For the upcoming National Cruise Vacation Week, Royal Caribbean is offering up to $100 onboard credit on any seven-night Caribbean cruise during summer 2014.

Between October 20 and 25, those that book an interior or ocean view stateroom will recieve $50 onboard credit using option code SPO1.  If you book a balcony or suite-category stateroom, you can get $100 per stateroom (option code SPO2).  The onboard credit is valid for new individual booking on a seven-night Caribbean itinerary, sailing from June 1 through August 31, 2014. The National Cruise Vacation Week offer is applicable only on new individual bookings and the option code must be registered at the time of booking.

Details about Royal Caribbean’s National Cruise Vacation Week offer will be available during the week of October 14 at www.RoyalCaribbean.com/VacationWeek. 

It's Friday and that means we are sharing great Royal Caribbean photos our readers have sent in and once again, we have a fantastic batch to share with everyone.  We want your photos too, so send us your best Royal Caribbean photos so we can share it with the world.

The first photo this week is from Angela Lee, who has a story to share with this photo.  

My friend and I are not new to cruising. If anything we been on a handful of cruises and as much as we like having fun on the islands we visit we have even more fun on the ship as well. We make it a point to attend all the trivia games the ship offers as well as others they have. Time after time, we feel like such losers when we attend these games.

However, this year on the Jewel of the Seas, we are finally winners. This picture is us placing 3rd place when we played in The Quest. It was our proud moment. Also, we did randomly win other prizes when we played all the trivia games offered on Jewel of the Seas. All in all, we are dorks and love the trivia and live to play all these games on any Royal Caribbean ship. As much as it is fun to win, just the journey to get there is even more fun.

Next we have a photo from Giulio Saggin of Radiance of the Seas that was taken from a helicopter ride!  Here's Giulio's description:

Rather than embark on a short cruise to see if we liked cruising, we jumped into the deep end and spent 17 nights cruising from Honolulu to Sydney in Sept/Oct 2011. On the way we stopped off at, among
other places, Bora Bora. We decided to go on a helicopter ride and this photo of Radiance of the Seas at Bora Bora was taken on that helicopter ride.

Gene M. Hagen sent us this photo of Oasis of the Seas in St. Maarten. Gene just couldn't help comparing Royal Caribbean's largest cruise ship to Carnival Cruise Line's largest ship (at the time), the Carnival Dream. Nothing wrong with a little gloating!

Next is a photo from Maureen of Rhapsody of the Seas parked behind the Sea Shepherd 'Steve Irwin' in Hobart Tasmania.  She said she got to go onboard the Shepherd and the accommodation was basic to say the least, compared to Rhapsody!

Veteran Friday Photos reader Harry Yerikyan sent this photo from his cruise on Allure of the Seas last month.  I'm sure he misses being onboard and seeing this photo makes me yearn to be back and I wasn't even on his cruise!

Last is a photo from Kris of an absolutely beautiful sunset as seen on Freedom of the Seas this past February.  Lovely!

Thank you to everyone who sent in their photos this week. Have a great weekend and be sure to send us your photos so we can post them next week by using this form.

Last week Royal Caribbean's Jewel of the Seas was involved in a rescue of three Americans who were in the ocean for 10 hours and a couple from Massachusetts was onboard and shared their story.

Roy and Kendra Nagy were awoken from their balcony cabin at 4am by cries for help coming from the ocean.  They alerted the crew to what they heard and the ship's Captain Tore Oslen stopped the ship, issued an alarm throughout the entire ship that someone was overboard, and sent out a boat to search the water. 

"They shined a spotlight in the water, and we could see a person waving his arms frantically, so we were thrilled that somebody was going to be rescued," Nagy said. "They were without food, water and floating without lifejackets for hours, so they were in real tough shape."

You can read the whole story at Nashoba Publishing.

Royal Caribbean was named cruise line of the year for the sixth consecutive year at the TTG Travel Awards Asia 2013. 

The award was presented to Royal Caribbean at the awards ceremony in Bangkok, Thailand. The TTG Travel Awards are given each year to celebrate the organizations operating in the tourism industry in Asia-Pacific for their commitment to service excellence. 

Royal Caribbean won the award in part due to its new Voyager-class ships in Asia that have brought new offerings to families, such as the Royal Promenade, the ice skating rink and sports court, as well as the personalized Gold Anchor Service, the flagship of the brand.

Royal Caribbean is set to double the amount of Crown and Anchor Society points each cruise solo cruisers recieve.  Instead of just one point per night, solo cruisers will recieve two points per night sailed.

