Merry Christmas! The holidays are here, and so is our weekly round up of this week's Royal Caribbean news.

There was a lot of Royal Caribbean news this week, but a majority of the headlines surrounded a shore excursion accident in Mexico for some guests from Serenade of the Seas.

At least 12 tourists died in the crash. Royal Caribbean has confirmed 27 cruise ship passengers were on the bus that suffered the accident, which were sailing on Serenade of the Seas and Celebrity Equinox.

The crash occurred as the bus was on its way to the ruins at Chacchoben, about 110 miles south of Tulum.

Royal Caribbean News

• We're hearing Royal Caribbean will raise its automatic gratuity rate.
• Independence of the Seas had a gastrointestinal virus that affected 332 passengers.
• Royal Caribbean shared new Symphony of the Seas construction photos.
• Check out these 7 surprising facts about Harmony of the Seas.
• The over the water cabanas at Labadee's Barefoot Beach are back.
• We answer the question of what time to get to your cruise port on embarkation day.
• Royal Caribbean won five awards at the 2017 Travel Weekly Readers Choice Awards.
• Shay Mitchell has a new Adventurist video to share this week.
• Royal Caribbean is planning to update its casino rewards program.
• Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. named a new Chief Information Officer.

Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast

The 229th episode of the Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast is now available and this week, we are sharing three wishes for Royal Caribbean.

On this episode, Matt and Billy make wishes for changes we would make if we had access to a genie (and opted not to wish for wealth and a long life).

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.

How you can support Royal Caribbean Blog

So many of our readers have reached out to us to ask how they can help the blog and we are introducing the Royal Caribbean Blog Insiders for just that reason.

The Insiders group is a way readers can contribute to Royal Caribbean Blog and help fuel some of the really amazing ideas, projects and new content that we have lined up.

As a way of saying thank you for your contribution, 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! 

As always, thank you for visiting Royal Caribbean Blog and being a part of our community!

Royal Caribbean Around the Internet

Daily Post is reporting Holyhead, England is considering building a new cruise berth to accomodate large cruise ships.

Skift is reporting on how cruise lines will keep trying to get your attention in 2018.

Eat Sleep Cruise shared 20 top family cruise tips.

Cruise Critic reported on Royal Caribbean's return to St. Maarten.

Shooting the Sea Breeze shared the different sanitation levels Royal Caribbean employs.

Royal Caribbean has just released new construction photos of Symphony of the Seas from the STX shipyard in France.

The ship is scheduled to be delivered in March 2018.

Royal Caribbean has replaced the Over The Water cabanas at Barefoot Beach on Labadee, following removing them due to hurricane damage.

RoyalCaribbeanBlog reader Twangster reports construction of the replacement cabanas completed two weeks ago.

The original cabanas were damaged by waves as Hurricane Irma passed by Labadee well off shore. The new cabanas have been fortified with rocks below them to reduce potential damage from waves in the future. No other notable damage occurred to Labadee from hurricanes this year.

With the new cabanas in place, all hurricane restoration at Labadee is complete and the suite exclusive Barefoot Beach remains as beautiful as it always has been.

Royal Caribbean will be raising its automatic daily gratuity amount that guests pay night of their cruise beginning on January 2, 2018.

Beginning January 2, 2018, guests will pay a $14.50 per guest per day service charge to each guest's SeaPass account on a daily basis. For guests in a Grand Suite or above, the amount is $17.50.

Prior to this change, the daily gratuity amount was $13.50 and $16.50. Royal Caribbean last increased their daily gratuity amount in May 2016.

If you have already prepaid your gratuities, you will be grandfathered into the current rates.  Should guests opt not to pay gratuities until onboard, they will be subject to the newly suggested gratuity amounts.

Guests currently booked that have not yet prepaid their gratuities will have until the time of sailing to do so at the old rate. After January 2nd, 2018, gratuities paid while onboard are subject to the new, increased rates. If not prepaid prior to sailing, the new gratuity rate will be automatically applied to your account onboard.

The change has already appeared on Royal Caribbean's UK and Japan sites.

