Luxury liner Costa Concordia may be big enough to house swimming pools and restaurants, but its very size might have complicated evacuation and rescue efforts,.

“What jumps out at me is the size of this liner,” said Jacques Loiseau, chairman of the French Association of Ship Captains.

The association had regularly tried to draw attention to the dangers posed by the tendency towards ships of such a vast scale, he said.

Next year will see a host of new cruise liners making their debut on the high seas — here, seven of the best to look out for.

Cunard has won a clean sweep among the best large ships selected by the Berlitz Complete Guide to Cruising & Cruise.

The annual publication is well known for selecting the best of the industry out of a total of 285 vessels selected by prolific cruise writer Douglas Ward.

This year, Cunard ships managed to place first, second and third in the large ship category (over 1,600 passengers), with the Queen Mary 2 topping the rank, followed by the new Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Victoria.

New York is to be the home to Norwegian Cruise Line‘s new 4,000-passenger ship when she launches, city officials confirmed October 7.

The Norwegian Breakaway is set to be the largest ship ever to home port in NYC and will enter service in 2013, departing on a planned 88 cruises in less than two years.

Breakaway will boast new rooms designed to invoke a boutique hotel and a luxury private area called ‘The Haven’, complete with 24-hour butler service, a poolside valet and white-tablecloth in-room dining.

Norwegian Cruise Line has announced plans for the world’s first at-sea tweetup for cruise-loving social media enthusiasts.

The SeaTweetup will be a three-night cruise around the Bahamas and is billed by the organizers as the world’s meeting for Twitter users at sea.

The cruise, departing Miami on November 18, will be hosted by Norwegian Cruise Line’s 2,002-passenger Norwegian Sky and is organized by, among others, social media TV show SocialBuzzTV and digital media consultants Social Esquire.

Online travel agent Expedia has revealed that it is seeing an increased interest in cruises to Europe in response to cuts in air capacity between America and Europe.

The year so far has seen increased interest in European cruises from US consumers. There was “tremendous value” to be secured for travelers right now.

According to the firm, cruise lines are currently cutting rates for European tours, “without cutting services,” sometimes giving travelers a cheaper option than flying to the region and staying in a hotel.