Royal Caribbean in the United Kingdom is offering its passengers an extra layer of luxury service with chauffeur serviceto and from UK ports and London airports.

For those sailing on Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas out of Southampton and Jewel of the Seas out of Harwich or those flying from London airports can book a chauffer driven service with partner Tristar Chauffeur Services to and from their address to their port or airport of departure.

Royal Caribbean Associate VIce President and General Manager of United Kingdom of Ireland, Jo Rzymowska,  commented on the new service, "This is a great addition to the list of optional extras we offer our guests.  Having the opportunity to transfer in luxury is the perfect way to make the most of your holiday time and a fantastic treat.”

Peak time transfers cost approximately £65 for first 15 miles and £1.40 per mile thereafter. Off-peak transfers cost approximately £55 for first 15 miles and £1 per mile thereafter. Costs will vary depending on where the guest is being picked up from.

Royal Caribbean General Manager of Nordic and Baltic region, Roar Meidal,  reports that 86 percent more Nordic tourists go on Mediterranean Sea cruises this year, of which 58 per cent more Norwegians

"We are very pleased that the Nordic people finally seem to realize the great benefits of the cruise has to offer as a holiday. We like to think that cruise offers the best of two worlds: on the one hand, an all-inclusive, relaxing holiday in the sun, on the other hand, a cultural experience with stops at ports such as Rome, Sicily, Athens, Santorini, Rhodes, Istanbul and Jerusalem," says Meidal.

Statistics show that Norwegian passengers account for the largest increase, by as much as 58 percent of the total increase.  Swedes are in second place with 23 percent increase, while both the Danes and the Finns can boast of a 10 percent increase. The preferred holiday is a 7-day cruise with some of Royal Caribbean's largest and most innovative ships, such as the Liberty of the Seas. 

El Salvador has been trying to position itself as an attractive destination for cruise tourism and that dream is about to become a reality according to Jose Napoleon Duarte, Minister of Tourism.

Duarte said that El Salvador has been in negotations with Royal Caribbean to include El Salvador in their cruise routes and are in the advanced stages of planning.

"We are very close to achieving the first cruise route to El Salvador in history through the arrival of Royal Caribbean country," she confirmed.

Although no exact date has been revealed when the project could become official, it's estimated that in 2012 El Salvador could receive the first  cruise ship stop.

This project, according to Duarte, will bring great economic benefits for the country, mainly to small tourism businesses.

He noted that cruise passengers have a high purchasing power, such as the MS Europa cruise that docked last April in Acajutla, created revenues of over $ 60,000.

"I always thought that cruising is an excellent business opportunity for El Salvador. Anything that creates opportunities for people is a great benefit, "he said.

The arrival of these luxury cruise is a regional initiative to promote the creation of the tourist route to the Pacific, landing in the main ports in the region. In the case of El Salvador, cruise ships arrive at the port of Acajutla and La Union Also do to.

Duarte estimated that a cruise could bring travelers from 750 to 7.000, which is measured independently of the arrival of tourists by traditional media (air or land).

While Royal Caribbean's deployment of nearly half their fleet to Europe has been the big story in the company as of late, the other big trend that is sweeping across all of Royal Caribbean's ships (and frankly other cruise lines too) is the food options onboard.

While on your cruise ship, there will ample food provided throughout the day.  In short, there's hardly ever a time where you can't find food that is complimentry.  Complimentry food comes from a variety of sources and options.

Complimentry Restaurants

Main Dining Room

Every evening dinner is served in the main dining room at assigned seating tables.  You may end up sitting with passengers who you don't know, but the servers work to make your dining experience here as personal as possible.  The main dining room offers appetizers, entrees and desserts to choose from each night and you may order as much (or as little) as you like and it's nearly all complimentry.

The exception for food that is not complimentry in the main dining room are steak filets, that often come at an extra cost.

You can also dine in the main dining room for breakfast every morning and for lunch when available.  For breakfast, it's sit down service although here seating is first come-first served and you will not have the same waiters as dinner.  Lunch offers similar set up.

There is often a dress code to the Main Dining Room, although it's mostly an issue for dinner and less so for other meals.

Quick Service Restaurants

Throughout your cruise ship you will find other restaurants you may grab something to eat for no additional cost.  The exact restaurants vary from ship to ship but you will find a good variety of food to choose from.  Examples of food here can include pizza, sandwiches, pastries, ice cream and more.  

There's usually some seating available at these restaurants although not a lot.  These types of restaurants are usually for the "grab and go" passenger, who may be wanting something quickly to eat on their way to somewhere else.

Windjammer

The defacto buffet on every Royal Caribbean ship is the Windjammer Cafe, which is an all you-can-eat buffet that serves meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  There's lots of seating and it's a great option  when you want a casual meal.  The Windjammer is also usually convenient to the pools on the ship.

Don't let the buffet setup fool you, the Windjammer offers good quality food and while you could argue the food quality isn't as high as you will find in the main dining room, it's still a restaurant many Royal Caribbean fans love to frequent.

As mentioned earlier, the Windjammer is open for dinner and can be a good alternative for those who do not want to get dressed up for dinner in the main dining room or simply want to have more pool time or some other activity.

Room Service

Yes, room service is complimentry on your Royal Caribbean cruise.  There is a menu in your stateroom to choose from and it's available 24 hours per day.

There is a catch to room service, while the food is complimentry, it's traditional to tip the person that delivers the food to your room.  In addition, Royal Caribbean changed their room service policy back in 2009, and there is now a $3.95 surcharge for any food ordered between the hours of midnight and 5 a.m.

