New megaships, some carrying 6,300 passengers, lure an international crowd

A: The biggest trend in the cruise industry right now is globalization. That is what's happening. For the first 30 years of the cruise industry as we know it, the American market was very dominant, and although marketing took place in other countries, particularly the U.K., it was limited. For the most part, people had to travel long distances to get on cruise ships and they were mostly occupied by U.S. customers. In the last 10 years, that has started to change in a meaningful way.

With Oasis and Allure coming into Port Everglades, that allows some of our other ships to move out. We have been able to stretch our brand across the world. Next year we will have three cruise ships in Brazil, a cruise ship in China, a cruise ship in Australia, and a cruise ship year-round in the United Kingdom so that instead of flying down to the Mediterranean, you can get on a ship in Southampton and sail down to the Mediterranean. These ships are being home-ported overseas, and next summer 11 of our 22 ships will be in Europe. But even on Oasis and Allure, approximately 25 to 30 percent of all our guests are not from the U.S.