A 47-year old woman died Monday night aboard Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas after she missed a step and fell down a flight of stairs and the FBI is now investigating the incident.

The Broward County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Veda Coleman Wright said their department's crime scene techs were sent to Port Everglades to investigate the death of woman on the ship. However, since she died in international waters, Coleman Wright said the investigation will actually be in the jurisdiction of federal authorities.

Despite the investigation, Coleman Wright confirmed that they do not suspect foul play.

Photo by Scott Ladewig

Helen Beck, Royal Caribbean's regional director for the Middle East, expects to more than double its business in the Middle East over the next three to five years.

"Over the next three to five years, we plan to more than double our business in the Middle East, and possibly even triple it."

Beck said that Royal Caribbean recorded a compounded annual growth rate of about 40% in guest volumes and revenue in the Middle East over the previous five years. Beck expects that momentum to continue despite some recent challenges to cruising, such as the political instability that has struck a number of countries.

Despite the "Arab spring" that disrupted the regimes of many Middle Eastern countries, Beck claims that business was relatively unaffected, "Royal Caribbean suffered no negative impact during the Arab Spring. On the contrary, we recorded a 30 per cent growth in the Middle East in 2011 over the previous year."

For Royal Caribbean, the United Arab Emirates represents for 25-30 percent of its business in the region.  In total, about 15,000 passengers constitute the Middle East cruise region for Royal Caribbean.

Asked how the company is expected to fare in 2012, Beck said the year will be a tough one as Eurozone troubles are likely to have an impact on the cruise market. "However, we are not solely dependent on the European markets," she said. Beck said that while the North American market accounted for 80-85 per cent of Royal Caribbean's business until five years ago, in 2012 the cruise line expects its revenue to be equally divided between North America and the rest of the world.

More details were released today about the 13 Royal Caribbean passengers from Serenade of the Seas that were involved in an accident.

The safari taxi, part of Royal Caribbean's "Best of St. Thomas and Shopping" (a three-and-a-half hour shore excursion), darted from Skyline Drive on Friday morning, levelling mailboxes, striking a parked SUV, launching itself over the ridge and plunging 65 feet into thick bush.

St. Thomas Deputy Police Chief Dwayne DeGraff said one woman broke her hip while another passenger required stitches for a cut on their forehead.  Only the woman with the broken hip did not return to Serenade of the Seas to complete the rest of their cruise.

Officials say The west-bound taxi veered left at an uphill right turn and struck a bank of mailboxes and the side of an Acura SUV parked in a driveway.The taxi then climbed the ridge and careened downhill into bush beside a concrete driveway on the southern slope.

The driver of the taxi, whose name was not disclosed, had no other charges against him/her.  The driver was cited with a commission violation but is authorized to operate a taxi.

The accident remains under investigation by the V.I. police.

Officials from the U.S. Virgin Islands in St Thomas report that a tourist bus carrying at least 13 cruise ship passengers has collided with a parked vehicle.  The passengers, from Royal Caribbean's Serenade of the Seas, collided with the parked car.

The accident occurred in an open-air "safari bus" on a steep road near the island's scenic Beacon Point.

St. Thomas Tourist Department spokeswoman Allegra Kean-Moorehead says one of the injured is a female passenger who had to be hospitalized with a hip fracture.  Twelve other passengers were released after being treated.

She also said that Serenade of the Seas is still expected to depart late Friday without the injured passenger.

Royal Caribbean's Chairman Richard Fain has personally looked around the new International Cruise Terminal in Singapore and likes what he sees.

Fain has been told that the new terminal will be ready for the arrival of Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas when she arrives on May 26 for her debut in Asia.  Previously the Singapore Tourism Board had only indicated that the new terminal would be ready in the second quarter of 2012.

"Because the ship is coming in late May, I was assured the terminal would be ready for the voyage of the ship," Fain said. "It's also very efficient. That's important in the cruise industry. It's gratifying to see how well-thought through the logistics are: How passengers come in, how luggage is handled, the supplies to the ship. There are commodious areas to handle all the activities that need to be attended to. They are all well-thought out in a progressive way."

