Royal Caribbean Blog

Multiple media outlets are reporting Royal Caribbean has canceled at least the next two Spectrum of the Seas sailings out of concern over the spread of Coronavirus.

The Spectrum of the Seas sailings from Shanghai scheduled for January 27 and January 31 have been canceled.

So far, we've canceled two sailings, Spectrum that was set to sail today and the sailing that was set to sail on 1/31/20.

— Royal Caribbean (@RoyalCaribbean) January 27, 2020

A cruise line spokesperson said: "In light of the latest developments with the coronavirus outbreak in China, we are suspending the January 27 and January 31 sailings of Spectrum of the Seas, currently our only ship homeported in China. We are working with our guests to provide full refunds for the cancellation. The health and safety of our guests and crew is our primary concern, and we continue to work with the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control, and government health authorities to monitor the situation."

Royal Caribbean is also assuring its guests it is taking other proactive steps to ensure guest safety, such as special sanitizing of high traffic areas, adding additional medical staff onboard, and providing consultations with medical experts.

Hi there. At this time, that sailing will continue as planned. We continue to closely monitor any developments related to the coronavirus and new government-mandated travel bans. We'll notify impacted travel partners and guests immediately if any changes are made. -Yami

— Royal Caribbean (@RoyalCaribbean) January 27, 2020

As of January 27, 81 people have been killed from the virus, along with another 3,000 infected. Forty-four cases have been confirmed outside of China. 

Guests sailing on a Royal Caribbean ship in the last couple weeks have reported non-alcoholic frozen drinks have been added to the Diamond member happy hour drink menu.

RoyalCaribbeanBlog reader John Durland first reported the change and readers Eileen & John Triplett shared a photo of the new drink menu.

Diamond Drink menu from Mariner of the Seas, January 2020

Diamond drink menu from Independence of the Seas January 2019

The updated menu adds juices and virgin frozen beverages to the menu, along with new wines added to the Wine By The Glass menu and Heineken 0.0.

Each evening, Royal Caribbean offers complimentary alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages in its Diamond lounges for Diamond, Diamond Plus and Pinnacle members. In addition, Diamond members and above receive three complimentary drink vouchers to use at bars and lounges around the ship during the same time.

Royal Caribbean has expanded its new app to include support for Rhapsody of the Seas.

Rhapsody now appears in the list of supported ships that can be found from within the app.

The new app is being actively developed, which means not all features area available on the app yet.  Moreover, the cruise line is slowly rolling out support for more ships.

The app is available on the iTunes App Store and Google Play Store.

Hope you had a great week (maybe one week closer to your next Royal Caribbean cruise?) and you had a chance to keep up with what's new with Royal Caribbean this week. But if not, here's a roundup of this week's news.

Royal Caribbean put a new set of Jewel of the Seas sailings from Galveston on sale.

The new sailings were added as Jewel of the Seas will go to Galveston in December 2020 to temporarily takeover for Liberty of the Seas while Liberty undergoes her Amplification in January.

Jewel of the Seas arrives early with new itinerary options from Galveston, including two transatlantic options, two sailings to Colon, Panama, plus two new sailings to Perfect Day at Coco Cay, Nassau, and Key West.

Royal Caribbean News

• A man jumped to his death from Oasis of the Seas.
• Spotted: Royal Caribbean ship scheduled to sail from Los Angeles in 2021.
• Do cruise prices drop?
• How to add custom events to the Cruise Planner.
• What I wish I'd known before I went on Harmony of the Seas.
• What is the best location on a cruise?
• There is still time to take advantage of a pre-cruise purchase sale.
• How to make towel animals just like on a Royal Caribbean ship.
• What should I expect on my first Royal Caribbean cruise?

Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast

The 338th episode of the Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast is now available and we take an in-depth review of Brilliance of the Seas.

Matt and Billy review their 4-night Western Caribbean sailing on Brilliance of the Seas, with the focus on Billy's first Radiance Class experience.

Please feel free to subscribe via iTunes or RSS, and head over to rate and review the podcast on iTunes if you can! We’d appreciate it.

New RCB Video: Why you don't need to buy Royal Caribbean's The Key

Have you subscribed to the Royal Caribbean Blog YouTube Channel? We share some great videos there regularly, all about taking a Royal Caribbean cruise! This week, we are sharing our latest video — Why you don't need to buy The Key — and don’t forget to subscribe here.

