Royal Caribbean's Brilliance of the Seas has finished a $30 million drydock refurbishment that added a number of amenities first developed for Oasis-class cruise ships.

Brilliance of the Seas refurbishment added a lot to the ship, including doubling the amount of dining options onboard.  The new restaurants include the Italian trattoria, Giovanni’s Table, the exclusive multi-course Chef’s Table. Guests can expand their palettes at a multitude of other dining venues including Royal Caribbean’s signature Izumi Asian Cuisine, Park Café and Rita’s Cantina.

In addition, the five-story Centrum has been transformed into a spectacular new space featuring the Centrum experience, which includes the addition of the 60’s-inspired R Bar as well as a multitude of entertainment experiences including enriching daytime activities, dazzling nighttime entertainment and a new high-flying entertainment experience where aerialists glide through the vertical space of the atrium.

Royal Caribbean also added 

• Concierge Club for suite guests
• Diamond Club for Crown & Anchor Society loyalty program members
• A new English pub
• Royal Babies and Tots Nursery
• Wi-Fi access throughout the ship
• flat-panel televisions in all staterooms
• Outdoor LED movie screen on the pool deck
• interactive digital way-finding system

Brilliance of the Seas will be able to show off her new "toys" this summer when she begins sailing from Harwich, England.  Once there, Brilliance of the Seas will offer Northern European cruises to destinations such as Copenhagen, Denmark; Stockholm, Sweden and Helsinki, Finland.

The Port of Guadeloupe (PAG) opened its new cruise terminal at Pointe-à-Pitre this past Wednesday and celebrated with a ceremony that involved Royal Caribbean's Brilliance of the Seas.

Brilliance of the Seas' arrival launched the 2012-2013 cruise season for the Caribbean island.  

The ceremony was marked with a ribbon cutting ceremony by Thémine Gil, chairman of the Board of PAG, with its director general Laurent Martens present along with Brilliance of the Seas' Captain.

The new port terminal cost 1.4 million euros and the capacity of the terminal was increased to 2,000 peope with luggage space doubled and new better defined pedestrian paths created.  In addition other amenities were added including a bar and local crafts village.

The improved cruise terminal will hopefully improve tourist numbers for Guadeloupe.  Management expects its traffic to grow by 50% for the new seas, with more than 80 calls planned and Royal Caribbean is one of the companies calling upon the island.

Reports from passengers aboard Royal Caribbean's Jewel of the Seas are that due to Tropical Storm Leslie, Jewel of the Seas will not call on Newfoundland on Thursday.

The ship's captain indicated to passengers that Jewel of the Seas will go around the storm and go instead directly to Boston. Jewel of the Seas is making a trans-Atlantic crossing from Iceland.

In addition, Brilliance of the Seas is doing its part to avoid Leslie and will skip the Faroe Islands and proceed directly to Iceland.

These changes have not been formally announced by Royal Caribbean yet but the reports are coming from passengers aboard the respective ships.

Royal Caribbean's Brilliance of the Seas and Splendour of the Seas will make a total of 40 cruises throughout Europe, with 41 stops in the summer of 2013.

Brilliance of the Seas will depart out of Harwich, England to ports in Northern Europe and the Baltic Sea with 12 night itineraries.  Meanwhile, Splendour of he Seas will offer seven-night cruises to the Adriatic and Eastern Mediterranean out of Venice, Italy.

Brilliance of the Seas will begin its summer season on May 15, 2013 and will offer eight trips to and from Harwich to scales and in Copenhagen Stockholm, Helsinki, Tallinn, Gothenburg and St. Petersburg where it gets a night.

Splendour of the Seas, which was upgraded in November 2011 with new amenities from the Royal Advantage program, will start its summer season on May 5 with a six-night cruise from Barcelona to Venice with a stop in Marseille, Florence/Pisa and Rome (Civitavecchia).  The ship will offer four itineraries, two in the Greek islands, one in the Greek Islands and Turkey, and another in the Greek Islands and Croatia.

Royal Caribbean has said that Vision of the Seas will dock in Bergen, Norway and Brilliance of the Seas will dock in Flam, Norway this morning as planned, despite a strike by pilot boat skippers in Oslo.

The strike is expected to spread across Norway by Thursday.