Voyager of the Seas' first cruise from Dubai to Singapore is already sold out, which has exceeded expecations according to Fain.

Royal Caribbean's German branch had a record year in 2011.  The number of passengers from Germany, Austria and Switzerland grew from the previous year by 34 percent to 80,500.

The turnover of all three Royal Caribbean brands (Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Club Cruises) has increased by 40 percent according to Royal Caribbean's division head Tom Fecke during an annual budget presentation.

Besides capacity growth, the "Seefari" Mediterranean campaign and the "highly developed" Fly & Cruise supply contributed to the positive result. And also a broader basis in counter sales: 526 travel agents were added in the last year, according to Fecke. 

Royal Caribbean's Explorer of the Seas will return to Bayonne, New Jersey one day late due to an onboard medical emergency.  Royal Caribbean expects Explorer of the Seas to return on Saturday, January 28 now after a passenger required medical attention.

Royal Caribbean spokeswoman Cynthia Martinez issued this statement, "The guest was initially treated in our medical facility, but required additional and urgent medical attention that could only be provided in a hospital," read the statement. Explorer, which is equipped with a helipad, has re-charted a course for San Juan, Puerto Rico, the closest port of call. A helicopter will meet the ship when it gets within 70 miles of San Juan. Estimated time is 5:35 p.m. local time."

"We will be assisting both the guests currently onboard and those boarding on Saturday, but do not have details at this time," said Martinez. "We wanted to put the notice on our website and on social media as soon as possible, to let affected guests know in advance." Additional information on the revised itinerary will be provided to passengers on Saturday at embarkation.

Passengers that were expecting to depart on Explorer of the Seas' next cruise on Friday are now asked to not arrive at port until 2pm on Saturday.

As part of its ongoing effort to revitalize its ships, Royal Caribbean has confirmed that Navantia at Cadiz, Spain will be the shipyard that will upgrade the facilities aboard Grandeur of the Seas.

This is the second Royal Caribbean ship to be upgraded at Navantia, following Splendour of the Seas which received similar upgrades.  All of these upgrades are part of Royal Caribbean's Royal Advantage program.

The work will consist mainly of jet and paint, pipe, steel scaffolding, improvements in propulsion systems, rudders, bow thrusters, anchors and chains, plus many odd jobs in the engine room. The duration of the work will be about four weeks, during which some 350 people will work at Navantia and its subsidiary companies.

Travel writer Keri Welham took three generations of her family on an 8-night Royal Caribbean cruise of the South Pacific to try it out. As she puts it, cruising isn't just for bingo-playing seniors and hyper-tanned singles.

Welham brought her toddler to the cruise, which presented a challenge since she felt a lot of the ship's amenities for children were aimed at older kids.  She did mention there wer children's play groups scheduled but had to be canceled due to sickness. She did manage to find stuff for her child in the form of a kids pool.

Welham enjoyed the Royal Caribbean staff too, "The Royal Caribbean staff – who made a lasting impression with their friendliness and willingness to help – dropped us off a backpack of age-appropriate educational toys from the onboard toy library, which helped the toddler settle into our room and bought us roughly 10 glorious minutes of silence each day."

Food was also a big hit, "Mealtimes were a dream. Instead of standing in the kitchen trying to fathom where her food whims might lie today, I could wander around the buffet grabbing just a mouthful of a variety of things and she'd try them all until we found something she wanted."

In all, it sounded like Welham enjoyed her cruise, "It was certainly challenging at times but the trade-off was a once-in-a-lifetime experience: We got to take our little girl to Tahiti, introduce her to the spectacle of a mammoth, rolling buffet, dress her up for formal dinners, swim on the top of a 90,090-tonne ship on sunny days, promenade around the decks while moored off Moorea, and watch her fall under the delicate spell of elderly ballroom fanatics on a dance-floor in the middle of the Pacific Ocean."

You can read the full report here.