You may be wondering when booking a cruise why you should book Royal Caribbean? We were inspired by a recent episode of CruizeCast to look at why someone would want to choose Royal Caribbean for their next cruise. Rather than contrast Royal Caribbean to other lines, we thought it might make sense to tell you why Royal Caribbean is as popular as it is and why you should consider them for your next cruise.
Things to do
If there's a selling point to Royal Caribbean, one of them has to be what your cruise ship will offer. While all cruise lines offer a lot to do onboard, Royal Caribbean has defined the category of onboard activities. If you see any of Royal Caribbean's television commercials, you will see mostly passengers doing something. There are rock climbing walls, mini-golf courses, ziplines, the Flowrider, ice skating rinks just to name a few.
It's not to say that on Royal Caribbean ships, you will feel ostracized for not participating in events. Far from it, in fact. If your ideal cruise is to go to the pool and sleep, you can do that without ever being bothered. But if you're ever inclined to do something physically active on your ship, Royal Caribbean offers a lot of it.
Many of these activities are free and available throughout your cruise. Most passengers probably try one or two activities on their cruise. These activities aren't the focus of the cruise, but it is something that separates Royal Caribbean from the competition. Royal Caribbean really tries to convey the idea that there's always something going on during your cruise so you won't have to worry about being bored because there's nothing to do.
The Ships
Royal Caribbean has strived to differentiate itself from other cruise lines by pushing the envelope of how big a cruise ship can be. Over the past 10 years or so, Royal Caribbean has constructed new ships that are bigger than the ones that came before it and if you're looking to be on the state-of-the-art cruise ship that is the biggest and newest, Royal Caribbean is a great choice.
As of the writing of this blog post, Allure and Oasis of the Seas are the largest cruise ships in the world. Not only are they large, they also feature distinct "neighborhoods", that can best be described as themed areas of the park in the ship. Think of it like how Adventureland or Tomorrowland are themed if you were to visit Disneyland/Magic Kingdom... same basic concept, different look and feel.
Royal Caribbean does have a number of relatively smaller and older ships in its fleet, but the company has spent a considerable amount of time and money keeping them updated with revitalizations that add new venues, cabins and amenities.
Price
Royal Caribbean has set itself squarely in the middle of the pack when it comes to pricing. They aren't the cheapest big cruise line out there, nor are they the most expensive. Royal Caribbean is a mass-market cruise line that tries to appeal to everyone and their prices are generally affordable to most people in the market for a cruise.
While the ship, itinerary and time of year all dictate the exact pricing, generally speaking the average price of a Royal Caribbean cruise is what most people would consider affordable and comparable to a land-based vacation elsewhere. Quite obviously what one person finds affordable will vary from what someone else finds affordable, but there seems to be a consensus out there among veteran cruises of the price point that Royal Caribbean tries to serve.
The rest
There are plenty of other reasons why people come back to Royal Caribbean time and time again. For some, it's the food onboard the ship, others enjoy the onboard entertainment. Royal Caribbean has a large fleet that serves a number of markets outside of the Caribbean, such as Alaska, Europe, Asia, Australia and more.
