Royal Caribbean has "invited" James Hand, the man who recently entered a contest in the UK to name a ship Boaty McBoatface, to "help" Royal Caribbean name its next cruise ship.

Coincidently posted on April 1, Royal Caribbean  knows that James Hand has forever altered the business of naming ships, and perhaps could make a career out of it. Therefore, Royal Caribbean is thrilled to extend James Hand an offer to bring his talents on deck, and help Royal Caribbean develop the name for a future ship.

With five ships debuting in the next three years, Hand’s clever copywriting skills will surely be put to good use.

"The people of the United Kingdom know the name of a great ship when they see it," said Michael Bayley, President and CEO, Royal Caribbean International. "Like the rest of the world, we fell in love with the name Boaty McBoatface when we heard it, and we knew immediately that Royal Caribbean could use James Hand’s talent to name our next ship."

As the first step, Royal Caribbean is inviting James Hand to sail on its newest and biggest ship, Harmony of the Seas, when she launches in Southampton, UK this May. Hand will meet with the cruise line’s very own ship naming experts to discuss potential names for a forthcoming ship.

"If James accepts our offer, who knows, perhaps he could name all our future ships,” added Bayley. “James Hand, Chief Naming Officer, Royal Caribbean International. It has a nice ring to it."

Over the last couple of weeks, Royal Caribbean filed to abandon United States federal trademarks it had registered for that would have been used for a new cruise ship.

On Monday, September 7, 2015, Royal Caribbean abandoned the following trademarks

• Emblem of the Seas
• Passion of the Seas
• Pulse of the Seas

On Monday, September 14, 2015, Royal Caribbean abandoned another three trademarks

• Apex of the Seas
• Joy of the Seas
• Spectrum of the Seas

The reason provided for all of the names being abandoned was "No statement of use filed".

All six of these names had been registered between 2012 and 2014.  Some of the names in those groups were eventually used for cruise ships, including Quantum of the Seas, Anthem of the Seas, Harmony of the Seas and Ovation of the Seas.  

Royal Caribbean still has an unnamed fourth Oasis class cruise ship on order that will be delivered in mid-2018 and an unnamed fourth Quantum class ship on order that should be complete in 2019.

Royal Caribbean has filed to trademark five new names of cruise shios, which potentially could be names of some of the unnamed cruise ships that are slated to be built.

On September 15, Royal Caribbean filed trademark applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for the following names:

• Spectrum of the Seas
• Joy of the Seas
• Harmony of the Seas
• Emblem of the Seas
• Apex of the Seas

Royal Caribbean also added applications for three other cruise ship names it had previously sought to register

• Pulse of the Seas
• Passion of the Seas
• Ovation of the Seas

Royal Caribbean had previously announced this week Ovation of the Seas will be the name of its next Quantum class cruise ship.

Royal Caribbean still has an unamed third and fourth Oasis-class cruise ships that could use one of these names.

In late 2012, Royal Caribbean applied for trademarks for six new ship names and went on to use two of them officially (Quantum of the Seas & Anthem of the Seas).  This week, it let one of the names it applied for a trademark to lapse in registration, which could be a sign Royal Caribbean will not be using it as a name of a future cruise ship.

The registration status for Vantage of the Seas changed to "ABANDONED-FAILURE TO RESPOND OR LATE RESPONSE" as of October 2, 2013.

This could be a sign Royal Caribbean is no longer interested in using the name, although there is the potential that this name may have been applied for again in a separate application.

If Vantage of the Seas was in fact dropped from consideration, then the remaining unused cruise ship names Royal Caribbean could potentially choose from is

• Ovation of the Seas
• Passion of the Seas
• Pulse of the Seas

Of course, there is still the possibility that any new cruise ship names could be chosen outside of this list but we'd expect Royal Caribbean to try to protect the name before announcing it.

Royal Caribbean currently has two un-named cruise ships on order, with options for more.  One ship is a Quantum-class ship and the other is an Oasis-class ship.

Royal Caribbean has released a video showing off the beginning of construction of its third Oasis-class cruise ship. When complete, it will be the largest cruise ship in the world.

The new ship will be complete in 2016.

