Matt talks with Royal Caribbean's Senior Vice President and Chief Product Innovation Officer Jay Schneider about what's coming down the pike in the next few years.
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For the first time ever, an Oasis Class cruise ship will offer regular 3- and 4-night cruises.
Royal Caribbean unveiled its 2023-2024 Short Caribbean cruises on Tuesday, and Allure of the Seas will begin offering short sailings in late 2023.
Traditionally, Oasis Class ships sail 7-night cruises. These are the biggest cruise ships in the world, and by offering so much to see and do onboard, Royal Caribbean always sailed them on the longer sailings.
In recent years, Royal Caribbean has steadily improved the vessels offering weekend cruises from Florida, beginning with amplified Voyager Class ships, and more recently the slightly larger Freedom Class ships.
Allure of the Seas transitioning to short Caribbean voyages will open up a new enticing option to the getaway cruise market.
Allure of the Seas will sail from Port Canaveral, Florida beginning on October 31, 2023 and alternate between 3- and 4-night cruises that visit Nassau, Bahamas and Perfect Day at CocoCay.
The new short sailings run through at least April 15, 2024.
Allure of the Seas had been deployed to Galveston, Texas since late 2022, but Harmony of the Seas will take over so that Allure can move to Florida.
In an interview with Royal Caribbean's Senior Vice President and Chief Product Innovation Officer Jay Schneider, he indicated the idea of having short cruises on an Oasis Class ship is an exciting new plan, "We've loved our our three or four short program. It's been tremendously successful.
"We've never piloted that with an Oasis class ship before. So Allure of the Seas will be the first pilot of a three or four night short program."
In addition to the Allure change, Royal Caribbean released 7 other ship deployments.
Adventure of the Seas will sail from Galveston and offer 4-, 5- and 6-night Western Caribbean cruises.
Freedom of the Seas will continue to offer 3- and 4- night cruises from Miami that visit CocoCay & Nassau.
Grandeur of the Seas will also sail from Miami, and run primarily Southern Caribbean voyages that are as long as 12 nights in some cases. She will also offer 4- and 5- cruises to The Bahamas and Western Caribbean.
Independence of the Seas will sail 3-, 4-, and 5- night cruises from Miami to CocoCay & Nassau.
Liberty of the Seas will call Fort Lauderdale home, and offer 3-6 night cruises around the Caribbean and Bahamas.
Mariner of the Seas will also sail from Port Canaveral with more varied 4- and 5-night Caribbean cruises.
Radiance of the Seas will move from Vancouver, and initially offer one west coast cruise down to San Diego, before embarking on a Panama Canal cruise to Tampa, where she will sail 4- and 5-night Western Caribbean cruises.
More cruises will be announced over the course of the next few weeks.
Royal Caribbean's deployment schedule is as follows:
Keep in mind that the deployment schedule is subject to change.
Planning on booking a 2023 cruise? These stories will help:
Wonder of the Seas is filled with impressive new features and amenities, but Royal Caribbean also included a few things that are slightly different or even unique to this ship.
While the press releases will always highlight the big headline-grabbing features of a new ship, there are a few interesting anecdotes and tweaks Royal Caribbean has made with Wonder of the Seas.
While these may not be the "I can't believe they did that" type of changes, I thought these were interesting enough to share for someone that goes on Wonder of the Seas soon to know about.
The Windjammer is the epicenter of quick meals for many families, and Royal Caribbean designed the Windjammer to be the largest in the fleet.
Royal Caribbean Vice President Food & Beverage, Linken D'Souza, said the Windjammer on Wonder has 1048 seats, 300 bigger than any other Windjammer.
They also added a "kidjammer" station at right height for kids so they can grab their own food.
This is significant not just because it's a very large Windjammer, but because traditionally the Windjammer on Oasis Class ships were not always that large.
In an effort to keep passengers separated and not too close in one area, the original Oasis Class ships purposefully not a massive Windjammer to promote the idea of going to alternative quick service food choices, such as Park Cafe, Mini Bites and others.
Cruise fans know what they want, and Royal Caribbean dedicated the most space yet to the Windjammer on Wonder of the Seas.
Royal Caribbean touts the fact its all-female AquaTheater show on Wonder of the Seas is a first, but this wasn't the plan from the start.
