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 announced today it will sell Legend of the Seas to Thomson Cruises in the spring of 2017.

Legend of the Seas first entered service with Royal Caribbean in 1995. The 69,130-gross-registered-tons ship carries 1,832 guests (double occupancy) and 726 crew.

"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 Double-Double and our objective of moderate capacity growth."

Legend of the Seas' final sailing will be on March 13, 2017, with the officers and crew remaining with Royal Caribbean.

The current round trip Brisbane, Australia sailings departing on January 6, 15, 29 and February 8 will operate as scheduled.

All scheduled sailings from February 20, 2017 onward will be canceled.  This includes the summer season cruises from Venice, Italy as well as the balance of the Brisbane itineraries.

A series of three repositioning cruises will be offered beginning on February 20 from Brisbane.  This will include an 11-night sailing from Brisbane to Singapore, as well as a 10-night cruise from Singapore to Dubai and a 13-night sailing from Dubai to Barcelona.

To accommodate guests booked on the affected sailings, Royal Caribbean will provide vacationers with a full refund of their cruise fare, the opportunity to re-book on another Royal Caribbean ship as well as an onboard credit to use during the newly booked sailing. In addition, vacationers who purchased airfare through Royal Caribbean will receive a full refund. Guests purchasing their own airfare will be given a refund for their airline change fee. All refund transactions will be automatically processed back to the original form of payment within four to six weeks. Commissions for travel agents will be protected for all cruises that are fully paid.

Guests requesting more information are asked to contact Royal Caribbean International’s customer service team at 1-800-256-6649 or their travel agent.

We love looking at beautiful Royal Caribbean photos and today we have a handful of great ones to share.

Photographer Rob Starling shared these great shots of four different Royal Caribbean ships coming and leaving Port Everglades, Florida.

Liberty of the Seas

Legend of the Seas

Allure of the Seas

Allure of the Seas

Allure of the Seas

Independence of the Seas

All photos copyright Rob Starling.

Royal Caribbean announced due to the progress of Tropical Cyclone Ula, the planned itinerary for Legend of the Seas will have be changed.

The cyclone has required Royal Caribbean to alter Legend of the Seas current 11 night South Pacific cruise, which, departed Brisbane on December 30, 2015.

Instead of calling at Lautoka and Suva in Fiji, the cruise will now call on January 6 at Champagne Bay, Vanuatu.

Royal Caribbean's decision to cancel the calls in Fiji is centered around the safety of guests and crew and to avoid the path of the storm.

All pre-booked Royal Caribbean Fiji shore excursions will be refunded as a result of this change.

Royal Caribbean's Legend of the Seas will be based out of Brisbane, Australia for the next five months as she begins offering service in the area for the summer cruise season.

Legend of the Seas arrived at Brisbane’s Portside Wharf yesterday.

With her time there, about 30,000 passengers will arrive and depart on Legend of the Seas while in Brisbane, and is expected to pump $20 million in to the Queensland economy.

Legend of the Seas' first cruise was a three-day cruise and will offer other cruises to the South Pacific, Queensland coast and New Zealand.

Royal Caribbean’s regional vice president Gavin Smith commented on the arrival of Legend of the Seas, "Southeast Queensland is our second biggest market in Australia and lots of our passengers were flying down to Sydney from Queensland anyway."

Royal Caribbean is celebrating the arrival of Legend of the Seas to Australia with a new contest, where guests can enter to win a 2-night getaway cruise on Legend of the Seas.

The grand prize is a 2 night sampler cruise for two people in a Balcony stateroom on Legend of the Seas departing Brisbane on 8 December 2015.

Part of the contest asks entrants in 25 words or less, to nominate a legend in their life and tell Royal Caribbean what makes them legendary.

The contest is only open to Australian residents aged 18 years or over. Submissions are open beginning Wednesday 23 September 2015 and closes at 11:59PM AEST on Sunday 11 October 2015.

Entrants are limited to one (1) per person in accordance with the entry requirements. 

Five lucky winners will be selected and the winner's names will be posted to the Royal Caribbean Australia and New Zealand Facebook Page at www.facebook.com/RCIAustraliaandNZ.

Royal Caribbean's Legend of the Seas has returned to her homeport of Singapore, where she will begin her autumn 2015 cruise season with three- to 14-night cruises in Southeast Asia.

