Don’t miss a thing: Get your own Lido Deck subscription.

THE DEAL: iCruise.com is offering a seven-night Western Caribbean cruise onboard Royal Caribbean’s Serenade of the Seas, sailing roundtrip from New Orleans on January 17, 2014. Prices start from $499 per person for an inside cabin and $729 for a balcony.

Despite having ships stationed in five continents, Italy-based MSC Cruises is almost always thought of as “very Euro.” (We’ll explain in a minute.) So it may have come as a surprise to some that the line will be basing its splashy 3,502-passenger MSC Divina year-round in Miami. The one-year-old ship will begin offering Caribbean cruises in November, marking the first time MSC has positioned a ship full time in America. Divina will compete with the biggest, newest offerings from Carnival, Royal Caribbean and NCL.

“The brand is starting to gain momentum here in North America,” president Rick Sasso told me. The snowball has taken awhile to form. For the past nine years, MSC has homeported ships in the U.S., but only on a seasonal basis. Divina, too, was initially slated to sail from Florida seasonally, but due to the positive response it received, MSC decided to drop the ship’s anchor in one place.

Why should you care? Click to find out.

According to the groundhog, spring is quickly approaching, and if you’re like me, warmer weather inevitably gets you thinking about where you might want to plan your next sailing. Whether you’re on a tight budget or plan to book the most high-end luxury cabin, I’m willing to bet that getting a good deal would put a big smile on your face. So, it got me wondering how others go about scoring enviable cruise fares. Is it through a travel agent? Online? Booking during a certain window?

Find out here.