Royal Caribbean will continue offering cruises from Baltimore, Maryland for another four years.

The Baltimore Business Journal reports that Royal Caribbean signed a new deal with the Maryland Port Administration that will extend its year-round departures out of South Locust Point until June 2020.

Grandeur of the Seas is currently offering year-round cruises from Baltimore to the Bahamas, Bermuda and Canada.

Grandeur of the Seas has been offering cruises from Baltimore since May 2013, when she replaced Enchantment of the Seas.

In celebration of the Harmony of the Seas' European debut, and in anticipation of her U.S. arrival in November, Royal Caribbean is kicking off a multi-faceted consumer promotion, “Ticket to Adventure.”

The immersive and interactive sweepstakes encourages consumers to virtually discover and explore Harmony’s thrilling features and seven neighborhoods, and enter for their chance to win more than $300,000 worth of prizes that range from a grand prize, seven-night Caribbean cruise for four, to 200 invitation-only getaways, more than 175 GoPro HERO4 cameras, over $40,000 in gift cards, and more.

Starting April 21 through November 5, 2016, consumers can simply register for the promotion at RoyalCaribbean.com/TicketToAdventure, and then the adventure begins!

Every two weeks, one of Harmony’s seven signature neighborhoods will be unlocked on the site and open the door to interactive content and fun facts, such as the height of The Ultimate Abyss, the tallest slide at sea, to the number of plants in Central Park – the largest living park at sea – and the variety of cocktails the robot bartenders at Bionic Bar can sling.

Bonus instant win games are hidden within each neighborhood and extra sweepstakes entries will be awarded to those that share Ticket to Adventure with their friends via email or social media.

There will also be other ways to enter the contest, as Royal Caribbean will infuse a little adventure into some unexpected places and pop culture events, as well as partner with well-known personalities.

Actor and singer Carlos PenaVega will give fans the chance to join him onboard Harmony of the Seas during exclusive, invitation-only preview events in Southampton, England. Hot off his starring role as Kenickie in FOX’s GREASE LIVE, PenaVega will hang out with his winning fans as he leads a number of Grease-inspired special activities and attends opening night of Royal Caribbean’s original production of Broadway’s hit musical Grease. Fans can enter for the chance to win by visiting the sweepstakes site between now and May 1 and entering code GREASE.

 In addition, Royal Caribbean will deploy a series of code words that can be uncovered on RoyalCaribbean.com, through Royal Caribbean emails and exclusive Crown & Anchor Society newsletters for loyal guests, as well as through participating travel agents, or by following Royal Caribbean on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Consumers that find a code can enter it at RoyalCaribbean.com/TicketToAdventure to be entered into the grand prize drawing and also to unlock chances for instant win prizes.

Royal Caribbean opened the 2017-2018 Australian summer season for sale, including Ovation of the Seas sailings.

To celebrate, Royal Caribbean is offering launch savings of up to $1,300 per person off the standard cruise fare when booked before May 31, 2016.

Ovation of the Seas, Explorer of the Seas, Voyager of the Seas and Radiance of the Seas will offer 66 sailings ranging from two to 23 nights during the 2017/18 season. From September 2017 through to April 2018 the four megaliners will call at 46 ports across Australia, New Zealand, the South Pacific, Asia and North America with departures from Sydney, Fremantle, Auckland, Singapore, Honolulu and Seattle.

Highlights of the season include family-fun sister ships Voyager of the Seas and Explorer of the Seas sailing predominantly South Pacific itineraries, while Ovation of the Seas and Radiance of the Seas will cruise Australia and New Zealand. The 2017/18 season will see more overnights such as Adelaide for Explorer of the Seas and Radiance of the Seas, new destinations such as Wollongong, and more open-jaw itineraries like Radiance of the Seas’ sailings between Sydney and Auckland.

Royal Caribbean announced today it has cancelled seven more Empress of the Seas sailings on April 25, 30, May 5, 9, 14, 19 and 23.

This is the second time Royal Caribbean has cancelled scheduled sailings on Empress of the Seas, following the cancellation of the first six Empress of the Seas sailings in March 2016.

Royal Caribbean provided this explanation as to why these additional sailings are being cancelled, "Modernizing Empress of the Seas for her return to the Royal Caribbean International fleet began in late February. As work has progressed, we learned that more significant infrastructure and physical improvements across the ship's multiple galleys and provisioning areas were needed to meet our high standards."

"We decided that instead of simply repairing the five galleys, we would completely rebuild them, starting from scratch with entirely new infrastructure and all new equipment, at a cost of $10 million."

"We sincerely apologize to our guests and travel partners for the inconvenience, and hope they understand that more time was needed to ensure Empress of the Seas meets the standards for quality our guests expect from Royal Caribbean."

Guests originally booked on the March 30, April 4, April 7, April 11, April 16 and April 21 sailings and rebooked on one of the newly cancelled sailings will receive a full refund and a future cruise credit of 100%.

Guests scheduled to sail within 14 days of departure on the cancelled April 25 or April 30 sailing, who do not rebook, will receive a full refund and a future cruise credit of 50% of the fare paid.

All other guests scheduled to sail on the May 5th - May 23rd sail dates will be provided an onboard credit if they rebook to another Royal Caribbean sailing.

This week's podcast episode is ready to go, as we present episode 142 of the Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast for your downloading pleasure.

This week, Matt provides an overview of the Oasis-class cruise cruise ships and what anyone going on one of these amazing ships should know before stepping foot onboard.

There's also lots of reader emails to share this week about everything Royal Caribbean.

Here’s the podcast page for Episode 142. And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast via RSS 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!

