Vacations on the seas continue to be filled with choices.

You can drive to your cruise ship. You can explore exotic Caribbean destinations. You can stay in special spa suites. And that's helping record numbers of folks to get on board.

ELLEN CREAGER / Detroit Free Press (ENLARGE)

The Caribbean remains the top destination for cruise travelers worldwide, with more than 40 percent of all cruise ships visiting the islands.

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Twelve ships are taking maiden voyages this year — with several embarking from Southeast ports — and eight new vessels are scheduled to debut next year, according to the Cruise Lines International Association, which represents 24 cruise lines and more than 16,000 agencies in the United States and Canada.

In the next five years, 40 ships will be introduced, increasing the number of beds from 265,000 to 335,000.

Some of the newest ships offer facilities for activities from ice skating to surfing. Costa and Carnival cruise lines as well as Celebrity's new Azamara Cruises brand, have suites next to spas, with perks such as in-room services and restaurants.

"One of the important things is no matter what you think you want to do on a vacation, or no matter what you have done and like, you can probably replicate that experience on a cruise," said Bob Sharak, executive vice president of marketing for CLIA.

An expected 12.5 million guests will travel on CLIA member cruise lines (representing 98 percent of all North Americans sailing) this year, up from a record 12 million in 2006. About 9 million of those travels will originate from U.S. ports, which represents about 75 percent of all passenger embarkations.

Southeast departures

In Jacksonville, a five-hour drive from downtown Atlanta, Carnival Cruise Lines' Celebration, which holds 1,486 passengers, departs on four- and five-day cruises. Next year, a larger ship, Fascination, will replace Celebration, with room for 600 more passengers. About 130,000 passengers embarked from Jacksonville in 2006, according to CLIA data.

"It's really becoming quite an important port and an alternative to the big two [Miami and Port Everglades] down in Florida," said Carolyn Spencer Brown, editor of CruiseCritic.com.

Carnival's decision to put a bigger ship there shows confidence in the drive-to Southeast market, which primarily services the Caribbean, said Linda Coffman, author of Fodor guidebooks, including "The Complete Guide to Caribbean Cruises." Coffman, who lives in Augusta and has a Web site (www.cruisediva.com), said that's wonderful for Georgia residents.

"It's a shame that we don't have more that are even closer," she said, adding she would like to see more ships in spots such as Charleston, S.C.

Spencer Brown noted that Carnival's Holiday continues to sail from Mobile, and ports like Galveston, Texas, are still strong, with 716,000 embarking passengers in 2006.

In New Orleans, Carnival and River Barge Excursions have resumed year-round cruises. Norwegian Cruise Line has October-April offerings to the western Caribbean and Majestic America Line offers river cruises from March to December. Royal Caribbean's Grandeur of the Seas returned last December, with trips through early April, but now is departing from other cities.

Spencer Brown says the New Orleans cruise industry was having difficulty rebounding after Hurricane Katrina.

"They're not [rebounding], and that's unfortunate. [Norwegian Cruise Line] put a ship in there this year, and there was a lot of hope, and nobody followed," she said.

The number of passengers that embarked from New Orleans in 2006 was 72,000, compared to 327,000 in 2004, according to CLIA.

Overall, home port cruising is struggling, Spencer Brown said. Part of the reason is the repetition of ports of call. If you take cruises from the Gulf of Mexico, for example, the ships have typically gone to the same places year after year, and people are getting a "little bit bored with the western Caribbean."

"A lot of folks who really love the idea of driving to the port are starting to get kind of like, 'We've got to go somewhere else this year,'" she said.

Caribbean or elsewhere?

CLIA data show a small drop off in the number of ships in the Caribbean, from 44 percent, 45 percent and 46 percent of the fleet earlier this decade to 41 percent in 2007. Spencer Brown acknowledges that the Caribbean has been over saturated the past six years.

"Cruise lines have kind of pulled back and are sending ships to other places," she said, noting that destinations like South America, Australia and New Zealand are becoming more popular. "They've really distributed the ships much better. You're still going to have those days in St. Maarten where there's six ships there at one time, but not as many days."

Cruise lines have responded by trying to carve a niche, Spencer Brown said, such as western Caribbean locales including Belize and Honduras, and Costa Maya, Mexico. New cruise lines such as Azamara Cruises boast smaller ships and out-of-the ordinary destinations.

For this year, Spencer Brown said stops such as Costa Maya are in the process of rebuilding after Hurricane Dean.

"It will not be back until next year at this time. That was kind of an exotic port that people really cared for," she said.

Another hot destination that Coffman sees is Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands.

"If you're looking for lots of activity ... you're not going to find it there. It's very laid back," she said. "But the beaches are stunning and the underwater diving and snorkeling are just superb."

Coffman and others dismiss talk that the Caribbean is faltering. It remains the top destination, with more than 40 percent of cruise line capacity this year being allocated to itineraries there, compared to 16 percent to Europe and the Mediterranean and 8 percent to Alaska, according to CLIA data.

"I think that's a little bit ridiculous, because first of all, the Caribbean is very multifaceted," Spencer Brown said. "Ships are still going there, people are still going there. There isn't as much of an opportunity as there is in Europe or South America or Asia maybe to have more offbeat ports, but there's still a variety to do and activities. I think the Caribbean is going to be fine."