We’re well into the heart of summer and with that brings sunshine (although as I write this the fickle British weather means rain is lashing down against my window).

Nevertheless, the brighter days have brightened my mood; there’s something very therapeutic about a walk in the summer air. I’m also feeling increasingly buoyant due to the re-emergence of cruise, as more ships take to the water.

There’s yet more reason to celebrate with this latest issue of Cruise Trade News, as we’ve joined forces with Celebrity Cruises to create a special prize giveaway, to reward your hard work and perseverance in the face of adversity in recent months.

This is a digital and print campaign and there are some great prizes to won, such as Celebrity stationery gift packs, culinary starter packs, and four very appealing Taste of Luxury cruise prizes to experience the revolutionised Celebrity Silhouette.

Looking at the sector as a whole, nothing can take away from the joy felt as more ships return to service, but how can the industry make good on its promise to improve environmental performance?

Industry execs know that those who sit on the sidelines and carry on with the old normal will soon be left behind – technologically and commercially – by those who bite the bullet and invest in developing cleaner operations. We analyse what is happening across the sector in this issue’s CTN Investigates.

Elsewhere, AmaWaterways and Uniworld discuss their respective river cruise itineraries – which are shaping up to be memorable for many reasons – and we report back from our time on a domestic cruise on MSC Virtuosa at the end of May – a joyous occasion for many reasons.

We also go inside Tradewind Voyages’ Golden Horizon, a near replica of the 1913-built ocean vessel, France II; Oceania Cruises UK & Ireland senior director of sales Priti Mehta talks through the key aspects of selling world voyages, and we look at six of the best multi-generational cruises.