Excitement was palpable at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany, earlier as Royal Caribbean International marked two important milestones in the development of its Quantum class of ships.

Royal Caribbean International plans to spend $70 million to build a new cruise terminal at Cape Liberty in Bayonne, N.J., to open in October 2014.

Carnival Cruise Lines selected the name Carnival Vista for its new 135,000-ton ship scheduled to enter service in 2016. The 4,000-passenger Vista will be the 25th vessel in the line’s fleet. Carnival President and CEO Gerry Cahill made the announcement during a media briefing aboard Carnival Sunshine, the former Carnival Destiny, which underwent a $155 million renovation and is now sailing in Europe.

Norwegian Cruise Line announced today that its two new Breakaway Plus class ships will be the first new builds in the cruise industry to feature innovative scrubber technology developed by Green Tech Marine (GTM), a world leading marine scrubber supplier.