In connection with the release of "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted",  Royal Caribbean is offering a content to sail with Alex, Gloria, King Julien and the Penguins on select ships featuring the DreamWorks Experience offered exclusively on Royal Caribbean.

You can visit Facebook.com/RoyalCaribbean to enter the contest through June 20 for your chance to win the "Madagascar at Sea" sweepstakes.  The two grand prizes are a seven-night cruise for four to Europe or the Caribbean, while one daily winner will earn a $25 gift card for correctly answering trivia about the cruise line and the “Madagascar” franchise.

To celebrate the release of “Madagascar 3” Royal Caribbean ships featuring the DreamWorks Experience, Allure of the Seas, Oasis of the Seas, Freedom of the Seas and Liberty of the Seas, will host special screenings of the movie in 3D throughout the summer, plus offer exclusive content – including movie trailers and behind the scenes videos – as well as the chance to win prizes, such as movie posters, DVDs, character photos and more during daily trivia and other onboard activities.

Since launching Royal Caribbean Australia and New Zealand's Facebook page in April, they've received 10,000 likes and the company rewarded one lucky fan with a dream cruise.

Sheree Oakes of Glenmore Park has won a cruise aboard Voyager of the Seas' inaugural cruise when she arrives in Sydney this November.  Sheree was announced the winner of the ‘Share, Like and Win’ competition which asked fans to list their top three cruising destinations - she listed Europe, Alaska and Bahamas as top of her list.

“I’m so excited about this cruise, and I usually never win anything! I recently went on a cruise on Radiance of the Seas and now I tell all of my friends to cruise with Royal Caribbean. When you go on a cruise everything is there, it’s all done for you, so there’s no rushing and you get some real time to rest and relax.”   

Royal Caribbean is welcoming 90 students from colleges across the United States to begin Royal Caribbean's annual summer internship program called, "Emerging Leaders".  The program considered 1,300 applicants and ultimately chose a few of them to participate in the program through July 27.  Emerging Leaders allows students the opportunity to apply key concepts learned in the classroom within a fast-paced, invigorating corporate environment.

Martine Pasquet, Royal Caribbean's Director of Human Resources commented on the nature of the internship, "The interest in our Emerging Leaders program is a clear testament to our reputation as an employer of choice, the success of our prior years’ internship programs, and our management team’s interest in taking the time to coach and mentor this next generation of leaders.  Having these highly talented students here enables us to gain fresh insights into some of our challenges, and also allows us to identify a future talent pool.”

The Emerging Leaders internship began in 2008 and this year's program has expanded to include two branch programs: the Bacardi USA Partnership and the Posse Foundation Partnership.

The Bacardi USA/Royal Caribbean partnership will allow eight University of Miami MBA students to be selected to experience business from two different company and industry perspectives during the summer program and will have the opportunity to work directly with many of Royal Caribbean's senior leaders.

With the Posse Foundation, one of the most comprehensive college access and youth leadership development programs in the U.S., Royal Caribbean will partner to help Posse Scholars and Alumni transition from being leaders on campus to being leaders in the workforce. 

At Royal Caribbean's annual shareholder meeting, executives said it expects a few more not-so-great months before business turns around.

The impact of the deadly Costa Concorida disaster are still rumbling through the cruise industry and Royal Caribbean is not immune to it.  Royal Caribbean chief financial officer Brian Rice said future booking volumes have been off since the Concordia shipwreck back on January 13.

Rice expects Royal Caribbean to feel the greatest impact from the crash in the second and third quarters of 2012 but 2013 looks to be "healthy".  Rice also cited other negative influences such as consumer spending, economic instability in Europe, fuel costs and the company's debt.

On the positive side of things, Royal Caribbean's global reach, customer engagement and a moderate pace of growth and fuel hedging are contributing to help the company's stock price.

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 is sending Mariner of the Seas to China in 2013 to join sister ship Voyager of the Seas that was already going to the Far East.  Together, Royal Caribbean will be able to offer cruises to Southeast Asia, Japan and South Korea.

Mariner of the Seas will arrive in China in June 2013 and offer a number of itineraries from 3 to 12 nights.  The addition of Mariner of the Seas will offer additional capacity to a Chinese cruise market that is growing quickly.  Mariner will also adopt the same product customizations that Voyager of the Seas made to adapt to the Chinese marketing, such as Chinese-style menus, enhanced retail and entertainment offerings and language services.

