Royal Caribbean has expanded its new app to include support for Voyager of the Seas.
Voyager now appears in the list of supported ships that can be found from within the app.
The new app is being actively developed, which means not all features area available on the app yet. Moreover, the cruise line is slowly rolling out support for more ships.
The app is available on the iTunes App Store and Google Play Store.
Royal Caribbean announced to its travel partners it will be recategorizing its staterooms in an effort to simplify room types for both travel agents and guests.
The latest categorization effort will result in a reduction in the number of categories and a 40% reduction in deck plan colors. In addition, deck plans will result in more intuitive identifiers.
Royal Caribbean is also making connecting staterooms easier than ever to identify and book with designated categories. Connecting staterooms will be double occupancy in both connecting rooms and available on all ships in the fleet except for Majesty and Empress of the Seas starting in 2021.
Royal Caribbean also announced its new Spa Stateroom category. Spa cabins will be featured on Radiance, Voyager, Freedom, Oasis, Quantum and Quantum Ultra Class ships. They will be open for booking later this month for cruises departing in 2021.
At one point, everyone who has taken a cruise was a first time cruiser, and we all have a few tips and tricks we knew before we stepped foot onboard.
In our brand new RoyalCaribbeanBlog video, our readers share one thing they wish they knew before taking their first cruise.
And if you love this video, we have lots of other great cruise videos to watch on our Royal Caribbean Blog YouTube Channel!
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So check out the video and then let us know: What do YOU wish you knew before you cruised?
Royal Caribbean announced they are creating a new stateroom category, the Spa Stateroom that adds in-room amenities and spa privileges.
Here is what is included with the Spa Staterooms:
These new Spa Class rooms will be double occupancy only.
Spa Staterooms will be available on all on Radiance Class ships and above as of May 2021. Bookings for the Spa Staterooms will become available beginning the week of October 28, 2019.
UPDATE: These staterooms will eventually be available on Radiance, Voyager, Freedom Oasis, and Quantum Class ships. They will be below a suite, but above a standard ocean balcony room.
Four new Spa Category rooms:
Royal Caribbean announced today it will transfer Grandeur of the Seas out of its fleet and will join sister brand, Pullmantur Cruises in spring 2021.
In a statement to travel agents, Royal Caribbean talked about the decision for Grandeur to leave the fleet:
"As we continue to grow the Royal Caribbean brand and develop new offerings, we will begin retiring our more seasoned ships. We know this news is bittersweet, but we’re excited that she’ll join our sister brand, Pullmantur Cruises in the spring 2021. Her story isn’t finished yet!"
Grandeur of the Seas’ final sailing with Royal Caribbean will take place on March 26th, 2021. Thereafter, she will transition to Pullmantur. Enchantment of the Seas, will return to Baltimore to replace Grandeur in spring of 2021.
At this time, there are two sailings impacted by the transition timeline. Grandeur of the Seas’ April 3rd, 2021 and April 15th, 2021 departures will be canceled and all booked guests will be re-accommodated. Impacted guests and travel partners will be contacted shortly with the details.
Grandeur's final sailing for Royal Caribbean International will be March 26th, 2021.
Royal Caribbean's Seeker Sale is offering up to $300 instant savings on top of 30% off every guest and a Kids Sail Free offer.
The Seeker Sale runs between October 16 – 20, 2019 and is valid on sailings departing on or after November 16, 2019.
Offer details:
Royal Caribbean won the award for Best Cruise Line – Asia Pacific and Best New Ship (Spectrum of the Seas) at the Travel Weekly Asia 2019 Readers’ Choice Awards.
Angie Stephen at the award ceremony
At a ceremony held in Singapore this week, the cruise line has been a winner of Travel Weekly Asia awards since their inception in 2015.
The awards are presented to travel companies and individuals for their outstanding achievements, and recognize top travel organizations for their commitment, contributions and accomplishments. The winners were determined by the travel trade and public through voting of 10 categories. The categories represent the different segments of the travel industry which includes cruise, airline, resort, hotel, service residence, destination, technology, tourism experience, car rental and travel agency.
