I love time lapse videos and today we've got a brand new one from our friend Marian Krueger that encompasses walking the entire length of Oasis of the Seas in just 22 minutes.
Enjoy this (accelerated) look at Oasis!
Check out this new video by Royal Caribbean that takes a look at all the fun activities found in the SeaPlex on Quantum of the Seas.
From bumper cars to circus school, SeaPlex brings out the playful side of guests.
When you're trying to pick the right Royal Caribbean cruise for you, there's a lot to choose from. Royal Caribbean currently has 26 ships in its fleet and that's a lot to choose from. Let's discuss what the differences (and similarities) are and which one is great for you.
Royal Caribbean ships do vary considerably in size, from ships that can handle around 2000 passengers to ships that top out over 5000 passengers.
The first thing to understand are the classes of ships. Royal Caribbean has 7 classes of ships in active service to choose from.
Ship classes are categories of ships that have a very similar size, amenities and layout. Think of ship classes like car models. Every Ford Mustang for any given year is based on the same build, but individual cars can have slightly different options.
By looking first at ship classes, you get to more easily see key differences between the ships. Each class is fairly unique but you will notice similarities too.
Understanding the what each ship offers is important. Even among sibling ships, there are some differences. For example, Liberty of the Seas offers a Broadway show whereas none of its sibling ships have one.
The differences between ships used to be much larger but Royal Caribbean embarked upon a fleet-wide refurbishment in the last few years to bring innovations first developed for the Oasis-class onto older ships in the fleet. To be honest, the changes have breathed new life into these older ships and now the differences between all ships has been greatly reduced.
That brings up ship age. The tendency in the cruising industry is to build bigger ships each time, so typically the smaller ships are also the older ships. That's not always the case but generally speaking, the last few classes of Royal Caribbean ships (Quantum, Oasis, Freedom, Voyager) are signifigantly bigger than the older classes of ships.
The newest class of ships are Quantum, Oasis and Freedom class. The oldest is the Vision class.
Of course, age doesn't tell the whole story. In fact, many Royal Caribbean fans will tell you the older ships are their favorite ships. Smaller ships offer a much more intimate cruise experience and they often have things the larger ships do not, like more vantage points to the ocean.
Newer cruise ships have more of the fancier and newer technologies, which can factor into your decision but the recent fleet-wide refurbishment mentioned earlier did help quite a bit in "leveling the playing field".
You shouldn't make your decision based purely on ship age but it's a key difference between the ships.
When picking the right ship for you, look at these key factors
Each Royal Caribbean ship offers a lot to do but if the hyped up features don't interest you, then it may not be perfect for you. Oasis of the Seas offers zip lining, Broadway shows, a surf simulator and over a dozen restaurants but if all you want to do is enjoy pool time and read, then perhaps it's more than you need.
Likewise, if you've got children, the newer ships in the fleet have larger and newer kids club facilities that will be a better fit. Look at the features each ship has and see which are relevant most to you.
I love the newest ships Royal Caribbean rolls out, but if I can get a similar cruise on a smaller ship for a fraction of the cost, then I'll gladly take it.
Pricing fluxuates a lot but newer ships command a higher price, so if there's a deal to be found, then consider that option too. You shouldn't let price solely dictate which ship you pick, but it's a powerful factor.
One advantage smaller Royal Caribbean ships have over larger ones is they can go to many ports the big ones cannot.
Many ports in Europe, Asia and the Pacific can't handle the new mega-cruise ships Royal Caribbean has built so if you have your heart set on certain ports of call, make sure the ship you pick can get you there.
If it's Friday, that means it is time to share some more awesome photos our readers have sent in of their Royal Caribbean cruise vacations! As always, we want your photos too, so send us your best Royal Caribbean photos so we can share it with the world.
We begin this week with a photo by Ken Slusser of an aft view from the port side bridge wing during his All Access Tour on ALlure of the Seas. Must be nice to have this be your "office".
Here's another tour photo, this one by Phil Catarella of appetizers being prepared on Allure of the Seas during his galley tour. Is it wrong for me to "test" the food being prepared? You know...for safety.
Here's a timely shot of the fall foliage along the coast of Quebec, Canada during John Siegmund's Legend of the Seas cruise this year. Beautiful!
Mary sent us this photo of Radiance of the Seas docked in Vancouver and ready to go. Looks like the perfect way to see Alaska!
Lastly, here's a photo by Paul Jordan of Navigator of the Seas in Cozumel. Yo quiero un Navigator of the Seas crucero!
Thanks to everyone who sent in their photos this week. Be sure to send your photos in as well by using this form.
Speaking at the CruiseWorld conference, Royal Caribbean President Adam Goldstein indicated the rollout of its new RFID wristbands, known as WOWbands, will take several years before they are available across all of Royal Caribbean's ships.
While the RFID technology behind the WOWbands are fairly simple, the new shipboard property management system that the WOWbands rely on takes much more time to install.
WOWbands will be added ship by ship, although we do not have any indication as of yet which ship will get WOWbands next.
Royal Caribbean has awarded Lexis a four-way pitch for the UK and Ireland account.
Lexis will manage the Royal Caribbean UK's corporate, consumer and crisis PR as well as raising its the awareness amongst a ‘new to cruise’ consumer audience, by tackling misconceptions of cruise vacations.
Royal Caribbean UK's PR was previoulsy managed by Siren Communications.
Royal Caribbean UK & Ireland Director of Marketing, Jo Briody, commented on the deal with Lexis, "Lexis impressed us with its understanding of our core challenges and with its creativity. We are leading change in the cruise industry and want to take a fresh approach to our communications. Lexis shares our passion for the brand and demonstrated the ability to challenge misconceptions and positively influence people outside of the cruise sector."
