Royal Caribbean is partnering with Barbados Port and SMI Infrastructure Solutions to build a brand new state-of-the-art cruise terminal in Barbados that will cost over $300 million.  The new facility will allow some of the world's biggest cruise ships to dock at the island.

George Hutson, Barbados Minister of International Transport and International Business, announced the two year project at the recent Barbados Port Inc.’s 50th anniversary staff awards ceremony.

“If we are going to remain relevant, if we are going to capitalize on the opportunities available from cruise tourism, we must renew our plant from the basic infrastructure currently existing to one which will accommodate and service the increasingly large cruise ships."

According to Hutson, Barbados is hoping the new cruise terminal will attract more cruise ships to the island, which in turn will lead to increasing revenue generated by cruise passengers on the island.

The new terminal will be completed in two phases, the first phase will cost $300 million and will include two cruise piers, arrival and departure facilities, along with parking lots. The development will take involve reclaiming 15 acres of land from the sea, 100,000 square feet of which will be provided for commercial activity. Dredging is slated to begin in November.

Cruise tourism in Barbados has grown from 127,000 in 1985 to 726,543 last year.  The best year ever for cruise passenger traffic to the island was 2004 when 812,863 people visited the island.

The Ukrainian government will begin promoting the development of a cruise industry in its country, specifically eyeing the ports of Odessa, Sevastopol and Yalta as prime candidates.

Royal Caribbean vice president Craig Maylen met with Ukranian Minister of Infrastructure Borys Kolesnikov during a visit to the United States.  Maylen talked about the future of the ports, "Odessa port has great prospects for receiving cruise ships, as it is in the heart of the city, and it is very convenient for tourists"

The meeting took place in Royal Caribbean's headquarters in Miami, Florida where the two sides discussed a number of issues regarding the  potential of Ukrainian ports in the cruise industry. 

According to Maylen the port has quite a good infrastructure. With certain infrastructure improvements in Yalta and Sevastopol, the ports could be upgraded to handle considerably larger cruise ships than they serve now.

Royal Caribbean's Board of Directors announced today that it will offer its shareholders a quarterly dividend of $0.12 per share payable on October 9, 2012, to shareholders of record at the close of business on September 25, 2012.

Dividends from the cruise have been $0.10 since 2008 after it dropped from its highest $0.15. This new change in dividends is an increase of 20 percent.

Royal Caribbean chairman Richard Fain commented on the change, "I am pleased that our Board of Directors increased the quarterly dividend payment today. We have consistently communicated our desire to balance rational growth, leverage reduction and shareholder return improvement. I think today's actions are further evidence that these goals can coexist harmoniously."

Reports from passengers aboard Royal Caribbean's Jewel of the Seas are that due to Tropical Storm Leslie, Jewel of the Seas will not call on Newfoundland on Thursday.

The ship's captain indicated to passengers that Jewel of the Seas will go around the storm and go instead directly to Boston. Jewel of the Seas is making a trans-Atlantic crossing from Iceland.

In addition, Brilliance of the Seas is doing its part to avoid Leslie and will skip the Faroe Islands and proceed directly to Iceland.

These changes have not been formally announced by Royal Caribbean yet but the reports are coming from passengers aboard the respective ships.

Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas was designed with technology in mind to make the ship easier to navigate for the passengers and crew onboard through tools like RFID, facial recognition and handheld wireless devices for a variety of purposes, including emergency responses, food safety, point-of-sale (POS) transactions and passenger service.

Royal Caribbean vice president of information Technology, Santiago Abraham, spoke about the important of technology on the ship, "We were keenly aware that we were building the biggest ship in the world and we wanted to make sure the experience nonetheless was an intimate one, and eliminate any sense that you are on a massive ship."

To help get passengers around the ship and find their way, Oasis of the Seas has over 300 digital, interactive signs that people can use to access maps, get directions, see scheduled activities and check in real-time the occupancy level of restaurants.

"The digital signage helps our guests navigate the ship," Abraham said of the system, whose touchscreen devices use Windows 7 on the front end and tap SQL Server and other Windows server products on the back end. "You see guests interacting with it on a pretty continual basis very effectively."

Royal Caribbean's IT department also automated retail transactions and food inspections on board with PAR Technology terminals and tablets running software from Agilysys and the Windows Embedded OS.

The technology helps food inspections be done in two hours instead of five thanks to devices that have temperature probes and readers to scan RFID tags on the food containers.

The Point of Sales and food inspection data is instantly fed to back-end Microsoft SQL Server databases where it is automatically analyzed and acted upon, whether it's to replenish low inventory in a store or to order that a food container be discarded.

From Microsoft's perspective, Royal Caribbean has achieved in Oasis of the Seas the "intelligent system" vision of the Windows Embedded products, in which client devices are used to gather data that is then stored on the back end and analyzed for operational improvements.

Abraham said Royal Caribbean is very satisfied with the way the IT infrastructure in Oasis of the Seas helps passengers and staffers without being intrusive or complicated.

