Royal Caribbean Blog

Winding along walkways and climbing up two living walls, the 12,000 plants and trees are undeniably the stars of Harmony of the Seas’ Central Park. But hidden below is an intricate system of irrigation, fertilization, lighting and drainage that keeps the foliage green and beautiful. In partnership with the park’s horticulturalists, a team of engineers maintains the steel decks that house the plants, and the lighting and speaker systems that create the unmatched tropical ambiance at the heart of the world’s largest cruise ship.

We ran across a new batch of Symphony of the Seas construction photos that were recently posted that show off the progress the ship is making.

Kudos to Saint Nazaire, une ville à la mer for sharing these photos with us. Merci!

© Hervé GLAIS

Royal Caribbean's Legend of the Seas departed on March 13th for her last ever sailing under Royal Caribbean colors.

Photo by CruiseArabiaOnline

Legend of the Seas was launched in 1996, and has sailed more than 600 cruise itineraries and is the most-travelled ship in the Royal Caribbean fleet.

During her career she has been based in Asia, Australia and New Zealand, the South Pacific, Alaska, Central America, Caribbean, the Baltic, Mediterranean and the Middle East. No other Royal Caribbean ship has been so widely deployed.

Legend of the Seas will be handed over to TUI Group’s Thomson Cruises subsidiary after her arrival in Barcelona in two weeks.

"Since its inaugural sailing, Legend of the Seas has created many wonderful memories for hundreds of thousands of guests, and we expect this successful history to continue as she transitions to Thomson Cruises," said Richard D. Fain, chairman and chief executive officer of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.  "While she will be missed, her transition supports our objective of moderate capacity growth."

Photo by CruiseArabiaOnline

Legend of the Seas is scheduled to depart Dubai Cruise Terminal at 8pm, with events planned on-board to mark her last ever sailing under Royal Caribbean colors.

“The fact that she is sailing from Dubai on this last ever cruise speaks to the importance of the city as a new global cruise destination,” a spokesperson for Royal Caribbean said.

Legend of the Seas was in port in Dubai at the same time as her fleet mate and sister ship Vision of the Seas, which is currently homeporting in Dubai for the 2016/17 cruise season.

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. has been recognized as a 2017 World's Most Ethical Company® by the Ethisphere Institute. This is the second year in a row Royal Caribbean has been recognized in the Lodging, Leisure and Recreation industry, underscoring their commitment to leading ethical business standards and practices.

"I am extremely pleased that Ethisphere has again recognized Royal Caribbean as one of the World's Most Ethical Companies," said Richard D. Fain, Chairman and CEO, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. "At Royal Caribbean, ethical leadership is an important part of our worldview. We value this honor and we intend to continue following our mantra of continuous improvement."

The World's Most Ethical Company assessment is based upon the Ethisphere Institute's Ethics Quotient® (EQ) framework which offers a quantitative way to assess a company's performance in an objective, consistent and standardized way. The information collected provides a comprehensive sampling of definitive criteria of core competencies, rather than all aspects of corporate governance, risk, sustainability, compliance and ethics.

Scores are generated in five key categories: ethics and compliance program (35%), corporate citizenship and responsibility (20%), culture of ethics (20%), governance (15%) and leadership, innovation and reputation (10%) and provided to all companies who participate in the process.

We have spotted a new feature in Royal Caribbean's Cruise Planner that allows guests to use their onboard credit prior to their sailing for various packages, upgrades and services.

This functionality will go live on five ships beginning March 13, 2017 for all voyages on or after April 1, 2017. The first applicable sailing for each ship is:

• Harmony of the Seas: 4/1/17
• Allure of the Seas: 4/2/17
• Anthem of the Seas: 4/2/17
• Liberty of the Seas: 4/2/17
• Oasis of the Seas: 4/2/17

Guests that have been awarded Promotional onboard credit will be able to log in to Cruise Planner prior to the sail date of their booked cruise and see their available Promotional onboard credit in US$ where the booking was priced in US$. For all other currency bookings, Promotional OBC will be converted from US$ into the same currency as the cruise booking that gave rise to the award of Promotional OBC (“Available Spend”).