Note: we used Google Translate to translate the Japanese site.

December 26 UPDATE: Royal Caribbean has confirmed the change in gratuity.  Royal Caribbean described the increase as, "Royal Caribbean is constantly reviewing our competitive environment and this adjustment positions us in-line with our competitors. The additional gratuity collected will be disbursed to our onboard crew".

After January 2nd, 2018, regardless of when the booking was created, gratuities paid while onboard are subject to the new, increased rates. Pre-existing bookings confirmed prior to January 2nd, 2018 will not be subject to the increased guidelines as long as gratuities are paid in advance of sailing.

Should guests opt not to pay gratuities until onboard, they will be subject to the newly suggested gratuity amounts.

This week's batch of beautiful Royal Caribbean photos is here and it's always fun to share with all of you the great photos our readers take while on their cruise vacation.

The photos we have to show this week are fun and of course anyone can send us their Royal Caribbean photos to use as well!

Our first photo is from Blake Baldwin fo Explorer of the Seas pulling into Skagway, Alaska, as seen from Radiance of the Seas.

David Donnelly took this photo of Independence of the Seas coming into Southampton, England early in the morning.

This beautiful photo is by Stuart Etheridge, taken on his first trip to Labadee. Stuart reported trying a cabana based on my recommendation, and he loved it.

Our next photo is by Leon Umans of Adventure of the Seas while in Sint Maarten.

Here is Cindy Graf and her husband standing in front of Anthem of the Seas while in Martinique.

Allen Shaffer shared this photo of Empress of the Seas.

Our last photo this week is of Pascal Everard on his way back to his Royal Caribbean ship.

Thank you to everyone that sent in their photos this week and if you have Royal Caribbean photos, well, we want to see them!  You can use this form to send us your photos and we will feature them on an upcoming Friday Photos blog post!

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. announced today that it has named Martha Poulter senior vice president and chief information officer. Poulter will report directly to Adam Goldstein, president and COO of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

Poulter joins RCL after spending the last 13 years of her career as CIO for major corporations.  Poulter most recently served as executive vice president and CIO for Starwood Hotel and Resorts, where she led a global IT team integrated across Starwood's nine brands and operational platforms, as well as serving as a member of Starwood's leadership team. Prior to that, Poulter spent nearly two decades at General Electric, including time as CIO of GE Capital.

"Martha certainly has the background to make a difference at Royal Caribbean," said Goldstein. "She'll bring that experience to bear on a full range of challenges here, including our plans to evolve the fleet's IT infrastructure, keep pace with the rapid evolution underway in important areas like data privacy and security, and ramp up support for the Excalibur digital transformation that is underway across our company."

"I am looking forward to the opportunity to join Royal Caribbean, a company that stands for excellence and innovation in the travel industry," said Poulter. "Working with the IT team, we will help RCL develop and support the technologies necessary for running a global business in a digital world."

Poulter graduated from the University of Connecticut with a B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering and received her MBA from the University of New Haven.

With your Royal Caribbean cruise right around the corner, you might be wondering what time should I get to the cruise port. 

The first day of your Royal Caribbean cruise is when all the fun begins, and what time you arrive to board your Royal Caribbean cruise has some implications for how the rest of your day may flow.

There are also two different times to consider: what time can you board your ship and what time can you arrive at the port to check-in.

What time to arrive at the port

Royal Caribbean cruises that depart from the United States will often open the cruise terminal for check-in sometime between 9am and 10am.  

This means the terminal will open up for guests to arrive and begin the check-in procedure. In most cases, the check-in procedure involves:

• Parking the car/dropping off rental car/being dropped off by a car service
• Giving porters luggage to be delivered to your stateroom later on that day.
• Going through security screening.
• Checking in at the counter with your cruise documents.
• Waiting for boarding to begin.

After passing the security check, the check-in process will split guests up based on which deck their stateroom is on and their Crown and Anchor Society status.  Essentially, those with higher Crown and Anchor Society status will have a shorter wait to check-in.  Likewise, suite guests also have a dedicated line for them, which is shorter.

