Crystal Cruises has marked down fares on its Oct. 25 New York-Miami Caribbean cruise even further, with savings of up to 67 percent off brochure fares. Fares for the 12-day sailing on Crystal Symphony now start at $2,995 per person, including $1,000-per-couple shipboard credit.

Carnival Cruise Lines reached a social media milestone on July 1 when it gained 1 million fans on its Facebook page (www.facebook.com/carnival). The line said it is the first cruise line to reach that mark. The company uses Facebook as a fan engagement tool, and over the past two months, nearly 300,000 fans said they “like” Carnival. It launched its Facebook fan page in 2007.

El Salvador has been trying to position itself as an attractive destination for cruise tourism and that dream is about to become a reality according to Jose Napoleon Duarte, Minister of Tourism. Duarte said that El Salvador has been in negotiations with Royal Caribbean to include El Salvador in their cruise routes and are in the advanced stages of planning.

Royal Caribbean International is re-launching the cruise line’s art program with the “Art on Royal” program that includes art tours, seminars and auctions. Art on Royal integrates the $120 million onboard collection aboard Royal Caribbean’s 22 ships, which features Royal Caribbean Signature Artists Romero Britto and Thomas Kinkade.

Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 failed a vessel sanitation inspection on June 10 with a score of 84, two points below the level of 86 that is considered satisfactory by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Nearly 3,000 cruise passengers visited St. Kitts on Tuesday. The Royal Caribbean Cruise Line’s 2,501-passenger Serenade of the Seas berth at Port Zante with 2,483 passengers and a crew of 855. It arrived from St. Thomas in the United States Virgin Islands and sailed for Aruba late afternoon.