There were Dutch, Germans, Australian, and British on board, travelling downriver on one of the many cycle-cruise operations now working the waterways of Europe.
"The reality is, the situation is so severe right now that resuming cruise operations is going to be a ways off".
When the cruise operations were spun off 18 months ago, Mr. Arison continued to broach the subject casually with Peter Ratcliffe, the chief executive of P & O Princess, who also said no. Rattled by the Sept. 11 attacks, Howard S. Frank, Carnival's chief operating officer, called Mr. Ratcliffe Sept. 24 and suggested they cooperate.
Part cruise operation, part cargo ship, Hurtigruten (020-8846 2666; hurtigruten.co.uk) has been carrying passengers, post and fish along the coast for more than a century.
These are awkward times for Mr. Mason, a tour guide for Circle Line, the city's oldest and perhaps best-known sightseeing cruise operation.
On the water... Hurtigruten (0844 448 7654; www.hurtigruten.co.uk), Norway's coastal ferry, is part cruise operation, part cargo ship and has been carrying passengers, post and fish along the fjords for more than a century.
Other new cruises this summer include: DISNEY -- The company's cruise operation will have its debut in Europe with eight 10- and 11-night Mediterranean cruises departing from Barcelona and stopping throughout the south of France (Villefranche, Marseille) and Italy (Palermo, Naples, Sardinia, Rome and Florence).
The Port of Miami handles international shipping and is a world leader in cruise ship operations.
The fate is with god," said Captain Hany Salah, Sky Cruise's operations manager.
The General Accounting Office, an investigative arm of Congress, had said in February that cruise ship operations in North American ports increased by almost 50percentt between 1993 and 1998.
