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Cruise ships are increasingly catering to holidaymakers' particular interests - whether it's art and culture or a particular hobby. And sexual attraction is no exception as what is thought to be the world's first 'Cougar Cruise' has proven a sell-out in the U.S. Aimed at older women who prefer to date younger men, the fully-booked International Cougar Cruise set sail from San Diego in California on December 4.

A new book claims the Top Gun star had a tendency to chat to ashtrays, bottles and other inanimate objects Just a teeny tiny amount of space left to say, hey, guess what? Tom Cruise? He's a bit fricking weird! Yuhdoansay. In Blown For Good, the latest book by an escapee from the Galactic Confederacy, AKA Scientology, Marc Headley claims that Cruise would talk to inanimate objects "for hours". No, not Nicole Kidman's face, but ashtrays, bottles, books. "You tell the ashtray, 'Sit in that chair.' Then you actually go over and put the ashtray in that chair. Then you...

You'll relax like never before because you're free to bring your own arsenal onboard with you!

Check out this video of the "Oasis of the Seas" cruise ship. This is the biggest and most expensive cruise ship ever built and it recently sailed from Turku, Finland. It just arrived at the ship's home port in Fort Lauderdale, Florida three days ago on November 11 where it faces a challenge to fill its multitude of berths as we Americans are now struggling under Obama's recession and trying to keep our heads above water. Built at the cost of $1.5 billion, this 16-deck cruise vessel is nearly 40 percent larger than the industry's next-biggest ship and five...

An Italian couple are suing a shipping line for £2,800 after claiming they were not told a relaxing holiday they had booked was in fact on board a ship hosting Italy's first gay cruise. The middle-aged husband and wife, who have not been named, said they were embarrassed after spotting people they knew, but had not realised were gay, on the cruise. Despite accusations from gay groups, they deny being homophobic. Organisers insist the three-day cruise featured no scenes of excess.

A cruise ship carrying dozens of victims of swine flu among its 5,000 passengers and crew has docked in the south of France, officials have said. Sixty crew members have so far been diagnosed with the H1N1 virus, while 70 of their colleagues were also showing signs of being infected, they added. They will be treated on board the ship while it docks at Villefranche-sur-Mer.

Robert McGill was taken into custody aboard the Carnival Cruise ship Elation that returned to San Diego Thursday and is being charged with murdering his wife while on the cruise.The San Diego Medical Examiner's office identifies the victim as 55-year-old Shirley McGill. She and her husband Robert lived in Los Angeles. They were on vacation on the ship. FBI Special Agent Darrell Foxworth said the 2,052-passenger Carnival Elation was on the last leg of a five-day trip to Baja Mexico on Tuesday when members of the ship's crew responded to a domestic dispute between the couple in their cabin. He...

Crewmembers from a pilot vessel rescued a man at about 6:50 a.m., about one mile southeast of Mullet Key, in Fort Desoto, in St. Petersburg, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. Larry Miller, 46, reported to the pilot boat crew that he went overboard from the cruise ship Carnival Inspiration at about 4 a.m., while it was returning to the Port of Tampa. Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg received a report from the pilot vessel at about 7 a.m., stating that they had found Miller clinging to a buoy in the shipping channel. The pilot vessel crew safely...

Discovery Cruise Lines is offering a warm welcome to Spring Breakers -- a group cruise lines and most South Florida beachfront hotels have tried to discourage for years. "We do really well with the Spring Break crowd," spokeswoman Rene Mahfood said. "We have a beer drinking contest -- which you can imagine is very popular -- a Miss Discovery contest, a Real Man contest, karaoke. They just love to be in the sun and everybody is mixing and mingling and flirting." Discovery has seen its Spring Break business decline during the last decade, however. To drum up passengers, it works...

MEXICO CITY, - The entire local police force in a Mexican beach resort town walked off the job on Monday demanding better pay and benefits to compensate for the rising dangers they face from drug violence. More than 300 municipal police officers in Zihuatanejo, a town on the Pacific coast north of Acapulco popular with foreign tourists, went on strike after grenades were lobbed at their offices over the weekend. (snip) "We are seeing a lot things here that we have never seen before. It is our job to serve the citizens, but we need assurances that our families will...