Take a look at the newest additions to the Royal Caribbean family, Mama and Baby Panda Art installation onboard Ovation of the Seas

There's less than 99 days until Royal Caribbean's Harmony of the Seas debuts so we're counting down each day with a brand new blog post all about Harmony of the Seas. Read our blog each day for a new post all about this amazing cruise ship.

Studio Staterooms

A big change in the cruising industry has been offering stateroom options to people cruising alone and on Royal Caribbean's newest cruise ship, Harmony of the Seas, there will be a class of staterooms just for people that prefer to travel alone.

These "studio" staterooms offer the single traveler accommodations without the hefty single supplement fee that was traditionally added to the cruise fare.

Harmony of the Seas will offer a variety of studio staterooms for guests to choose from.

Studio Interior Stateroom

Full size bed and full bathroom. Single occupancy stateroom, no single supplement required. 103 sq. ft., escept for stateroom 4660 is 96 sq. ft

Studio Ocean View Stateroom

Full size bed and full bathroom. Single occupancy stateroom, no single supplement required. Can sleep up to 2. (96 sq. ft.) Staterooms 4682 and 4688 are 104 sq. ft.

Following its success in Hong Kong last year, Royal Caribbean is bringing its brand new Ovation of the Seas to Hong Kong in November 2016. This will be the first time that Royal Caribbean will have two ships deployed in Hong Kong.

Dr. Zinan Liu, President, North APAC & China of Royal Caribbean International said, “We are so confident in the Hong Kong cruise market we decided to extend the homeport season of Voyager of the Seas from three months to over four months, and in addition bring our newest ship,Ovation of the Seas, here by the end of this year. Having two ships here will enable us to increase our programme in Hong Kong from 20 to 30 sailings . This means we could be welcoming over 100,000 vacationers this year which is about a 65% increase compared to last year.”

Hong Kong

Ovation of the Seas is the third addition to the Quantum class ships, and is a sister ship to Quantum of the Seas that visited Hong Kong last year. Built by Meyer Werft in Germany at a cost of USD 1 billion, the 168,666 tons vessel has 2,090 staterooms for up to 4,180 guests and will be the largest cruise liner ever to be based in Hong Kong.

Ovation of the Seas will depart from Southampton, England on her 53-day “Global Odyssey” cruise to Tianjin, China on 3rd of May. She will then have a season in Tianjin in June before coming to Hong Kong in November.

Authentic Cantonese delicacies on board

For the first-time-ever, Royal Caribbean is partnering on board with the award-winning Cantonese culinary experts, Xin Dau Ji, to provide over 20 exquisite signature dishes, including fried scallops, fish fillets with corn, steamed chicken in Lotus leaves, pan-fried fresh shrimp and more.

Balwin Yeung, Director of Sales & Marketing of Royal Caribbean Cruises Hong Kong Ltd. said, “Hong Kong vacationers expect the very best at this level of cruising which is why we have invited Xin Dau Ji to answer their culinary desires, especially their craving for truly authentic Chinese cuisine. Both Royal Caribbean and Xin Dau Ji are noted for their innovative approaches and share the same target group of customers in middle-class families. With these values in common and a similar customer base we should be perfect partners, in achieving a win-win collaboration.”

To ensure guests can enjoy the perfect meal with their friends, Voyager of the Seas has also introduced the all-new “E-sea dining” seat arrangement for on board restaurants. Guests can get seats with companions when they come to the restaurant instead of only getting a designated table. The main menu has also been upgraded to Quantum Class, and redesigned to a picture-oriented menu for more appealing reading.

C AllStar

In another breakthrough, Royal Caribbean has announced its collaboration with the popular young boy band, C AllStar to entertain travellers on board. It will be the first theme-cruise of Royal Caribbean’s new Hong Kong homeport season.

The positive image and the energetic charisma of C AllStar matches perfectly with the vitality of Royal Caribbean’s brand image. The inspiring story of the young band represents the spirit of diligence and perseverance of Hong Kongers, which also symbolizes Royal Caribbean International’s determination to stay in Hong Kong and their vision to “Cruise Extraordinary”.

Royal Caribbean has brought back the  BOGO Saver deal, with buy one, get one 50% off plus FREE gratuities.

The new BOGO SAVER deal is valid on all sailings on or after May 20, 2016, excluding China departures.

• Buy One Guest, Get Second Guest 50% Off
• 25% off for 3rd and 4th guests
• BONUS –  Pre-paid gratuities in Oceanview categories and above for the first and second guests on all products excluding Alaska, Asia, China, Transatlantic and Repositioning sailings.
• PLUS for eligible new deployment sailings departing on or after May 1, 2017 (excluding China departures), offer includes Free Upgrades within stateroom type.

​Cruise must be booked April 19-May 1, 2016, 2016.

Free Upgrade within the stateroom meta-category (for example from a D8 to a D1, interior to interior, or ocean view to ocean view). Free Upgrade refers to booking a stateroom for the price of the lowest available category within the same stateroom meta-category type. Upgrade is subject to stateroom availability at time of booking. Upgrade offer excludes Panoramic, Family, and Suite staterooms.

BOGO does not apply to third and higher occupancy guests BOGO is combinable with adjoining Pre-Paid Gratuities, 25% Savings, New Deployment Upgrade Offer, NextCruise Offer, Crown & Anchor discounts and Shareholder Benefits. Pre-paid Gratuities are not combinable with Crown & Anchor discounts and Shareholder Benefits. BOGO and 25% Savings are not combinable with restricted rates (for example, Seniors, Residents, Military). Pre-Paid Gratuities are combinable with restricted rates (for example, Seniors, Residents, Military) as well as NextCruise offers. Offer is 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, and Net Rates.

Offer open to residents of U.S. or Canada.