15 DEC: Former Cunard liner QE2 is going to host a big New Year’s Eve party.

14 DEC: NSW agency Temple Travel and Adelaide’s Phil Hoffmann Travel have won an inaugural P&O Cruises and Princess Cruises marketing competition.

14 DEC: P&O liner Pacific Dawn will get interconnecting family cabins during a major refurbishment in April.

12 DEC: A cruise ship passenger has been jailed for life after murdering his wife during a 2009 sailing from Los Angeles to the Mexican Riviera.

12 DEC: Nearly 30kms of new carpet was laid on Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 during a just-completed two-week refurbishment in Hamburg.

9 DEC: Celebrity Cruises has unveiled plans to create one of the biggest suites in world cruising.

9 DEC: Princess Cruises is planning a bigger-than-usual winter exodus from Australian waters in 2013.

7 DEC: Royal Caribbean is reported to have introduced packages which cut 25% off the cost of dining in specialty restaurants.

2 DEC: Oceania Cruises is going to offer liquor packages from January, giving passengers the option to drink as much as they like for a fixed daily price, website Cruisecritic.com reports.

1 DEC: American Safari Cruises (ASC) will meet with residents of Molokai this week after protesters used a water blockade to prevent one of the company’s ships from calling at the island at the weekend.