Royal Caribbean Senior Vice President of Entertainment, Nick Weir, shared at the start of the planning process for "InTENse", they simply were looking to find the most adventurous and thrill-seeking performers they could find.
As the auditions began, Mr. Weir's staff noticed all the people auditioning were female. They then had the idea to embrace that fact and make it an all-female show.
If you order a latte or macchiato at Cafe Promenade on Wonder of the Seas, you will get a Starbucks beverage and soon all the Cafe Promenade's in the fleet will too.
Mr. D'Souza said the licensing agreement with their supplier allows Royal Caribbean to offer Starbucks branded drinks at Cafe Promenade, but also continue offering Starbucks drinks at the kiosk.
While the Starbucks kiosk beverages are not included with any drink package, the Starbucks drinks at Cafe Promenade are included with a Royal Caribbean drink package.
So this is not a Wonder of the Seas-only feature, but I forgot about this fact and wanted to share it with you.
The Royal Genies are the exclusive perk for the top suite guests onboard Wonder of the Seas. Genies are kind of like a cross between a butler and wish maker, and they are shared between just a few cabins.
On Wonder of the Seas, there are 3 genies across 8 Star Class suites.
Genies don't wear a nametag while in public areas of the ship, because the cruise line doesn't want other guests asking them questions or otherwise taking time away from the families the genies are assigned to.
Two major onboard events are coming back to Wonder of the Seas for the first time since Covid-19.
Laser tag is already up and running on Wonder of the Seas, and the Royal Promenade parade should ready by the second voyage.
The street parade has 98 people in cast. The plan is to bring back parades to other ships systematically.
Both of these events were suspended due to Covid-19 social distancing concerns up until now.
If you prefer Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryant, or Garth Brooks, Wonder of the Seas is for you.
At the Mason Jar restaurant, there is a bar area that features a country music band trio that performs most nights.
While Royal Caribbean has always been a major proponent of live music on its ships, country music was usually not in the repertoire.
Wonder of the Seas was designed with a high roller casino area in lieu of a jazz club to appeal to the Asian cruise market. When Royal Caribbean changed plans to keep Wonder of the Seas in the United States, they decided to keep the VIP room.
Cruise line executives I spoke with admitted they weren't sure whether or not the concept will be a hit with Americans, but it seemed worth a try.
If you are worried about missing out on jazz music, Royal Caribbean still offers live jazz music in both Central Park and the Music Hall.
There's been a few milestones on the return of cruising, and Labadee is one of the most recent of those.
Royal Caribbean resumed visits to Labadee a few weeks ago, and today Wonder of the Seas visited Royal Caribbean's private destination.
We docked early in the morning and I walked off the ship to get a full day.
The first thing I noticed were little tweaks to Labadee that Royal Caribbean has made, such as adding more umbrellas, and repainting a number of buildings with brighter colors.
Royal Caribbean told me they also re-worked the flow of the arrivals area to eliminate the security building near the entrance (it's now a towel station), as well as fixing the irrigation of the area to prevent flooding when it rains a lot.
Walking around Labadee, things looked more similar than not, and it all looked beautiful.
While Labadee lacks the sheer variety of things to do at Perfect Day at CocoCay, it's still a really fun and relaxing beach day.
I had rented a Nellie's Beach over the water cabana for the day. We had cabana number 3 on the hill to the right of the beach.
Royal Caribbean had upgraded its cabanas at Labadee. I heard some of the Barefoot Beach cabanas were brand new. Our cabanas had new furniture inside.
The cabana was lovely, and I love getting one whenever I visit to have shade and a "home base of operations" while there.
Lunch has not changed much and it gives me a better appreciation for the elevated lunch you get at CocoCay.
Something special for the media onboard was Royal Caribbean Vice President Food & Beverage, Linken D'Souza, managed to get some local food from the Haitians living nearby to sample. I love trying local cuisine!
In the afternoon, I was able to try out something brand new to me: the alpine coaster.
The Dragon's Tail Coaster has been at Labadee for years, but I hadn't gotten around to trying it.
Royal Caribbean sells one ride and all day passes.
You watch a short video to understand how the braking works, and then it's into your car and up the mountain.
The views alone are worth the ride, but of course it's a really fast-paced ride down too. I admit I rode the brake down more than I thought, but it was exhilarating.