"We were trying to have technology help our guests in terms of their experience on board, whether it's boarding the ship, learning more about activities or planning their day, but we also didn't want to be 'in your face' with the technology, so it's all very embedded in a lot of different elements," Abraham said.

Photo by Wayne Howitz Jr. of Wayne Charles Photography

Travel Weekly has awarded Royal Caribbean 15 Magellan Awards for the year.  Radiance of the Seas and Oasis of the Seas were singled out among the awards along with Royal Caribbean's "The Sea is Calling" advertising campaign.

“We are much honored to be recognized again by Travel Weekly’s distinguished panel of industry experts and judges,” said Lisa Bauer, senior vice president of Global Sales and Marketing, Royal Caribbean International. “We are particularly encouraged that revitalized Radiance of the Seas won Gold for Overall Contemporary Ship. Radiance of the Seas is a glowing example of our ongoing ship revitalizations to introduce some of the most popular Oasis-class amenities across the fleet and make every ship our best ship for vacationers to enjoy.”

Gold Magellan Awards

• Radiance of the Seas - Overall - Contemporary Ship
• Oasis of the Seas - Overall - Eco-Friendly "Green" Cruise Ship 
• The Sea is Calling - Advertising/Marketing Campaign 
• The Sea is Calling - TV Commercial 
• The Sea is Calling... - Vicki Print Advertising 
• Oasis’ 150 Central Park - Contemporary Ship - Restaurant Design 
• DreamWorks Experience - Contemporary Ship - Entertainment 
• Hairspray - Contemporary Ship - Entertainment 
• Royal Promenade -Contemporary Ship - Atrium Design 
• Royal Loft Suites - Contemporary Ship - Suite Design

Silver Magellan Awards :

• Allure of the Seas - Overall - Contemporary Ship 
• Sea Views - Overall - Blog 
• Crown & Anchor Society - Overall - Loyalty Program 
• Vitality at Sea Spa - Contemporary Ship - Spa Design 
• Madagascar 3 - Web Marketing/Advertising

Royal Caribbean is adding what it calls the "Barbie Experience" to target kids ages four to eleven years old that will offer Barbie-themed movie nights, story times and other activities at its children's program. 

Girls can sleep in Barbie themed cabins, design Barbie outfits,  go to tea and participate in a fashion show at the end of the cruise.  Royal Caribbean is offering the "Barbie Premium Experience" that will cost $349-per-person. 

The premium experience will offer girls a dance class, fashion show and opportunity to take home a cruise ship themed Barbie doll with outfits.

The Barbie Experience is targeted at little girls although Royal Caribbean does expect some adult fans to be interested as well.

Royal Caribbean vice president of sales Vicki Freed commented that the line had tested the Barbie Experience with stellar results, "Barbie was a smash success in a test last fall on the Freedom of the Seas. When you think about all the families we carry, this is a really great fit."

The new offering will become available across Royal Caribbean's fleet between January and March of 2013.  Royal Caribbean will start taking bookings in October 2012.  

Royal Caribbean also kicked off the "Win a Barbie Cruise Vacation" sweepstakes online.

Royal Caribbean's Jewel of the Seas hit a cable while sailing into the port of Klaksvik in the Faroe Islands of Denmark.  The accident caused a crew member to be injured when falling debris hit him while he was outside.

The incident occurred September 6 at 8am local time according to a Royal Caribbean statement when Jewel of the Seas came "in contact with a cable hat extends between Bordoy and Eysturoy Islands."

The accident also resulted in damage to the mast and some equipment on the mast.  Royal Caribbean spokeswoman Cynthia Martinez emphasized that the accident has no effect on the seaworthiness of the ship. Moreover, Jewel of the Seas has moved to its next port of call in Reykjavik, Iceland.

Martinez added that Royal Caribbean is working closely with the local authorities to determine why the collision occurred, "All the navigational tools and charts we use to plan our voyage, including information we obtained from the local port authorities and harbor master in advance of our arrival, indicated we had enough clearance to pass under the cable."

Royal Caribbean has rolled out Coca-Cola's Freestyle machines to some of its cruise ships and already its passengers are loving it.  

Royal Caribbean directory of fleet beverage operations, Bob Midytette, says the new soda machines are more popular than they envisioned, "We ran out of product on the first voyage. It was more popular than even what we thought it would be."

The Freestyle Machines offer passengers 125 flavors of Coke using medical micro-dosing technology and flavor cartridges.  The machines are currently available on Majesty of the Seas, Freedom of the Seas and Explorer of the Seas and will continue to roll out to more ships at the rate of about one or two a month.

"It is in my mind the next evolution of non-alcoholic beverage service, a leap forward to what you could offer through the traditional system," Midyette says.

Currently the machines cost $6.50 per day for adults and $4.50 for kids for the soda package that includes access to the Freestyle machines.  Passengers receive a special cup with a RFID chip that gives access to the machine.