To get to China, the ship will depart the Caribbean in April and head to Singapore and onto China via Dubai and the Suez Canal.

Royal Caribbean CEO Adam Goldstein commented on the move, "2012 is for our company the year of China."

“We see Asia in general and China in particular as a major strategic objective for our company,” Royal Caribbean chairman Richard Fain said. “China has proven to be a very special market.”

Royal Caribbean senior vice president of marketing Betsy O'Rourke has decided to resign from Royal Caribbean.

Royal Caribbean confirmed the resignation and said O'Rourke's last day on the job will be May 25, 2012.  The company has no immediate plans for a successor.

O'Rourke had the job since 2009 and reported to Royal Caribbean CEO Adam Goldstein.  Her role with the company had been overseeing Royal Caribbean's overall marketing program including brand strategy and positioning, consumer and trade advertising, web and loyalty marketing, research, brand development and communications.

Royal Caribbean announced it will send just nine ships to Europe in 2013, down from 12 ships this year.  Weak bookings in Europe have contributed to Royal Caribbean's decision to reduce its presence there.

The nine ships will offer 276 cruises over 58 itineraries in 2013.  

A third of the ships going to Europe in 2013 will sail out of the United Kingdom, including Independence of the Seas, Adventure of the Seas and Brilliance of the Seas.  The ships will offer cruises to the Baltics, Mediterranean and Canary Islands.  A report from the Passenger Shipping Association shows that more than 40% of British passengers choose to being their cruise from a UK port.

In addition, Legend of the Seas will offer seven-night western Mediterranean itineraries out of Genoa, Italy and visiting Provence (Marseilles), France; and Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, and Valencia, Spain.

Vision of the Seas will alternate seven-night Norwegian cruise to the North Sea and offer cruises to visit the Norwegian Fjords, Russia and other northern European destinations.

Navigator of the Seas will offer seven-night eastern Mediterranean and Greek isle cruises.  Serenade of the Seas will offer 12-night Mediterranean and Greek isle cruises.  Splendour of the Seas will serve the Adriatic sea and Greek isles.  And finally, Liberty of the Seas will offer a selection of five- and seven-night Western Mediterranean cruises from Barcelona.

Royal Caribbean has released their schedule of cruises to the Caribbean for 2013-2014 and are now open for bookings.

Royal Caribbean is planning cruises for Oasis of the Seas, Allure of the Seas, Independence of the Seas, Freedom of the Seas, Navigator of the Seas and Serenade of the Seas to bring a total of 140 sailings across 31 itineraries what will make stops at 20 different ports.

New to the schedule will be cruises out of New Orleans, Lousiana aboard Serenade of the Seas.  The first cruise out of the Big Easy will be a 9-night Caribbean cruise on December 12, 2013 that will stop at Key West, Nassau, Labadee & Ocho Rios.  Following that cruise, Serenade will alternate between 7-night cruises to the Bahamas and Western Caribbean.

It will be business as usual for Oasis and Allure of the seas.  They will continue their popular 7-night western and eastern Caribbean cruises out of Port Everglades, Florida.

Also calling Port Everglades home will be Independence of the Seas, who will offer 6-night cruises to the western and eastern Caribbean.

Freedom of the Seas will continue to operate out of Port Canaveral, Florida and alternate between 7-night eastern and western sailings.  

Finally, Navigator of the Seas will debut in Galveston, Texas with two western Caribbean cruises.  Both are 7-night sailings and one itinerary calling at Falmouth, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel, while the other at Roatan (Honduras), Belize City (Belize) and Cozumel.

Royal Caribbean general manager of Royal Caribbean Italy,  John Rotondo, spoke about the future of Royal Caribbean and Sicily as Royal Caribbean debuted in port their today.

"We will increase our presence in the region.  By adding Catania programming we want to intensify our presence in Sicily and we are confident that its strategic position will allow cruise passengers to visit a territory rich in priceless beauty."

"The whole region has great potential and we are sure will play an increasingly significant role in strategic planning and Royal Caribbean in the Mediterranean".