It seems that Thomson Cruises are quite serious about combining the entertainment and cruising industries. Not only has it just launched Showboaters (a talent competition) on Sky One, the company has also decided to set up stage schools for its star-struck younger supporters on board its ships.

Aspiring stars that cannot get enough of Strictly Come Dancing and the X-Factor will now get the chance to enrol for classes on all the cruise line’s ships – Celebration, Destiny and Dream – throughout the coming winter months in the Northern Hemisphere.

The course targets mainly five to 16-year-olds. The workshops will last two hours and there will be three of them during a seven-night cruise.

At only £35 per course it also provides mums and dads with a way to get some quality time together while their children are kept busy.

In other cruise news Disney Cruises hoisted the hull of their latest cruise liner, Disney Fantasy, into place this week. The familiar gilded decoration as well as the 265-ton bow of the ship were welded into place at a shipyard in Germany.

Fantasy is, of course, a sister ship of Disney Dream. She will embark on her inaugural cruise next March from Port Canaveral in Florida. From there she will undertake a series of seven-night voyages to the Bahamas and the Caribbean – all of which will include a visit to Castaway Cay, Disney’s private resort island.

Fantasy has a passenger capacity of up to 4,000 – many of whom will naturally be excited youngsters who cannot wait to get wet in the Aqua Duck water coaster.