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

Episode 183 is available for downloading, which offers tips for making for a memorable Royal Caribbean cruise experience.

Often a Royal Caribbean cruise coincides with a celebration or special occasion, and that means there might be a desire to do something different onboard to make the cruise really "pop" when looking back on it.  In this episode, Matt shares some ideas how to enhance the onboard experience that can help create some great memories.

Here’s the podcast page for Episode 183. 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!

Royal Caribbean's newest cruise offer begins today, with discounts on the whole family.

Royal Caribbean's newest WAVE season offer starts with buy one guest, get second guest 60% off, plus 30% off third and fourth guests.  On top of it, there is a bonus offer on select Anthem of the Seas sailings. This new offer is available on Royal Caribbean cruises booked February 1-28, 2017 on all sailings departing on or after March 2, 2017 (excluding China departures).

• Buy one guest, get second guest 60% off
• 30% cruise fare savings for 3rd guests and higher booked in the same stateroom as the first two qualifying guests
• Bookings made Feb. 1-13, 2017 on Anthem of the Seas sailings departing on or after April 2, 2017 are eligible for free upgrade from Ocean view to balcony on Anthem of the Seas sailings departing on or after April 2, 2017. Free upgrade refers to booking a balcony stateroom for an ocean view stateroom at standard/full fare

BOGO60 is combinable with adjoining 30% Savings for 3rd and 4th guests, Anthem Upgrade, Crown & Anchor discounts and NextCruise offers. BOGO60, 30% Savings for 3rd and 4th Guest, and Anthem Upgrade are not combinable with restricted rates (for example, Seniors, Residents, and 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, Shareholder Benefits.

Offer available to residents of United States and Canada.

From the top deck, overlooking Central Park, through a series of twists and turns and finally onto the pool deck, The Perfect Storm trio of water slides offers the best – and most exciting – view on Harmony of the Seas. Thrill seekers can launch themselves through a swirling champagne bowl funnel slide or race down several decks on two lightning fast dueling slides. It’s just one more way to enjoy a beautiful day at sea!

The Super Bowl is one of the biggest television events of the year, and a must-see event for many Americans.  Just because you happen to be on a Royal Caribbean cruise does not mean you have to miss out on seeing "the big game."

Many people find great deals on Royal Caribbean cruises in early February, because most schools are in session, which means less bookings than other busier times of the year.  So if you find yourself one of those lucky people that can take advantage of these lower fares, here is how you can watch the Super Bowl while on a cruise.

Where to watch the game onboard

Royal Caribbean is well aware many guests want to see the Super Bowl, and despite the fact the in-room staterooms do not usually carry the local channels at home that air the game, for a special event like the Super Bowl, Royal Caribbean will do a little extra footwork to ensure it is available. It is worth noting that the feed may not include the much-talked about television commercials, because the television feed is different than what you might have at home. In many cases, the game is from an international television feed, so the game might be in English, but the commercials in another language.

Royal Caribbean will show the game in a variety of venues. Depending on your ship, the game can be shown in bars, the pool deck movie screen and even in the Royal Theater. Exact locations will be posted in the Cruise Compass for that day.  

In addition to showing the game in various spots, there will be typical football watching snacks as part of a "tailgate party" offering.  These have included hot dogs, nachos, chips and more.

Stream the game

Thanks to Royal Caribbean's high-speed Voom internet, another option would be to stream the live game.  

Fox will live stream the game on FoxSportsGo.com and its Fox Sports Go mobile app. You'll be able to access Fox's live stream for free, without needing to prove you are a cable or satellite TV subscriber (or needing to ask to borrow a friend's or -- worse -- your parents' pay TV log-in info). Free football for all!

The Fox Sports Go app works with iOS, Android, Windows and Amazon tablets.

For those tuning in more for the Super Bowl commercials than the Super Bowl itself, Fox is integrating local ads into the stream so it'll offer the same or a similar mix of ads as the TV broadcast, which features both local and national ads.

Did you know...

Back in Super Bowl XLV, Royal Caribbean aired its own Super Bowl commercial specifically targeted to viewers in cold markets.  While this old commercial has nothing to do with watching the Super Bowl on a cruise this year, it is still fun to remember that one time Royal Caribbean entered the Super Bowl commercial fray.

