In a blog post by Royal Caribbean CEO Adam Goldstein, Royal Caribbean says it will increase the number of cabanas offered for rent on its private island of Labadee.

Goldstein says the increase is due to the warm reception its guests have shown the option and will go from the initial 20 cabanas currently on the island's Barefoot Beach club area to construct four more water cabanas there.  

Royal Caribbean will also add 16 new cabanas at Nellie's Beach for a total of 40 cabanas for rental at Labadee.

In addition, Royal Caribbean now offers 3 wheelchair accessible cabanas in Labadee.

Photo by Xiomara Amaro

Photo by IssiC_MS

Royal Caribbean CEO Adam Goldstein has returned from a trip aboard Oasis of the Seas for an on-site evaluation of what's happening not only aboard the ship but he took a careful look at the operations at Labadee (Royal Caribbean's private island) and Falmouth, Jamaica.

Adam seemed pleased with how Oasis of the Seas was running and thought things were going well.   He did seem to have an issue with the art program aboard Oasis of the Seas, presumably related to the art auctions, "I did state in no uncertain terms that I was less than pleased with certain aspects of our art program."

While on Labadee Adam felt that things went exceedingly well and found the operation at Royal Caribbean's private beach to be top notch.  That being said, he thinks Royal Caribbean can do more to market Labadee and prepare its guests for what's waiting for them, "My takeaway is we need to do an even better job of marketing what Labadee is. I spoke to someone who had visited a number of the cruise industry’s private destinations prior to coming to Labadee. He said he and his people were just not prepared for how much there is at Labadee."

At Falmouth, Adam characterized the progress at the port as "90% done".  He mentioned that the most important task left to do here is to complete construction of the arrival/departure terminal building, which should have been done by now but Adam says it will be done in September.

In terms of merchants, Adam says Royal Caribbean expects 70% of the available retail space to be occupied in the next few weeks.  He also hinted that some new restaurants will be added in the near-future.

Photo by Harriet

Examiner.com writer Chris Owen wrote a blog entry about his top seven things he loves about Royal Caribbean and as a fellow Royal Caribbean fan, it's a great read. His top list includes..

• They’re nice, good people
• Most diverse fleet
• The Wow
• The Labadee factor
• Entertainment Options
• Pre-cruise planner
• Celebrity

Here's Chris' take on the Royal Caribbean fleet...

No doubt about it, while other lines have different classes of ships, no other fleet has the diversity between classes that Royal Caribbean does. Ranging from 73, 000 ton Monarch of the Seas to 154,000 ton Oasis of the Seas, their different classes of ships offer unique experiences. Common elements among the ships though like signature restaurants and familiar features make sailing any of the ships feel like a trip back home after the first time.

Certainly some people may not get why some people (like us) love cruising with Royal Caribbean and this is a good explanation of why we like them so much.

Last week, Andy Mayer posted tips from his recent cruise aboard Freedom of the Seas and he's back this week with more tips to share.  As always, these tips are specific to Freedom of the Seas, but I believe they can be applied to nearly any Royal Caribbean sailing.

1. Get up early if you want lounge chairs near the pool on the days at sea
2. Book your own excursions
3. Get private lessons on the Flowrider
4. Get a “cabana chair” in Haiti
5. Return to the ship earlier than normal in Grand Cayman
6. Depart on your own term

Here's a good tip Andy posted about regarding the best place to rest in Labadee

Photo by BenjaminCole