In the United Kingdom, Royal Caribbean is trying to make pricing a cruise easier for its customers. Royal Caribbean will now adopt a "what you see is what you get" approach to pricing its cruises in an attempt to foster earlier bookings.

Mark Walter, Head of field sales for Royal Caribbean, thinks this move is a step in the right direction, "he new ‘what you see is what you get’ campaign from Royal Caribbean International marks a step-change in the promotion of cruising.  All the prices and campaign elements are aimed towards making it easy for first-timer cruisers who will be comparing a holiday at sea with traditional land resorts options. We’ve scraped the traditional cruise jargon and focused on the incredible value that a cruise represents."

While the Brilliance of the Seas was coming to Alexandria, faced extreme weather conditions as strong waves and winds of 70 knots, about twice what was previously forecast. The combination of winds and waves resulted in the ship suffered intense movements.

Injuries were reported in some guests, two of whom suffered serious fractures. The medical facility on board is functioning optimally, and our medical team is diligently attending to the guests involved.

The intense movement of the boat damaged some public areas and caused blackouts in some rooms. Cosmetic damage inside the ship have caused the closing of three public places for the rest of the trip: the beauty salon, the arcade and disco. There was no impact on operating systems or engines, and the vessel maintains its full navigation capability.
Due to inclement weather, the Brilliance of the Seas could not get in Alexandria, going to the next harbor, Valetta, Malta, which will arrive next Tuesday at 7:00 am The ship completed its journey in Barcelona, Spain , on Friday as is scheduled. The subsequent cruises were carried out as scheduled, the ship will not need to go into dry dock, and are already making repairs.

As a gesture of goodwill, and to thank guests Brilliance of the Seas for your understanding during this difficult time, Royal Caribbean International has provided a shipboard credit and a refund of the fee paid for the trip

Royal Caribbean known to have been a terrifying experience for guests and crew, and our officers on board the Brilliance of the Seas will make every effort to ensure that the rest of the journey as pleasant as possible.

The Brilliance of the Seas is conducting a 12-night itinerary departing from Barcelona, Spain, with visits to ports in Sicily (Palermo), Italy, Athens (Piraeus) and Rhodes, Greece, Alexandria, Egypt and Valletta, Malta.  

Royal Caribbean Chairman Richard Fain is trying to learn to surf again at the fourth annual "Chairman's Challenge" aboard the Flowride Surf Simulator.

Allure of the Seas, Royal Caribbean's newest ship, utilizes an extensive network of security networks for both public areas and even some not-so-public regions.  Allure and its sister ship Oasis of the Seas, use more than 300 Oncam IP 360° 5-megapixel cameras. Many of these cameras are positioned in public areas of the ship that have multiple entrances, enabling simultaneous monitoring of all those entrances.

"A well-designed video surveillance system is an important tool for the safety and protection of everyone," said James Ionson, CEO, Oncam Global Inc. "It provides invaluable assistance to security personnel in resolving incidents, such as helping to identify a noise in the engine room, responding to passenger medical emergencies and determining liability issues, for just a few examples. With the right information, they can appropriately react."

The benefit of these cameras is it can do what traditional security cameras could not.  One camera in the ceiling in a hallway with elevators on both sides can be monitored at the same time along with the traffic in the hallway.  One of these Oncam IP 360° cameras replaces four traditional CCTV cameras.

In addition to Oasis and Allure, Royal Caribbean has been retrofitting these new security cameras into the security system of older cruise ships since 2006.

Royal Caribbean is reporting travel agents and consumers in Australia have become more familiar with the Royal Caribbean brand in recent time, but there are still challenges ahead as the cruise line looks to gain an even larger share of the cruise market down under.

Royal Caribbean Cruises managing director, Gavin Smith, said the increased capacity planned over the next 12 months, including the return of Celebrity Cruises and the debut of Radiance of the Seas, will coincide with Royal Caribbean putting on more field sales staff to drive its message home to agents.

Just how far has Royal Caribbean come?  One year ago, there were about 40,000 beds available but today that number is closer to 100,000 beds to sell.