Hope you had a great week (maybe one week closer to your next Royal Caribbean cruise?) and you had a chance to keep up with what's new with Royal Caribbean this week. But if not, here's a roundup of this week's news.

The big news this week was Royal Caribbean's registering of three new cruise ship names, including the widely-rumored name for its fourth Oasis class cruise ship.

Earlier in the week, Royal Caribbean filed to trademark three ship names with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.  These names include Symphony of the Seas, Sunrise of the Seas and Valhalla of the Seas.

Symphony of the Seas is expected to be the name of the cruise line's next cruise ship that will debut, although Royal Caribbean has made no official announcement regarding that yet.  The other two names registered remain unknown as to which ship they will be registered to, if any.

Despite Royal Caribbean not announced the name of its fourth Oasis class cruise ship, which debuts in Spring 2018, there have been a few different convincing rumors this month that seem to point to the name of the ship being Symphony of the Seas, including a construction site photo taken of the ship's name being prepared.

Royal Caribbean News

• Royal Caribbean released its 2018-2019 deployment opening schedule.
• Royal Caribbean is now the only cruise line to offer a full range of PADI scuba offerings.
• Earlier this week, Royal Caribbean updated its towel rental policy.
• We know a little bit more about Royal Caribbean's new smart phone app.
• Royal Caribbean reported a 25% earnings increase for the fourth quarter of 2016.
• We picked up on five interesting facts from Royal Caribbean's earnings call with investors.
• 15 important things to do on your first day on a Royal Caribbean cruise.
• Here is how to get closer to an all-inclusive Royal Caribbean cruise experience.
• Did you know about these seven things that are totally free on a Royal Caribbean cruise?

Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast

The 182nd episode of the Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast is now available and we have a look at what happens when you get sick on a cruise.

In this episode, Halee joins Matt to discuss what it was like to be sick while on a cruise. Everyone hopes their cruise vacation will be the best time of their life, but getting sick can happen at sea just like on land.  Halee shares what she dealt with and shares some lessons for anyone else who might end up in a similar situation.

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.

Royal Caribbean Around the Internet

CNBC interviewed Royal Caribbean Chairman and CEO Richard Fain about the company's financial results.

Cruise1st takes a look at the best cruise lines for 20-something year olds.

ShermansCruise has 5 activities that are worth the splurge on a Royal Caribbean cruise.

Everything Pop Culture shared her experience on Allure of the Seas.

EatSleepCruise has some quick facts about the neighborhoods on Harmony of the Seas.

Royal Caribbean has updated its policy for allowing guests to borrow towels during the cruise.

Effective January 15, 2017, guests may check out as many towels as they like during their cruise, and return them all by the end of the voyage to avoid a $24.99 replacement fee. The change in policy was communicated via Royal Caribbean's Crown and Anchor Society Newsletter.

With this new change, it appears guests will not have to worry about returning towels immediately, but will be charged if all towels are not returned prior to the end of the cruise.

Royal Caribbean's towel policy has changed over the years, with there sometimes being a fee for unreturned towels on certain ships. In January 2014, Royal Caribbean announced it was eliminating the unreturned towel fee, but the fee returned to certain ships in the time since.

Thanks to Scott Stein for alerting us to this change.

Royal Caribbean has filed to trademark three new cruise ship names this week, with two of them not associated with any ship yet.

On January 21, 2017, Royal Caribbean filed trademark applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for the following names:

• Symphony of the Seas
• Sunrise of the Seas
• Valhalla of the Seas

We reported on Royal Caribbean registering Symphony of the Seas, which is rumored to be the name of its fourth Oasis class ship, but the other two names are yet to be tied to any rumors. 

There are currently six Royal Caribbean ships on order, with two of them tied to rumors of what its name will be (Symphony of the Seas and Icon of the Seas). That leaves four ships without any indication what they might be called. Royal Caribbean has not officially announced the name for any of these ships yet.

Yesterday, Royal Caribbean held its quarterly results phone conference with investors to go over the company's performance, and while most of the call is dedicated to fiscal results, there are some interesting tidbits of Royal Caribbean information that fans can appreciate.

After listening to the call, we came away with these five facts that we learned from the discussion that we think are pretty darn interesting. It is important to note some of these figures include sister brands Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Club Cruises, but the facts speak for themselves.

