The big news about cruise options this spring and summer is that more lines are basing their best ships in Florida ports and keeping them here year-round, including the Carnival Breeze.

Jamaica-based travel company Leisure for Pleasure Holidays and Tours Ltd has encouraged more Jamaicans to visit Cuba on its weekly cruises as it presented the first prize in a competition staged in association with the Jamaica Observer to a Kingston woman.

Cruise passenger visits to the USVI grew by 4.9 percent last year, with a total of 1,998,579 cruise passengers. That was among the largest improvements of any Caribbean destination with complete annual reporting from 2013.