Austin-Lehman Adventures´ popular Galapagos Island program expands for this fall and the coming year with weekly departures every Sunday for 8/day-7/night excursions aboard a fleet of three identical, private, luxury 20-passengar yachts. The program utilizes three identical sister ships to assure that a cabin is available to fit vacation schedules, says Dan Austin, Director.

Holland America Line´s 793-guest MS Prinsendam embarks in 2006 on a series of 18 innovative itineraries that sail from North America to South America, Antarctica, Europe, Africa, and Asia. As The Elegant Explorer plies its way across the sea, she will call at 148 intriguing ports of call on the diverse sailings.

Costa Cruises has just found a moniker for its new liner –still under construction- and the nametag is Costa Serena. The first building block for the ship was laid on September 16 at the Fincantieri Shipyard in Sestri Ponente, Italy. The 112,000-ton, 3,000-passenger Costa Serena will be delivered to the Italian cruise company in May 2007. Its sister ship, the Costa Concordia, will be delivered in June 2006.

Royal Caribbean International and Carnival Cruise Lines altered some of its cruise itineraries to avoid Tropical Storm Rita as it crossed the Gulf of Mexico and the Florida Straits last week. The Grandeur of the Seas skipped Key West, Fla. on September 20 and headed directly for Mexico´s Cozumel. The Mariner of the Seas substituted a call in San Juan on September 20 instead of calling in Nassau, Bahamas.

Uruguay expects a busy 2005-2006 cruise season with the port of Montevideo operating as the hub but incorporating the Atlantic resort of Punta del Este as a growing calling point. A total of 33 cruise calls with an estimated 25.000 passengers are scheduled to visit Punta del Este beginning next December, according to local tourist industry sources. Traffic will be mainly concentrated in two companies, Italian Costa Cruises and Mediterranean Shipping Cruises with their vessels “Costa Romantic” and “Melody”, catering mostly for Brazilian, Argentine and European tourists.

Heading into the 2006 Europe cruise season, Holland America Line deploys a record five ships and introduces a full summer of Mediterranean cruises aboard the new Ms Noordam liner. The premium line covers all of Europe –featuring 14 maiden port calls and 27 unique itineraries sailing the Mediterranean, Scandinavia and Russia, Greenland and Iceland, North Cape and Polar Icecap, Black Sea, North Africa, British Isles and Transatlantic voyages.