Just recently Princess Cruises held their 10th annual awards at a ceremony for popular cruise liner services in and around the Caribbean. Princess Cruises were also nominated for a passenger choice award for the best on shore excursions in the Caribbean region.

The on shore excursion that won the award is The Americas Cup which is a twelve metre yacht regatta tour which is held in St Maarten. This makes this tour the top winning excursion ten years in a row.

There were further accolades that were handed out too, but these were presented on a more individual basis and the turtle encounter and Tiami catamaran were recognised as the highest volume tours of the recent season within Barbados.

The horseback riding and swimming at Chukka Beach was voted as the Turkish and Caicos Islands’ very best and highest volume excursions and the Croydon Plantation tour also went on to pick up an equivalent to this award for Montego Bay in Jamaica.

Princess Cruises’ Steve Nielsen, who is vice president of shore operations in the Caribbean commented:

“Because we place such a great emphasis on high service levels, we feel it’s important to recognise those local tour operators who do a great job of continuing Princess’s commitment to service when our passengers are in port. These local guides and companies are ambassadors for both Princess and their respective destinations.”

The Caribbean itineraries for Princess Cruises will give passengers the unique opportunity to visit a whole host of local attractions, which also include Mayan city, Tulum – an ancient city within Mexico - and the ruins at Chacchoben which are located close to Costa Maya.

This month, Virgin Atlantic has been celebrating its ten year anniversary of running flights to the Caribbean.

Virgin’s Caribbean flights started in September 1998 with a few flights from London Gatwick Airport to St Lucia, Antigua and Barbados.

In the following ten years, Virgin Atlantic expanded their network in the Caribbean islands, running additional flights from London to Tobago and Grenada in 2003, then to Cuba in 2005, new flights to Montego Bay in 2006 and to the Jamaican hotspot of Kingston in 2007.

The airline also added flights from Manchester to Barbados in November of 2005 and also to St Lucia in 2006.

Steve Ridgway, chief executive of Virgin Atlantic, said: ‘Since we started flying to the Caribbean in 1998, we have carried over 4m British holidaymakers who love the combined appeal of the beautiful beaches and year-round sunshine the Caribbean has to offer. The Caribbean is an important market for us and we are now the biggest operator to the region having added more Caribbean destinations, flying from Gatwick and Manchester to eight destinations on seven islands.’

Virgin Atlantic intends to mark the celebrations in style by hosting a music festival in Barbados, starting on the 30th October and running for ten consecutive days.