Royal Caribbean had decided to move its Serenade and Adventure of the Seas ships out from San Juan, Puerto Rico in favor of Europe as part of a business decision to chase higher revenue and that move has some in Puerto Rico worried about the relevance of the cruise industry to the island.

The executive director of the Tourism Company, Mario Gonzalez Lafuente, said that Puerto Rico remains a major cruise port and denied that the relocation of two ships represents a crisis for the industry in the country.

He said that the information circulated earlier this week and Tourism had advance. "It's a business decision that has taken the company Royal Caribbean to do this next year."

He said that both ships will return to Puerto Rico for the high tourist season in the winter of that year, which covers the months of November to May.

He added that other Royal Caribbean ships, which he identified as the Freedom of the Seas and Navigator of the Seas will continue their regular visits to San Juan and are not affected by the above decision.

According to Gonzalez, returning or coming for the first time to Puerto Rico the following cruise ships: · Carnival Dream, · Celebrity Silhoette, MSC Poesia, Norweigan Sun, P & O Artemis, Grand Princess, Azamara Journey, Freedom of the Seas, Navigator of the Seas the Disney Fantasy, which is scheduled to start their visits in late 2012.

According to statistics from the Florida Caribbean Cruise Association, last year 2010, nearly 15 million passengers took cruises in the Caribbean, an activity that generated over $ 2.200 billion in revenue for the region.

Royal Caribbean has reportedly begun searching for an ad agency to handle its $40 million to $60 million global media business, with a focus on its business in the United States and Canada.

This decision to find a media-only company is a change from the last time Royal Caribbean conducted a search in 2007, when the cruise giant selected Mindshare and JWT.  Word is that this new decision does not effect Royal Caribbean's relationship with JWT, the cruise line's creative agency.

Royal Caribbean spent about $72 million on United States measured media in 2010 and 2009 across all of its cruise brands, according to Kantar Media.

Royal Caribbean's Splendour of the Seas could not dock in Piraeus, Greece as a result of the continuing strike among taxi drivers in Athens, Greece.  

Instead, Splendour of the Seas made a stop in Heraklion, Crete after making a port call in Chania, Greece.

Splendour is the second Royal Caribbean ship in a row not able to dock in Piraeus after Voyager of the Seas skipped the port on Monday.

Royal Caribbean's headquarters will remain in Miami, Florida until at least 2021 under the terms of an agreement approved Tuesday by the Miami-Dade County Commission.

Rent for Royal Caribbean in August 2015 will go to $3.8 million per year for the three building complex.  Miami deputy port director Juan Kuryla characterizes the price as "far below market value" but the deal will keep Royal Caribbean in the area for the foreseeable future.

The new agreement is good for ten years and includes clauses for two five-year renewals.

In addition, the port of Miami will be obligated to make $850,000 worth of repairs to the three buildings over the next couple years.  In addition, both Royal Caribbean and the Port of Miami will make $6 million in improvements to Terminal G. Miami-Dade county will pay $3.5 million and Royal Caribbean will pay $2.5 million.

What does this get Miami?  Royal Caribbean guarantees to bring in at least 325,000 passengers a year at Terminal G, a figure that is lower than years past. However, if Royal Caribbean reaches 375,000 passengers, Royal Caribbean is entitled to a discount on port fees that increases with every additional 50,000 passengers.

One of the most debated topics when it comes to Royal Caribbean is where it decides to deploy its fleet.  Royal Caribbean's CEO Adam Goldstein shared some insight into the process of determining where and why its cruise ships are sent for any given season.

The process begins with the group of people whose job it is to figure it all out.  Adam Goldstein is joined by Royal Caribbean's Director of Deployment and Itinerary Planning Chris Allen and Royal Caribbean's VP of Corporate Planning Jason Liberty.  Both of their teams coordinate with Adam to figure out the best plan of action.  

Allen's team identifies the right place for each ship on each day of each year as well as understanding the economics (i.e., profitability) of every decision Royal Caribbean make with their fleet.  Meanwhile Liberty's group evaluates ship profitability from its own perspective.

Goldstein summarized the 2012 fleet deployment as follows

• 11 ships in Europe
• 2 ships in Asia
• 2 ships in Alaska
• 2 ships in the Northeast U.S
• 2 ships in the Bahamas
• 3 ships in the Caribbean

Adam did concede a mistake Royal Caribbean made when it announced Voyager of the Seas deployment to China, specifically not preparing customers who had booked Voyager of the Seas previously as well as their travel agents.  Adam promises a mistake like this will not happen again.

