In the 2012 readers poll for Best Large Cruise Ships in the world by Condé Nast Traveler, six Royal Caribbean cruise ships received recognition.

Of the top 20, the six Royal Caribbean ships to make list were (with rank in the poll next to it)

• Oasis of the Seas (9)
• Liberty of the Seas (10)
• Independence of the Seas (12)
• Freedom of the Seas (13)
• Allure of the Seas (16)
• Voyager of the Seas (20)

The Royal Caribbean ships to make the list are among the largest cruise ships in the world and also among the newest.  Nearly all of them are based in the United States with Independence of the Seas and Voyager of the Seas spending part of their time in Europe and Asia respectively.

Royal Caribbean is holding auditions for Saturday Night Fever, which is shown on Liberty of the Seas.  The auditions will begin in February in cities such as New York, London and Hollywood, Florida.

Royal Caribbean Productions is casting roles for, which include Bobby C, Annette, Stephanie Mangano, Tony Manero, Gus, Double J, Flo Manero, and Monty/Frank Sr. There are also auditions for other minor roles such as dancers and singers.

If you're interested in auditioning, you can find out more information about auditions by going to the Royal Caribbean Productions page for a full list of dates and locations.

Saturday Night Fever is a Broadway play that is inspired by the 1977 film of the same name that focuses on Tony Manero, a Brooklyn youth whose weekend is spent at the local discotheque.

Royal Caribbean has rolled out its new advertising message, dubbed "Designed for Wow" in television commercials that began airing on January 7th.

This new marketing campaign follows last year's "The Sea is Calling" theme.

Royal Caribbean Executive Vice President of Marketing, Lisa Bauer, says the new commercials are based on market research.  She also said the "shell phone" that was a major part of last year's commercials will not return for this year's ads.

The 30-second commercials show various activities unique to Royal Caribbean ships, combined with reaction shots from passengers.

Featured are the zipline and Aqua Theater from the Oasis-class ships, but also the Flow Rider surfing experience and ice skating rinks found on older ships.  

Royal Caribbean was named Best Cruise Company by Norwegian's travel industry competition known as the Grand Travel Awards.  This award is the 18th consecutive time Royal Caribbean has won the award.

The award ceremony was held at the annual Grand Travel Awards at the Radisson BLU Scandinavia Hotel, where Royal Caribbean Generam Manager of Nordic Countries Roar Meidal accepted the award.

"We are very grateful to have received this award enough away. The fact that travel agents have voted us back to the best cruise company gives us the motivation to continue to offer the best cruise experiences.  We had not done it alone."

Meidal believes that the award has to be shared by both passengers and travel agents.

"We see that more and more people get their eyes opened to cruise as a holiday form. It is clear that the combination of relaxation, activity and adventure tempts many. Now we plan to take the prize home two more times, so that we can write us 20 straight victories."

Royal Caribbean has agreed to extend its satellite TV channel contract with Oceans TV for two of its cruise ships.

The first agreement extends the service for Serenade of the Seas while it cruises in Europe and the Middle East in Winter and Spring 2013. This will provide channels such as BBC World News, BBC Entertainment and CNBC Europe for English speaking passengers. Passengers from Italy can watch Rai News, Rai 1 and Mediaset Italia; TF1 and AB1 are available for French passengers while TVE Internacional and RTL Schweiz can be viewed by Spanish and German speakers respectively.

The second agreement Royal Caribbean extended its satellite TV channels for Splendour of the Seas.  As Splendour cruises the waters of South America, it will provide Brazil's largest commercial television network which is watched by an estimated 120 million people daily across Latin America.

As well as satellite TV channels, Oceans TV supplies cruise lines with live events, international movies, promotional videos, safety films and portable entertainment systems such as the iPad and Sony PSP.  

At the 6th Annual Leisure Travel Leaders Awards, Royal Caribbean won two big awards for the cruise line.

Royal Caribbean won "Best Cruise Line Overall" and "Best Contemporary (Mass-Market) Line.

Leisure Travel Leaders awards are based on a survey sent to the more than 20,000 home-based travel agent readers of Agent@Home magazine, the more than 29,000 leisure-selling travel agent readers of Vacation Agent magazine, and the 65,000-plus travel agent readers of Travel Pulse Dailon TravelPulse.com. 

O3b Networks announced that it has signed a second mult-year deal with Royal Carinbbean to bring high-speed satellite internet service to another of it's ships, this time Allure of the Seas.  

The agreement will provide guests and crew aboard Allure of the Seas with internet service that is anticipated to be four times more responsive than existing and planned GEO satellite systems.

Royal Caribbean and O3b signed a deal last summer to provide O3b’s new maritime offering O3bMaritime aboard Oasis of the Seas.  

Royal Caribbean Chief Information Officer Bill Martin commented on the agreement, "Cruise ship guests expect the same quality voice and Internet services they experience on land. We are proud to be the first cruise line to offer guests and crew aboard our innovative Oasis class of ships connectivity services that are in a league of their own. This latest agreement underlines our confidence in O3b Networks and the game-changing level of connectivity it is set to provide aboard our ships.”

O3b describes their internet service as "fiber-like speeds at sea".