Overall, I loved our visit to Labadee, and it felt good to be back after so long.
We got back onboard in the mid afternoon, and if you hadn't heard, there was a sprinkler system malfunction on the Royal Promenade. It happened while I was in Labadee, but the video quickly spread on social media.
The good news is by the time I got back onboard, it was all cleaned up and you would not have known anything had happened. It's a credit to the hard working crew members who quickly swooped in to take care of it.
In fact, the country music trio from the Mason Jar performed on the Promenade.
As afternoon turned into evening it was time to get ready for dinner.
Our dinner plans brought us back to Izumi, but this time for sushi.
Izumi Master Chef Travis Kamiyama hosted us and provided some special sushi dishes in addition to what's on the menu. It was a tremendous sampling.
I love going to Izumi for either sushi or teppanyaki, and today's meal did not disappoint.
We wrapped up our evening with drinks at The Mason Jar.
Tomorrow we will be in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
The stowaway piano player is back in elevators again.
I ran into Ben, David & Stef from YouTube!
I ran into Royal Caribbean's Vice President of Entertainment, Nick Weir, and asked him about shows returning to other ships across the fleet, such as Grease and Columbus the Musical.
He said it's moving, but it takes a while to get shows back up and going again as it is no simple process to prepare casts and get them ready to perform.
He said it will be a process throughout this year for all the productions across the fleet to make a full return.
Our first full day on Wonder of the Seas is a sea day, and that is the perfect opportunity to explore more of the ship after the first day.
I started off my morning with coffee and breakfast at Park Cafe. I really like Park Cafe for an alternative breakfast spot for how easy and quick it is.
I spent the morning taking it easy after a busy day yesterday, but it was nice to spend some time enjoying the warm Caribbean breeze.
I walked up to the Royal Promenade to walk around and noticed a new change to the Cafe Promenade menu. Starbucks is now served at Cafe Promenade in addition to the free standing kiosk.
Unlike the kiosk, the Starbucks drinks at Cafe Promenade are included with a drink package.
For lunch, we booked up a few tables at Giovanni's Italian Kitchen for the Royal Caribbean Blog Insiders who were onboard.
I loved Giovanni's on Odyssey and Freedom, so this seemed like a great spot for a group meal.
We had a group of over 30 friends onboard, and the food did not disappoint.
After lunch, I headed back to my cabin for a little bit to relax.
Something Royal Caribbean brought back on this sailing is laser tag.
I walked by and noticed it was open for anyone to hop in. I was wearing flip flops, or I would have tried it out myself!
Later in the afternoon, I took a visit down to Casino Royale. The casino has a different look than other ships, and is quite large as well.
I started out in the Golden Room, which is a high roller area, although right now it's open to all.
Royal Caribbean said the Golden Room is an idea to try out in the western market to see how well it resonates. For now, it's open to all and I appreciated the fact it was non-smoking.
Tonight was formal night, so it was back to the room to get ready.
Dinner brought us to Izumi hibachi, which I absolutely love going to every cruise.
Our chef, Roy, put on a great show and suffice to say, I did not leave hungry.
After dinner, I went to Wonderland bar to try out some of the specialty drinks.
One interesting change about Wonderland is there is more decor outside the restaurant, even extending into the elevator lobby.
I like the Wonderland has a bar you can go to without sitting down for a meal.
Tomorrow will be our first port of call, Labadee.
In my cabin, there was Mason Jar swag waiting.
Welcome to March! We hope you are having a great weekend and are ready to sit back, relax and catch up with all the latest Royal Caribbean news!
Wonder of the Seas is finally here and welcoming passengers onboard!
The biggest cruise ship in the world departed Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Friday to start a 7-night cruise, and the ship's inaugural season.
The ship is packed with new features and activities, such as a new southern American restaurant, shows across its venues, redesigned pool deck, expansive suite area and more.
Matt is live blogging from Wonder of the Seas this week!
Have you subscribed to the Royal Caribbean Blog YouTube Channel? We share some great videos there regularly, all about taking a Royal Caribbean cruise! This week, we are sharing our latest video — Cruise mistakes I've made! — and don’t forget to subscribe here.
The 444th episode of the Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast is now available with a preview of Matt's Wonder of the Seas cruise.
