Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas has been in Australia for a little over a month now and already is garnering positive reviews from Australians.  Among its amenities, passengers cite the ship's crew as being very friendly and capable.

"One thing that surprised us was the attitude of the people," the ship's captain Claus Andersen said. "We've never experienced anywhere where the people are so friendly."

Anderson cited a story from a trip to West Australia when they docked at Port Hedland and its very warm welcome after it was decided that one pier couldn't accomodate Radiance of the Seas so they opted to dock at Pibara port instead.  Anderson described the workers there as, "This was the very first time they'd had a cruise ship through but they looked like they do it every single day."

Radiance's Captain was also impressed by the efficiency and flexibility of the Australian Immigration Department in handling the chaos caused by the sudden shut-down of Qantas Airlines when Radiance was in Fremantle. The schedules of hundreds of passengers flying into Perth to board the cruiser were thrown into disarray and the ship had to stay another day. To help clear the passenger backlog, the department brought on two officials until midnight.

Royal Caribbean has seen sales of cruises in Australia for its Radiance of the Seas "rocket", according to Royal Caribbean's Managing Director of Australia and New Zealand, Gavin Smith.

Radiance arrived in Sydney in October and since then has been all around Australia, which has sparked a sharp increase in sales in the Australian Market.  Smith attributes the rise in sales from locals to the arrival of Radiance, "We've been surprised by the interest from the local market, particularly since the ship got here."

While Australians are jumping at the chance to sail on Radiance, the makeup of a Royal Caribbean cruise down under is still a mixed variety of international passengers, with an average of 60 nationalities on each cruise with about 40% from the United States, United Kingdom and Germany.

In addition to Radiance, Voyager of the Seas sales are "very strong", as anticipation grows for her arrival next year in Australia.

Cruise ship stops have always been a target for port cities because of the economic impact they provide, and Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas proved that theory once again as it's estimated between passengers and crew $500,000 has been infused to the economy of Adelaide, Australia after a recent stop.

Radiance of the Seas, which recently completed an upgrade, was delayed from leaving Fremantle by a day to help passengers that were the victim of Qantas airline grounding.  Forty-nine passengers could not make it to Perth for the beginning of their 18-night cruise to New Zealand and so Radiance spent several days in Adelaide to wait.

Tourism Minister Gail Gago said the direct economic impact from a ship the size of the Radiance over a day was estimated at $500,000, plus an additional amount to account for "a ripple effect".

Royal Caribbean is targeting the Australian cruise market more than ever, which is an up-hill battle since P&O Cruises and Princess Cruises are far more established in the area. Radiance of the Seas is joined by Rhapsody of the Seas this year, with Voyager of the Seas due in next year.

Photo by Jayson Oblea

Royal Caribbean Australia is helping to provide fun experience for the children of Camp Quality, a camp for children who are living with cancer.  Recently, Royal Caribbean held a fun day aboard Rhapsody of the Seas when it was docked in Sydney harbor.  

Royal Caribbean's Public Relations Consultants, Gail D'Arcy of The D'Arcy Partnership, spoke about the experience, ""We invited not just the children who were unwell and their parents, but their siblings, who also share the stress of living with someone with cancer.  The staff at Adventure Ocean kids' club were on hand to welcome our young guests, who spent the morning there and at the rock-climbing wall. Everyone had lunch in the main dining room and spent the afternoon in the swimming pool. It was such a great success, we did it again in Sydney in December that year."

In the coming year, Royal Caribbean will hold similar events aboard Radiance of he Seas when ti joins Rhapsody of the Seas from October until April 2012.

D'Arcy says Royal Caribbean will donate a nine-night South Pacific cruise aboard Rhapsody of the Seas again this November. Last November it gave Camp Quality a cruise to Noumea and Isle of Pines, to go to a family that deserved a holiday.

Royal Caribbean CEO Adam Goldstein spoke with the media following meetings with New South Wales, Australian authorities.  Goldstein urged the leaders in New South Waves to do more, as they have "not fully taken on" the responsibility they have for the future of the cruising industry in Australia because of local issues.

Goldstein feels that Australia is starting to realize the economic benefits cruising brings to the country but it needs to do more to secure its spot.  Goldstein said he has witnessed a "greater determination" by Australia since his last visit in 2009 but there's still more the country can do.

“I am not sure that New South Wales fully understands how critical it is that the cruising equation be right here in Sydney not only for its own benefit but for the benefit of the country,” he said. “Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and other cities will all benefit if Sydney is a robust hub of the cruise wheel but I don’t think the leadership in New South Wales has fully taken that on yet. They are very focused on their own issues and their own opportunities rather than viewing it in a more holistic way.”