Legend of the Seas had previously homeported in the region between 2008 and 2013.  

She will offer cruises ranging between three- and 14-night sailings, that will take her to 19 ports in 10 countries.  Guests will be able to visit countries such as Vietnam, Brunei, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Australia, Indonesia, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Legend of the Seas’ itineraries include a three-night voyage to Penang and Kuala Lumpur, a five-night cruise to Bangkok and Koh Samui, a 10-night cruise to Koh Samui, Bangkok, Sihanoukville,Nha Trang and Ho Chi Minh City, a 10-night one-way cruise to Koh Samui, Bangkok, Sihanoukville, Ho Chi Minh City, Nha Trang, Danang and Hong Kong, a 10-night one-way cruise from Hong Kong to Taipei, Manila, Boracay, Puerto Princesa, Kota Kinabalu, Bandar Seri Begawan and Singapore, and a 14-night one-way cruise to Kuala Lumpur, Langkawi, Phuket,Bali, Lombok, Broome, Geraldton and Perth.

Legend of the Seas will leave Singapore in November 2015, to move to Australia for the winter cruise season.

The Centers for Disease Control is reporting Royal Caribbean's Legend of the Seas experienced an outbreak of gastrointestinal sickness that affected 114 passengers and 2 crew members.

Those affected by the sickness experience symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea.

Legend of the Seas is currently on a two week cruise that started on March 30 and continues until April 14, 2015.

Cruise lines are required to report the total number of gastrointestinal cases, with online updates posted when they account for more than 3 percent of passengers and crew.  The outbreak on Legend of the Seas is affecting 6.53% of the passengers and 0.27% of the crew.

Royal Caribbean is undertaking direction from the CDC to inhibit the sickness and prevent further outbreaks, including increasing cleaning and disinfection procedures making announcements to notify onboard passengers and crew of the outbreak, encourage case reporting, and encourage good hand hygiene.

Once Legend of the Seas returns to San Diego, CA, Royal Caribbean will provide additional cleaning crew to complete a thorough public and accommodation super-sanitization cleaning and disinfection, plan staged disembarkation for active cases to limit the opportunity of illness transmission to well guests, and plan for sanitation of terminal and transport infection control procedures.

Royal Caribbean released the cruise itineraries for Legend of the Seas' Singapore season from June to November 2015.

Legend of the Seas is returning to Singapore after being homeported there from 2008 to 2013 and will offer a variety of three- to 10-night itineraries to destinations throughout Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Brunei, the Philippines, Hong Kong and Taiwan till November, as follows:

• A 3-night cruise during the June school holidays that will call at Penang and Kuala Lumpur (Port Klang)
• A 3-night cruise and 5-night cruise over the September school holidays that visit Penang, Kuala Lumpur (Port Klang), Bangkok (Laem Chabang) and Ko Samui
• Two 10-night cruises to Ko Samui, Bangkok (Laem Chabang) (overnight), Sihanoukville, Nha Trang and Ho Chi Minh City (Phu My)
• Three 10-night one-way cruises to Ko Samui, Bangkok (Laem Chabang), Sihanoukville, Ho Chi Minh City (Phu My), Nha Trang, Hue/Danang (Chan May) and Hong Kong
• Two 10-night one-way cruises from Hong Kong to Taipei (Keelung), Manila, Boracay, Puerto Princesa, Kota Kinabalu. Bandar Seri Begawan (Muara) and Singapore.

There's also two consecutive 14-night itineraries in September, a southbound sailing from Singapore to Perth (Fremantle), Australia that will call at Kuala Lumpur (Port Klang), Langkawi, Phuket, Bali (Benoa), Lombok, Broome and Geraldton, followed by a northbound return to Singapore with the same ports-of-call.  

Royal Caribbean will send Legend of the Seas to Brisbane, Australia for five months in 2015 through 2016.

Legend of the Seas will offer cruises throughout Southeast Asia.  She will start out in Singapore in summer season and then move to Brisbane for the winter.

Legend of the Seas will join Mariner of the Seas, Voyager of the Seas and Radiance of the Seas while in Australia.  

​The move is aimed at addressing the growing demand for cruises in the Australian cruise market.  This will be part of the largest deployment ever for Royal Caribbean to Australia.

Legend of the Seas 2015-2016 Southeast Asia and Australia cruises will go on sale May 21, 2014.