Matt is sailing on Wonder of the Seas' first two sailings, and provides an overview of what he has planned and what he's excited to try onboard.
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.
While many cruises visit Nassau, Bahamas, it remains a bit of a tough port to plan on what to do.
Many cruise passengers skip Nassau altogether and stay on the ship, believing that there is nothing worth seeing, but that couldn't further from the truth.
Whether you’re looking for a beach day, hoping to try local foods, or learn about Bahamian history and culture, there are plenty of exciting activities to choose from in Nassau.
Have you been wondering how food works on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship?
Buffets, restaurants, room service, and more await you on a cruise, so what's included and what costs extra? What is dinner like and what should you know about each of the types of restaurants?
Check out our in-depth guide to food on a Royal Caribbean cruise for insight into what to expect.
The day is finally here to see Wonder of the Seas for the first time!
I drove down to Fort Lauderdale the night before the cruise and stayed for the second time at the Hyatt House Fort Lauderdale Airport - South & Cruise Port. Great hotel with a large kitchenette at a reasonable price very close to the cruise port.
Before I could board Wonder of the Seas, Royal Caribbean invited me to check out Royal Caribbean’s Entertainment Production Studio.
Located in North Miami at the Florida International University campus, this is where Royal Caribbean trains all if its performers, produces all of the costumes for its shows, and preps everything before it reaches a cruise ship.
I was not able to photograph inside the building, but the tour of the facility showed off just how massive an entertainment operation Royal Caribbean has across its ships.
We saw one cast learning the lines for Hairspray on Symphony of the Seas, and another cast ready to join Anthem of the Seas to perform We Will Rock You.
After our walkthrough, it was time to get to Wonder of the Seas!
Boarding was pretty simple and straightforward, and I was able to get onboard without any delay.
Walking onto Wonder of the Seas, it became evident very quickly that while this is the fifth Oasis Class ship, it is anything but a carbon copy of her sisters.
Royal Caribbean has enhanced, revamped, and in some cases, completely replaced certain venues.
While new cruise ships will always have a certain level of glitz that endears them to just about anyone off the bat, I noticed a few impressive changes that really separates the ship from her sisters.
As I mentioned in the preview blog post for this sailing, I was invited by Royal Caribbean to be their guest onboard. As such, I had a few meetings to attend onboard the first day. Combined with my own desire to "see it all", I ran around the ship a lot on the first day.
I shared photos of my walkthrough of the major new changes and additions, but I wanted to talk about the areas that really stood out to me.
The revamped pool deck changes are fantastic, and I like how they've added stadium seating in the middle.
I can appreciate the addition of a movie screen too, although it can sometimes get a little loud (to be fair, the holds true on other ships).
Thanks to some friends, I was able to walk through the new Suite Neighborhood and you can tell quickly this has been rethought completely.
Walking through the hallways of the Suite Neighborhood, it just feels like different. If I was a suite guest, I could appreciate the sense that you're somewhere special.
And then there's the Suite Sundeck, which is sprawling and offers the right blend of shade and sun. Compared to other suite decks that are usually all in the sun, there's a good amount of shade and seating that I think make this a home run.
The Wonder Playscape looks to be a fun area for kids, but I'll need to reserve judgement until my kids show up next week.
Speaking of kids, the best news as a parent is Adventure Ocean is back to "normal" in the sense of not limiting reservations.
I spoke with the staff, who told me the 6-12 year old group can handle around 120 kids and assuming they don't reach that number, can take as many kids as they can.
The reason why they aren't doing limited capacity in Adventure Ocean is because Royal Caribbean joined the CDC's "highly vaccinated" program, which requires at least 95% of passengers be vaccinated.
One other area that really got revamped is the Windjammer. This is the largest Windjammer in the fleet, and it is indeed massive.
Wrapping around the entire back deck, the Windjammer offers a ton of seating and an equal amount of food stations. Plus, I love the aesthetics of the space.
For dinner, I went to the new Mason Jar restaurant.
I wasn't sure what to expect, but the food and drink at Mason Jar blew me away. Between the charred watermelon salad, Nashville hot chicken, chicken pot pie, and fried Oreos, I just couldn't get enough.
The specialty cocktails are also really good, especially the PB&J Old Fashioned.
