Before the cruise industry shutdown due to the global health crisis, Royal Caribbean had big plans for 2021 and like so many other things in life, their plans had to be changed.

Much of Royal Caribbean's big ticket spending had to be paused in order to conserve cash and be as fiscally responsible as possible.

In 2021, there are still some plans that will go ahead and others that have been delayed.  Here is a look at what we can and cannot expect from Royal Caribbean next year.

Still happening

New cruise ship: Odyssey of the Seas

Photo by Jeroen Houtman

Delayed from launching in 2020, Royal Caribbean's next new cruise ship will instead be delivered in 2021.

Odyssey of the Seas is under construction at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany and will be the cruise line's second Quantum Ultra Class ship.

Originally Odyssey of the Seas was going to start cruises in November 2020, but a combination of Royal Caribbean's financial turmoil and issues at the shipyard contributed to a delay.

Instead, she is scheduled to be delivered in Spring 2021, with her first sailings in April 2021.

Galveston terminal construction beginning

Just like Odyssey of the Seas, the new cruise terminal in Galveston was scheduled to begin construction in 2020, but is now scheduled to begin on April 1, 2021.

The new Terminal 3 in Galveston will be built on 10 acres of land at Pier 10, and will be used exclusively by Royal Caribbean.

The new cruise terminal is the linchpin in Royal Caribbean's plans to bring an Oasis Class cruise ship to the Galveston cruise market.

According to the Port of Galveston Trustees, Royal Caribbean asked to delay the start of construction by a year, and is "very much insistent" that they will begin work in 2021.

Likely not happening

Antigua Beach Club

In late 2019, Royal Caribbean announced a new kind of development that would be a sort of small scale private enclave for cruise guests.

The Royal Beach Club was described as the ultimate beach experience, which would offer guests unique features and flavors of each destination.

The first Royal Beach Club was to be built in Antigua, which will open along a half-mile of beachfront near Fort James and was scheduled to open sometime in 2021.

Since everything shutdown in 2020, there has been absolutely no mention by the cruise line of the Antigua Beach Club, or any Royal Beach Club. Moreover, Royal Caribbean Group informed investors it would conserve cash by reducing capital spending through 2021.

"We have reduced our planned capital spending through 2021, which may negatively impact our execution of planned growth strategies, particularly as it relates to investments in our ships, technology, and our expansion of land-based developments."

So while Royal Caribbean has not provided any kind of official update on the fate of the Royal Beach Club, the likelihood of the Royal Beach Club project moving ahead for 2021 seems unlikely.

Ship upgrades

Just like the Beach Clubs, spending on ship upgrades also Royal Caribbean hit the pause button.

Once it became clear the shutdown was going to last a while, Royal Caribbean postponed its upcoming amplifications until further notice.

Two Royal Caribbean ships were scheduled to be upgraded in 2021 as part of the Royal Amplification process: Adventure of the Seas and Liberty of the Seas.

Planned upgrades for Allure of the Seas and Explorer of the Seas that were scheduled to take place in 2020 also never happened and are also on hold.

New cruise ship: Wonder of the Seas

Similar to Odyssey of the Seas, Royal Caribbean's next Oasis Class ship delivery was delayed.

Wonder of the Seas was originally scheduled to be delivered in 2021, but will instead be delivered sometime in 2022.

Under construction in France, Wonder of the Seas had to be delayed in order to spread out spending. She is still scheduled to sail exclusively in China.

Guests on select Adventure of the Seas cruises in 2021 received emails from Royal Caribbean that their cruises have been shortened by a day due to pier construction delays.

A number of guests took to social media to share copies of an email they received from Royal Caribbean to inform them of a change in their Adventure of the Seas sailing.

Citing "pier construction delays in the Galveston terminal", the cruise line has altered the planned 5-night Western Caribbean itinerary to a 4-night sailing.

Thanks to Kimberly Coker for providing this screenshot

Guests on affected sailings should be contacted via email.

Royal Caribbean has offered these guests three options:

• Stay on the new 4-night Western Caribbean sailing departing from Galveston
• Rebook to a different 5-night Adventure of the Seas sailing later in 2021 or 2022
• Cancel for full refund

Guests have until  September 17, 2020 to make a decision on which option they would like to choose. If nothing is chosen, they will automatically be moved to the new 4-night Western Caribbean sailing departing on the same day as the original cruise.

Royal Caribbean has also created a form to process which option they would like in order to bypass waiting on the phone. The form must be filled out by September 17.

During a meeting of the Port of Galveston Trustees on Tuesday, it was revealed that Royal Caribbean plans to begin construction of its new cruise terminal in Galveston in April 2021.

