The Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) is encouraging tourism industry stakeholders to view the current economic crisis as an opportunity to be at the forefront of the recovery when it comes.

Carnival Cruise Lines will introduce its first comedy club on its new 130,000-ton Carnival Dream. The club will feature six comedy shows on four nights during each voyage. The new 3,646-passenger Carnival Dream –the line’s largest ship- is set to debut Sept. 21.

Regent Seven Seas Cruises, which had scheduled the Seven Seas Navigator for dry-dock in January in Charleston, S.C., has accelerated the work to take place Nov. 15 to Dec. 15 at the Lloyd Werft shipyard in Bremerhaven, Germany.

Delivering the very best in overall guest experiences is the central motivator behind the design of Royal Caribbean International’s newest ship, Oasis of the Seas.

The Port of New Orleans is a step closer to realizing another new, modern cruise ship terminal at the Julia Street Wharf after the board of commissioners moved ahead with an agreement with the Louisiana Department of Transportation’s Port Priority Program.

MSC Cruises is offering 16 Mediterranean and 11 Northern European itineraries featuring more than 60 ports of call in 2010. Eastern Mediterranean itineraries include Venice, Istanbul, Mykonos, Santorini, and Dubrovnik, while the routes in the Western Mediterranean include Barcelona, Marseille, Naples, Rome, Toulon (St. Tropez) and Monte Carlo.