SeaDream Yacht Club modified its slate of 10 South America sailings for the SeaDream I´s 2006-2007 season by offering two Buenos Aires, Argentina, roundtrips in response to a shift in Brazilian regulations. New customs rules permit a maximum 30-day stay in Brazil for cruise ships; for stays in excess of that time, new labor laws require 33 percent of the onboard staff to be Brazilian nationals.

All Costa cruise programs are now available through the Sabre system, with Sabre Cruise Director, travel agents in the U.S. will now be able to book cruises aboard Costa´s fleet of ten ships. “Teaming the fifth largest cruise line in the world with the umber one global distribution system is an unbeatable combination,” said Lynn Torrent, President and CEO, Costa Cruise Lines N.V.

Travelocity has added three additional lines to its current cruise offering –Orient Lines, Oceania Cruises and MSC Cruises. The study, conducted by Keynote, the leading provider of customer experience research services, also noted that “one of the biggest advances over the past year was improvement in Travelocity´s online booking process.”

Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) said passenger growth climbed during the third quarter of 2005 as member companies saw increases in worldwide and North American passenger numbers for the first three quarters of the year. CLIA member cruise lines carried 3.04 million worldwide guests, a 6 percent increase over the same period in 2004, and North American passenger counts were up 8.6 percent during the same period, to 2.55 million guests, up from 2.35 million in the year-ago period.

EasyCruise took a cheeky shot at Carnival Cruise Lines in a new print ad promoting its Caribbean cruises. The ad says: “If spending nights at sea in tacky ballrooms full of old folks is not your idea of a holiday, then easyCruise.com is for you,” followed by “any similarity with Carnival Cruise ships is purely coincidental.”

The majestic 150,000-ton Queen Mary II, with 2,464 passengers and 1,295 crew onboard, made its first of five stops in St. Kitts for the 2005/2006 cruise ship season last week. The world´s largest and most expensive cruise liner docked at Port Zante from New York.