Royal Caribbean Around The Internet

The Points Guy previewed the 8 most exciting new cruise ships of 2020.

Cruise Habit shares a look at Coronavirus and what to be aware of right now.

Cruise.Blog reported on the latest with the lawsuit related to the grandfather that dropped a toddler to her death.

Welcome to our weekly showcase of great Royal Caribbean photos that our readers have shared with us.  Let's dive into this week's batch of photos!

Let's kick start this week's edition with a photo by John of Symphony and Empress berthed together in St. Thomas.

Jorge shared this photo of the Solarium on Anthem of the Seas.

Michael Kho snapped this photo of Allure of the Seas at sunrise.

This is a great look from the top of Dragon's Breath zipline at Labadee by Travis Alexander.

John Trivedi took this selfie from North Star on Ovation of the Seas.

I love the colors in this sunset photo from Aruba while visiting on Explorer of the Seas. Photo by Terri Floyd.

Our final photo this week is by Spiralqueen, and it is of the sunset as seen from the pier at Perfect Day at CocoCay.

Thank you to everyone for their photos this week! You can use this form to share your favorite Royal Caribbean photos with all of us.

Readers living on the West Coast of the United States should probably sit down before reading this post, but the Port of Los Angeles cruise schedule lists regular sailings for Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas in 2021.

Beginning in June 2021, Voyager of the Seas is listed as offering regular 3- and 4-night sailings. Regular sailings extend through December 31, 2021. The Port of Los Angeles schedule does not have the 2022 schedule online yet.

Royal Caribbean has not made any announcement about returning to Los Angeles, but in the past port schedules have been good indicators of what Royal Caribbean intends to do.

Royal Caribbean's website currently has no sailings available to book on Voyager of the Seas past April 2021.

The return of Royal Caribbean to offer regular sailings from Los Angeles, or anywhere in California, has been highly anticipated for many years.

Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas left Los Angeles back in 2011 due to violence in Mexico as well as to find bigger profits.

Royal Caribbean's Cruise Planner site is where you can purchase shore excursions, reserve a drink package or book a spa appointment. It is your one-stop-shop for organizing your upcoming Royal Caribbean cruise, and we have fun tip to make planning your activities a little bit easier.

The Cruise Planner offers guests a lesser-known option to add a Personalized Activity, which essentially is a placeholder for any event, activity or meetup you want to put on the schedule for you and your family.

Here is how to add your own Personalized Activity to the calendar for reference later:

1. Log onto the Cruise Planner site.

2. Access your cruise reservation and click My Calendar.

3. Click Add Activity button at the top right corner.

4. Select Personalized Activity from the dropdown menu, and then select which day you want to assign the activity.

5. You can add an event title, description and define the start and end time of the event.

This tool can be helpful plan special events, meet ups and other family activities.

Thanks to RoyalCaribbeanBlog reader spiralqueen for alerting us to this feature!

Do you have a cruise booked on Harmony of the Seas and want to know all the nuances and tricks to the ship before you get onboard? If so, we have the perfect video for you.

Royal Caribbean's Harmony of the Seas is not only one of the cruise line's newest and most impressive ships, she is packed with tons to do.  To ensure you have the best cruise ever on her, I have shared the important things to know about Harmony before you get onboard.

And if you love this video, there’s plenty more for you to enjoy over on our Royal Caribbean Blog YouTube Channel!

By the way, have you subscribed yet? Be sure to subscribe to our channel and never miss a single video!

So check out the video and then let us know: What important tips or suggestions would you share with someone going on Harmony of the Seas for the first time?

Royal Caribbean cruises booked this weekend may qualify for 60% off second guest, kids sail for less and up to $150 instant savings.

New cruises booked January 23 – 26, 2020 on sailings departing on or after February 23, 2020 are eligible for this weekend sale.

