The latest Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast episode is now available for your listening pleasure.

Episode 13 is now available for downloading and it's a look into one our listeners' upcoming cruise.

In this episode, we invited listener Michael Poole to join us and preview his upcoming cruise on Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas.  Michael is embarking on this exciting vacation this weekend and he's shared with us what balcony he booked, his dining plans onboard, activities he wants to try and more.

We are also answering more listener emails this week all about Royal Caribbean cruising.

Here’s the podcast page for Episode 13. 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!

Quantum of the Seas Experience Advisor and interior designer Genevieve Gorder has released her second episode that looks at what inspired her for the ship's design in New York City.

Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas left from Hong Kong's brand newKai TakCruiseTerminal today, the first cruise ship to do so.

Mariner of the Seas took its 3,000 passengers on a cruise heading toward Taiwan,and the sailing was jointly arranged by the Hong Kong Tourism Board and the Taiwan Bureau with Royal Caribbean.

Mariner of the Seas left Hong Kong for Kaohsiung and Keelungin Taiwan on a five-day, four-night cruise.  Mariner of the Seas will return to Hong Kong on November 2nd and then turn around for another cruise to Kaohsiung before returning on November 5th.

This week Royal Caribbean announced when its Voyager-class ships will get 75 new staterrooms per ship as part of its planned refurbishment but did not offer much detail beyond that.  We now think we know where these staterooms will be added.

Thanks to RoyalCaribbeanBlog.com reader Jimbo, it looks like the new staterooms are being added to deck 3 and deck 12.

Comparing old deck layouts of Navigator of the Seas versus what is on the current site, there's a number of staterooms being added.

Old Navigator of the Seas deck plan for deck 12

New Navigator of the Seas deck plan for deck 12

New Navigator of the Seas deck plan for deck 3

Old Navigator of the Seas deck plan for deck 3

It's almost November and that means time is running out of 2013, but that also means that we're close to 2014 and already next year is shaping up to be a big year for Royal Caribbean.

If you're considering booking a Royal Caribbean cruise for 2014 and want to be a part of Royal Caribbean taking a step forward, then consider these cruises (assuming there's still availability).

5. Refurbishments for Adventure of the Seas and Voyager of the Seas

Royal Caribbean CEO Adam Goldstein recently referred to the Voyager class of cruise ships as one of the strongest cruise ship classes Royal Caribbean ever built and starting in 2014, these ships will start to get upgrades.

As part of the fleet-wide refurbishment to add Oasis-class ammentieis to older ships, Adventure of the Seas, Navigator of the Seas (more on this later) and Voyager of the Seas will get some upgrades all around the ship.

In addition to a facelift, the Voyager class ships will get 75 new staterooms on each ship, which means more people can enjoy these newly refitted ships!

4. Explorer of the Seas will move to Port Canaveral - November 2014

Port Canaveral has been a popular port for cruises and Royal Caribbean is upping the ante by adding a third cruise ship.  Joining Freedom of the Seas and Enchantment of the Seas, Explorer of the Seas will offer four- to nine-night cruises.

The Port Canaveral cruise market is always competitive and by offering Explorer of the Seas here, guests can expect more variety in terms of itineraries and cruise ship options.  

Explorer of the Seas has been a popular ship for a long time in New Jersey and this will be the first Voyager-class ship in Port Canaveral since Mariner of the Seas was repositioned.  Plus, three Royal Caribbean ships out of one port that has easy access to a major airport (Orlando)? Sounds like a great option!

3. Oasis of the Seas goes to Europe - September 2014

Ask any Royal Caribbean fan that lives in Europe, and they'll tell you they are excited to finally get the chance to cruise on Royal Caribbean's flagship class.  For the first time ever, an Oasis-class cruise ship will cross the Atlantic and offer a few European cruises.

Oasis of the Seas is really headed to Europe for a quick refurbishment, but Royal Caribbean is offering a few cruises around that drydock stop.  It's just a few cruises before she heads back west to Florida, but if you want to cruise on Oasis of the Seas without having to fly around the world, this is your opportunity.

2. Navigator of the Seas refurbishment ends featuring virtual balconies first - February 2014

If you ask me, the coolest new feature of the Quantum-class cruise ships is the virtual balcony staterooms and before they debut on Quantum of the Seas late in 2014, you can see them first on Navigator of the Seas.

Navigator of the Seas is scheduled for a revitalization in February and when she is done, she'll get the usual Oasis-class upgrades along with one extra change: virtual balconies.  Royal Caribbean is using Navigator of the Seas as a "test bed" for the new technology to figure out any technical issues first here before the grand reveal of Quantum of the Seas.

So if you can't wait for Quantum of the Seas or don't want to pay the premium price she will command, Navigator of the Seas will offer a preview.

1. Quantum of the Seas inaugural cruise - November 14, 2014

There's no question that the event of the year will be Quantum of the Seas first cruise on November 14, 2014.  Royal Caribbean will put the full court press on when it comes to marketing this ship and her first voyage will be an opportunity for Royal Caribbean to pull out all th stops.

Inaugural cruises are always a big deal and there's no doubt Quantum's ceremonial events leading up to the first official cruise will be a sight to see.  

If you want to be a part of history and in the center of it all, this is the cruise for you.  

The weekend is almost here and that means its time to share our readers' Royal Caribbean photos that they have sent in.  Each week we ask everyone reading this to send us your best, favorite and fun Royal Caribbean photos to share with the world.

Once again our readers have responded with some great choices to share so let's jump right in.