Available Spend may be used to purchase shore excursions, dining, beverage packages, internet packages, spa & fitness services, entertainment activities and any future ancillary products / services available for purchase in advance of your cruise via Cruise Planner.

If you choose to cancel any purchase made via Cruise Planner, any relevant amount of Promotional OBC released by such cancelation will be credited back to your Cruise Planner account to be used as Available Spend.  In the event the purchase was in part funded by cash (via a credit card, debit card, or other form of cash equivalent payments then the applicable amount will be credited back to the original form of payment within 30 days.

Any residual Available Spend at the cut-off date for making purchases via Cruise Planner will be automatically converted back to US$ for spend onboard your booked cruise.

Happy Daylight Savings Time! No one enjoys losing an hour of sleep, so we will make you feel better with a round-up of all of this week's Royal Caribbean news.

The big, big, big news of this week was Royal Caribbean's announcement of its newest cruise ship, Symphony of the Seas.

Royal Caribbean revealed the name of its fourth Oasis Class ship, along with the nearly big news that Symphony of the Seas and Allure of the Seas will homeport at the brand new Terminal A in PortMiami. 

Royal Caribbean also put its 2018-2019 Symphony of the Seas sailings on sale to the public, adding to another very busy week of Symphony of the Seas news.

Royal Caribbean News

• Royal Caribbean announced a large expansion at CocoCay.
• Royal Caribbean broke ground on its new PortMiami cruise terminal.
• Five things to be excited about that will be different on Symphony of the Seas.
• Royal Caribbean celebrated a sustainable shore excursion milestone.
• Bolidt will provide glow-in-the-dark lighting for Harmony of the Seas and Symphony of the Seas.
• A look at the Barefoot Beach cabanas in Labadee.
• Royal Caribbean signed a new deal with Singapore Tourism Board to grow the fly-cruise market.
• Our photo tour of a Family Panoramic Stateroom on Freedom of the Seas.
• Chops Grille is now open on Adventure of the Seas.

Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast

The 188th episode of the Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast is now available, and we are sharing packing tips for a cruise.

In this episode, Matt asked packing expert, Sheri, to share some of her strategies for leaner packing before a cruise.  Overpacking is a common pitfall for cruisers, new and old, so this episode aims to help everyone bring less in their suitcases.

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

Royal Caribbean Around the Internet

Eat Sleep Cruise has 10 tips for using your smartphone on a cruise ship.

Royal Caribbean featured a foodie blogger's favorite way to travel.

Cruise Hive has top 3 Royal Caribbean ships for shore excursions.

There are many staterooms to choose from on Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas, and today we have a look at category PF Family Panoramic Ocean View Stateroom. This photo tour will take you through the cabin to provide an idea of what to expect if you were to book this stateroom.

On Freedom of the Seas, Royal Caribbean Blog readers Jeanne and Alan Fulton shared these photos from their recent cruise. This is from room 1804, which is all the way forward on deck 12.

The Family Panoramic Ocean View Stateroom Description: Family Panoramic Oceanview staterooms feature floor-to-ceiling wrap-around windows. These rooms measure 406 square feet in size.

They have two twin beds that convert to a Royal King-sized bed, extra closet space.

Each Family Panoramic Ocean View stateroom has a vanity and sitting area.

There is a curtained area with two bunk beds, and a guest half bathroom.

The Category PF staterooms have a private bathroom with shower.

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd and 70 operators are celebrating the completion of a multi-year program aimed at increasing the number of sustainable tours available to the company’s five million annual guests.

Royal Caribbean's Save the Waves program has been an important part of the company's drive to raise awareness among its guests by designating tours whose operators have been verified to have adopted policies that align with international standards for sustainability developed by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) for tour operators.