Royal Caribbean spokeswoman Cynthia Martinez issued a statement regarding the situation, "Both ships are expected to depart their ports of call today as scheduled. However, we are currently preparing contingency plans in the event the strike continues and either ship is unable to make their next scheduled port of calls in Norway."

The strike comes at the peak of the Norwegian fjord sailing season and threatens to disrupt the tourists coming to see them.

Vision of the Seas is scheduled to call to Geiranger, Norway, on Thursday, May 31, then spend Friday, June 1, at sea and conclude its sailing in Oslo, Norway, on Saturday, June 2.

Brilliance of the Seas is scheduled to call to Bergen, Norway, on Thursday, May 31, spend Friday, June 1, at sea and conclude its sailing in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on Saturday, June 2.

Royal Caribbean will send Brilliance of the Seas to Tampa in 2013-2014, replacing Jewel of the Seas.

Brilliance of the Seas will offer four and five-night western Caribbean cruises with stops in Cozumel, the Cayman Islands and either Key West or George Town.

Prior to arriving in Tampa, Brilliance will enter drydock in May 2013 and be revitalized to give it a major refurbishment including New onboard dining and entertainment options, revitalized staterooms, and other amenities including Wi-Fi, digital way-finding systems and an outdoor LED video wall.

After Royal Caribbean refurbishes Brilliance of the Seas in the spring of 2013, it plans on sending her to the United Kingdom later that year.

Brilliance of the Seas will offer eight 12-night cruises to Northern Europe and the Baltic Sea out of Harwich, England starting May 15, 2013. These voyages will include stops at Copenhagen; Stockholm; Helsinki; Talinn, Estonia; Gothenburg, Sweden; and an overnight in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Brilliance of the Seas also will operate a single 11-night Norwegian Fjords and Iceland itinerary departing July 27, 2013 that will call at Bergen and Geiranger, Norway; Lerwick/Shetland, Scotland; Klaksvik, Faroe Islands; and Reykjavik, Iceland (for an overnight stop). The ship will be based in Harwich through Aug. 31, 2013, when it will depart for Boston on a 15-night itinerary that will include calls at Le Havre, France; Portland, Dorset, U.K.; Cork (Cobh) and Dublin, Ireland; Klaksvik; and Reykjavik.

Brilliance of the Seas is scheduled to spend the summer 2012 sailing to Northern Europe out of Copenhagen and Amsterdam. 

Royal Caribbean's Brilliance of the Seas arrived at New Mangalore, India today and is the first cruise vessel of 2012-13.

S. Gopalakrishna, Traffic Manager of New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT), said this is the largest cruise vessel ever handled at the port.

P. Tamilvanan, Chairman of NMPT, and the Traffic Manager, interacted with the Captain of the vessel. Dr Tamilvanan said that he got a good feedback on the world class facilities available at the cruise lounge, neat and tidy berth area, and immigration facility from the ship operators.

Thanks to an increased demand in the Persian Gulf region, Royal Caribbean has decided to extend its third consecutive season in the Gulf to six months.  This will run from November 2011 through April 2012 and will be the longest season ever for Royal Caribbean in the region.  

Cruises during this season will be comprised of 18 round trip 7-night sailings and two Dubai and India 12-nights sailings.  Brilliance will starts her 7-night itineraries in Dubai, then sail to Fujairah and dock in Muscat, where guests can enjoy an overnight stay in the port. Brilliance then continues with a sea day, via Abu Dhabi and then back to Dubai.

In addition, Royal Caribbean is the only cruise line in the region that will offer two new 12-night sailings that include stops in India.  Coming from Dubai, Brilliance of the Seas will spend three days at sea before stopping in Goa, New Mangalore and Cochin before docking in Muscat and then sailing back to Dubai.

Among Royal Caribbean's catalog of 2012/2013 cruises is one that will offer passengers a trip near the Arctic Circle.

These first voyages to the Arctic Circle can be found with the Brilliance of the Seas, which will make its debut in Northern Europe. Offers an assortment of Scandinavian cruises from Amsterdam and Copenhagen. In August 2012, the Vision of the Seas will be traveling in this trade. 

Does a cruise to the Arctic Circle sound interesting to you?