The change is being made because solo cruisers pay a special solo rate, which is essentially double the normal rate.  Therefore, paying double should net you double the points.

Cruise Tricks is reporting the change in points will be applied to all cruises in October 2013 and going forward.  

In addition, any solo cruisers that book a suite will recieve three points per night, which is an extra point above what anyone that books a suite with at least double occupancy.

Crown and Anchor Society is Royal Caribbean's loyalty program that was changed back in 2011 to reflect more points for longer cruises.

Hello Royal Caribbean fans! We've got an audio fix for all you commuters, walkers, joggers, bike riders and working stiffs!

The Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast is back with another great show! The 10th episode of our podcast is now up and ready for downloading!

In this episode, Matt explores the different unlimited alcohol packages Royal Caribbean offers to its guests and describes what each package includes, how much you have to drink to get your moneys worth out of it and answer the always difficult question of are the unlimited alcohol packages worth it.

We will also share more listener feedback, including your questions and comments.

Here’s the podcast page for Episode 10. 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!

If you think the perfect Caribbean beach is somewhere with crystal clear water that has beautiful color and delicious mixed cocktails, then we have the spot for you.  Located on the French side of St. Martin as part of the larger Orient Beach region, Bikini Beach is one of the most beautiful beaches in the Caribbean and a great place to spend a day.

Description

Bikini Beach is part of Orient Beach on the French side of St. Martin (St. Maarten).  Orient Beach is known for being quite beautiful and the Bikini Beach operation offers services that are sure to make your time at the beach as relaxing as possible.

Getting to Bikini Beach from your cruise ship will require a taxi/car ride of about 20-30 minutes.  Like all beaches on St. Martin/St. Maarten, admission to the beach is free but use of the services does cost extra.  Four chairs and 2 umbrellas will run $20, which is a fair price in the Caribbean.  In addition, bar and restaurant service is available either by waiter to your beach chair or you can walk to the bar area and enjoy lunch there.

By far the reason to visit Bikin Beach is the beautiful beach.  The water color is the sort of thing you see in postcards and the water is amazingly clear.  Orient Beach is such a large beach that there's a number of other operations set up on the beach similar to Bikini Beach, but the size of the area helps keep crowds manageable.

For an additional cost, there are some water toys you may get access to.  During our visit, for $10 per person, you could use the trampoline, log and water obstacle.  The beach also partners with locals who can provide other services such as jet skiing, parasailing and massages for an additional cost as well.

Like many beaches in the Caribbean, locals will walk up and down the beach offering services and goods for sale.  A simple no is usually enough to send them on their way to the next guest.

Comments

There's no question that the ocean here is the main attraction and the color and vividness of the water really made this one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever been to.  If you want a beach with some of the best looking water you've ever seen, this is the beach for you.  The sand is also really soft and no rocks or shells to really speak of (at least none that you can feel while walking).  Once in the water, the bottom is sandy and free of rocks for the most part so no water shoes required.

While the beach is great, the icing on the cake is the service provided by the Bikini Beach staff.  There's wait staff that will deliver any food and drink you need to right to your beach chair.  Prices for the food and drink are about what you might pay at an average restaurant in the United States, so it isn't a tremendous value but when you're on vacation at a beautiful beach, it just feels nice to have someone bring you drinks without having to get up.  The wait staff was also attentive and we never had to play "where did the waiter go" game.

The bar also has more formal tables that are covered to sit at if you prefer to get away from the water while you have a snack or drink. The staff claims there is a WiFi signal that guests can access but you essentially have to walk into the parking lot to access it and I was never able to actually connect.  The staff also natively speaks French but their English is more than adequate.

We happened to visit Bikini Beach during the off season but Orient Beach in general can get full during the busier months of the year.  Make sure you get off your Royal Caribbean cruise early and go directly to the beach for the best availability.  

Because Bikini Beach is on the French side of St. Martin, topless sunbathing is possible so it's something to consider if that sort of thing bothers you.

Overall, Bikini Beach is a wonderful choice for anyone that wants beautiful water, a great beach and bar/restaurant service on top of it.  The level of service was terrific and it's hard to beat the view.

Address: Orient Bay, St Martin

Cost: Beach admission free; Use of chairs and umbrellas additional cost.

Royal Caribbean Quantum Experience Advisor Dhani Jones is the center of this new Quantum of the Seas webisode all about how Jones will help create a game plan for active cruising onboard its newest ship.