Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas entered Victoria Habour earlier today in Hong Kong for the final time this cruise season.
From July to October this year, Voyager of the Seas has seen nearly 70,000 guests enjoy cruising on her during this season.
Voyager of the Seas will return for another season in Hong Kong in 2016.
The only feeling that can come close to the pure enjoyment of taking a Royal Caribbean cruise is probably booking another Royal Caribbean cruise. Royal Caribbean offers guests a great program known as NextCruise to book future Royal Caribbean cruises while onboard a cruise yourself. In terms of benefits, it is one of the best deals guests can enjoy and this week, we will go over the details of the NextCruise program and why you should consider booking another cruise while onboard a cruise.
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Royal Caribbean's private island of CocoCay is very popular with guests and on your next visit there, it may be slightly different than you remember.
Royal Caribbean Blog reader Sean McLellan recently visited CocoCay over the weekend and sent us a report of some noticable changes.
The "cabanettes" that are available to rent now have a new name
Excursions desk indicates that they are now called "Beach Loungers" and it now runs just under $50 for 2 people for 2 big bottles of water, a fruit plate and towels.
In the past, Royal Caribbean has provided a shuttle that is pulled by a tractor to get guests to help with the long distance walk involved.
There are now some new trams availabe to take guests.
Sean notes these new trams, "run quieter, a tad smoother, and taller so there's less chance of bonking your head on the way out. Oh, the driver gets a little fan."
Previously, the tram ran on a path south of the nature trail that went past the island's barracks and ended up east of the Cabanettes.
There's now an entirely new tram path that is "shorter" according to the tram driver, which has newly been created that runs north of the nature trail and ends up east of the Cabanettes.
There's some big piles of sand marking the terminus that look new.
A new fresh water shower has been added to Barefoot Beach.
Sean indicated it is, "a nice addition that is just north of the Barefoot Beach Cabanettes/Beach Lounger bar".
For the past year or longer an outhouse has been stationed on the previous tram route that is about a 2 minute walk from the cabanettes.
Sean's tram driver indicated that there are immediate plans to construct a restroom facility at the cabanettes, which would be a highly welcome change.
Royal Caribbean's soon to debut Harmony of the Seas will offer two new short cruise sailings out of Southampton, England.
PortsOfCall.co.uk spotted a three and four day cruise out of Southampton that will take place just before the official inaugural cruise.
There is a 4-night cruise on May 22, 2016 to Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Prices start at $469 per person.
The other cruise is a 3-night cruise to Cherbourg, France. Prices start at $399 per person.
Both of these cruises are just before the official inaugural cruises in June 2016.
If you are a fellow sushi lover, then you will feel right at home at Royal Caribbean's premier sushi restaurant Izumi.
The next time you make a reservation at Izumi, be sure to consider these fun and tasty aspects of the restaurant that are worth trying!
Some of the best things in life are free and when you eat at Izumi, you will get a great starter for no additional cost.
Izumi currently offers complimentary edamame (a preparation of baby soybeans in the pod boiled in water together salt, and served whole).
Not only is this a tasty choice for starting your meal off right, but they are priced right too!
Eating sushi is an experience and if you like a little show with your meal, try eating at the sushi bar.
Sitting at the sushi bar will get you a front row seat to the sushi chefs creating their masterpieces.
And let me tell you, making sushi is no pedestrian task. Sushi is as much an art form as it is a kind of food and watching sushi being made is really entertaining!
If you consider yourself a sushi fanatic, then you will need to flip your menu over to the signature roll section.
The signature rolls often are larger and offer superior flavor than the other rolls on the menu. It really is the best offering Izumi has.
In addition, be sure to inquire if there are any sushi specials. From time to time, Izumi will offer certain rolls that are not on the regular menu and these special rolls can be terrific choices too.
In addition to just sushi, select Royal Caribbean ships offer teppanyaki style dining at the restaurant's hibachi section.
Izumi's hibachi is a fun and creative experience, where your chef cooks your food in front of you with a splash of entertainment thrown in.
Hibachi dining is a great way for family and groups to enjoy a meal together and if you want to have a memorable dining experience .
The hibachi meals have a cover charge of $25 for one choice of meat, or $30 two choice of meat. Choices include Beef, Chicken, Lobster or Shrimp.
Each meal includes soup or salad, edamame app, fried rice or lo mein noodles, cooked veggies and dessert.
Whether you eat sushi or not, no trip to Izumi is complete without an order of hot rocks.
Hot rock (Ishiyaki) plates are rocks that are heated to 575 degrees °F, where guests take raw meat and vegetables and cook them on the rock, right at your table.
