AAA Travel honored Royal Caribbean with two awards this year, "Ocean Cruise Partner of the Year" and "Best Travel Agent Support."

The award which recognizes a company’s commitment to providing AAA travel agents and members with exemplary travel services and products.

At a conference in La Quinta, California, the awards were presented to Royal Caribbean.

Vicki Freed, senior vice president of Sales, Trade Support and Service for Royal Caribbean International, accepted the award and spoke about its impact, "It is a great honor to be chosen by AAA Travel as Ocean Cruise Partner of the year for the third year in a row. We are very proud of this recognition and thank AAA Travel for their ongoing support to help us deliver our unique experience to adventurous vacationers."

Royal Caribbean is offering a new Weekend WOW sale this weekend, where guests can save 30% off every guest plus enjoy up to $50 onboard credit.

The amount of onboard credit a guest will receive depends on their stateroom category

• Interior & Ocean view staterooms: $25 per stateroom
• Balcony and suite staterooms: $50 per stateroom

The Weekend WOW sale is valid on cruises booked October 30 - November 1, 2015 and applies to sailings departing on or after December 1, 2015 - March 31, 2016, excluding China departures.

Offer is combinable with current standard/full fare rates, restricted rates (for example, Seniors, Residents, Military, BOGO, Upgrade offers), and Next Cruise offers. Offer is not combinable with any other offer or promotion. 

Royal Caribbean's Explorer of the Seas is on her way to Australia, but along the way made her first stop ever in India.

Explorer of the Seas stopped in Goa on October 27, 2015 and in Cochin on October 28, 2015.

At both stops, she was welcomed by the local port officials and Royal Caribbean’s Indian representatives.

An official plaque and key ceremony was conducted onboard between Captain Kjetil Gjerstad and Sri. Senthilvel, deputy chairman of Cochin Port. This is Royal Caribbean’s third ship to visit India this year, following Rhapsody of the Seas and Quantum of the Seas.

Explorer of the Seas is currently on an 11-Night Middle East and Asia Cruise which started from Dubai and will also visit Penang and Port Klang before ending in Singapore.

Royal Caribbean's fourth Oasis class cruise ship had her keel layed today at a ceremony at the STX France shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, France.

The keel-laying marks the official start of construction for Royal Caribbean's unnamed fourth Oasis class ship.

During the ceremony, a 1,000-ton block measuring 32-ft by 154-ft (10 x 47 meters) was lifted by crane into the building dock. Newly minted coins were placed under the keel and will stay in place there until the end of the ship’s construction.

Once the ship is near to completion, the coins are retrieved and presented to the ship’s Captain and crew to be placed onboard the ship. According to maritime tradition, the coins are said to bring luck to the ship during its construction process and then to its Captain and crew when she is sailing out at sea.

Special thanks to Lloyd Marchand from the Oasis 4 Facebook group for providing these photos.

The fourth Oasis class ship is scheduled for delivery in spring 2018.

Royal Caribbean has been adding digital wayfinders to their cruise ships since they were first introduced on Oasis of the Seas, but recently, they have gotten a software upgrade that gives them much more functionality.

Royal Caribbean's digital wayfinders are interactive kiosks found in the elevator lobbies of most ships. It offers guests access to what is happening on the ship, directions to anywhere on the ship and even restaurant information.

Recently, Royal Caribbean upgraded the software for these wayfinders to allow guests to locate any ship in Royal Caribbean's fleet, read more information about the officers and more.

When using the wayfinders, guests can choose from a variety of options.

The "Ship Locator" is one of the new links, that will give guests a look at the location of every ship in the fleet.

In fact, the Ship Locator will also show the location of sister company ships, such as Celebrity Cruise and Azamara Club Cruise ships.

Guests can also look up information on the officers onboard their Royal Caribbean ship and learn more about each one of them.

Big thanks to Royal Caribbean Blog reader Rich Freudenberg for providing these photos!

