luxury cruising lines

I work for Princess Cruises. It's fine with me.

But if you're really looking for luxury, you might consider the Cunard lines. Queen Mary 2 is currently doing roundtrip NY to the Caribbean.

Queen Elizabeth 2 (farewell voyage) and Queen Victoria (maiden voyage) are on world cruises and will sail through the Caribbean.

My advice is use whatever name you want, until your publisher's legal department asks for a name change.

You should be fine unless you are disparaging them in some way. And for some reason, Princess Cruises doesn't sound terribly sexy for a spy. Unless that spy is Cathie Lee Gifford. What about Crystal Cruises?

I don't see any problem with using the name, provided you capitalize it, and provided you don't make disparaging remarks about them. If it's just a setting ... why not?

Can't you make it Carnival? I own some of their stock, and they could use some free publicity...

Sorry, but the idea of a Sean Connery type on a Princess cruise just makes me cringe. It's just too precious and gurly an association--not to mention the mental picture of plump, middle-class American tourists in their baggy shorts and flipflops yelling at their kids.

Why not make up your own name, then you don't have to worry about popular associations and lawsuits. If your character absolutely bloody hates their wine list he's free to say so with a clever pun. If he has to toss a badguy overboard to the sharks, well, hey, go right ahead! Let the mayhem commence!