Royal Caribbean has released a new video with Quantum of the Seas' captain, discussing how the bridge crew navigates a ship across the Atlantic Ocean for her maiden voyage.
When Royal Caribbean announced the concept of a virtual balcony on Quantum of the Seas, it was a big deal because it offered passengers in an inside cabin a view without the cost of a balcony or even oceanview stateroom.
Today we have a new video by Royal Caribbean that has a behind the scenes view on this unique feature found on the world's smartest ship.
Speaking of virtual balconies, don't miss our exclusive interview with the team that built the virtual balcony!
These days, Royal Caribbean is rolling out brand new restaurant and dining concepts by the handful. But not all restaurants Royal Caribbean opens stay open forever.
We thought it might be fun to look back at the restaurants Royal Caribbean has said goodbye to as well as the ones that are nearly extinct (endangered?).
Seafood Shack was a brand new restaurant when Oasis of the Seas first debuted. As the name implies, it served up seafood in an open-air restaurant in the Boardwalk neighborhood.
Originally, the Seafood Shack charged guests a cover charge but later Royal Caribbean changed it to be a la carte pricing.
The axe came swiftly for Seafood Shack just a few weeks ago when Oasis of the Seas underwent its 5-year drydock refurbishment and it was replaced by Sabor Modern Mexican.
The Seafood Shack failed to connect with cruisers and the changes in pricing seemed to be indicative of efforts to get more passengers eating there but it never became a fan favorite.
At one point, Portofino was Royal Caribbean's signature Italian specialty restaurant. Along with Chops Grille, Portofino was being rolled out across Royal Caribbean's fleet.
When the Oasis-class of cruise ships debuted, they noticably were missing Portofino and had introduced a new Italian restaurant, Giovanni's Table. Would there be room for two kinds of Italian restaurants in Royal Caribbean's fleet?
Turns out the answer was no, as the fleet-wide refurbishment replaced existing Portofino restaurants with Giovanni's Table.
Portofino still exists on a few ships, but Royal Caribbean has quietly confirmed they are on their way out in favor of Giovanni's Table. We will never know the exact reason for the swapping of Italian restaurants, but it's likely a part of a shift in the onboard dining strategy Royal Caribbean instituted.
If you've ever cruised on a Radiance-class ship, you've probably dined a few times at the Seaview Cafe.
Part sit down, part quick service, the Seaview Cafe offers freshly made sandwiches, soups and snacks with a view of the ocean. It was quite popular among Royal Caribbean fans as being a "hidden" secret.
Like Portofino, Royal Caribbean decided to remove Seaview Cafe in favor of adding new specialty restaurants. Only one Seaview Cafe remains on Jewel of the Seas, which will also be removed once Jewel of the Seas receives her refurbishment.
Seaview Cafe was an interesting restaurant experience and unique to the Radiance-class. Replacing it with specialty restaurants made sense from a business perspective, but fans lament its loss for the simple yet incredibly tasty fresh food.
Asian food has always been a popular cuisine and Royal Caribbean looked to capitalize on its popularity with a special section in the Windjammer just for that, called Jade.
Jade offered sushi, a variety of Chinese, Thai and Indian dishes along with a few Asian soups. I personally enjoyed the make your own miso soup bar.
Jade was never the best Asian food you'd ever have, but it was complimentary and the main dishes changed each evening. The sushi wasn't great but at the time, it was the only choice we had.
When the Oasis-class of ships introduced the Izumi specialty restaurant, the Jade sections started to be removed in favor of Izumi. Izumi offered much better quality sushi and Japanese food, albeit at a price.
Much like Portofino, only a few ships have Jade these days and they too will be replaced eventually.
The Cupcake Cupboard was a small shop on the Oasis-class promenade that aimed to capitalize on the rising popularity of cupcakes as a stand-alone product.
In addition to offering cupcakes to eat, there were decorating classes for kids and adults.
Even after debuting on the Oasis-class, the Cupcake Cupboard made its way to other Royal Caribbean ships during the fleet-wide upgrades. As ships were upgraded, the Cupcake Cupboard started to go from a small shop to an offering at Cafe Promenade.
When Oasis of the Seas received her refurbishment, Cupcake Cupboard was evicted in favor of a Kate Spade store.
I believe revenue from Cupcake Cupboard was not great enough to warrant the prime real estate it occupied but on Navigator of the Seas, you could find slimmed down Cupcake Cupboard offerings from Cafe Promenade, which allowed Royal Caribbean to offer the tasty treats without all the space.
This one is up for debate how endangered the Main Dining Room is because as of the time of this post, the Main Dining Room has only been removed from Quantum and Oasis-class ships but Royal Caribbean waiting to see how its replacement does.
Dynamic Dining is the new dining concept initially introduced on the Quantum-class of cruise ships that eliminates a main dining room and replaces it with smaller restaurants. The idea is to give guests a greater variety of choice for dinner and without the formality of the main dining room.
Perhaps the main dining room will soon meet a similar fate as other restaurants in this list or perhaps the Dynamic Dining concept will not advance any further. Time will tell.
Of the restaurants listed here, which do you miss the most? Is there a restaurant here you'd love to have one more meal in? Share your thoughts in this post's comments!
Our newest podcast episode is out to help give you a quick "audio escape" to a Royal Caribbean cruise!
Episode 66 is available for downloading, where Matt previews his upcoming 2-night cruise on the brand new Quantum of the Seas.
Matt will be boarding Royal Caribbean's newest ship next week for a glimpse at what this ship has to offer. Matt previews what he has planned for the cruise, what he's excited about and previews what content will be coming to the blog as a result of this cruise.
Here’s the podcast page for Episode 66. 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!