ISSUE 7
February 2019

On the small Bahamian island of Eleuthera, Disney’s plans to build a luxury cruise port has sparked tensions with some of the locals, with thousands of opponents claiming that, as with many other commercial plans of this nature, Disney will rack in the profits while the local economy will see little benefit in return. We dive into the issue to see whether yet another cruise port is justified.

We also turn our attention to an old source of gripe and confusion among both novice and seasoned cruisers, namely gratuity charges added to the overall cost of the trip, to find out how cruise lines can strike the right balance on staff tipping.

In addition, entertainment company Floating Festivals gives us an insight into how it puts up its extremely popular theatrical productions at sea, while Hurtigruten talks us through its sustainability agenda in the years to come, after recently starting using biogas to power some of its vessels.

Finally, we turn our attention to the changing demographics of the cruise clientele – the average age across the sector is falling, with more millennials jumping on board, while the sector is splintering to cater for these changing needs, including no-kids-allowed cruises.