Cruising is looking good for 2006 and 2007. The cruise industry appears set to boom over the next two years, due to continuing economic prosperity worldwide; the aging of the world population and the resultant disposable income and time, and the creativity of the cruise lines in developing new, attractive ships and shipboard attractions.

I will discuss this topic by forecasting shipbuilding for the next two years, then describing the really fun stuff: the new attractions that are...

Too often, we cruise passengers think of our cabin stewards and stewardesses as 2-dimensional persons, without families, lives or futures. So aboard Crystal Symphony on a cruise through the Mediterranean in the summer of 2005, my wife and I decided to have a chat with our energetic, attractive, 24-year-old stewardess, Rasa Janonyte of Klaipeda, Lithuania. The following reflects our conversation.

Q: What does your name mean?

A: Rasa means “dew.”

Q: Tell us about your...

(Second of two parts)

Last month I described the romance of tall ship sailing. This month I will give some specific suggestions for fascinating tall ships around the world.

Where the tall ships roam

Cruising grounds for tall ships cover the entire globe. There are various tall ships in Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Japan and South America, and of course in America we have scores. Many U.S. cities and states have built or are building tall ships as roving...