SEOUL (Reuters) – Tom Cruise, who fails to assassinate Adolf Hitler in his new movie "Valkyrie," said he grew up really wanting to kill the Nazi leader. In the World War Two thriller based on a true story of the unsuccessful attempt by German soldiers to kill Hitler, Cruise plays Colonel Claus Von Stauffenberg who plants a briefcase bomb under a table at Hitler's military headquarters. A heavy wooden table saves Hitler and Stauffenberg is executed with his co-conspirators. "I always wanted to kill Hitler, I hated him," the Hollywood star of such major blockbusters as "Top Gun" and "Mission...

The actor, 46, is believed to have alerted the FBI and begun increasing security around him and his family. It is thought he received clear warnings from groups opposed to his religious organisation. The Mail on Sunday reported that Cruise now lives in a separate location to his wife Katie Holmes and their two-year-old daughter Suri, and that the couple travel in bomb-proof cars. The newspaper added that other protesters have been angered by Cruise's decision to star in Valkyrie, in which he plays Claus von Stauffenberg, a German army officer who attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1944. Some...

Cruise is just fine as Stauffenberg, keeping his signature quirks and grin in check. He generates enough charisma to reflect why people were willing to follow Stauffenberg quite literally into Hell, without turning the film into Tom Cruise Takes on Hitler. Whatever problems people have with his performance, they brought with them into the theater. I suspect if mainstream media darling George Clooney had made the very same film, he would be no better in the role, but the tone of the critical commentary would be very different. David Bamber is a very scary Hitler who resists the urge to...

MIAMI | A Norwegian Cruise Line cruise ship at the center of a missing person mystery returned to the Port of Miami on Sunday morning, where FBI agents stood waiting. Sunday they launched an investigation into the disappearance of Jennifer Seitz, 36, who was a passenger aboard the Norwegian Pearl, officials said. “We’re looking to see if a crime was committed on the high seas,” said FBI Special Agent Michael Leverock. He added that agents interviewed numerous passengers and crew members Sunday morning and searched the cabin Seitz was staying in for any potential clues to what may have happened...

Well Tom Cruise is better. Not great. Still too callow (Killing Hitler is “Risky Business”) and not really convincing as a German aristo. But the problem is with the film’s Hitler and it’s skewing of history. Hitler seems to be the bad guy in this movie mainly because he’s poorly groomed and has bad posture–that’s how you can tell he’s a mass murderer. At least compared with the impeccably dressed anti-Hitler aristo-officer conspirators...

Say what you will about Tom Cruise’s acting in other movies; in "Valkyrie," which opened yesterday, he is awful. Amid British and European actors, Cruise stands out like a sore thumb. He doesn’t even attempt a German accent, his mannerisms are all from his "Jerry Maguire" era, and his earnestness suggests at best some kind of fictional American soldier trying to infiltrate the Luftwaffe. You knew it would be bad, and it is. I’m more concerned that “Valkyrie” could represent a new trend in filmmaking: Nazi apologia. We know already what Valkyrie is about: a group of German soldiers who...

Click here for the video from the cruise. (NRO's post election cruise)

Click here for video from the cruise.

When Oceania Cruises announced this weekend that pirates had attempted to approach its Nautica as it cruised through the Gulf of Aden, it heightened existing concerns about passenger and cruise ship safety in that dangerous part of the world. Nautica's captain, officers and crew successfully evaded the pirates yesterday, which is obviously the good news. No one was injured, and the ship is not even off schedule at this point. Still, increasing attacks by pirates on cargo vessels and oil tankers, not to mention this latest incident affecting a cruise ship, begs the question: If you're on a cruise ship...

Vanity...for those interested in the National Review post-election cruise.

These amazing images show the world's largest ever cruise liner taking shape, complete with "beach pool", shopping mall, rock-climbing walls, outdoor ampitheatre, and New York-style loft suites. The state-of-the-art "travelling city" is being built on dry-docks in Finland. Built for Royal Caribbean International, when Oasis of the Seas launches next November, she will be the largest and most revolutionary cruise ship in the world. The liner will span 16 decks, encompass 220,000 gross registered tons (GRT), carry 5,400 guests and feature 2,700 staterooms. Oasis of the Seas will be the first ship to tout the cruise line's new neighborhood concept...

Evan Buffington knew what he had found as soon as he spotted it in the sand. The bottle was imbedded in a small island no more than 48 square miles called Middle Caicos, part of the British West Indies. Buffington found it while vacationing with his family in late August, on a hike with the men of the family. Buffington, a resident of Makanda, Ill., dug out the bottle and brushed off the sand. It was a clear glass Tab cola bottle, with a cork inside and an aluminum screw top to keep it sealed. Some moisture had seeped in,...

