About 9,000 Romanians will travel this year on cruise ships worldwide, up significantly from a year earlier, when they were about 8,000 tourists. This translates to an estimated spending spree on cruises of over 8 million euros, versus 6.5 million last year, "said Nicholas Demetriade, World Travel travel agency owner.

According to Nicholas Demetriade, World Travel travel agency owner, the increase is due to large cruise ships that Royal Caribeann introduced to destinations in Europe, and the launch of he world's largest ship, Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas, with a capacity of 5400 passengers and 3,000 crew members.

On two vessels, launched two years ago, last year during ​​more than 100 Romanian holidays, Romains spent an average of 1000-1200 euros. Those in charge of cruise tourism say this has always been on an upward trend, not only in Romania but throughout the world. The proof is the large number of ships launched every year, becoming larger and with more features. John Base, croaziere.net company owner, said the most expensive holiday sold last year was a combination of three cruises to the torque, which lasted two months and cost 60,000 euros. 

If you've been cruising for a little bit of time, you probably remember a time when during the safety drills having to wear your lifejackets on your way to your station.  But Royal Caribbean has done away with the life jackets after confirming with the United States Coast Guard that a demonstration of how to use a lifejacket is all that's needed and actually wearing a life jacket is up to the cruise line.

Royal Caribbean's director of Maritime Safety & Compliance Christiaan Van Raalten discusses the change, “We started with the idea that if guests can proceed directly to their assembly stations without having to go back to their cabins to collect their lifejackets, it would greatly reduce congestion and help guests reach their assembly station much quicker.  We also were able to decrease the amount of time it takes to conduct a muster-drill".

Once Royal Caribbean stopped forcing guests to wear the lifejackets to the must-drills, other cruise lines including Celebrity, Carnival, Holland America and Norwegian followed along.

Bermuda’s Brazilian Football School and Bermuda’s Sports Management Group have formed a partnership called Soccer@Sea thanks to an agreement with Royal Caribbean.  The Soccer@Sea group board Royal Caribbean ships where they train to better their soccer skills as well as play local teams 5-a-side games and beach soccer tournaments.

Soccer@Sea founders Steve & Karen Everitt are excited for the group to begin, “We will be bringing teams of soccer players to Bermuda on Royal Caribbean Cruise Ships to play local teams. This will give all the kids a taste of international soccer. Also with us will be international soccer coaches giving Bermuda’s local players the opportunity to meet and talk with them about soccer in other parts of the world".

Royal Caribbean's Ocean Fund is partnering with the Central Caribbean Marine Institute (CCMI), the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation and the Image Group to create a reference site never attempted before where the correlation between climate change and coral reef stress can be measured directly.

This new group is being headed up by Dr. Carrie Manfrino, an  Associate Professor of Oceanography at Kean University and CCMIs Director of Research and Conservation.

The study is setting out to determine the exact effect of rising temperatures and sea levels have on the stress coral reefs experience and if it is beyond sustainability.

The hope is the data collected will give scientists a better idea of the immediate effects of the changes on the coral reefs as well as help reef managers understand these threats so that they can more effectively conserve coral reefs and their associated flora and fauna.

Royal Caribbean discussed some of its environmental policies with the Sun Sentinel to help show their committment to reducing Royal Caribbean's environmental "foot print".

Royal Caribbean claims its cold storage room aboard Oasis of the Seas is the largest cold storage room of any ship in the world.  The cold storage room can be used to store many of the recycled items on the ship, such as hazardous waste, incinerator ash and cooking oil.

In addition, Royal Caribbean installed new photo kiosks to reduce paper waste from photos that were never purchased.  Royal Caribbean's Associate Vice President of Environmental Programs thinks the kiosks make sense, "Being environmentally-friendly is good business and every organization should strive to cut the amount of waste in their business".

Oasis of the Seas is also equipped with an advanced hull design with ecological coatings that reduce the water resistance of the ship, which has an effect of reducing the amoung of fuel needed.  Oasis also has an advanced energy management system to conserve power usage, and thin-film solar panels on its top deck.

Modern hull designs can result in up to 15 percent energy savings and ecological hull coatings up to five percent, according to the Fort Lauderdale-based trade group Cruise Lines International Association.

Pruitt said the Oasis is about 25 percent more energy-efficient than older ships in Royal Caribbean's fleet.

Given rumors that two Royal Caribbean ships would stop at Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico's executive tourism director, Mario Gonzalez Lafuente, said Puerto Rico will remain a major destination for cruise ships and the two mentioned above, the Adventure of the Seas and Serenade of the Seas relocated its operations to Europe for 26 weeks, but will return to local ports between November 2011 and May 2012.

 "It's a business decision that Royal Caribbean took, but it means a drop in activity," said the official, who announced that new vessels arrive in the country such as the Azamara Journey, the Carnival Dream and Disney Fantasy.