In addition, the wayfinders feature a Port Explorer feature, which highlights the itinerary you are on and allows guests to explore the port from a Google Maps experience

These new features were first introduced on Quantum of the Seas, and will also be available on Harmony of the Seas and Ovations of the Seas.

Royal Caribbean is adding a lot of new things to its third Oasis class cruise ship, Harmony of the Seas, and one particular addition is sure to be very popular with the kids.

Harmony of the Seas will be the first ship to feature the Luckey Climber play area, located at the end of the Boardwalk.

Luckey Climber is a brand of rather large clibming structures that are surrounded by a net, designed for kids to jump on and explore.

These innovative playgrounds are part art and part jungle gym that feature some very bold colors.

Based on the concept art rendering that Royal Caribbean has published, it looks like Harmony of the Seas will receive the Luckey Climber "paper clip climber" model that was used at a children's museum in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Photo by Luckey Climbers, LLC

From the looks of it, Luckey Climber ought to be a great spot for kids of many ages to hop in and engage in the kind of climbing all kids love, while their parents enjoy a milk shake from Johnny Rockets and watch the fun ensue!

Do you think your kids will want to climb the Luckey Climber? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Our newest podcast episode is out to help give you a quick "audio escape" to a Royal Caribbean cruise!

Episode 117 is available for downloading where we have an in-depth comparisson of Royal Caribbean versus Carnival Cruise Line.

Anna Blake is back from her first Royal Caribbean cruise aboard Independence of the Seas, and this week, we are we're comparing the two cruise line experiences and seeing which line does better in various aspects of the cruise experience.

Here’s the podcast page for Episode 117. And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast via RSS, Stitcher or on iTunes!

Take a listen and as always, let us know what you think! Please rate and review the podcast on iTunes and leave your comments below!

This is a bit of a break from the typical Royal Caribbean news but something important I wanted to bring up.

For a long time, Royal Caribbean Blog readers have asked me one question, "How can I help the site?"

Starting today, there is a new way you can personally help Royal Caribbean Blog become more helpful and informative, the Royal Caribbean Blog Insiders.

I've also been thinking about how to improve the site for everyone and it comes back to a dream I have for the blog.  My dream is simple: Produce interesting and helpful Royal Caribbean content consistently that people want to read and share.  And I would love to do it much more than I currently am able to do it.

To that end, I have lots of ideas for new exciting and informative information for this site but I need your help.

Through your support, we can continue growing Royal Caribbean Blog and bring you the kind of intriguing and useful content many of you have come to expect every day.

This is a purely voluntary action to take and I know how tough things are for everyone these days.  If it's not in the cards right now to help out financially, keep doing what you're doing here by visiting this site and being a part of our community.

But if you can, there are a number of contribution levels you can join at and along with your assistance, there are some fun rewards for being a member of the Royal Caribbean Blog Insiders.

Becoming a member of the Royal Caribbean Blog Insiders is completely up to you and you can cancel at any time. No questions asked! 

Take a look and consider if becoming an Insider is right for you: https://www.patreon.com/RoyalCaribbeanBlog

Thank you

Matt

Royal Caribbean kicked off today a special 72-hour sale on Anthem of the Seas cruises, where staterooms begin at just $699 per person and guests can get $100 to spend onboard when booking a balcony or suite.

Guests that book a balcony or suite stateroom on Anthem of the Seas for sailings that depart between January 1 and March 31, 2016 will qualify for a $100 bonus onboard credit.

This 72-hour Anthem of the Seas sale runs between October 27 and 29, 2015.

This offer is combinable with restricted rates (for example, Seniors, Residents, Military, 30% Savings) as well as NextCruise offers. OBC offer is not combinable with Crown & Anchor discounts and Shareholder Benefits.

Offer open to residents of the United States or Canada. 

Take a look behind the scenes at the progress of the construction of the world's largest ship! Harmony of the Seas will build upon guest favorites of the Oasis class of ships with even more fun and exciting firsts in store for guests when she debuts in 2016.