In a high-profile shake-up at the recently revived United Artists movie label, Paula Wagner -- the longtime business partner of Tom Cruise -- is in talks with UA parent MGM to leave her post as UA's chief executive, according to a person familiar with the matter. Ms. Wagner, a former talent agent, and Mr. Cruise arrived at UA in 2006 with great fanfare and plans for resurrecting the historic film company. Ms. Wagner and Mr. Cruise received a minority stake in UA estimated at the time to be around 30%. Under Ms. Wagner the label secured a $500 million film...

Tom Cruise likes to ramble on and on about the wonders of Scientology and how much it helps people. However, when it comes to Tom, it looks like Scientology has come up a little short! NOTE: The Author of this comic requests that you visit his site and refrain from copying the cartoon in the thread. Thanks much!!

WASHINGTON, June 24, 2008 – Veterans can once again enjoy an afternoon cruising Lake Michigan, sharing tributes and building relationships thanks to one Illinois group. Kup’s Purple Heart Cruises began in 1945 when Irv Kupcinet also known as “Kup,” a Chicago Sun Times columnist, wanted to do something for servicemembers coming back from World War II. The 50-year tradition ended with its last cruise in 1995. Twelve years later, David Kupcinet decided to re-launch his grandfather’s renowned Kup’s Purple Heart Cruises. After fours year of planning the successfully re-launched cruise took place July 31, 2007. Kupcinet said the cruise...

Surveillance cameras on the Norwegian Dawn cruise ship show a Camden County woman was alone on her balcony when she fell overboard Sunday, the cruise line said last night. The Norwegian Cruise Line said in a statement that hallway cameras and cameras on the sides of the ship "confirmed that Mindy Jordan was in her stateroom alone at the time of the incident." The family of Jordan, 46, of Pine Hill, said Tuesday that it suspected foul play. The family could not be reached last night after the cruise ship's statement was released. The company did not characterize the incident,...

You may or may not have heard: last week Tom Cruise and his former boss, Sumner Redstone, broke bread. They had lunch some 18 months after Redstone didn’t pick up Cruise’s contract as on-lot producer. The reason was that Redstone had had enough of Cruise the couch-jumping Scientologist who berated Matt Lauer on the "Today" show. That was in addition to the strange Katie Holmes courtship and so on. But now I am told that a renewed Paramount deal for Cruise and a possible “Mission: Impossible 4” are not so likely. For one thing, sources tell me it was Cruise...

I’M dancing on the top deck with a 71-year-old feminist and psychotherapist whom I’ve come to think of as the Twirler. We’ve spent two days attending seminars on The Nation magazine’s Alaska cruise; we’ve talked about the Bush presidency and prison reform and single-payer health care. Now, at almost midnight, my fiercely intelligent and opinionated new friend Charlotte is putting all the heady political talk behind her by bodily twirling.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Tom Cruise is the first on the list to get Ducati's newest motorcycle — a $72,500 superbike bristling with titanium, magnesium and carbon fiber technology that can scoot up to 200 mph. Cruise is scheduled to take delivery of the Desmosedici RR at Beverly Hills Ducati this week. Only 1,500 of the red-and-white Moto GP racing replica motorcycles will be made and Cruise gets the first.

Rumblings on the Norwegian Cruise Line boards alerted Cruise Critic to the fact that there is a norovirus outbreak on Norwegian Pearl, which is en route back to Miami after a nine-night southern Caribbean sailing that started on November 30. The outbreak may cause the ship's next sailing, slated to depart on December 9, to be delayed. At noon (EST) yesterday, member JJSlim posted that he had heard from two people onboard the ship that there was a possible outbreak. Nothing at that time had been posted to the Center for Disease Control’s Web site. Later, member Dogbeau posted from...

An unammed cruise ship of Norwegian registry sailing the Caribbean Sea, has requested the urgent assistance of the U.S. Coast Guard and the Puerto Rico Ports Authority. An undetermined number of passengers have come down with "gastrointestinal problems". At least one requires hospitalization. The cruise ship is approaching the Port of the City of Ponce in Puerto Rico's southern coast and will be docking later today. Authorities there are standing by to provide assistance. The ship is expected to continue to Miami after dropping off the patients.

The revival of the United Artists movie label is essentially two comebacks for the price of one. It's the rebirth of the historic UA name itself, created in 1919 by Hollywood luminaries Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin and others. And it marks the return of Tom Cruise, who owns the studio with business partner Paula Wagner and hadn't been seen in theaters since his high-profile dustup with Viacom chief Sumner Redstone last year. snip Like many start-ups, however, the first few months of operations have been rocky. "Lions," a $35 million politically themed movie directed by Robert Redford and starring Messrs....

PHOENIX — A man who agreed to plead guilty in a plot to extort more than $1 million from Tom Cruise for the actor's stolen wedding photos was found dead in his home, authorities said. Investigators said it appeared David Hans Schmidt, 47, who was under house arrest and faced up to two years in federal prison, had committed suicide. He was found dead in his townhouse around 3 p.m. Friday after police noticed a tracker placed on him had not moved and he had not checked in, Lt. Anthony Lopez said. It wasn't known when Schmidt, who was free...

February 23, 2007 A US tourist realized a robbery wasn't a joke when a masked robber put a gun to her head and a military veteran in her tour group grabbed the young assailant and killed him with his bare hands. "I thought it was a skit. But then he pointed the gun at my head and grabbed me by the throat and I thought I was going to die," Clova Adams, 54, told The Associated Press by telephone from the Carnival Liberty cruise ship on Friday, two days after the thwarted robbery. The assault took place during a ship...

Filming started Thursday on a movie starring Tom Cruise as the real-life mastermind behind a plot to kill Adolf Hitler, amid German grumbling about the high-profile Scientologist playing a national hero. A spokeswoman for Babelsberg Studios outside Berlin told AFP that director Bryan Singer ("The Usual Suspects") had begun shooting "Valkyrie" on location in the region surrounding the German capital. German officials have baulked at the choice of Cruise to play Count Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg, who was executed by firing squad in 1944 after the failed assassination attempt. They cite the actor's ties to the Church of Scientology,...

WASHINGTON, May 14 (Xinhua) -- A cruise ship ran aground off the coast of the U.S. state of Alaska early Monday, and over 200 passengers and crew members are being evacuated, U.S. TV networks reported. The accident took place off Alaska's eastern peninsula near Juneau, CNN quoted Coast Guard officials as saying. The Coast Guard has sent a cutter and a helicopter to the scene, and has asked all boats nearby to help evacuate the 281 passengers and crew, Fox News reported. Dozens of people have been rescued from the 110-meter-long Empress of the North, the report said. The ship,...

Greek authorities have announced plans to sue the owners of a Greek cruise ship that sank near the island of Santorini, fearing a serious blow to the booming local tourist economy from oil pollution. "We feel it is our obligation to take legal action," said the island's Governor, Chrysanthos Roussos. "We need to ensure that the ship's owners take responsibility for the clean-up operation." The Greek-flagged Sea Diamond hit a charted reef near the tiny island port on Thursday (local time) and sank at dawn on Friday in the bay of Athinio, descending to a depth of between 90 and...

Bolivians join migrant rush - on cruise liner Dale Fuchs in Madrid Saturday March 31, 2007 The Guardian (UK) Airline tickets to Spain were sold out for weeks, and the Atlantic Ocean was clearly too vast to cross in a fishing boat. So a group of 82 Bolivians tried a novel way to migrate to Europe: they took a luxury cruise. Paying up to €2,400 (£1,630) each for a berth on an ocean liner, the Bolivian group embarked in Brazil alongside well-heeled Argentine and Dutch passengers. But when the vessel reached its European stopovers of Tenerife, Cádiz and Valencia this...

When a Sunrise family was pondering a four-night trip to Orlando in November, their travel agent at World Wide Cruises in Fort Lauderdale steered them to an appealing alternative: a seven-night Caribbean Princess cruise for less. Residential real estate isn't the only buyers' market these days: Prices for Caribbean cruises have seldom looked so good. A four-night stay at Animal Kingdom Lodge with park passes for two adults and two children added up to $2,519, compared with $2,389 for the cruise, World Wide said. Even newer ships such as Royal Caribbean International's ballyhooed Freedom of the Seas, which debuted last...

JAMM AQUINO /ALEXANDRE DA SILVA / The Queen Elizabeth 2 made its way into Honolulu Harbor early yesterday morning. During its journey, the ship was hit with a norovirus outbreak on its Acapulco, Mexico-San Francisco leg and was met by the CDC after it docked in Honolulu. The stomach flu outbreak sickened at least 276 passengers and 28 crew members amid its around-the-world journey. CDC greets cruise ship A stomach flu virus seems to be under control aboard the Queen Elizabeth 2 Passengers and crew members aboard a cruise ship in which hundreds fell ill with a highly contagious stomach...

