![\"\"](\"http:\/\/cruisingdoneright.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Titanic-2.jpg\" "\\"The")
<\/a>at least two cruise ships (Azamara Journey<\/a> and the Fred.Olsen Balmoral<\/a>) were on the scene in what originally seemed like a macabre reminder but in the end was touching and emotional.<\/p>\n2. In an unrelated "the way we were" event, American Cruise Lines<\/a> unveiled a paddle wheeler that on the outside looked much like the kind of river boats that went up and down the Mississippi in the early 20th century. The Queen of the Mississippi<\/a>, the first paddle wheeler built for the rover in 20 years, is just as luxurious as her ancestors, relatively speaking…among the then-unimaginable improvements was the Internet.<\/p>\n 3. Viking<\/a> made headlines for the river cruisers by adding six new Longships in 2012 and announcing 10 more would arrive in 2013 with plans for 10 more in 2014. While capacity is far less than ocean cruisers (usually less than 10 per cent), one-week cruises cost a lot more. Are we about to find out if Viking has saturated the river cruise market?<\/p>\n 4. The face of Godmothers changed. Oceania<\/a> introduced an openly lesbian godmother (Cat Cora<\/a>) for the Riviera<\/a>, Celebrity gave the title(s) to four women who were cancer survivors or cancer survivor advocates on its Reflection<\/a>, and Norwegian announced its New York-based ship (Breakaway<\/a>) would have the Rockettes<\/a> from Radio City Music Hall<\/a> as 5. After all the analyses and speculation and concern about hurricanes in the Caribbean and their impact on cruise ships, the one that had the greatest effect on ship itineraries was in the waters of the north-eastern seaboard, Hurricane Sandy.<\/p>\n 6. New catchphrases for upscale marketing, when Oceania reinforced its "upper premium" status with the arrival of the Riviera and Celebrity<\/a> introduced "modern luxury" after Michael Bayley replaced Don Hanrahan at the head of the No. 2 line in the Royal Caribbean family.<\/p>\n 7. Norwegian<\/a>, the biggest cruise line that isn't in the Carnival or Royal Caribbean<\/a> conglomerates, unveiled plans to supplement its 2013 (Breakaway) and 2014 (Getaway<\/a>) new ships with a "Breakaway-Plus" ship in 2015 and an option on another one for 2017.<\/p>\n 8. The Costa Concordia<\/a>. Long after it capsized and took 32 people to their deaths 13 days 9. An Australian mining billionaire, Clive Palmer, unveiled plans to build a Titanic replica, prompting this from Carnival<\/a> CEO Micky Arison to quip: "Mr. Palmer is a billionaire with ambitions to become a millionaire!"<\/span><\/p>\n 10. The George Bushes — as in George and Barbara — crossed the Atlantic on the Queen Mary 2<\/a> the way they do most things…quietly.<\/p>\n Ten stories in 2012 that caught our attention, in no particular order of significance… 1. The 100th anniversary of the best-known (because it sank) cruise ship of all time, the Titanic. At the precise hour the Titanic went down, on April 15 a century earlier, there were at least two cruise ships (Azamara Journey and… Continue reading Reflections on Cruising in 2012<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[537,137,154,782,681,138,809,851,57,912,72,86,35,151,126,721,722,811,242,695,33,184,894],"class_list":["post-15594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stories","tag-american-cruise-lines","tag-caribbean-cruises","tag-carnival","tag-carnival-breeze","tag-carnival-imagination","tag-celebrity-cruises","tag-celebrity-reflection","tag-costa-concordia","tag-costa-cruise","tag-cruise-bargains","tag-cruise-deals","tag-cruise-ships","tag-cruises","tag-new-cruise-ships","tag-norwegian","tag-norwegian-breakaway","tag-norwegian-getaway","tag-oceania-riviera","tag-queen-mary-2","tag-queen-of-the-mississippi","tag-royal-caribbean","tag-titanic","tag-titanic-anniversary","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15594\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/cruisingdoneright.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Rockettes-yy.jpg\" "\\"The")
<\/a>godmothers in perpetuity…because there will always be Rockettes. Yet none was more moving than Tracy Mourning, Godmother of the Carnival Breeze<\/a> and a woman whose charitable efforts continue to impact young women in Florida.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/cruisingdoneright.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Concordia-3app-e1356912913329.jpg\" "\\"Costa's")
<\/a>into the year, its impact lingered all year, and will continue to linger until long after the ship is raised and destroyed, either in name or in body.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/cruisingdoneright.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/DailyDeal-2-e1334202169354.jpg\" "\\"DailyDeal-2\\"")
\n\tCarnival Imagination<\/a>
\n\t4 nights
\n\tFebruary 25, 2013
\n\tMiami<\/a> (return): Key West<\/a>, Cozumel<\/a>
\n\tInside: $219
\n\tCost per day: $54<\/strong><\/span>
\n\twww.carnival.com<\/a>
\n\t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"