Cruise Trends 2010

Next year is being forecast as a record-breaking one for the UK cruise industry. As Oasis of the Seas arrives to alter the way that cruising is done, offering the biggest ship i the world, with its own carousel (roundabout to those of us in the UK), she won’t have the territory to herself. In addition to Oasis of the Seas, Royal Caribbean’s new ship debuting in November this year, there will be P&O Cruises Azura, who arrives in April 2010 and who will sail out of the UK, Norwegian Cruise Line’s Epic, arriving in July and Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth due around October 2010.

The great deals that have been on offer this year will probably start to decline early in 2010 though, as the economy improves so passengers looking for a top deal would be well advised to make their bookings before the end of 2009.

One of the biggest themes for 2010 is reckoned to be fitness on board, as ships innovate with abseiling walls and squash courts, new spas and healthier menus – especially those led by the art of celebrity chefs. And, of course, as the new no smoking rules bite into the spaces in which passengers can smoke, there are likely to be announcements about more ships going entirely nicotine free.