Royal Caribbean opened its representative office in France on July 1st and has now appointed its executive committee.

Frédéric Martinez is in charge of three brands of Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Cruises Club, while the Management Committee is composed of

• Rohiba Deloubriere, Sales Manager
• Anne Mulachy, Marketing Director
• Claudio Contrada, Director of Operations
• Valerie Nobis, Chief Pricing and Revenue Management
• Marcel Winter, Chief Financial Officer
• Elsa Vincent, Director of Human Resources

In 2012, Royal Caribbean will offer new cruises from four French ports: Marseille, Toulon, Le Havre and Pointe- à-Pitre.

Royal Caribbean was forced to cancel stops at Piraeus, Greece (Piraeus is the cruise port that serves Athens) yesterday and today because striking taxi drivers blockaded the port, preventing passengers from getting to their tours.

Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas was due to stop in Piraeus on Monday.  Royal Caribbean had hoped to arrange transportation to the Athens Metro for its guests who wanted to see Athens on their own, but a Royal Caribbean spokeswoman cited, “When the ship arrived, the taxi drivers were blocking the entrance/exit to the port. Because of this, guests could not get off the ship and so had a day at sea.”

The good news is the strike is due to end at 5am tomorrow, in time to allow Splendour of the Seas and Navigator of the Seas to dock.

Royal Caribbean's LCD wayfinder system, developed by Four Winds Interactive, has won three awards for technological excellence from the Digital Screenmedia Association and Hospitality Technology magazine.

The LCD wayfinders were first installed on Royal Caribbean's Oasis and Allure of the Seas ships but have been rolled out to other ships in the Royal Caribbean fleet since. The wayfinders are interactive screens that enables customers, guests and employees to find their way around the ship using a touch-screen display. FWi designs and implements the software that makes these self-service kiosks work.

Digital Screenmedia Association recognized FWi’s work with Royal Caribbean for two of its awards: The 2011 Screenmedia Integration Award and the 2011 Industry Excellence Award for Best Travel/Hospitality Deployment – Digital Signage. The Screenmedia Integration Award is one of the top three annual awards bestowed by DSA.

The Digital Screenmedia Association was impressed by the system, describing it as, “highly intuitive, yet complex passenger-facing communication network onboard Royal Caribbean’s newest, most technologically advanced cruise ships, Oasis and Allure of the Seas.”

In addition, Hospitality Technology awarded Royal Caribbean's wayfinder system in the magazine's annual Visionary Awards for outstanding vision and achievement in delivering technological excellence. Hospitality Technology described the wayfinder system as a “network of digital signage displays and touchscreens that enable guests to obtain directions, gauge real-time dining options, learn about the day’s events and activities, and find answers to common questions.”

After growing 20% annually over the past ten years and reaching a level of 800,000 tourists per year, the pace of cruise expansion in Brazil is expected to encounter a sharp slowdown in the 2011-2012 season.

The estimated expansion in the supply of beds is only 1.6%. The main reason is the infrastructure deficiencies in Brazilian ports, which have no more room for receiving large ships. Given this scenario, the will mark the  first time a cruise season will have fewer vessels than the last.

Industry executives say that the trend, if the port infrastructure remains the same, the industry is to rearrange its size, because it may have grown more than the capacity of ports includes . 'The sector's growth will curb. There is no investment in ports. The system is at the limit, "says the president of the Association of Marine Cruises (open), Ricardo Amaral, also director-general of the Royal Caribbean in Brazil.

Cruise passenger traffic is up for Royal Caribbean at Port Canaveral, Florida.  The amount of passengers for Royal Caribbean's ships based out of Port Canaveral is up 1 percent for the year at nearly 360,000.

This figure is slightly skewed when you consider the fact that Royal Caribbean ships have made nine more voyages out of the port so far this year.  Royal Caribbean has matched competitor Carnival Cruise Lines in replacing smaller ships with larger ones at Port Canaveral during the past two years.

Royal Caribbean currently home ports Freedom of the Seas and Monarch of the Seas out of Port Canaveral for year round trips. 

Port officials also report total cruise revenue is up year to date about 19 percent.