The Port Director of the Port of Galveston, Rodger E. Rees, spoke during the meeting in his regular Port Director update and mentioned that Royal Caribbean "insists" it will begin work on its delayed cruise terminal on April 1, 2021.

"We're having ongoing conversations with Royal Caribbean, and they are very much insistent that they will begin construction according to plans." Mr. Rees told the board during the meeting.

Mr. Rees subsequently was discussing contingency plans related to other work in the port and said, "When I mentioned this and brought this up to Royal, Royal basically said we intend to be in construction April one."

In late March 2020, Royal Caribbean asked the Port of Galveston to delay the start of the new cruise terminal by one year.

In April 2020, the Galveston Wharves Board Meeting approved a delay in construction of Royal Caribbean's new cruise terminal, with a new target completion date for the terminal is September 1, 2022. 

The new Terminal 3 will be built on 10 acres of land at Pier 10, and will be used exclusively by Royal Caribbean.

Cruise Terminal 3 updates

In addition to the timeline for construction to begin, the Port Director provided a few other tidbits of updates related to construction efforts for the new terminal.

• The design of roads and infrastructure for the East End Cruise Corridor is ongoing.  This includes roads to Terminal 3.
• Design of utilities to support Royal Caribbean's Cruise Terminal 3 is 90% complete.
• Traffic study is 90% complete.  
  • The study will recommend upgrading Old Port Industrial Road to accommodate traffic to Cruise Terminals 1 & 2, and using Harborside Drive for traffic to Terminals 3 & 4.  The traffic study determined that a lot of vehicle traffic arrives at the port from hotels along the beach.

Many thanks to RoyalCaribbeanBlog reader Galveston Steve for assisting in reporting information from the meeting.

Royal Caribbean confirmed that while Allure of the Seas will no longer sail from Galveston in 2021, she will call Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale home instead.

A day after Royal Caribbean announced due to pier construction delays in the Galveston terminal Allure of the Seas will not be able to call Galveston home because the current pier will unfortunately not be ready to welcome an Oasis Class ship. 

Royal Caribbean Senior Vice President of Sales and Trade Support & Service Vicki Freed confirmed that Allure of the Seas will instead sail from Port Everglades.

I'm sure you're likely wondering, "Now that the Allure of the Seas is not going to Galveston, where will she be going, Vicki?" Well, we're aren't really sure of her exact itineraries just yet, but it's been confirmed that she will sail from Fort Lauderdale in the winter of 2021 and 2022.

Royal Caribbean cited the new terminal delay was caused by the closure of shipyards along with the disruption to the supply chain. Thus, the cruise line decided to postpone construction of a new terminal in an effort to cut costs.

In addition, the upgrades and enhancements that were scheduled as part of the ship's Royal Amplification have been postponed until further notice.

Taking Allure of the Seas' place in Galveston will be Liberty of the Seas, which has been homeported there for years.

In order to accommodate guests who were booked on Allure of the Seas, the cruise line is working on rebooking guests into the "best available stateroom".

Prior to Allure's winter 2021-2022 season, Allure of the Seas will start out in Miami, then transition to Port Canaveral and then remain there until she moves to Port Everglades.

The Port of Galveston met on Tuesday to approve Royal Caribbean's proposal to delay construction of its new cruise terminal by a year.

The Galveston Wharves Board Meeting took place on April 28, where the Board of Trustees took a vote on item E10 of the agenda, and voted 6 to 1 to approve Royal Caribbean's amendment to allow Royal Caribbean a one year delay in building Cruise Terminal 3.

The new target completion date for the terminal is September 1, 2022. Neither the Port nor Royal Caribbean wanted to cancel the contract and felt the best option was the one year delay.

The one dissenting vote expressed a desire to explore other options before committing a one year delay in the project.

In late March, Royal Caribbean asked the Port of Galveston to delay the start of the new cruise terminal by one year.

Terminal 3 will be built on 10 acres of land at Pier 10, and will be used by Royal Caribbean.

The plan for Terminal Three was announced in December 2019, with the added bonus of Allure of the Seas moving to Galveston to begin sailings shortly after the terminal opened in November 2021.

There was no verbal mention or discussion of one presentation slide indicating Anthem of the Seas possibly moving to Galveston at the current Cruise Terminal 2.

The Port of Galveston will meet on Tuesday with the Board of Trustees to discuss a variety of topics, including Royal Caribbean's proposed construction delay of Terminal 3.

The Port Director's Report has been posted in advance of the meeting, and it includes a few interesting talking points that will be covered in the meeting.

