National Cruise Week suggests new cruise trends

The Association of Cruise Experts (ACE) stages its second National Cruise Week from September 20-27. It’s designed to help travel agents sell cruises and in advance of the even itself there are some interesting statistics emerging. First the tendency for most cruises being booked early in the 2010 season is for longer cruises, so if you want a real bargain, and are prepared to hold your nerve, you may find that the prices of five day and less cruises will drop steeply near sailing date if these continue to be unpopular.

There are three new ships pretty well entirely dedicated to the UK market coming online in 2010: P&O's Azura, Cunard Queen Elizabeth and Celebrity’s Eclipse – so you can also expect to see some competition between those three, although it won’t be so much on cruise deals as on offering freebies, special deals and other incentives to get bookings.