Speciality Restaurants

The biggest trend among all Royal Caribbean ships is the addition of specialty restaurants to their ships that cost a nominal fee.  The prices vary from ship to ship and restaurant to restaurant.  These specialty restaurants tend to have a food theme (Italian, French, Steakhouse, etc) and are table service restaurants.

Most specialty restaurants have a dress code, and in some cases their dress code is more formal than the main dining room.  

Specialty restaurants recommend making a reservation in advance to ensure there is a seating available.  It's not to say you can't walk up ona  given night and dine there, but there may be a wait or no availability.  You can book speciality restaurants in advance of your cruise on the Royal Caribbean website up to 60 days before your cruise but no sooner than 4 days before your sail date.

Pricing can also vary from restaurant to restaurant.  Some restaurants have a cost per person and then nearly everything on the menu is included in the cost.  Other resaurants offer their menu items with a la carte pricing.  Others include a per-person fee and a la carte pricing.

The future

Royal Caribbean has been working on increasing the amount of specialty restaurants on their ships as they've proven to be great money makers.  Some guests are bothered by the amount of speciality restaurants onboard because it's come at the expense of the complimentry offerings as well as the principle of paying for food on a cruise ship.

No one knows what the future will entail exactly, but all signs point to more speciality restaurants than we've seen before on Royal Caribbean ships.  Even older ships are often receiving new restaurants when they are brought into dry dock for upgrades.

The bottom line is there's plenty of places on your Royal Caribbean ship to eat at.  Both complimentry and specialty restaurants offer a wide variety of food to choose from and there's almost always something to get regardless of time of day.

Photo by Hector Barron

For the second time in two months, a Royal Caribbean shipped rescued a group of people on a raft adrift in the ocean.  Oasis of the Seas came across seven people suspected to be Cubans on a raft while Oasis was on its way back to Port Everglades.

The rafters were spotted by passengers at 3pm on Friday, who quickly notified the ship's Captain and the ship engaged in a rescue.

In a statement by Royal Caribbean, the group consisted of six men and one woman.

Oasis contacted the United States Coast Guard who took the rafters into their custody.

Back in May, Allure of the Seas rescued a group of Cuban rafters as well.

Royal Caribbean is celebrating the second anniversary of the opening of its office in Brazil this July. To celebrate, Royal Caribbean created a contest in their social media networks, in which participants sent photos of special moments onboard Royal Caribbean ships. The contest had over 2000 participants, which sent almost 10 000 photos. The winning photo was the theme of the campaign to commemorate the company.

In these two years, Royal Caribbean was a major player in the growing cruise market in Brazil, brought the largest ship of last season, Mariner of the Seas, and continued investing in the Brazilian market with other ships, Splendour of the Seas and Vision of the Seas. For the 2011/2012 season , Royal Caribbean will try to continue its success, with a new, Splendour of the Seas back completely revitalized with new dining options and more cabins with balconies.

The chief executive of the company in Brazil, Ricardo Amaral, was recently announced as the new director for Latin America and the Caribbean, in a move that demonstrates the company's focus on international markets and especially in Brazil.

Italian ship builder Fincantieri has for years occupied the top of the top spot as the builder of cruise ships in the world, but Meyer Werft, its direct competitor just robbed them of that distinction. 

German ship builder Meyer Werft leaves Fincantieri and STX behind them as the biggest ship builder in the world. This transfer of power came when Royal Caribbean signed an order with the German builder in April.

Meyer Werft will be very busy until 2015 with the construction of a cruise Norwegian Cruise Lines 2000 cabin ship and a sister ship of the AIDAmar line in 2013, and then  the 2050 cabin ship of the new class of Royal Caribbean and onemore for NCL in 2014.

Following that, another order for Royal Caribbean will take place in 2015. 

In an effort to attract more foreign tourists, the South Korean Justice Ministry proposed a measure to allow foreigners visiting on cruises to disembark without a visa for short stays.

The “tour landing permit” system will allow those on cruise ships to disembark in South Korea and stay for up to three days without a visa, if the cruise company or the ship’s captain applies for and receives the permit beforehand, officials said.

The move is good news for Royal Caribbean because they had about 55,000 tourists from China to Busan, South Korea in 2010 and have always complained about the lengthy visa problem.

Lisa Yun, Head of Royal Caribbean's marketing team in South Korea, is excited about the proposal, “Our cruise runs from China to Busan, so the majority of our customers are Chinese, but visas for entering Korea causes a lot of woes, as the application is a time-consuming and complicated process".

"It will be a huge help for us to expand in the Chinese market."

The city council in Savannah, Georgia agreed last night to expand the cruise ship task force.  Alderman Tony Thomas claims several cruise lines are interested in cruising down the Savannah river and Royal Caribbean is on that list.

Royal Caribbean spoke with Thomas several weeks ago about the prospect of having a ship stop in Savannah.

The increased cruise ship task force will help answer some lingering questions for the city council such as how much a cruise terminal would cost, and how much business would cruise ships bring to downtown Savannah.

The key to any cruise business coming to Savannah will be the creation of a cruise terminal, even a temporary one.  There are three locations being considered, such asthe Georgia Ports Authority Ocean Terminals 1 and 2, which already dock large ships and cruise lines who stop in Savannah.  Another idea is across the river in Hutchinson Island or the Savannah River Landing next to the Marriott off River Street.  None of the options are perfect and all would require a fair amount of work to get them ready.

Thomas indicated that it could take 12-24 months before the city council could come to an agreement and real work could begin.