People we have met in the international soccer community tell us that every four years the World Cup is the universe’s most-watched sports event, and maybe it is. The 2010 World Cup, in South Africa, begins June 11 and there will be thousands of soccer fans watching the month-long tournament on cruise ships.
Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Azamara and MSC plan to have all 64 games available to guests. That’s 43 ships in total and a potential audience that exceeds 100,000. Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and Azamara will broadcast games on cabin TVs, plus featured public lounges and bars. MSC‘s 11 ships will carry the games in bars and dedicated public areas.
Two Holland America ships, the ms Noordam and the ms Westerdam, will be based in South African ports from June 10 to July 12. 
They were chartered by the One Ocean Club to be “floatels” accommodating and shuttling fans from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth to Durban. This is the same company that used ships to accommodate fans at the Olympics in Sydney (2000) and Athens (2004).
One thing’s fairly certain: There’s no escaping the World Cup.
That’s it…we’re done.