Royal Caribbean International celebrated the grand opening of its call center in Springfield, Oregon, this week with a three-day party. The $60 million, 160,000 square-foot environmentally-friendly building, designed to look like a cruise ship, currently employees 250 people, and will have 1,000 by 2009, said Monica Shovlin, Royal Caribbean´s spokesperson in Springfield.

Princess Cruises will make its largest ever Europe deployment in 2007 when it sends five ships to the Continent, offering 81 departures and 31 itineraries visiting 110 ports, a 33 percent increase over last year. The extended season will start in April and run through December 2007. The Emerald Princess, Princess Cruises´ next ship currently under construction at Italy´s Fincantieri shipyard, and the Royal Princess, the ship it will acquire from U.K.- based Swan Hellenic, will both make their Princess debuts in 2007 in the Mediterranean and will offer Med itineraries throughout the season.

In the grand Cunard tradition, 2007 promises to be another historic year for the world´s most famous ocean liners. Demonstrating the line´s historic ties to its home port of New York, Queen Mary 2 will offer an expanded season of transatlantic travel, as well as introduce a collection of six four-day Getaway sailings and 12 10-day Connoisseur´s Caribbean voyages in 2007 and 2008 - all originating from New York.

Carnival Cruise Lines has permanently switched itineraries operated by the Fantasy and the Sensation, due to a technical issue with the propulsion system on the Sensation. The change went into effect Friday. The ship is unable to operate at maximum cruising speed to complete five-day itineraries to the Bahamas and Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos, and will take over the Fantasy´s three- and four-day itineraries to the Bahamas. The Fantasy will take over the Sensation´s route.

Cruise traffic at the Port of Cork in Ireland continues on an upward spiral with record numbers of ships and passengers scheduled to call in 2006. Commencing on 8 April, the port is set to host 37 cruise ships with 39,000 passenger capacity over a six month period to October 12 as the world´s major cruise lines confirm their confidence in Cork as an outstanding port of call in the increasingly competitive Northern European cruise market.

The Chilean Fjords, Punta Arenas, Ushuaia, Cape Horn Passage, the Falkland Islands and Buenos Aires are among the highlights of the first of two South America voyages Peter Deilmann Cruises is offering U.S. travelers looking for a grand hotel voyage aboard the five-star MS Deutschland, from Jan. 25 to Feb. 14, 2007. The second sailing for travelers seeking both scenic and historic South America destinations and relaxing days at sea spends time in Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro at Carnival time and colonial Salvador, before crossing the South Atlantic via the Cape Verde Islands to Santa Cruz, Tenerife in Spain´s Canary Islands, Feb. 14 to March 5, 2007.