1. Royal Caribbean has added a lot to its ships recently

Highlighting the improvements Royal Caribbean has made to its fleet, Royal Caribbean CEO and Chairman Richard Fain mentioned that since 2014, the company has have added over 1,000 over berths, 24 restaurants, 7 bars, refreshed our retail spaces fleet wide and added boutiques such as Kate Spade, Michael Kors and even Tiffany.

That is a lot of extra amenities for guests.

2. Royal Caribbean makes the most money from onboard revenue

When we think about the cost of a cruise, often the first thought is the cruise fare, however, onboard revenue is what is driving Royal Caribbean's financial success lately.

It was revealed that beverage packaging, high speed internet and additional onboard revenue venues drove up a 7.8% year-over-year increase in ship order revenue.

3. North American demand is very strong

Demand for Royal Caribbean cruises is definitely healthy, and only moving up.  In 2017, North American products will represent close to 60% of Royal Caribbean's portfolio.  In fact, Alaska is leading the charge with "exceptional demand building on a record season in 2016."

The Caribbean will account for close to 50% of the company's full year capacity, up from 2016, mainly due to a full year deployment of Harmony of the Seas and Celebrity Equinox in South Florida. Demand for the Caribbean has been quite strong with bookings trending well ahead of last year, with the kind of growth that tells Royal Caribbean demand from North America has certainly rebounded.

4. Empress of the Seas hurt Royal Caribbean financially in 2016

For the year, 2016 was very good for Royal Caribbean, but Empress of the Seas caused some financial trouble during the year.  The extended refurbishment got things off to a rocky start, and then the company could only roll out cruises for guests to book in a smaller period of time.

The good news is looking forward to 2017, Empress of the Seas should rebound nicely because of the elevated interest in the product and the challenges in 2016 should not be present in the coming year.

5. Royal Caribbean does not want to sell out too quickly (or too late)

Perhaps the most intriguing insight into how Royal Caribbean books its cruises came at the end of the call, when Mr. Fain went into detail about how the company manages bookings.

Essentially, the company does not want to take too many bookings right away, nor does it want to wait for the last minute to have bookings come in.  As a result, the revenue management team works to adjust cruise fares to help keep bookings at a steady flow. 

Mr. Fain explained, "Really what happens is if we take too many bookings today, it’s hard to imagine that. But if you take too many bookings today, what it really means is that somebody who decides a month from today that she or he wants to take a cruise. And frankly is willing to pay more, it's simply not available. But taking too many is just as bad as thinking too few and it's getting that balance, the price integrity program has probably extended out more to take earlier. "

"So if we feel that we're taking too many bookings at a point in time, we will raise our pricing. Obviously that will lower the pace of bookings. I think it's important for people to understand that while obviously more bookings is a good thing, we actually have a great deal of discretion. Our revenue management people have a great deal of control over that pace."

Happy Friday and welcome to our weekly showcase of our readers' favorite Royal Caribbean photos. Each week, we invite our readers to send in their favorite Royal Caribbean photos so that we may show it off to the world.

Let us jump into this week's batch!

Our first photo this week is of Shawn Crossley's daughter, Emily, posing with their main dining room waiters on Voyager of the Seas.  

D J Epstein shared this photo of Brilliance of the Seas on the Amalfi Coast in Italy.  I love this vantage point!

Our next photo is from Vas, and it is of the Boardwalk on Harmony of the Seas.  Any photo with Sabor and a slide is good in my opinion!

Next is a photo of Navigator of the Seas in Labadee, by Lucas Freshour.  I am so ready to re-create this photo when I return there as part of the Royal Caribbean Blog Group Cruise!

Tews sent us this photo of "Paulchen" enjoying a day aboard Vision of the Seas. I have never been more jealous of a stuffed animal, than I am right now.

Stephanie Morgan sent in this photo of her and her daughter on the 3-night inaugural US sailing of Harmony of the Seas.  I was actually onboard this sailing too, although I was probably somewhere onboard eating somewhere while they explored Nassau.

We wrap up this week's edition with a special photo by Mark Reed proposing to his girlfriend  while on a stop in St. Thomas.  Mark took a private excursion to the deserted island of Hans Lollik and popped the question. I think I have some sand in my eyes...

Thank you to everyone who sent in photos this week.  If you would like your Royal Caribbean photo included in a future Friday Photos post, be sure to send them to us with this form. Have a great weekend!