This ultimate-self serve meal is a really fun way to enjoy a Japanese delicacy. Each plate comes with lemon ginger vinaigrette, sweet soy sauce and Thai sweet chili dipping sauces.
Guests have the choice of mixed seafood, chicken breast, chicken and beef skewer rock or beef tenderloin.
The hot rocks are perfect for those that do not enjoy sushi necessarily or just someone looking to try something different!
We get a lot of questions on the blog, and a common question is about what to do if the dining choice for dinner that a guest wants is not available.
Sometimes a guest will book a Royal Caribbean cruise, but discover that a particular traditional dinner seating is not available. Or perhaps My Time Dining is booked up. Is there any chance to change it?
The answer is, there are two strategies to use when trying to get into the dining option you really wanted.
When a particular dining option gets filled up, Royal Caribbean will allow guests to be added to a waitlist.
These waitlists are virtual queues, where if another guest leaves that dining option for some reason (usually due to cancelling or transferring their cruise reservation), the next guest "in line" can take their spot.
To be added to a waitlist, you need to contact either Royal Caribbean directly or have your travel agent do it on your behalf.
Once you are added to the waitlist, you should see a notation on your reservation in the My Cruises section of Royal Caribbean's web site.
In many cases, the waitlist will eventually come through and you will be automatically added to the dining option of your choice You will likely not be notified of the change, so you will have to log in periodically to your cruise reservation to see if something has changed.
Sometimes, the waitlist option does not work and your next best option is to go speak to the head waiter on embarkation day.
Once you board your Royal Caribbean cruise, go to the main dining room in the afternoon to speak to the head waiter.
There should be a head waiter on duty in the main dining room for a few hours in the afternoon.
Politely explain your request to the head waiter and ask if there is a way to be moved to the dining option you prefer.
In our experience, this fallback usually gets the job done. Royal Caribbean wants their guests happy and the head waiters have a good sense of the guest dinner distribution.
Royal Caribbean says once you are in one of the dinner options, you are primarily limited to it.
The policy does state they can honor requests to change only once based on availability.
Read more: My Time Dining versus Traditional Dining
Check out these other helpful posts about dining on a Royal Caribbean cruise!
Hopefully one of these two choices will get you the dining preference you really want!
Sit back and catch up on this week's Royal Caribbean news. We've gone through and hand-picked some fun articles for you to take a look at in case you missed any of it.
Royal Caribbean released all the Liberty of the Seas refurbishment details this week and there are some big changes coming.
First and foremost, Liberty of the Seas is getting new water slides, including the Perfect Storm slides that were first announced for Harmony of the Seas.
In addition, Liberty of the Seas will feature the first boomerang style waterslide at sea known as the Tidal Wave. We had first announced this type of slide coming to Liberty of the Seas back in August.
There are also lots of other changes coming to Liberty of thre Seas, such as new restaurants, staterooms and an adult-free aqua park.
The 114th episode of the Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast is now available and this week, we discuss the popular activities to do in St. Thomas.
In this episode, Matt and Scott talk about getting off your cruise in St. Thomas and go over the popular stops in St. Thomas and which excursions are worth checking out, including the nearby island of St. John.
Please feel free to subscribe via iTunes or RSS, and head over to rate and review the podcast on iTunes if you can! We’d appreciate it.
We're so excited to announce the next group cruise for readers and staff of RoyalCaribbeanBlog.com aboard Allure of the Seas! This is an exclusive group where we are inviting you, our readers, to join us on a fantastic Allure of the Seas sailing on an 7-night cruise to the Western Caribbean.
This Royal Caribbean Blog group cruise is all about enjoying a fun Royal Caribbean cruise along with other fans who are big fans of Royal Caribbean. Don't miss this opportunity to check out the amazing ship as well as be a part of exclusive events for those that book with our group!
For more details on booking the cruise, the itinerary and prices, check out the Royal Caribbean Blog group cruise page and if you have any questions, email me!
Royal Caribbean has a list of 7 tropical cocktails you need to try.
Healthiest100 lists Royal Caribbean in its list of the 100 healthiest workplaces in America.
Royal Caribbean revealed the details of its scheduled refurbishment for Liberty of the Seas that will take place during her month-long drydock in January 2016.
When Liberty of the Seas returns from her drydock in February 2016, she is going to get quite a lot of new aquatic based activities including:
Royal Caribbean had announced in July 2015 it would add a water slide to Liberty of the Seas.
The addition of Splashaway Bay and the Perfect Storm water slides are both features that were originally announced for Harmony of the Seas.
Royal Caribbean did a similar addition when it introduced new features to Navigator of the Seas during her refurbishment in advance of those same features being introduced later on Quantum of the Seas.
