It looks like part of Royal Caribbean's plans for 2015 include swapping Jewel of the Seas and Navigator of the Seas.  Royal Caribbean will move the larger Navigator of the Seas to San Juan in 2015 according to a report by Caribbean Business.

The change will occur in May 2015 according to the report and is a good sign for the blossoming cruise port of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Caribbean Business writes, "In May 2015, Royal Caribbean is scheduled to replace the Jewel of the Seas—which currently carries out weekly trips, with San Juan as its homeport—with a bigger ship, the Navigator of the Seas." 

Royal Caribbean is rumored to be releasing their 2015/2016 deployment schedule sometime in the timeframe of late February or March 2014.

Hi everyone, I'm really excited to announce our next live-blog experience as we get ready for a cruise aboard Navigator of the Seas for a 7-night Western Caribbean adventure.

It is my hope to provide to our readers a daily look at what this cruise will be like and share our experiences with you.  This means I will try to post photos every day along with a written report of how things are going (internet permitting).

If you're new to our live blogs, check out the live blogs we did for Freedom of the Seas and Jewel of the Seas last year for an idea of what's in store for you. I'm hoping to give our readers a daily look into what we did that day, what was good/not good and what we have planned for the next day.  

For this cruise, we're flying from New York to Houston, Texas on Saturday, February 8 to start our adventure. We're flying in a day early because we want to be good little cruisers and make sure we get to our port in plenty of time and be able to enjoy some time in Galveston (the port our ship leaves from).  Luckily a friend of a friend (hi Paul!) is giving us a ride to and from the airport, which is making things very easy on us.

Our flight leaves New York at 10:00am, so we will be arriving in Houston with enough time to get to Galveston and explore a little. We ended up booking the Galveston Beach Hotel through Name Your Own price option on Priceline, which got us a really good rate compared to anything else we found online.  The next day, we will board Navigator of the Seas as early as humanly possible and start the real fun on February 9th!

This is our first time on Navigator of the Seas and what drew me to this cruise is it is her first 7-night cruise since her month long drydock, where she received a number of upgrades. Many of these upgrades are really quite interesting and unique to Navigator of the Seas and I'm really excited to see them in person.  Also, my daughter is old enough for Adventure Ocean this cruise so I know she is excited to try it and I'm excited to have time with my wife enjoying the new ship just the two of us.

In addition to the exciting changes coming to Navigator of the Seas, the itinerary really appealed to us.  We've never been to Belize City or Roatan previously and have always enjoyed our time in Cozumel.  I've blogged about our plans for Cozumel, Belize City and Roatan, so you can see what we're thinking for those stops.

Who is going

Matt (me), Marissa (wife) & Gabriella (3 year old daughter).

Our itinerary

Next update should be on our Galveston day, Saturday, February 8.  Stay tuned for all of our live blog updates right here.

Unfortunately Royal Caribbean news was dominated this week by the outbreak of gastrointestinal sickness (most likely Norovirus) on Explorer of the Seas.

After hundreds of passengers got sick earlier in the week, Royal Caribbean decided to bring the ship back two days early for thorough cleaning.  Royal Caribbean also went a step further to offer 50% refunds on the cruise fare to all passengers on the ill-fated ship.

In the end, over 600 cruise passengers became sick and it created a media circus around the ship.  Royal Caribbean apologized to its guests for disappointing them and will take "several steps to compensate them for their inconvenience."

Royal Caribbean News

• Royal Caribbean posted its fourth quarter profits that beat Wall Street estimates.
• Royal Caribbean decided to skip the option to build a fourth Quantum-class cruise ship.
• However, Royal Caribbean is still considering building a fourth Oasis-class ship.
• Royal Caribbean signed a five-year deal with the Port of Galveston.
• Here's our guide to avoid getting sick with Norovirus on your cruise.
• How to make Royal Caribbean specialty restaurant reservations.
• We have a preview of Royal Caribbean's virtual balconies that debut next week.

Royal Caribbean Podcast

In the mood for a beach day? The twenty-sixth episode of the Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast is available and we're exploring Royal Caribbean's private island of CocoCay.

In this episode, Matt gives an overview of this island paradise including what there is to do here, the dining options on the island and a look at the cabanas available to rent.  This island in the Bahamas is a popular destination for Royal Caribbean fans because of how beautiful the landscape is and how relaxing an experience it is.

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

CruizeCast has a new podcast episode out, with a review of the Caribbean Princess.

Cruise Critic has a look at what it's like to have Norovirus and be quarantined on a cruise ship.

When Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas emerges from dry dock next week, among the new changes onboard the ship will be virtual balcony staterooms that feature an 80 inch high definition LCD screen in select inside staterooms.

Fox News interviewed Ronnie Farzad, Royal Caribbean’s head of entertainment technology, and he says the new screens stretch from nearly floor to ceiling and wall to wall, complete with the sound of the seas in real-time from the camera location. Royal Caribbean is also included a banister for a feeling of safety.

Why a banister?  Well, Royal Caribbean told Fox News that they tested a simulated virtual balcony with 30 to 40 people at Royal Caribbean headquarters, and many of the testers complained that an open ocean view is a little scary because there was nothing to keep passengers from “falling in,” especially if the ship is moving in high seas, Farzad said.  

While Navigator of the Seas only has about 80 staterooms with virtual balconies, there will be a virtual balcony in every interior cabin on Quantum of the Seas. There will even be smaller virtual balconies in the studio staterooms that accomodate solo cruisers on Quamtum of the Seas.

Charlie Miller of Control Systems, the concept design company behind the virtual balconies, spoke to Fox News about several of the challenges in creating an authentic feel to Royal Caribbean’s virtual balconies. 