STX France is making preperations to begin construction on Royal Caribbean's third Oasis-class cruise ship by first building a frame to help build the massive ship.  In order to accomodate the massive ship, STX France is constructing a new portico, which started arriving this week.  Formal construction on the portico will begin starting next month. 

Once the portico is complete, STX France expects the shipyard to begin construction of the new Oasis-class ship in the first quarter of 2014.

The new STX France portico, ordered specifically for the new Oasis class ship but will be used for other future builds, just arrived in Saint-Nazaire from China in the last few days.  It weighs 160 tonnes and measures 44 by 10 meters.

The old portico was built in 1968 and was one of the oldest in the world.

Royal Caribbean's third Oasis-class ship will be built at STX France shipyard and today ArcelorMittal has been selected to provide 100% of the steel for the hull and 20 bridges in the new ship.

The agreement will supply more than 40,000 tonnes of plates and coils from ArcelorMittal's European sites.

The coils will be produced at Fos-sur-Mer, France and will then be processed into sheets by ArcelorMittal's St Nazaire Distribution Solutions unit.  Afterwards, the coils will then be delivered to STX France.

The plates are being produced by ArcelorMittal Gijon, Spain and shipped to STX France.

Deliveries will commence in September 2013, when construction of the hull will begin.

Hervé Bourrier, CEO, ArcelorMittal France said: "This contract demonstrates our ability to deliver high quality steels and tailored services from our European industrial and sales units, and confirms our long-term presence as a steel supplier to the cruise ship market, one that has seen consistent growth over the last five years."

The ship, which will have around 2,700 cabins, will be delivered in 2016 to Royal Caribbean.

Royal Caribbean has come to an agreement to get an unsecured loan for up to €892 million to finance its third Oasis-class cruise ship. COFACE, the export credit agency of France, will guarantee 100% of the financing, according to a filing.

As soon as the loan is funded, it will amortize semi-annually and will mature 12 years as soon as STX France shipyard delivers the new ship, which is currently scheduled for the second quarter of 2016.

Interest on the loan is expected to accrue at a fixed rate of 2.6%, including the applicable margin, or at a floating rate equal to EURIBOR plus 1.15%.

Société Générale is serving as facility agent and mandated lead arranger, BNP Paribas as documentation bank and mandated lead arranger, and HSBC France as mandated lead arranger.

In an interview with Royal Caribbean Regional Vice President, Asia Pacific Gavin Smith, the topic of Royal Caribbean's new Oasis-class cruise ship that is on order for a few years from now.

While Smith was not able to go into any great detail about the third Oasis class cruise ship, he did give us an idea of what to expect.

"It could be expected that the DNA of the earlier Oasis Class ships will be protected, and a host of new and innovative amenities will be added to further enhance guest experience."

Construction of the new ship will begin in September 2013 at the STX France shipyards. The third Oasis class ship is expected to be delivered to Royal Caribbean sometime in 2016.

Royal Caribbean senior vice president Lisa Bauer spoke to a group of travel agents in São Paulo, Brazil on Tuesday and discussed some of Royal Caribbean's plans for the future, including launching three new cruise ships by 2016.

Bauer spoke about Brazil's importance as an increasingly larger market, "Brazil is an important market and also strategic. São Paulo customers love our products and it's where we have a high satisfaction rate. We know that agents work hard for our sales and we want to hear what they have to say."

Bauer mentioned the new third Oasis class ship Royal Caribbean is building along with the two Project Sunshine ships that will launch in 2014 and 2015.  According to Bauer, news about all three ships will be communicated throughout the construction period of the vessels.

"We do a global search with our passengers to define what will be news. We will bring some of the existing ammenities and others that are innovative and different from anything I've done," she said.

According to Ricardo Amaral, vice president of Royal Caribbean, Latin America, the focus of creation is seeking a new experience to guests. "Maybe that's why we're the playmaker that invests more in renovations and construction," he said.

For Amaral, the concept of brand and quality are the main characteristics that motivate Royal Caribbean to be preferred among Brazilians. "We believe we have the best product for the Brazilian public for both the domestic market and for Europe," he said. Regarding the numbers, he only mentioned that the season in Brazil is very good, since he can not speak of results that have not been announced for investors.