Highlights from the 2016 Cruise Line International Association Conference

The 2016 CLIA conference took place in Vancouver June 1-6. We were pleased to attend this most worthwhile conference and update our cruise knowledge and insight. Vancouver is also a great city and we used our time there to find out some of the best restaurants, clubs and sites to see. Our article about the great city of Vancouver appears above.

The general sessions included presentations from the Presidents of many major cruise lines including Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, Carnival and MSC on trends in the cruise industry. These trends include most cruise lines adding to and refurbishing ships. MSC is launching a new ship, the Seaside in 2017.  It’s designed to look like a cutting edge beach condo. Royal Caribbean is taking its new ship, the huge Harmony of the Seas to Fort Lauderdale and will be moving its Oasis of the Seas from Ft Lauderdale to Port Canavaral. Norwegian will still offer new options to its passengers including choice of amenities such as free beverage packages and will be continue its very popular studio single person cabins.

We also attended destination seminars put on by the tourism departments of some prime cruise ports including the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Dominican Republic and Vancouver. We now have additional information on current attractions and recommendations for these ports to assist our clients.

Finally, the highlight of the CLIA seminars is to do live ship inspections. This time we had the opportunity to tour the Royal Caribbean Radiance of the Seas and the Celebrity Infinity. Both ships offered some impressive public areas and activity options and some impressive cabins. Below are just a few photos we took during our ship inspections.