Another challenge was making it all look the way designers envisioned, as Fox News reports, "Designers wanted to create virtual banisters and even balusters, the vertical poles that hold the banisters in place. But the banister had to appear to be outside the window, like on a real balcony. And that created a whole new set of visual challenges, because the look of a real banister changes all the time as the sun and the ship change directions. The answer was to incorporate sun movement charts and powerful GPS data to add “real” shadows and highlights to the virtual banisters. At the same time, they decided not to put virtual glass between the balusters."

Last week plans for construction to begin on the renovations of Cape Liberty's cruise terminal were halted after the construction plans impacted a September 11th memorial.  The renovation plans are back on track now after the Port Authority has come up with a plan for ensuring the 9/11 memorial is not destroyed.

NJ.com is reporting the small group of memorial pavers that encircle the 9/11 Teardrop Memorial at the south end of the Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor will be temporarily removed when repair work at the site begins.

The renovation work on the terminal is necessary to allow the port to accomodate Royal Caribbean's newest cruise ship Quantum of the Seas for her November 2014 arrival.

“The start of the construction is contingent on the city of Bayonne’s approval,” said Port Authority spokesman, Steve Coleman.

Coleman estimates the pavers will be out of the 9/11 memorial ground for roughly three to five months.

“These pavers will be restored to their original locations when the work is finished,” said Coleman.

It's Friday and naturally we are sharing fun Royal Caribbean photos that our readers sent in.  In fact, every week we ask our readers to send us their best Royal Caribbean photos to share with everyone!

Our first photo this week comes from Don Donahue, who took this photo of a Cruise Critic cabin crawl while on Brilliance of the Seas. A cabin crawl is when everyone in the group allows others in the group to come see their cabins so people can get a sense of the differences.  

Next we have a photo from Kayla of her husband on Radiance of the Seas enjoying a beer while playing mini golf.  If this isn't relaxing then I don't know what is.

Here's a photo from Phil Catarella of Radiance of the Seas anchored in Moorea, French Polynesia.  I'd love to take a Royal Caribbean cruise like this to be able to visit the south Pacific!

How about a perfect pool day on Adventure of the Seas?  Neil Davies sent us this photo from his trans-Atlantic cruise and it looks lovely!

Chris Davis sent us this photo of Explorer of the Seas, as seen from the top of the Empire State Building in January 2014.  Great view (and zoom lens)!

Lastly we have Enchantment of the Seas coming into port at 6:30 the morning of January 10th. Kelly Tarman sent us this photo and she writes, "It was our kids first cruise and they were very excited to board her just a few short hours later, so we drove to the pier to capture her arrival into Port Canaveral."  Love that excitement Kelly!

Is your photo missing from here?  Well, send all your Royal Caribbean photos in right now and we can use it for upcoming Friday Photo blog posts! 

British TV star Tom Daley, who is well known in the UK for his television show on ITV called, "Splash", helped begin Royal Caribbean's new marketing campaign to highlight Caribbean cruises aboard Allure of the Seas.

The campaign is called "Caribbean Cup" and stars Daley along with Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe and American gymnast Gabby Douglas in a variety of athletic challenges including surfing, rock climbing and dodgeball on board Allure of the Seas.

Royal Caribbean UK recruited the athletes to show off the fun things you can on a Royal Caribbean ship while enjoying a Caribbean cruise.

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

Episode 26 is available for downloading where we look at why you might want to book a transatlantic cruise.

Matt looks at Royal Caribbean's private island of CocoCay and explores what there is to see and do here.  The private oasis is the perfect place for a day by the sea and also offers activities for those looking to be more active.  From the beaches to the food to the cabanas, there's a lot of great activities to choose from when visiting CocoCay.

Here’s the podcast page for Episode 26. 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!

Sadly with the outbreak of Norovirus on Royal Caribbean's Explorer of the Seas, there's a lot of attention being put on this nasty little bug.  The good news is if you are going on a cruise, there are steps you can take to avoid getting infected too.

How do you get Norovirus?

It's important to understand how Norovirus is spread to be able to avoid getting it.  Norovirus is acute gastroenteritis, which generates symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhea and stomach pain.  

Norovirus is spread from person to person through food or water that is contaminated with the virus as well as touching contaminated surfaces.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says Norovirus is commonly spread by contact with people who are infected by the virus.

How can you avoid getting Norovirus?

• First and foremost, washing your hands thoroughly with warm water and soap prior to eating or drinking is the best defense.  
• In addition, washing your hands after using the restroom is always a good idea.
• If someone you know is sick, keep in mind they can spread the disease up to 3 days after they recover so avoid contact with them.
• If an outbreak happens, also refrain from shaking hands.  
• If any clothing is contaminated with vomit or stool, be sure to wash the clothing immediately to avoid the spread of the virus.

Norovirus requires you to get in physical contact with it.  It's not spread via the air and with good hygiene, you can stand a good chance of avoiding getting sick.

For its guests returning early on the Explorer of the Seas cruise that was struck by gastroenteritis, Royal Caribbean will give them compensation for not only the lost time but also the poor experience.

CNN reports that all passengers will get a 50% refund of their fare as well as a 50% future cruise credit.

Royal Caribbean is also giving passengers that were quarantined in their cabins due to the Norovirus-like symptoms an additional credit of one future cruise day for each day they were kept secluded.

On top of all this, Royal Caribbean is reimbursing any change fees imposed by the airlines to book travel home due to the early return.

More than 600 passengers reported feeling sick on the cruise, which has garnered headlines around the world.  Royal Caribbean made the decision to bring the ship back early to perform thorough sanitization of the ship.