Our first photo is from Ross and Pam and it's of Radiance of the Seas at Bora Bora for their 25th anniversary.  I can't think of a better way to celebrate an anniversary than on a cruise ship!

Bradford Benner sent in the next photo, which is him having room service in their Aqua Theater Suite on Oasis of the Seas.  It looks amazing!

Our next photo is from Paul Kitchener and he wrote up a story to share: This shot shows Ålesund: A young port town with an unusually dramatic story to tell. The storm-full winter night of January the 23rd 1904, a devastating fire raged through the streets of Ålesund. During 16 hours, the whole centre of the town - 850 houses - burned to the ground and left 10.000 people homeless. Today tourist are dropped by cruise ships including Adventure of the Sea (one of the largest to come to port) to enjoy a mixture of Art Nouveau and traditional style buildings.

Lastly we have a photo from Harry A. Yerikyan, taken on his Allure of the Seas cruise.

If we didn't include your photo this week, then that means you need to send it in to us for use on a future Friday Photos post.  We want to see your favorite Royal Caribbean cruise photos and you can use this form to send them to us.

Royal Caribbean reported third quarter financial results today and the big "star" of the results was the onboard spending, with a 7% increase overall.  So what is Royal Caribbean's secret?  They think it's all about the revitalization program.

During the financial results conference call, Royal Caribbean Chief Financial Officer Jason Liberty pointed to a few key factors that are part of the fleet-wide renovations to why the company is seeing better guest spending onboard their ships.

• Specialty Restaurants
• Casino
• Internet
• Unlimited alcohol packages
• Shore excursions

"We benefited from new onboard venues introduced as a result of our revitalizations, and we saw further strength in spending from our U.S. customers, which helped generate improvement in gaming, beverage, specialty dining and shore excursions," Liberty said during the conference call.

Royal Caribbean CEO Adam Goldstein elaborated on how the company is looking to get more onboard spending, "So as I believe we mentioned earlier, gaming, beverage, shore excursions, retail and also some of the smaller revenue streams, internet has been doing well for us, which we wanted to see because we made a significant investment in, I think, 7 or 8x more bandwidth to the ships this year, and that seems to be paying off. So a number of the investments that we have already made, we would expect to continue to pay dividends and revenue growth into 2014 and beyond. And we continue to look under every stone for onboard revenue opportunities that don't conflict with the satisfaction of the product offering."

Basically, guests are spending more money in all these aspects and most of these venues are areas of the cruise ships that get upgraded or added as part of the revitalization program.  

When each ship is refurbished, more restaurants are added and wifi is spread out to more areas across the ship. Add to that the new drink packages and Royal Caribbean is offering its guests more opportunities to spend money.

During Royal Caribbean's third quarter financial results conference call, Royal Caribbean CEO Adam Goldstein mentioned that as part of the fleet-wide revitalization program, all Voyager class ships will recieve 75 new staterooms.

Voyager class ships are the next batch of Royal Caribbean's ships to get the upgrades that will roll out many new ammenities and upgrades, first seen on the Oasis class.  These new staterooms, however, are a departure from other ship upgrades and unique to the Voyager class.

The order of upgrades is currently scheduled as follows

• Navigator of the Seas: February 2014
• Adventure of the Seas: April 2014
• Voyager of the Seas: May 2014
• Explorer of the Seas: February 2015

Mariner of the Seas received her upgrade back on May 2, 2012 and did not recieve a stateroom upgrade at that time.

Royal Caribbean reported its third quarter fiscal results today of a net income of $377.9 million or $1.71 per share, compared with $367.8 million or $1.68 per share last year.

Royal Caribbean attributes the increase in revenue compared to last year to close-in demand in Europe and Asia as well as good cost control, despite cost impacts from the Celebrity Millenium unscheduled drydock.

Booked load factors are ahead of this time last year in all four quarters of 2014, according to the company. It forecast that 2014 should be the fifth consecutive year for yield growth.

Prices for the first quarter are in-line with the same time this year and are up for the second, third and fourth quarters.

Royal Caribbean Chairman Richard Fain commented on the company's results, "We are beginning to see the payoff from our efforts to improve returns during these challenging times. We have a ways to go, but our strategy and our investments are driving higher revenues and achieving cost efficiencies that bode well for 2014 and beyond. We are especially grateful for our employees' dedication to our profitability improvement initiatives."

Overseas, things are looking good for Royal Caribbean with booked load factors and rates both up significantly year-over-year for Europe.  Asian bookings are up “considerably” despite a continued territorial dispute between China and Japan.

Advance bookings for Alaska cruises are also “providing encouragement for yield improvement.”

There was one giant guest aboard a recent Royal Caribbean cruise that probably stuck out from all the other guests considering it was 6.5 feet long and tentacles.

Two rare giant species of squid are on their way to the Smithsonian Institution’s preserved cephalopod research collection in Washington DC.  The effort is a joint collaboration between Royal Caribbean, Department of Environment and the University of South Florida St. Petersburg.

The squid, which are about two metres long, are described by local scientists as being in excellent condition and will provide important scientific data as these two deep sea cephalopod species are rarely encountered as adults.

Dr Janice Blumenthal was happy with the assistance Royal Caribbean provided to allow for the specimens to be studied further, "It was a pleasure to work with all the Royal Caribbean staff to arrange this unique transfer. They were extremely efficient in arranging the complex logistics of transporting the rare squid aboard their ship and importing them into the United States – though this was of course the first time any of us had attempted this."