The offer includes:

• BOGO60 provides 60% savings off the price of cruise fare of the second guest booked in the same stateroom as first, full-fare paying guest.
  • BOGO60 also provides 30% cruise fare savings for third guests and higher booked in the same stateroom as the first two qualifying guests.
  • In addition, BOGO60 offers up to $150 instant savings per stateroom on select sailings:
    • Sailings 5 nights or less, $25 savings for Interior and Ocean View, $50 for Balconies and $75 for Suites
    • Sailings 6 nights or longer, $50 savings for Interior and Ocean View, $75 for Balconies and $150 for Suites
    • Instant savings do not apply to China departures
• Kids Sail Free provides free cruise fare for 3rd guests and higher who are 12 years old or younger as of cruise departure date, booked in the same stateroom as the first two qualifying guests in a triple of quad-occupancy stateroom.
  • Kids Sail Free applies to 4-night or longer Alaska, Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada, Caribbean, CaribNE, Coastal, Europe, Hawaii, Repositioning and all 2020 Serenade of the Seas sailings departing between January 27, 2020 - December 17, 2020 and January 8, 2021 – May 17, 2021.
  • Offer excludes 2020 President’s Day sailings (Sailings between February 14 – 17, 2020), 2020 Spring Break sailings (Sailings between March 14 – 23, 2020), 2020 Holy Week/Easter sailings (Sailings between April 3 – 17, 2020), Peak Summer (Sailings between May 15 – August 31, 2020), 2020 Thanksgiving sailings (Sailings between November 21 - 28, 2020), 2021 President’s Day Sailings (Sailings between February 12 – 15, 2021), and 2021 Spring Break and Easter sailings (Sailings between March 13 – April 4, 2021). 
• Explore More Sale offers up to $150 per stateroom to spend at sea on select sailings departing on or after February 23, 2020:
  • Sailings 5 nights or less, $25 OBC for Interior and Ocean View, $50 for Balconies and $75 for Suite
  • Sailings 6 nights or longer, $50 OBC for Interior and Ocean View, $75 for Balconies and $150 for Suites.
  • Onboard credit does not apply to China departures.
• Alaska Kicker applies to new bookings made between December 27, 2019 – January 31, 2020 and applies to select sailings departing between May 15, 2020 - September 11, 2020 on Ovation of the Seas, Radiance of the Seas and Serenade of the Seas.
  • Instant savings amount is per stateroom and determined by category booked: $25 savings for Interior and Ocean View, $50 for Balconies and $100 for Suites.

BOGO60 is combinable with Kids Sail Free and Alaska Kicker, as well as promotional OBCs, NextCruise offers, instant savings, restricted discounts (for example, Seniors, Residents, Military), Promo Code driven offers, Free Upgrades, Crown and Anchor discounts and Shareholder Benefits. Alaska Kicker is combinable with Kids Sail Free as well as well as with promotional OBCs, NextCruise offers, Instant Savings, restricted discounts (for example, Seniors, Residents, Military), Promo Code driven offers Free Upgrades, Crown and Anchor discounts and Shareholder Benefits. Explore More Sale is combinable with BOGO60, Kids Sail Free and Alaska Kicker as well as with promotional OBCs, NextCruise offers, Instant Savings, restricted discounts (for example, Seniors, Residents, Military), Promo Code driven offers, Free Upgrades and Shareholder Benefits, but not combinable with Crown and Anchor discounts. Offers are not combinable with any other offer or promotion, including, but not limited to, Standard Group, Interline, Travel Agent, Travel Agent Friends and Family, Weekly Sales Events, and Net Rates. Promo Code driven offers are based on select ships and sail dates and must be applied at time of booking; limit one promo code per booking.

Offer available to residents of United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and select countries in the Caribbean.

A man from Naples, Florida was found dead after the Coast Guard found his body underwater while Oasis of the Seas was docked in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

CBS News reports a spokesperson for the Coast Guard in San Juan said surveillance footage showed what appeared to be a "clean jump" from about 177 feet up.

UPDATE: @USCG says surveillance video shows "a clean jump" by a 46yo man from Naples, FL., who dropped 177 feet, from the 10 story deck of @RoyalCarribean's 'Oasis of the Seas', last night, while the ship was docked in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Divers recovered the mans body. pic.twitter.com/vbUWaorB3k

— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) January 23, 2020

Oasis of the Seas is currently chartered for an annual cruise that caters to the LGBTQ+ community, known as Atlantis. 

The Coast Guard investigation is ongoing, as they try to determine what motivated the man. 

Update 1:30pm: Royal Caribbean has issued a statement on the incident.

"We are assisting authorities with their investigation of the death of a male guest in San Juan, Puerto Rico, last evening."

"Security footage indicates the man intentionally went overboard from Oasis of the Seas. Our hearts go out to his family and loved ones during this difficult time."