The arrival of Princess Cruises’ Dawn Princess, which has a capacity of 1,950 passengers, to the port of Puntarenas earlier this week signaled the start of the new cruise season in Costa Rica.

Crystal Cruises has opened the books on cruises in early 2013 with two-for-one fares and free air. Among the new selections is a 74-day, 14-country World Cruise circling South America. Another 19 voyages covering most of the first half of 2013 are now open for booking and detailed at www.crystalcruises.com.

Construction work begins in earnest this week at Banana Coast in Trujillo, Honduras, a $20 million Caribbean cruise destination. A two-ship cruise dock and themed retail shopping village are under development and slated for completion in late 2012.

Compagnie du Ponant, which recently added 17 Caribbean sailings, is offering limited-time savings of up to 25 percent off a seven-night St. Martin roundtrip. The two 2012 sailings aboard the 330-foot mega-yacht Le Levant visit ports in the British Virgin Islands, French West Indies, Antigua and St. Kitts-Nevis.

Norwegian Cruise Line says it will host its first "Tweetup" cruise on a sailing in November. The idea behind the SeaTweetup Cruise (@SeaTweetup) is that Twitter users can share their cruise experiences with followers and build more traffic, according to the line. The cruise is being coordinated with the help of several members of the South Florida social media community.

Carnival Cruise Lines's Costa Cruises and AIDA Cruises brands will have three new ships join them by 2016. Carnival Cruise Lines has reached agreements for the construction of three new cruise ships: a 132,000-ton vessel for the Costa Cruises brand and two 125,000-ton ships for its AIDA Cruises brand.