But I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the country band at the Mason Jar, which perform at night and add a new dimension to the dining experience.
If you're at the bar, you get a full country band experience to sing and drink to, with some even dancing. But if you're eating dinner, you're sufficiently far enough away to hear the music but not interrupt the dining experience.
I'm going back for brunch in a few days to sample that, and I suspect I'll be at the bar just for the music too.
It was a full first day onboard Wonder of the Seas, and I wrapped up my evening with some drinks at the pub on the Royal Promenade before calling it a night.
Tomorrow is a sea day.
There are 4200 passengers onboard this sailing.
I noticed the cabin attendant carts have a new look to them.
There are evidently 4 of these astronauts around the ship. So far, I've found two of them.
My shower (standard balcony room) has two shower heads, although I couldn't figure out how to make the top showerhead work.
Some inaugural cruise swag!
Near the bed is a functional lamp with USB plugs. I love this small addition!
Royal Caribbean's Wonder of the Seas begins her first sailing today, and this cruise ship is packed with so many things to see, do, and eat.
The biggest cruise ship in the world is also the fifth Oasis Class cruise ship, and departs Fort Lauderdale on Friday to begin a 7-night Eastern Caribbean cruise.
Royal Caribbean has built on the Oasis Class lineage, but also added new features and things to do that you won't find on any other cruise ship.
Enjoy this comprehensive look at the highlights of Wonder of the Seas.
This area is best described as a combination of mini golf and jungle gym.
The hallways and staterooms have a blue motif to them.
The elevators have a new button system that is better at explaining what's on each deck.
Fun art in Entertainment Place
Casino has sliding doors to help keep smoke in
Thanks to the new protocols, there is no required advanced sign up for kids in Adventure Ocean. It's effectively the "old system", with a capacity of 120-130 children in the 6-12 year old group
The nursery (6 months to 36 months old) still requires advanced reservations.
The pool deck has been completely redesigned with a new resort vibe to it.
Wonder of the Seas has the largest Windjammer in the fleet.
A brand new restaurant that serves up Southern American cuisine.
While Royal Caribbean's Wonder of the Seas is front and center at the moment, there's still other things happening in the world of Royal Caribbean that you should know about.
Of course, if you want to read more about Wonder of the Seas, check out photos from around the ship!
In an effort to highlight some other changes and happenings, this blog post summarizes the changes from this week that may not have made big headlines.
If you ever have a news tip, feel free to email it to [email protected] for possible inclusion in a future update!
The top cruisers in Royal Caribbean's Crown and Anchor Society loyalty program got some good news this week.
Due to Royal Caribbean's participation in the CDC's "Highly Vaccinated" program, the cruise line can now reinstate access for Pinnacle Club guests to the Suite and Concierge Lounges across our fleet effective on sailings beginning after March 15.
Should the number of guests surpass the desired capacity of these lounges, the ship will continue to provide a temporary Pinnacle Club lounge just for Pinnacle members.
One consequence of the Russian invasion of The Ukraine has been seafarers from those countries are not allowed to disembark the ship in U.S. ports.
Royal Caribbean International President and CEO Michael Bayley explained that this new rule is not a cruise line policy, but instead a new policy of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
"All foreign crew are typically granted a visa and entered into the USA as seafarers and are processed and given a I95 form. Kind of like a permission slip to go ashore in USA ports.
"Our latest information to be confirmed, is CBP (U.S. Government agency) has stopped shore leave and repatriation for all Ukrainian and Russian crew. This impacts all seafarers.
"We are working with our Government relations team and industry to see if this can be relaxed. They are free to come and go in all other non USA ports (so far)."
A RoyalCaribbeanBlog reader spotted a new promo code that might save you a little bit of money on your next cruise.
While browsing Royal Caribbean's website, em.down.the.rabbit.hole saw a popup to sign up for $50 off their next cruise booking.
The voucher code appears to be only for Americans, but promo code "WELCOME" is good until it expires on March 8, 2022.
The fine print says it is $50 voucher for sailings 6 nights or greater and $25 off sailings 5 nights or fewer.
I can't promise it will work for you, but give it a try!
Matt is about to go onboard the brand new Wonder of the Seas and has a look at what he has planned.
Share with me your thoughts, questions and comments via...