RCL worked with Sustainable Travel International to develop the Sustainable Tourism Education Program’s (STEP) Sustainable Shore Excursion Standard, a subset of criteria and indicators from the GSTC standard selected by STI as being applicable to cruise tourism shore excursions.  The SSE standard is designed to help identify providers who offer high-quality shore excursions that also support local communities and conserve the environment.

Sustainable shore excursions are more than just nature tours – they encompass a broader category that includes tours that responsibly manage environmental impacts, preserve local history and cultures, protect the rights and resources of the local community and have properly trained employees committed to quality service.

The Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) represents a diverse and global membership, including UN agencies, leading travel companies, hotels, country tourism boards, tour operators, individuals and communities – all striving to achieve best practices in sustainable tourism.  

Happy Friday and welcome to the start of another great weekend! Each week, we celebrate the beginning of the weekend with our readers' favorite Royal Caribbean photos that they submitted.  These are fun shots of ships, ports, cabins and sunsets, and it helps put us in the "cruise mood", even if we have no cruise in our future.  

Our first photo this week is from Ken, and it is of Freedom of the Seas anchored in a bay.  It is a great wide-shot of this fabulous ship.

Next, is a photo by Becky Bowen of enjoying breakfast from the comfort of her balcony.  She took this photo on Allure of the Seas and I have to agree that this is a really fun way to enjoy a meal while on a cruise.

Check out this sunset photo that David Berenbaum took from his cabin on Rhapsody of the Seas going under the Tampa Bay Sunshine Skyway Bridge.  Just beautiful!

Joseph Daisley shared this photo of Anthem of the Seas in St. Maarten.  I often forget that the Quantum class ships have that light blue hull color, and it looks great in this photo.

Nick Martini captured this photo of a rainbow, as seen from an AquaTheater suite on Oasis of the Seas.  That is one heck of a view to enjoy on a cruise!

We move to Liberty of the Seas for this photo by Matt Meyers. Not only does he have a great first name, but got a very creative shot looking down a few decks.

Our final photo this week is by Thomas Lemmer, and it is of Quantum of the Seas in Hamburg, Germany from back in 2014.  Wunderbar!

Thanks to everyone who sent in photos this week! If you would like to share your Royal Caribbean photos with us, be sure to use this form to send them and we will consider them for a future Friday Photos post!

Royal Caribbean is offering guests up to $100 per stateroom in onboard spending money on cruises booked this weekend, on top of the current 30% off all guests offer.

Qualifying sailings booked between March 10-13, 2017 will recieve up to $100 in onboard credit during the Seek and Save Weekend Sale. Offer applies to sailings on or after April 9, 2017 and includes

• 30% off the standard cruise fare for all guests in a stateroom
• Onboard credit
  • Sailings 5-nights or less
    • Interior or oceanview room: $25 onboard credit
    • Balcony and Suite: $50 onboard credit
  • Sailings 6-nights or less
    • Interior or oceanview room: $50 onboard credit
    • Balcony and Suite: $100 onboard credit
• Bonus savings for Anthem of the Seas sailings departing on or after April 2, 2017
  • Sailings 5 nights or less
    • Interior and oceanview rooms: $25 off per stateroom
    • Balcony: $50 off per stateroom
    • Suites: $75 off per suite
  • Sailings 6 nights or longer
    • Interior and oceanview rooms: $50 off per stateroom
    • Balcony: $75 off per stateroom
    • Suites: $100 off per stateroom

30% Savings is combinable with adjoining OBC, Additional Anthem Dollars Off, Crown & Anchor discounts, NextCruise offers and Shareholder Benefits. OBC and Additional Anthem Dollars Off are not combinable with Crown & Anchor discounts and Shareholder Benefi ts. 30% Savings, OBC and Additional Anthem Dollars Off are not combinable with any other offer or promotion, including but not limited to, restricted rates (for example, Seniors, Residents, and Military), Standard Group, Interline, Travel Agent, Travel Agent Friends and Family, Weekly Sales Events, and Net Rates.

Offer available to residents of United States and Canada.