Just because you're on a Royal Caribbean cruise doesn't mean holiday traditions stop. Today is Halloween and over the years, Royal Caribbean takes some time to celebrate onboard and encourages its guests to do so as well.  

Here are a few fun photos of Halloween celebrations onboard Royal Caribbean ships.

Photo by SA_Steve

Photo by SA_Steve

Photo by Jim McCluskey

Photo by Iglu Cruise

Photo by Tuba Akgün

Royal Caribbean has released a new photo from the development that is ongoing for Quantum of the Seas.  Today, we have a photo of the North Star observation pod, featuring a scale model of the top of the ship and arm.

In the background, we can see a full size replica of the observation pod that will be attached to the North Star "arm". 

When finished, North Star will be a first of its kind innovation for a cruise ship, where passengers can go up to 200 feet above the ocean's surface to get what is sure to be beautiful views.  The inspiration for the North Star was revealed to be the London Eye.

Quantum of the Seas is Royal Caribbean's next cruise ship that will be built and will have her first official cruise in November 2014.

A really fun photo effect is called "tilt shift", where the camera is manipulated so that a life-sized location or subject looks like a miniature-scale model.  We've scoured the Internet to find some fun examples of this effect with Royal Caribbean ships!

Voyager of the Seas by cockneydave1980

Independence of the Seas by Mike Greatrex

Radiance of the Seas by Tyler Ingram

Voyager of the Seas promenade by Kristian Mollenborg

Labadee by CaMareo Waller

We love seeing talented photographers take some amazing photos while aboard Royal Caribbean ships and Bryan Sargent, a New York City photographer, brought his camera aboard a recent Royal Caribbean cruise aboard Oasis of the Seas.

Check out all of his great photos here.

On our cruise to Falmouth, Jamaica last week, we took some time to take some photos of the port area to give you an idea of what the construction progress is like.  To be honest, we found the port a lot further along than we had read about.  

Many of our readers are eager to know the state of construction at Falmouth, Jamaica.  Being one of Royal Caribbean's newest ports of call, it's a common stop for many Royal Caribbean Western Caribbean cruises.  If you're curious what the state of affairs are, here are some photos of the port that Otterman34 posted on CruiseCritic recently.

Our good friend Doug Parker of the Cruise Radio podcast had the opportunity this past weekend to tour Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas and check out a lot of the backstage areas such as the bridge and the engine room.

Parker has posted his photos for all to see and there's some great photos to see in there.

You can view the entire photo gallery by clicking here.