The good news is the check-in procedure is fairly quick, and if you have all of your documentation, it should go quite smoothly.

The key to figuring out what time to arrive is largely up to you and your travel plans. We recommend arriving to the cruise terminal before noon to avoid the longer lines that tend to appear in the afternoon.

Many guests tend to arrive in the afternoon, since their travel plans have them arriving the day of the cruise.  This leads to longer waits at the cruise terminal, compared to earlier in the morning.

Our best advice is at the very least, do not plan to arrive to the ship too close to the end of the boarding times.  Travel delays and other unforeseen issues can add unnecessary stress to what should be the start to a fun and relaxing vacation. In short, plan on a few hours buffer time as a worst-case scenario.

The future of check-in

Royal Caribbean is aiming to greatly simplify some of the embarkation day procedures with what it is calling "frictionless check-in".  

Royal Caribbean wants to streamline the check-in process to the point that it is as simple as walking in. Forget the forms to fill out, pictures to take, or agents to speak with. The new app will allow for a "frictionless check-in" that gets you onboard your ship very quickly. In Royal Caribbean's eyes, less time spent boarding means more time for vacation.

There is no timetable announced for when frictionless check-in will be available, but it is something that is coming in the near future.

What time to board the ship

Royal Caribbean will likely provide a boarding time in the afternoon, but many veteran cruisers will say in practice, boarding times are much earlier than what is stated. Royal Caribbean does this to help break up crowds.

When boarding does commence, Royal Caribbean will board their ships with Suite guests firsts, followed by guests based on their Crown and Anchor Society status, and finally, all other guests.  Regardless of your status, the earlier you check-in, the sooner you will board the ship.

The advantage of arriving to the cruise port early is you will likely find shorter lines, and board the ship sooner.  That means your vacation begins sooner, and you will have more time on embarkation day to explore and have fun. 

Keep in mind that if you do board in the morning, staterooms are not usually open to guests until 1pm at the earliest, so you will have to carry whatever you bring aboard with you until you can drop it off in your stateroom.

Boarding in the afternoon may allow for more convenient travel arrangements, and no waiting on the ship for staterooms to open up.  However, later boarding risks potential lines at check-in and at the Windjammer for lunch.  Boarding in the afternoon is hardly a mistake, but keep in mind that Royal Caribbean requires all guests to be checked-in and onboard the ship no later than 90 minutes prior to the published sailing time or you will not be permitted to sail.

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

Episode 229 is available for downloading, in which Matt and Billy share three wishes they would make if they were in charge of Royal Caribbean.

With the new year right around the corner, Matt and Billy dreamed up some changes to Royal Caribbean they would like to make if they were in charge of the company. 

Here’s the podcast page for Episode 229. 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!

At least 12 tourists have died in a bus crash in eastern Mexico today, when the bus carying them flipped over on a highway early on Tuesday.

Royal Caribbean has confirmed 27 cruise ship passengers were on the bus that suffered the accident, which were sailing on Serenade of the Seas and Celebrity Equinox.

The news from Costa Maya about a bus accident involving #CelebrityEquinox & #SerenadeoftheSeas guests is heartbreaking. Our hearts go out to all those involved. We are doing all we can to care for our guests, including assisting with medical care and transportation.

— RCLcorp (@RCLcorp) December 19, 2017

Our 27 guests were on a bus tour to the Chacchoben Ruins. We are working with the local authorities to learn more about the accident. We are doing all we can to help our guests.

— RCLcorp (@RCLcorp) December 19, 2017

Seven Americans and two citizens of Sweden are among the injured, according to Quintana Roo state Civil Defense spokesman Vicente Martin. 

Martin said the crash occurred as the bus was on its way to the ruins at Chacchoben, about 110 miles (175 kilometers) south of Tulum.

Royal Caribbean is planning to revamp its casino rewards program, known as Club Royale, in early 2018.

According to a guest's tier levels, they will enjoy various benefits.

Admission to Club Royale is based on the amount and frequency of your gambling habits at the casino of a Royal Caribbean ship.