating the new itineraries to our guests and travel partners. For these guests, they will have the option of remaining on their sailing with the new itinerary and receiving a 50% refund or they may cancel their cruise and receive a full refund.

Princess Cruises announced a special tie-in with Discover Channel's Shark Week event by offering Summer of Shark activities showcased on eight summer sailings, now through July 27, 2019.

Following the Trump administration's announcement that many options to travel to Cuba will no longer be allowed, Royal Caribbean International became the first cruise line to cancel sailings.

Royal Caribbean posted on its website that is canceling scheduled stops in Cuba on June 5 and June 6.

Effective today, the Trump administration imposed significant new travel restrictions on visits to Cuba by U.S. citizens that appears to mean the end of cruise ship visits to the island.

The Treasury Department announced that the U.S. will no longer allow cruises to Cuba or the group educational and cultural trips known as “people to people” travel to the island. This ends a heavily used form of educational travel.

Celebrity Cruises announced the Celebrity Equinox will become the first Solstice Class ship to receive upgrades and enhancements under the Celebrity Revolution program.

Celebrity Equinox’s bow-to-stern modernization began on May 4, 2019, in Cadiz, Spain and take 29 days.

Federal prosecutors and Carnival Corporation have reached a tentative agreement to pay $20 million in fines, following evidence some of the cruise line's ships continued to pollute the oceans despite promising years ago to stop.

Carnival acknowledged in court documents Monday it violated terms of probation from a 2016 criminal conviction for discharging oily waste from its subsidary cruise line, Princess Cruise Lines, and subsequently covering it up.

Carnival Cruise Line announced today sweeping changes to its fleet that are aimed at protecting the environmental impact of its ships.

Carnival Cruises' Senior Cruise Director and Brand Ambassador John Heald published a letter about a number of recent changes, explaining the importance the company places on the environment.

The cruise line is making some major changes on its ships over the next few months and some of the changes may have already been noticed on a recent cruise.

These changes include: