Not since the Titanic set sail has the sea seemed so alluring or the cruise industry looked so unsinkable as it does today. With 5 million customers booking passage last year--a 10-fold increase from two decades ago--major carriers such as Carnival and Royal Caribbean have steamed to record sales and profits. They have turned a once snooty form of travel into mass-market vacations for people like Ken and Sherry Nunn and daughter Ashley, an Indiana family that recently spent three nights aboard Royal Caribbean's cozy 2,250-passenger Sovereign of the Seas. "Everything's right there, and you don't have to run yourself crazy...
Cruise Lines Go Overboard
A fleet of monster ships is steaming into a high-seas showdown. They're loaded for fun. But can they all make money?
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