Goldstein did say Royal Caribbean was involved in "preliminary discussions" about long term infrastructure issues as well as “touching on a number” of possible solutions, but declined to elaborate any further.

Australia's cruise season kicks off in the month of September as ships like Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas and Rhapsody of the Seas call the land down under home for the summer season.

Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas will debut in Australia this season on October 15 and it will be the first time she's come to Australia since her major revitalization that took place earlier this year.  Radiance will sail in Australia until April 5, 2012.

Joining Radiance will be Rhapsody of the Seas on November 13, marking her fifth season in Australia. Radiance will remain in Australia until April 13, 2012 and offer 17 different itineraries, such as seven to 18-night South Pacific trips, Queensland voyages and weekend "sampler" trips.

For those cruising on Radiance of the Seas, her maiden Australia itineraries offer cruises as short as two nights or as long as 18, and depart from Sydney and Fremantle.  There's also five 14 and 16-night cruises to New Zealand or a 12-night sailing to the South Pacific.

A new two-night "weekend getaway" itinerary, sailing on November 18, will offer Australians a chance to sample a Radiance-class cruise, while a seven-night Tasmania itinerary, sailing on February 12 next year, will overnight at Melbourne and Hobart.

Radiance will also make a 34-night circumnavigation of Australia.

Royal Caribbean is planning on sending more ships to Australia, but the company has concerns that the Australian ports could become overwhelmed by demand in the very near future.

Royal Caribbean feels that if a new terminal in Sydney, Australia isn't built soon, the port will reach capacity in 2013.  Australia is enjoying increasing demand and the market for cruises is expanding so quickly that the facilities in place today will not be able to keep up with the increasing number of large cruise ships entering Sydney harbor.

Royal Caribbean's Australian managing director Gavin Smith released a statement that covers the growing concern, "We have a good situation that needs attention before becoming a problem."

Royal Caribbean wants the New South Wales government to reconsider the $60 million allocated by the previous Labor government to build a new terminal in White Bay, in Sydney's inner west.

Smith continued, "Our view is $60 million is a considerable amount of money to invest in a permanent terminal west of the Harbour Bridge that most ships calling into Sydney in the future won't be able to use.  It would be more prudent and viable to redeploy a large part of the funding towards a terminal (east of the bridge) the whole industry can use"

Royal Caribbean has a good reason to be concerned, given their announcement that they will quadruple the amount of guests they will handle over the next few cruise seasons.

Royal Caribbean Chairman Richard Fain spoke with CruiseMates about the company's decision to move more of its ships to Australia and the reasons for the change.  

In 2012, 2 Royal Caribbean ships (Rhapsody of the Seas, Radiance of the Seas) and 2 Celebrity ships will call upon Australia for a number of cruises.

Asked about the potential for over-saturing the Australian cruise market, Fain seemed confident that Royal Caribbean could easily adjust, "Keep in mind the flexibility of our product. If something does not work out we can always change our plans and put our ships somewhere else."

Asked if Royal Caribbean considers what other competitors are doing or if the decision to move ships to an area is based purely on Royal Caribbean, Fain responded, "We really just look at our own brand."

Royal Caribbean announced last month that Voyager of the Seas would be sailing to Australia for the 2012/2013 season and since then, many fans have wanted to know more details about these sailings so Royal Caribbean has released more details about what we can expect.

Voyager of the Seas will kick off its Australian cruise season on November 23, 2012 and will offer 12 cruises out of Sydney and Fremantle, Australia  This first cruise will begin (and eventually end its run in Australia) with a 14-night repositioning cruise between Singapore and Perth, Australia with stops in Thailand and Vietnam.

Itineraries include four 14-night New Zealand itineraries along with shorter cruises to Tasmania and Fiji.  There's also two 18-night voyages between Fremantle and Sydney, taking in southern Australia along with Milford Sound in New Zealand.

Adam Armstrong, Royal Caribbean's commercial manager, is excited for the debut of Voyager of the Seas down under, "Voyager of the Seas will not only be the biggest ship based here but she also introduces unique concepts never before experienced at sea in the region".

In addition to Voyager of the Seas, Rhapsody of the Seas and the recently refurbished Radiance of the Seas will return to Australia as well for their own set of cruises.

Radiance of the Seas will also operate out of Sydney and Fremantle and offer passengers 10-night cruises to Queensland over the holidays of Christmas and Easter.  They will also offer five night "sampler cruises" to Newcastle and Brisbane.

Rhapsody of the Seas will offer 12 cruises to the South Pacific region along with four 11-night voyages to Tropical Queensland.