He added that the Freedom of the Seas and Navigator of the Seas will continue their regular visits to San Juan and were not affected by the above decision. While recognizing that the growing demand in other ports worldwide, as the Mediterranean and Asia, affected the Caribbean.

comScore, Inc, a company that measures Internet statistics, released its monthly analysis of web activity in the United States at the top online properties for June 2011 based on data from the comScore Media Metrix service.  Summer seems to have propelled the Travel category of websites as several Travel subcategories ranked among the top-gainers in June.

Within the surge came 116 million people visiting the Travel category in June, a record for the category, and of particular interest is the Ground/Cruise sites saw the strongest gains, up 14 percent to nearly 13.5 million visitors.

1. Amtrak.com 2.6 million visitors (up 14 percent)
2. FirstGroup plc 2.2 million (up 22 percent
3. Carnival Cruise Lines 1.5 million visitors (up 9 percent)
4. Royal Caribbean 1.1 million visitors (up 19 percent)

"Summer getaways were clearly top-of-mind for many Americans in June, sending millions of people to hotel, cruise, car rental and travel agent sites," said Jeff Hackett, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix. "And with school letting out for the summer, parents turned to the web to shop for ways to keep their kids active with sporting goods and other fun activities."

At the first stop of Genoa, Italy, Mariner of the Seas, flagship of Royal Caribbean in Italy, was presented the new programs of the Society of Genoa and the Italian market. "The first departure is tomorrow and the ship is full, "explains Lina Mazzucco, general manager of Royal Caribbean Italy, "When I joined the company spent only from Genoa, but this year we will do the next 7 loadings and even 14".

"In the port there have been many interventions to allow their ships like ours to have access and we are very pleased," continues Mazzucco , "Our goal is not only to bring Americans and other foreign tourists in Italy and Genoa, but also French and German just to embark from the port of Genoa. We are already working on that. "

The regional governor in Italy, Claudio Burlando, has proposed today better synergy between Genoa and Savona on the arrival of cruise passengers.  

"The collaboration with Royal Caribbean is very important, since it is a group among the largest in the world with next to Carnival and MSC, which incidentally is growing very well," said the president, during the first arrival in Genoa of Mariner of the Seas, flagship of Royal Caribbean in Italy.

"Last year, we met with Royal Caribbean officials on a cruise, and from there began a relationship that has led to increased calls. Next year we will already be at 60,000 passengers, so a number of all respect, then it may be that collaboration is being extended to become a customer and Caribbean ports of Liguria. And who knows not form a relationship with the company for construction at this time are the thorn in our side. It 'obvious that if we found a new party prepared to build here, the situation would change profoundly. "

Royal Caribbean has already bet on the port of Genoa to grab a share of the Maritime Station, the company that operates the passenger traffic. "When he left Genoa to Savona Coast had 500 to 600 000 cruise passengers in 2012 we will have as many 1 million in Savona and Genoa. It is about four times as much - still Burlando - The huge amount of passengers waiting to Savona places a high level of importance and necessity, more than double its terminals, while Genoa opened the new west pier, and you start works for the Ponte Parodi ".

"The movement hotel in Liguria attendance records 10 million and 3 million arrivals, with average attendance of 3 days - is the reflection of the regional governor - If we consider only to cruise passengers who arrive in Genoa, which this year will be 1 million and 800 thousand, it is a stream that does not deviate much from the classic hotel network users. This means that the cruise is a very valuable way to raise awareness of Liguria and should prompt us to promote a more articulate and attentive host, adapted to the needs of cruise passengers who decide to leave here because they want to spend a part of the journey. We can have a closer relationship with these people in Genoa tourism next year will have 2 million people. "

The number of cruisers in the port of Malaga in Spain has grown 33 percent in the first half of 2011 compared to the same period last year, doubling the average growth for the rest of the Mediterranean. Specifically, a total of 243,794 passengers have passed through Malaga, compared to 182,927 in 2010.

Specifically, the average cruise passenger was of 2,050, up from 900 in 2010 as "fundamentally" the commitment of the Royal Caribbean in Malaga, "without doubt the largest cruise company in the world," although, however, Linde has stated that the rise in the number of vessels has not been "spectacular", a three per cent. During this period, eight ships have docked for the first time in the port, two more than last year.

Linde has pointed out to reporters that in addition to Royal Caribbean, there are more companies interested in Malaga port, but stressed that it is "the big client hoped to achieve with the opening of the second phase of the Sea."

Thus, Malaga is positioned at number 13 of the European rankings, with figures very close to the ports of Marseille (France) and Copenhagen (Denmark), as highlighted on Thursday during a press conference the president of the Port Authority Malaga Enrique Linde, who has called the balance sheet "in almost all traffic very positive."