Angie Stephen, Managing Director, Asia Pacific of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. who accepted the awards said, “Our double Travel Weekly Asia awards are such a great way to start our upcoming new seasons in the region, and we thank all Travel Weekly Asia readers and our travel agents for their long-time recognition and support for Royal Caribbean. We aim to continue delivering our award-winning cruise experience and service with our best ships Quantum of the Seas and Voyager of the Seas to all our customers and agents in Asia, as we look forward to the new decade with more growth opportunities.”
Royal Caribbean is testing out a new feature of its smartphone app that allows guests to order food from specialty restaurants via its smart phone app.
RoyalCaribbeanBlog reader Preston shared details of the new app feature, which provided guests the option to order food items from restaurants such as Playmakers Sports Bar & Arcade, Izumi sushi or Johnny Rockets. Food items that do not have a fixed price, such as Johnny Rockets, cost anywhere from $3-$7 and a large pizza from Sorrentos costs $5.
Guests can choose to have the food delivered to their stateroom, or anywhere on the ship. If stateroom is selected, the room number is pre-selected by the app based on the guest's reservation.
Alternatively, guests can have food delivered to them by selecting what deck they are on, and then drag and dropping a pin on a map to indicate where you are located on that deck. There are some no-delivery zones, like pools, waterslide lines, theaters, and other restaurants.
Once the food is ordered, the server locates you based on the pinpoint and delivers the food as soon as it is ready. Thanks to Mark for doing "research" for us!
Many thanks to Mark and Danna for providing screenshots and "field testing" this new feature!
Royal Caribbean announced a brand new private island destination at Perfect Day at Lelepa in Vanuatu.
The private island will be built with sustainability features designed to safeguard the island's ecosystems and will be the first carbon neutral private cruise destination in the world. Royal Caribbean's Perfect Day at Lelepa will be audited and certified by an independent, third-party expert to ensure it meets the standards for carbon neutrality. Details on the extensive and innovative techniques we will employ to achieve carbon neutrality will be released soon.
Royal Caribbean International President and CEO Michael Bayley announced the new project was created in partnership with the community of Vanuatu, "to showcase the distinct natural ecological beauty and diverse local culture of the island nation as well as provide employment and education opportunities."
"We believe our destinations should be sustainably designed," Bayley said. "That idea goes beyond simply protecting the ecological features of Lelepa and includes showing respect for the people and traditions that make this a special place."
Perfect Day at Lelepa will have a different look and feel from Royal Caribbean's wildly popular Perfect Day at CocoCay "because our guests around the world all have different definitions for their perfect day — and all of them are right. Our designers and nature have created the ideal South Pacific experience and we expect the results will be stunning."
Royal Caribbean's website indicates the new private island will open sometime in 2022.
We hope everyone reading this is having a wonderful Sunday and enjoying some time this weekend with friends, family and some good food too. There was a lot of Royal Caribbean news this week, and we have summarized all up into one easy-to-read blog post for your convenience!
Royal Caribbean revealed its fifth Oasis Class ship will be named Wonder of the Seas and it will sail from Shanghai, China.
Under construction in Saint-Nazaire, France, Wonder of the Seas will be the next ship in Royal Caribbean's lineup of innovative ships. She will debut in 2021 as the world's largest cruise ship and the first of the renowned Oasis Class to sail the Asia Pacific.
More information on Wonder’s itineraries and brand-new adventures will be announced soon.
Helping friends take a Royal Caribbean cruise is always a great pleasue, and on this week's podcast, Sheri and her family just went on Harmony of the Seas for their first Oasis Class experience.
Sheri shares what her first Royal Caribbean cruise in quite a few years was like on this week’s episode.
Please feel free to subscribe via iTunes or RSS, and head over to rate and review the podcast on iTunes if you can! We’d appreciate it
One of the best ways to learn about what sort of events a cruise ship offers is to consult a past Royal Caribbean Cruise Compass. Here is a look at recent Cruise Compasses we have added.
Have you subscribed to the Royal Caribbean Blog YouTube Channel? We share some great videos there regularly, all about taking a Royal Caribbean cruise! This week, we are sharing our latest video — Why you NEVER want to buy a drink package on a Royal Caribbean ship — and don’t forget to subscribe here.
Cruise Tips TV shared a video if the Thrill Waterpark Cabana is worth it.
Eyewitness News reported that Royal Caribbean crew, staff and volunteers have served almost 600,000 meals for the people of Grand Bahama.
HospitalityNet wrote about how Royal Caribbean pricing tactics are utilizing AI.