Galveston is working with Royal Caribbean on the possibility of receiving Anthem of the Seas at the current Cruise Terminal 2. There is no dates associated with this plan, just the posting of the idea.

A decision will need to be made during the meeting on approving Royal Caribbean's request to delay the new Terminal 3 by one year. In late March, Royal Caribbean asked the Port of Galveston to delay the start of the new cruise terminal by one year.

If approved, the target completion date would now be September 1, 2022.

The conceptual plan for the East End Cruise Corridor (shown below) includes not only the new Royal Caribbean Terminal 3, but an additional 4th cruise terminal at the current Del Monte terminal.

Terminal 3 will be built on 10 acres of land at Pier 10, and will be used by Royal Caribbean.

Royal Caribbean has reiterated that Galveston is an integral part of Royal's strategic plan.

The plan for Terminal Three was announced in December 2019, with the added bonus of Allure of the Seas moving to Galveston to begin sailings shortly after the terminal opened in November 2021.

Many thanks to RoyalCaribbeanBlog reader Galveston Steve for alerting us to this news.

Royal Caribbean has asked the Port of Galveston to delay the start of construction on a brand new cruise terminal by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Daily News reports Port Director Rodger Rees delivered the request to the Wharves Board of Trustees, and it will be discussed at an upcoming meeting on Tuesday.

Mr. Rees specified that the delay is not official yet and that the port and Royal Caribbean must agree on new terms.

In the early days of the pandemic, Royal Caribbean announced it was taking certain steps to improve its financial situation, including reducing capital expenditures.

Mr. Rees also indicated that Royal Caribbean wants to build the new terminal, just not this year.

In December 2019, Royal Caribbean and the Port of Galveston signed a long-term agreement to build a $100 million 150,000-square-foot cruise terminal.

Prior to this proposed delay, the new terminal was slated to open in November 2021.

The new cruise terminal will be big enough to handle Royal Caribbean's largest cruise ships, including an Oasis Class ship or the new Icon Class ships slated to debut in 2022.

In coordination with the new terminal, the cruise line was planning on homeporting Allure of the Seas in Galveston, beginning in 2021.

Royal Caribbean has opened up bookings for Jewel of the Seas for winter 2020-2021 from Galveston, Texas.

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. Liberty of the Seas will be out of service from January through early March, and return to service in Galveston in mid-March.

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.

The new sailings are available to book now.

Just a week after Royal Caribbean announced it would homeport its first Oasis Class ship from the port of Galveston, guests can now begin booking Allure of the Seas sailings in 2021.

Royal Caribbean released new sailings for sale beginning in November 2021, and going through April 2022. 

The sailings are all 7-night Western Caribbean itineraries, with the sole exception of her first sailing that is a 4-night Western Caribbean cruise on November 10, 2021.

The newly released sailings are available to book immediately.

Prior to Allure of the Seas' arrival in Galveston, she will undergo a major renovation in summer 2020, that will add a variety of new upgrades and enhancements.

Meanwhile, Galveston is constructing a brand new $100 million state-of-the-art cruise terminal to perfectly accommodate Allure of the Seas. The facility will feature mobile check-in and facial recognition to expedite guest arrival. The terminal will be designed and developed sustainably to meet LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental) certification standards.

Royal Caribbean announced it will send the first Oasis Class ship to be home ported from Galveston, Texas in 2021.

In conjunction with the cruise line's announcement it has signed a long-term agreement to build a brand new state-of-the-art cruise terminal in Galveston, Allure of the Seas will sail from Galveston beginning in 2021.

Allure will sail 7-night Caribbean itineraries from Galveston and will be the biggest and boldest ship sailing from the Lone Star state. It appears the first sailing will be November 10, 2021.

“We are excited to partner with the Port of Galveston to develop a world-class facility which will allow us to sail our newest, largest and most innovative ships from Texas starting with Allure of the Seas, one of the largest ships in the world,” Michael Bayley, president and CEO, Royal Caribbean International. “The new terminal will allow us to increase our guests to the region by 50% generating a $100 million economic impact within the first year of operation.”

In November 2021, the newly completed terminal will welcome one of the largest cruise ships in the world, Allure of the Seas. 

Allure of the Seas is scheduled to under go a $165 Royal Amplification in summer 2020, that will add a variety of new amenities, activities and things to do onboard. 

Among the many changes, Allure will receive the Ultimate Abyss, the tallest slide at sea that touts a 10-story plunge; The Perfect Storm, a thrilling trio of multistory waterslides; and an array of culinary possibilities with more restaurants, including the introduction of Giovanni’s Italian Kitchen & Wine Bar and returning favorites Playmakers Sports Bar & Arcade and El Loco Fresh; and more.