It was supposed to be an escape to the Caribbean sunshine for a week of parties, relaxation and sipping champagne. Instead Ebola crashed the party.

The cruise ship season started yesterday with the Radiance of the Seas arriving in Wellington.

Take a look at the German launch of a megaship so big that Auckland will expand its wharf for its visit

Queens and Captain Cook wharves may have to be extended at a cost of tens of millions of dollars to accommodate the new generation of cruise ships.

Building of Quantum of the Seas and Anthem of the Seas cruise ships at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany.

Royal Caribbean boss Richard Fain is blunt about cruise ship economics - the vessels cost too much and the fares are too low.

Grant Bradley travelled to Papenburg courtesy of Royal Caribbean to tour Quantum of the Seas, the cruise company's newest ship nearing completion at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Germany.

New Zealand needs to be competitive to continue attracting cruise ship seasons worth more than $365 million, according to the national voice in the sector.

Passengers aboard the biggest ship based in this region will be able to go surfing onboard.

New Zealanders are taking cruise holidays in record numbers with the rate of increase higher than any of the main passengers markets around the world.

The wrecked Costa Concordia will be towed from the island of Giglio by the start of August - two years and eight months after it crashed into rocks with the loss of 32 lives.

Carnival will dispatch a fourth ship to China next April, escalating the battle for passengers in the fastest-growing cruise market.

Passengers on a dolphin-watching cruise remained calm as they waited to be rescued from a charter vessel that started taking on water north of Auckland this afternoon.

The announcement that norovirus was onboard a cruise ship touring NZ 'scared the s*** out of us', said one passenger as sanitation efforts continue.

Auckland could be the winner from Sydney's congested port facilities as cruise lines consider basing more cruising from this side of the Tasman.

Cruise ship visits to New Zealand are set to ease from the latest bumper season, but that has not diminished hope of seeing more tourism dollars.

A cruise industry consultant says New Zealand risks missing out on most of the boom in the sector by not giving passengers what they want.

With more than 1.1 million passenger days spent in New Zealand, the country's ports have survived the biggest cruise season on record - but only just.

Auckland's Queens Wharf is too small for the new generation of bigger cruise ships and may need a $10 million top-up from ratepayers.

A weekly feature by Grant Bradley looks at what's happening in the travel industry and what it means for consumers.

This summer will be New Zealand's busiest cruise season yet in what is the fastest-growing region for the sector in the world.

Take a tour of the Seven Seas Grandeur, the ship billed as the most luxurious in the world. Video / Supplied

The first look at Silversea's Silver Nova, set to debut in August 2023. Video / Supplied