You want a leak case? Here's a leak case: socialite-actress-producer Zeta Graff suing socialite-actress Paris Hilton for libel and slander for Hilton's alleged leak to Page Six of the New York Post. Hilton allegedly falsely reported that Graff had gone "berserk" at a London nightclub when she saw Hilton dancing to "Copacabana" with Graff's ex-boyfriend Paris Latsis. Hilton allegedly also reported that Graff tried to rip a $4 million diamond necklace off Hilton's neck, and that Graff, according to Hilton, is allegedly "a woman who is older and losing her looks, and she's alone. She's very unhappy." Graff is in...

TOM Cruise is the new “Christ� of Scientology, according to leaders of the cult-like religion. The Mission: Impossible star has been told he has been “chosen� to spread the word of his faith throughout the world. And leader David Miscavige believes that in future, Cruise, 44, will be worshipped like Jesus for his work to raise awareness of the religion. A source close to the actor, who has risen to one of the church’s top levels, said: “Tom has been told he is Scientology’s Christ-like figure. “Like Christ, he’s been criticised for his views. But future generations will realise he...

MIAMI - The world's largest cruise ship was held in port Monday for intensive cleaning after a second outbreak of gastrointestinal illness in two voyages sickened 106 people. More than 380 passengers and crew members aboard Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas were sickened by norovirus during a Nov. 26-Dec. 3 Caribbean cruise. The ship was cleaned before its next cruise, but 97 passengers and 11 crew members became sick with the same illness last week, officials at the Miami-based cruise line said. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control recommended keeping the ship in port and will oversee repeated cleaning...

Two ships returned to South Florida ports Sunday morning with passengers plagued with the norovirus, and a Royal Caribbean ship will not sail for two days after the Centers for Disease Control issued a ''no sail'' recommendation. The CDC issued the recommendation -- a rare occurrence, according to a spokesman -- for the Freedom of the Seas, the world's largest cruise ship, when the ship returned to port sick for the third consecutive time. The Freedom of the Seas docked Sunday with 99 passengers and 11 crew members on the 3,900-person boat sick with norovirus, which causes vomiting and diarrhea....

The world's largest cruise ship, Freedom of the Seas, returned to Miami on Dec. 3rd with more than 380 passengers and crew were sickened by what was believed to be the norovirus, according to Royal Caribbean Cruise Line officials. The outbreak struck Freedom during a week-long cruise to the western Caribbean, and was likely brought aboard on Nov. 26th by an ill guest, according to the company. The norovirus, spread by contact, can quickly sweep through enclosed areas like cruise ships. The outbreak on Freedom comes only a couple of weeks after more than 700 passengers and crew members were...

Opera singer Andrea Bocelli refused to sing "Ave Maria" at Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ crazy wedding on Saturday. The reason: He didn’t want to disrespect the Roman Catholic Church.

U.S. movie superstar Tom Cruise and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. are resurrecting United Artists, the movie studio founded more than 80 years ago by screen legends including Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford, MGM said on Thursday. Cruise will star in and produce films for the studio, and production partner Paula Wagner will serve as chief executive. Cruise and Wagner will set the company's production slate from development to production greenlighting ability, subject to certain parameters, MGM said.

The publication of Hubris is filled with irony for David Corn, Washington editor of the left-wing Nation magazine. He was present at the creation of the Valerie Plame "scandal," which the enemies of George W. Bush hoped could bring down a president. Nobody was more responsible for bloating this episode. Yet Corn is coauthor of a book that has had the effect of killing the story. Thanks to Corn's intrepid coauthor, Newsweek investigative reporter Michael Isikoff, Hubris definitively revealed then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage as my source that Joseph Wilson's wife, Valerie, worked for the CIA and suggested her...

Are you a bit curious about the Vanity Fair photo spread on Tom Cruise's baby? Not the least bit interested Will probably flip through pages at newsstand Likely to buy the mag

Katie Holmes has described speculation about her baby as "heartbreaking" as she finally unveiled Hollywood star Tom Cruise's daughter Suri to the world. Their baby is pictured in Vanity Fair magazine, four-and-a-half months after her birth. The long wait to see the high-profile couple's daughter had prompted conspiracy theorists to question her existence