Helping increase the inventory is Radiance of the Seas, which features 50% of its cabins having a balcony, which is important to the Australian cruise market.  Gavin Smith cites that Americans and British cruisers that go to Australia demand the balconies.

Royal Caribbean's Monarch of the Seas rescued six people adrift at sea on a raft during a recent cruise.

Monarch of the Seas was on its way out of the Bahamas when a passenger onboard the ship spotted the raft near Freeport, Bahamas.  The Coast Guard reports that the rescued people on the raft did not appear to have any life-threatening issues.  Officials estimate the group of six was floating for 15 days, but there was no way to know exactly how long.

Investigators said they think the people on the raft are migrants from Cuba. If they are, officials said the group will be sent back to their country.

The Palm Beach Post posted an overview of the newly launched Allure of the Seas and here are some highlights.

Overall, the ship exudes an air of elegance, without being stuffy.

While the suites are lavish as you might expect, the rooms for the mere mortals among us are pretty good, too. Tastefully appointed, they feature the latest technology, including flat-screen TVs and iPod docking stations. They do a remarkable job of maximizing the space with shelves, cabinets and cubbyholes for all your belongings.

Imagine exiting an elevator in the middle of a cruise ship and walking out into the bright sunshine amid thousands of trees and plants, complete with chirping birds and upscale restaurants. It's called Central Park, and, like its New York namesake, it's the perfect place to rest and unwind amid walls of plants five decks high.

According to Royal Caribbean CEO Adam Goldstein, Royal Caribbean will begin adding cabins for single cruisers to some of its older ships.

"We are going to be revitalizing our older ships such as Radiance of the Seas and Grandeur of the Seas, and so we will have opportunity to create spaces for single travelers then. It is definitely something that we are looking at.”

For those looking to get a single cabin on a newer ship, such as Allure of the Seas or Oasis of the Seas, you're going to have to keep waiting as Goldstein mentioned these and other newer Royal Caribbean ships will not receive this update.

So why the change? Royal Caribbean is considering adding single cabins because of the increased demand from people who travel alone. Most ships are designed with cabins for 2 or more people; single travelers have to pay a single more if they want to go on a cruise.

During Allure of the Seas' naming ceremony on Sunday, none other than Dreamworks' famed character Princess Fiona (from the Shrek films) was named the godmother.

“It’s never easy choosing the right godmother, but we realized we had the perfect candidate right in front of us. Princess Fiona is not only a Royal, but we felt such a unique ship deserved a unique godmother and Princess Fiona symbolizes the fun and entertainment that is so extraordinary on Allure of the Seas,” said Richard Fain, Chairman and CEO.

The decision to have Fiona be the godmother is another part of the tightly knit deal between Royal Caribbean and Dreamworks to integrate the characters into the ships of the Royal Caribbean fleet.

The naming ceremony also included a bagpipe-and-drums procession, the U.S. national anthem performed by Broadway star MiG Ayesa and a scene from Allure's Blue Planet aerial show. The event culminated with the traditional breaking of a Champagne bottle featuring a label created by pop artist Romero Britto, who has a gallery on the ship. The bottle breaking was activated by a karate chop by Princess Fiona.

Royal Caribbean CEO Adam Goldstein, speaking to Travel Weekly on Allure of the Seas's debut, says that the performance of the United Kingdom market is now a vital factor in the overall success of Royal Caribbean.

“The market must come through for us on these types of initiatives.  It’s not like 25 years ago when we were interested in the UK but in the final analysis the US performance would determine the company’s performance. We are now reliant on the UK to perform overall. When you must perform for the company to perform it’s a very different environment that it just being something nice to talk about."

Royal Caribbean will become the biggest cruise ship operator in Europe in 2011, in terms of the number of beds available.  Royal Caribbean will pass Italian-style Carnival brand Costa Cruises.  Royal Caribbean believes the international nature of its product is unrivalled and it will soon have 50% of guests sourced outside of the core US cruise market from 40 different nationalities.

“Royal Caribbean’s versatility is unmatched in the world of cruising. Anywhere we go with our 22 ships, it’s identifiably a Royal Caribbean experience and only we are able to flex our product so consumers of all nationalities are really pleased by what they are experiencing,” said Goldstein.