Royal Caribbean is announcing two more of its ships are being affected by Tropical Storm Isaac.  

Both Majesty of the Seas and Monarch of the Seas will not stop at Royal Caribbean's private island of CoCo Cay this weekend due to concerns of the storm.

This change is in addition to the previous announcement that Allure of the Seas will change from an eastern Caribbean itinerary to a western Caribbean itinerary.

As of 11 a.m. ET, Isaac was 165 miles south-southwest of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and moving to the west-northwest at 14 miles per hour. The storm has maximum sustained winds of 60 miles per hour. 

Royal Caribbean Australia launched a flagship sale last Sunday and it has already broken records as the busiest sales period in the history of Royal Caribbean Australia.

Commercial Director Adam Armstrong is excited to see the sales for Royal Caribbean cruises spike, "Our phones have been ringing off the hook since the flagship sale was announced,” he said. “We know that some agents have been having trouble getting through to us due to the sheer volume of calls, so we have decided to extend the sale until Monday night to ensure we can assist everyone who would like to book with us for the coming season.”

Royal Caribbean will have three ships based in the region, starting in October and will offer itineraries that include ports of call in the South Pacific, Australia and New Zealand.

“We’ve obviously had great interest in our megaliner, Voyager of the Seas,” continued Armstrong. “However, the Aussie favourites Rhapsody of the Seas and Radiance of the Seas have extremely strong bookings too. With Rhapsody of the Seas returning to the region after undergoing a massive refurbishment, passengers are excited to see the improvements made to the ship which is such a familiar sight to Australians.”

Voyager of the Seas will arrive in Fremantle, Australia on her maiden voyage to Australia on November 5.

Royal Caribbean has changed Allure of the Seas from an Eastern Caribbean itinerary to a Western Caribbean itinerary to avoid Tropical Storm Isaac, which is gaining strength and can move to the category of hurricane this Thursday .

Allure of the Seas will call at Falmouth, Jamaica and Cozumel, Mexico instead of St. Thomas and St, Maarten.

No other changes have been made yet although Royal Caribbean is recommending passengers on Majesty of the Seas, Monarch of the Seas, Freedom of the Seas and Oasis of the Seas keep an eye on further updates.

Royal Caribbean held talks with the Odessa City Council to bring a cruise ship there in April 2014.  A meeting between Royal Caribbean's vice president Craig Milan  met with the vice-mayor of Odessa, Elena Pavlova on August 21st to look at the tourist infrastructure of the city.

Milan commented on the city's possibility, "Several cruise ships call at  your port. Unfortunately they are isolated cases. But feedback from our customers, who have been in Odessa, has been very positive."

Milan says regular cruises with a mandatory sunset and base parking are planned in Odessa in April 2014.  

In turn, Pavlov noted that the city is interested in such a partnership, "If everything goes as planned, our city is waiting for the next tourist boom. Royal Caribbeancan bring from 2 to 4 thousand passengers on average." 

Royal Caribbean is interested in investing in the development of the Yalta and Sevastopol seaports as well.

Travel Blackboard interviewed Royal Caribbean's senior vice president for global sales and marketing, Lisa Bauer, to talk about her new role with Royal Caribbean and her experience at Royal Caribbean.  

When asked about what she'd like to see improved in the cruise industry, Bauer responded, "It would be nice to get a global voice for cruising. I think that they all do a great job, but that would be the one thing, if we could all figure out how to come together and make a global cruise industry, versus all the regional associations."

Bauer also commented on Royal Caribbean's recent revitalization program that has been upgrading it's entire fleet of ships in an effort to make them all more relevant in a time when new ships get a lot of attention.

"Well the guests’ reaction has really been unbelievable because the ships right now and the ratings from all our customers are quite high. "

"They’re amazed that we took something that was already so great and made it even better. "

We’ve done this thing and now every ship is our best ship and that’s really caught on!

"You go on Rhapsody of the Seas and it’s like a brand new ship! The people that loved the ship before because they loved the crew and they love that type of ship and they love where it goes now have a ship that’s got an incredible entertainment experience etc... "

"So the fact is that the guests have already loved it and then it’s like “wow”. "

"Our ratings are up double digits, which is unbelievable, because they were already so high. "

"This was a big deal; it was a lot of money. But it was really to make sure that our guests had a consistent brand experience. The ability to have these key brand elements, no matter what ship you get on in the world, is very important to us and it is resonating amazingly with the guests. " 

Last week Royal Caribbean announced it would scale back the amount of stops in Bermuda and now we know why.  Royal Caribbean is citing guest demand for the change.  The company has recieved feedback that its passengers want to visit other destinations, especially from the cruises that depart Baltimore, Maryland.

A Royal Caribbean spokesman elaborated on the issue, "While Bermuda continues to be a great destination for our guests, we also have received feedback that they want more variety of destinations from Baltimore."

"As a result for 2013, we will alternate Bermuda and Bahamas sailings with Grandeur of the Seas."

Royal Caribbean is scaling back Grandeur of the Seas' calls to Bermuda to just 26 in 2013.  Explorer of the Seas will continue to make some stops in Bermuda but the total between the two ships will amount to 41 trips total in 2013, which is a drop of 14 compared to 2012.

Royal Caribbean added: “Bermuda is a spectacular destination and very popular with our passengers."

“While we would have liked to visit more often, the difference in the number of port calls is largely due to a change of itinerary patterns from Baltimore, which limited our ability to call in Bermuda.”

Royal Caribbean CEO Adam Goldstein was interviewed by Travel Weekly about the new found importance social media has both for Royal Caribbean and its passengers.

"Social media has become an overwhelming force in our society today. It is perfect for us. We are in an environment that overhwhelmingly satisfies guests. They want to share their experience with others who are not on the ship with them. They want to do that with video, pictures and postcards, things that take bandwidth that is hard for us to provide now. "

Goldstein indicated that Royal Caribbean is putting more emphasis on advertising its cruises in the social media realms. Specifically, Royal Caribbean is investing in Facebook, banner ads, paid search and other ways of getting into the online environment.

The importance in using social media by travel companies to spread the word while on vacation is an emerging trend.  Recently Walt Disney World announced it will roll out free WiFi internet access in its theme parks, which will help facilitate the use of social media in its parks.  Perhaps Royal Caribbean is in a similar grouping.

Royal Caribbean's Legend of the Seas will return to Singapore for her final season in Asia this October.  Legend of the Seas will offer a mix of popular and new Southeast Asian cruises out of Singapore including stops in Kota Kinabulu, Malaysia and Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei.

This will be Legend of the Seas' sixth consecutive season in Singapore and will run from October 31, 2012 through April 1, 2013.  Itineraries offered range from two to seven night cruises and include stops in Penang, Phuket, Malacca, Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi.

Included in her last season will be 4 and 5 night itineraries over Christmas, New Years and Chinese New Years.

Before Legend of the Seas arrives in Singapore, she will offer cruises to North Asia with 4 to 9 night itineraries out of Yokohama and Shanghai from September to October.

Royal Caribbean is offering itineraries such as a 9-night Russia & Hokkaido cruise to Russia’s Vladivostok and for the first time, Japan’s Muroran and Kushiro, and the Mid Autumn Cruise which offers moon cakes for guests.