Our latest Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast has been released! Check out Episode 84 of the Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast right now.

This week's topic

When Royal Caribbean announced all the innovations on Quantum of the Seas, one of the features is something that will be transforming the Royal Caribbean cruise experience in the years to come. 

In this episode, Matt discusses what WOWbands are, how they work and what the future holds for these handy innovations.

Here’s the podcast page for Episode 84. 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 Anthem of the Seas has left Meyer Werft shipyard in Germany and is headed down the River Ems on her 26-mile conveyance to the North Seas.

Anthem of the Seas is moving down the river and is guided by tugboats at a speed of about 2-3 knots.

The conveyance will take approximately 10 hours for Anthem of the Seas to sail the 32 kilometers down the River Ems.  

Photographer Björn Haß has shared photos with us of Anthem of the Seas' trip down the river.

Royal Caribbean will kick off a new "BOGO50" offer tomorrow that gives guests who purchase a full cruise fare, 50% off the second passenger and buy one, get one premium beverage package 50% off.

Guests who book a 2016 or 2017 cruise will also receive 50% off the 3rd and 4th passengers in the stateroom on top of the original BOGO offer.

In addition, all reservations made during the promotional period will have 50% off the deposit amount.

The new BOGO50 deal starts on March 11 and runs through April 30, 2015.  It's valid on all sailings departing on or after May 15, 2015. Offer available to residents of the United States or Canada. 

BOGO50 is valid on Ocean view and higher stateroom categories.

BOGO50 offer excludes Quantum, Anthem, Ovation, and Harmony of the Seas, Transatlantic, Transpacific, and China sailings.

Offers are all combinable with Crown & Anchor discounts and NextCruise offers. BOGO and Beverage offers are not combinable with restricted rates (for example, Seniors, Residents, Military, Kids Sail Free) nor any other offer or promotion, including, but not limited to, Interline, Travel Agent, Travel Agent Friends and Family, weekly Sales Events, Net Rates, or Shareholder Benefits.

Royal Caribbean has pushed back the date for putting Harmony of the Seas sailings on sale to April 2, 2015.

Originally sailings for what will eventually be the largest cruise ship in the world were set to go on sale on March 11, 2015 but Royal Caribbean confirmed in Twitter that they will now go on sale in 3 more weeks.

@DMPicone Our apologies. Harmony will be available for booking April 2nd.

— Royal Caribbean (@RoyalCaribbean) March 10, 2015

Royal Caribbean's Anthem of the Seas is just hours away from her conveyance down the River Ems and one step closer to launching.  We have some brand new beautiful photos of Anthem of the Seas to share.

Photographer Björn Haß has shared a batch of brand new phoros of Anthem of the Seas that were taken in what will likely be Anthem of the Seas' final night at Meyer Werft shipyard. 

Enjoy!

Royal Caribbean's newest cruise ship, Anthem of the Seas, will have her conveyance down the River Ems on one day earlier than expected on March 10, 2015.

The conveyance will begin around 9am eastern time.

Anthem of the Seas' conveyance will take the ship from Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany along the Ems River to the North Sea.

#AnthemoftheSeas' intricate conveyance down the River Ems will begin tomorrow 3/10 at 9 am ET http://t.co/YlSDY2KEIE pic.twitter.com/SDShqZ4Ezq

— Royal Caribbean PR (@RoyalCaribPR) March 9, 2015

Meyer Werft had previously scheduled Anthem of the Seas' conveyance to March 11 but that timetable has now been updated to March 10.

UPDATE: Royal Caribbean has also released new infographics all about the upcoming Anthem of the Seas conveyance to explain how it all works.

A tropical depression in the South Pacific has forced Royal Caribbean to change the itinerary of two of its cruise ships.

Cruise Critic is reporting that Rhapsody of the Seas and Voyager of the Seas will both skip a scheduled stop in Fiji to evade the path of the storm.

"Voyager of the Seas is on an 11-night cruise and departed Sydney on 5 March. Rather than sailing further towards Fiji, the ship is now taking a course towards Australia and will spend two nights in Hobart, before returning to Sydney as scheduled on 15 March," the cruise line said in a statement on Monday morning.

"Rhapsody of the Seas is on a 12-night cruise and departed Sydney on 8 March. As this ship departed only yesterday, it has been possible to make adjustments to its itinerary to keep the South Pacific flavour of the cruise, with six port calls planned in Vanuatu and New Caledonia."

Further itinerary changes are possible if the storm's anticipated path changes.

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.

Earlier this week, Royal Caribbean released its 2016-2017 Caribbean deployment plans and it let loose a slew of big changes coming to Royal Caribbean's "back yard" of operations.

There were quite a number of old faces in new places.  Oasis of the Seas is moving to Port Canaveral, Freedom of the Seas is moving to Fort Lauderdale, Enchantment of the Seas is moving to Miami and Rhapsody of the Seas is going to Port Canaveral.  Also, Anthem of the Seas is staying put in Cape Liberty.

The soon-to-be biggest cruise ship in the world, Harmony of the Seas, is coming to Fort Lauderdale, althought it's not yet clear where she will be in the weeks around her launch.  

You can read the entire deployment changes for 2016-2017 here.

Royal Caribbean News

• Royal Caribbean will sell Splendour of the Seas.
• Anthem of the Seas will have her conveyance on March 11.
• We have new photos of Anthem of the Seas in the daytime.
• Ovation of the Seas keel laying and lucky coin ceremony was held this week.
• Royal Caribbean released a new website design.
• We posted a full review of Jamie's Italian specialty restaurant on Quantum of the Seas.
• We also have a review of a recent cruise on Enchantment of the Seas.

Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast

The eighty-third episode of the Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast is now available and this we're talking about Giovanni's Table restaurant.

In this episode, Matt talks about why he thinks Giovanni's Table specialty restaurant is an under-appreciated dining choice and looks over the menu to discuss the good choices available and why you might want to make a reservation for your next cruise.

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

Beyondships.com has a new photo feature on Allure of the Seas.

EatSleepCruise.com has a review of Michael's Genuine Pub on Quantum of the Seas.

In The Loop Travel has tips to avoid hidden costs on your cruise.

Personally, I love night time photos of Royal Caribbean ships because of the contrast between the lights onboard and the darkness but these same ships are equally as beautiful in the daylight hours as well.

Today, we have some brand new photos by Jeroen Houtman of Anthem of the Seas in the harbor outside Meyer Werft shipyard in Germany during the daylight hours.

Anthem of the Seas is just days away from her conveyance up the River Ems and here's another look at what she looks like these days. Enjoy!

Royal Caribbean's newest cruise ship, Anthem of the Seas, will have her conveyance down the River Ems on March 11, 2015.

Anthem of the Seas' conveyance will take the ship from Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany along the Ems River to the North Sea.

The conveyance is scheduled to being at 6:00am local time and should arrive at Eemshaven around 9:00pm. This schedule is subject to change.

The river conveyance is necessary because the Meyer Werft shipyard is located inland to avoid the North Sea's unpredicatability.