Today’s cruise industry is far from its predecessor: the passenger liners connecting Europe with the New Continent. As described by Page (1987), maritime passenger transport has enjoyed an uneven progress akin to the snake and ladder game from 1956 to 1986. While the post-war period brought a boom in the overall business, the jet aircraft was the cause for bankruptcy for some cruise lines. The market was up again in the early 1970s and down in the later part of the oil crisis (Page, 1987). This cyclical progress is typical of the shipping industry (Stopford, 1997) as a whole and reflects as well the overall state of the economy throughout these years to the difference that merchant shipping is an indication of future eco- nomic trend and cruise tourism is the opposite by being the resultant of economic activity. The 1990s were characterized by an expansion and the early 2000s by a contraction. The last three years have now marked another fast expansion (Cruise Industry Newsrelocate some of their ships to the European-cruising fast growing segment (Cruise Line International Association, 2006) and soon to be seen in the Asian market, with mass market ships starting re- location to China. This global deployment of cruise ships is bringing along supply chain challenges. Supply chains are growing in importance and this can be attributed largely to the current globalization of trade, which also lengthens and complicates the management of supply chains.