There will also be new restaurants added to Liberty of the Seas
Royal Caribbean is also adding 26 new Panoramic Ocean View staterooms, featuring floor-to-ceiling glass walls, providing guests with breathtaking, unobstructed views as well as an additional 53 staterooms throughout the ship.
Liberty of the Seas will sail seven-night Western Caribbean itineraries every Sunday from Galveston starting from November 2015 , visiting exciting warm weather getaways in the Caribbean including: Belize City, Belize; Cozumel, Mexico; Falmouth, Jamaica; George Town, Grand Cayman; Montego Bay, Jamaica; Puerto Costa Maya, Mexico; and Roatan, Honduras.
Are you excited for these new additions coming to Liberty of the Seas? Tell us in the comments!
Royal Caribbean will kick off a big new sale next week that offers 30% off all ships and nearly all sailings.
The new cruise deal runs between October 12 and November 9, 2015 and applies to all ships and sailings departing on or after November 12, 2015, with the exception of China departures.
Guests will get 30% off the standard cruise fore for all guests in a stateroom plus
The 30% off discount is applied to the standard cruise fare for all guests in a stateroom, including third and fourth passengers; No category restrictions. All other charges, including, but not limited to, taxes, fees and port expenses, are additional and apply to all guests.
This offer will apply to single guests paying 200% single supplement on eligible sailings.
This new sale is combinable with Future Cruise Certificates, Letters of Credit, NextCruise bookings and Crown & Anchor Society savings benefits.
The 30% Savings and AIR2SEA Offers are not combinable with restricted rates (for example, Seniors, Residents, Military). However, the OBC offers are combinable with 30% Savings and restricted rates (for example, Seniors, Residents, Military). All offers are not combinable with any other offer or promotion, including, but not limited to, Standard Group, Interline, Travel Agent, Travel Agent Friends and Family, weekly Sales Events, Net Rates, Crown & Anchor Discount programs or rates. Single occupancy guests paying 200% cruise fare are eligible for Offer.
In just about a month, Royal Caribbean's Anthem of the Seas will be arriving at her new homeport of Cape Liberty, New Jersey, and it will mark her debut in the United States.
Photo by Royal Caribbean
Anthem of the Seas' arrival stateside is a big deal because there will be a brand new cruise ship for guests to try out in one of the most populous parts of the country.
In anticipation for Anthem of the Seas' arrival, we are counting down the top reasons you ought to be excited to welcome Anthem of the Seas "home".
With Anthem of the Seas arrival in the New York City metro area, Anthem of the Seas will be the largest and most innovative ship ever to homeport in the New York region.
Folks living in the North East definitely hold themselves in high regard and having a significantly larger Royal Caribbean ship than ever before means there is a lot to enjoy about her.
Of course, this massive ship contains lots of WOWs onboard and there ought to be enough to enjoy on Anthem of the Seas to satisfy the Big Apple's appetite.
Onboard Anthem of the Seas, guests will find quite a variety of onboard activities, dining options and places to relax.
There is no way to fit them all into one post but here are the ones not to miss:
Few skylines are as easily recongizable and beloved as the New York City skyline, but you have to see it from over 300 feet above sea level!
North Star is Royal Caribbean's amazing observation capsule, that takes guests smoothly into the air to provide breathtaking views of New York City, the Statue of Liberty and the surrounding areas.
Once you see New York from North Star, it will give you a view of the area that you have never experienced before.
Dynamic Dining is not new to the United States but Royal Caribbean has introduced a new option to Dynamic Dining for those that want a more traditional dining experience.
Onboard Anthem of the Seas, guests can choose Dynamic Dining Classic if they prefer the traditional main dining style with the same dining time each night, with the same wait staff and dining companions throughout the cruise.
Guests will rotate through restaurants onboard the ship, giving them the Dynamic Dining experience coupled with the traditional dining memories they have enjoyed on past cruises.
Dynamic Dining Classic is available on a first come, first serve basis.
Photo by Miguelángel
Royal Caribbean designed Anthem of the Seas for longer itineraries and that means this new ship will take New Yorkers, New Jerseyians and Connecticitians to more exotic and beautiful destinations than ever before.
Anthem of the Seas will offer cruises to
Anthem of the Seas offers sailings that are 7-, 8-, 10- and 12-nights that are sure to meet the needs of all Royal Caribbean fans looking to get away.
Sailing from the northeast means no plane rides south required and more time onboard, enjoying the ambiance and views only a cruise ship can provide.
What are you most excited about to experience on Anthem of the Seas? Share your thoughts in the comments!