Royal Caribbean's Vision Class ship, Splendour of the Seas, will call Bari, Italy home for the summer months and it has the locals excited for the change.  Royal Caribbean director general of Italy, Gianni Rotondo, commented on the news, "We are proud to count among our home port ships in Bari Royal Caribbean and the achievement of an important strategic and especially considering the location and the possibility' of finally have an outlet to the south."

Splendour of the Seas will offer summer cruises of 6, 7 and 8-nights and will visit ports in Greece and Turkey from its new home port in Puglia.  In total, Splendour will transport 73,000 passengers.

After Royal Caribbean refurbishes Brilliance of the Seas in the spring of 2013, it plans on sending her to the United Kingdom later that year.

Brilliance of the Seas will offer eight 12-night cruises to Northern Europe and the Baltic Sea out of Harwich, England starting May 15, 2013. These voyages will include stops at Copenhagen; Stockholm; Helsinki; Talinn, Estonia; Gothenburg, Sweden; and an overnight in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Brilliance of the Seas also will operate a single 11-night Norwegian Fjords and Iceland itinerary departing July 27, 2013 that will call at Bergen and Geiranger, Norway; Lerwick/Shetland, Scotland; Klaksvik, Faroe Islands; and Reykjavik, Iceland (for an overnight stop). The ship will be based in Harwich through Aug. 31, 2013, when it will depart for Boston on a 15-night itinerary that will include calls at Le Havre, France; Portland, Dorset, U.K.; Cork (Cobh) and Dublin, Ireland; Klaksvik; and Reykjavik.

Brilliance of the Seas is scheduled to spend the summer 2012 sailing to Northern Europe out of Copenhagen and Amsterdam. 

The Port of Gijón, Spain will host the docking of Royal Caribbean's Vision of the Seas tomorrow.  This will be the first cruise of the season and will bring the city 2,435 passengers and 765 crew.

The Royal Caribbean ship will dock at North Pier Extension area, from Vigo bound for Portland (United States).

This is the same ship that opened last year the springs in the area of enlargement, reports the Port Authority of Gijón.

This is the first of nine cruise ships expected this year will host the Port of Gijón, reinforcing the role that has been gaining in recent years in passenger traffic.

Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas will homeport in Messina this summer and the mayor officially welcomed the new ship.  At a ceremony this morning, Messina Mayor Giuseppe Buzzanca celebrated the occasion along with the Commissioner of the Port Authority, Dario Lo Bosco, and the Director General of Royal Caribbean Cruises John Rotondo.

The choice by Royal Caribbean of Messina confirmed the strengthening of the commitment on the peninsula and the eye towards the markets of southern Italy, allowing Royal Caribbean to serve 14 ports in Italy.

Navigator of the Seas will visit Messina each week for 27 times between May and October, transporting 84,000 passengers during its  7-night itineraries in the Eastern Mediterranean

Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas will visit Cadiz, Spain this year and will be the largest ship to ever dock at the port.  The ramifications of which will bring over 31,500 cruise passengers to the city and have a direct and indirect financial impact of "more than 1,800,000 euros."

Liberty of the Seas arrives in Spain after serving the Caribbean cruise season and will also visit Mediterranean ports after Cadiz of Malaga, Valencia and Barcelona.

Royal Caribbean's Director General of Italy, John Rotondo, spoke at a press conference in Genoa, Italy and commented that the impact on bookings from the recent Costa Concordia disaster seems to be lessening these days.

''The incident in Costa Concordia has had a major impact on the cruise market. But now the situation is normalizing. As of today, the levels of absolute satisfaction are booked.''

Rotondo commented further on how Royal Caribbean was helping convince the public to cruise again with lower prices, "To convince the customer, it required a lot of pressure on prices. The economic crisis, the large amount of supply capacity and the occurrence of Costa Concordia are the three elements that have emphasized the pressure on prices.'' 

Rotondo said in comparisson to 2011, Royal Caribbean has doubled the number of Italians onboard its ships.  Royal Caribbean's ships operating in Italy are Voyager class, with Italian passengers representing 35% of the 3,600 passengers each ship can hold.  The other two thirds are American, Canadian, British, Germans and citizens of Northern Europe.

Royal Caribbean has outlined its plans for cruises to Europe in 2013 and it will include sending Liberty of the Seas, Navigator of the Seas and Serenade of the Seas, among other ships, to Europe for the season.

Royal Caribbean calls for stopping in 30 ports and features 121 sailings over 25 itineraries.

Royal Caribbean had previously announced Independence of the Seas and Adventure of the Seas were being deployed to Southampton, England, and now there are more ships that will be sent as well. Royal Caribbean plans to have these five ships ready for bookings with additional deployments in the region that will be announced later this month.

Royal Caribbean vice president Dominic Paul commented on the plans, "Royal Caribbean International is the perfect choice for couples and families to experience and share all the wonders, flavours and colours of Europe. Liberty of the Seas, Navigator of the Seas, and Serenade of the Seas already offer holidaymakers so many things that other operators do not, such as the DreamWorks Experience onboard Liberty of the Seas, or a real ice-skating rink featuring breath-taking shows onboard Navigator of the Seas and even self-levelling pool tables onboard Serenade of the Seas."

Greece has been hampered by bad economic news for months now, but Royal Caribbean is doing its part to help the nation out a little.  Royal Caribbean announced it will invest in the port of Heraklion by spending money on port infrastructure upgrades, construction of a hotel and a conference center.

Royal Caribbean's strategy in Greece is to target six ports: Piraeus, Heraklion, Thessaloniki, Rhodes, Kos and Mykonos.  The plan is to transform one of these ports into a cruise hub, which will bring in thousands of visitors each day.

Currently, Heraklion and Rhodes are the leading candidates for that distinction.

The plan includes port infrastructure and construction of a 4-star hotel, a conference center of 1,000 square meters, a shopping centre of 3,000 suare meters and a marina for 120 yachts.

Royal Caribbean estimates over a 5-year span that 800,000 passengers per year could visit Heraklion, which would bring an annual revenue of over €3 million.

Voyager of the Seas made her last stop in Bari, Italy this season before she heads west to Caribbean.  In 2012, however, Bari will become the new port of embarkation for Royal Caribbean, according to Royal Caribbean Italy's General Manager John Rotondo.

"To confirm the growing interest in Royal Caribbean towards the Italian market and the role very strategic city of Bari, it has been announced that next year Bari will become the port of embarkation for ships of the group, with significant benefits for tourism in the city, natural gateway to discover the beauty and culture of Puglia. "

Voyager of the Seas' Adriatic cruise season has come to a close after her stop in Ravenna, Italy. Voyager of the Seas has wrapped up its inaugural season in the region, after debuting in the city of Ravenna back on May 30, culminating in 20 stops to Ravenna from May to October, for a total of nearly 77,000 passengers.

For the winter season, Voyager of the Seas will move back  to the Caribbean from November to March 2012, where she will do 7-night itineraries.

Royal Caribbean will also debut another ship in 2012, Serenade of the Seas between May to October 2012 and will stop in Ravenna five times during her  12-night itineraries in Spain, Italy and Croatia.