The Port of Alicante, Spain this week has received more than four thousand tourists arriving on board the biggest cruise ship that sailed the Mediterranean Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas. Independence of the Seas arrived at 8 am and departed at 4.30pm on Monday.

After just a few hours there were no shortage of visitors to Santa Barbara Castle and the Old City. According to the cruise line, these are along with the beach, are the great attractions of Alicante. Some charms, together with the short time of docking, the majority opted to stay in the passage in the city.  

The activity around a cruise begins early to use the time in port at 8.30am, where cruise ships dock, was already a hive. Nine buses, three of them bound for Benidorm for being the most requested tour and the rest to other parts of the province as Novelda, Elche, Guadalest and the Fuentes del Algar, waiting for the tourists to drop ship. Royal Caribbean explained that prices of the tours range from 19 euros it costs to transfer by bus to Benidorm to 35 or 45 euros for those who leave the other tours. 

"We've never been to Benidorm, but we hear it's beautiful," said Jean and Ray, a married Australian who traveled to the English port of Southampton to climb aboard this floating hotel.  

But "most people will visit for free the city and especially to the beach," said Coralia Leopea, responsible for Royal Caribbean's excursions. Hence the line of tourists can be seen walking along the pier throughout the day and the constant trips that a shuttle bus between the boat and access to the port to avoid the long ride cruisers without shade. 

Spanish ship building company Navantia will use its Cadiz shipyard for Royal Caribbean's modernization program known as "Revitalization Advantage Program" for the Splendour of the Seas during the month of November.

Navantia's work will include the installation of a 'ducktail' to increase stability, modification of more than a hundred cabins to install new balconies, wings spread bridge, as well as a complete renovation of all cabins, restaurants, spa and shopping areas.

As a result of these works "will increase significantly the standard of accommodation of the ship."

In addition to the work of remodeling the qualification, work is carried out regular stranding improvement works including rudders, propeller shafts and tail.

The work ensures "a high level of workload" for the template for four weeks and is "a major logistical effort" by the shipyard, which will manage more than 400 containers of material in a short period of time.

Royal Caribbean plans to assign similar programs for four other ships, two of which are already signed to the Cadiz shipyard for the next year.

You've likely heard about the incident in Puerto Rico last week where Royal Caribbean stranded 140 passengers when Hurricane Irene forced the Serenade of the Seas to leave port earlier than expected.  There was a lot of outrage targeted at Royal Caribbean for not doing more to notify the passengers and/or compensate them for missing their cruise.  Yesterday Royal Caribbean announced it was offering those who missed the ship compensation.

So today's soundoff topic is: Did Royal Caribbean rectify the situation in your eyes?

Did Royal Caribbean do enough to make the situation better?  Or do you think that since the cruise contract every passengers enters into stipulating Royal Caribbean owes them nothing means the compensation is more than adequate?  

Share your thoughts in our comments for this post!

Royal Caribbean United Kingdom and Ireland announced that the new head of trade sales will be Nicki Tempest-Mitchell, who will report directly to Royal Caribbean's Associate Vice President & General Manager Jo Rzymowska.

Tempest-Mitchell had previously overseen sales for all national accounts, but her new duties will have her responsible for all trade sales in the United Kingdom and Ireland in an effort by Royal Caribbean to strengthen its position in the region.

Tempest-Mitchell will head up a team of seven others, including three new positions that have not been announced yet.  This new team will also include a new Royal Caribbean Head of Sales and a field sales manager.

The goal of this team is to address the ever changing needs of cruise specialists, high street agents, home workers and online players.

Jo Rzymowska, associate vice president & general manager, UK & Ireland said “Nicki Tempest-Mitchell’s well deserved promotion and our new structure demonstrates our commitment to the trade, and now more than ever ensures that we are in a position to manage the needs of the trade and deliver on our promise to work in true partnership”.

Nicki Tempest-Mitchell added “I’m really excited about my new challenge and I’m looking forward to working with the team to build the trade business and ensure that RCL Cruises is strengthening its position in the UK & Ireland”.  

After an avalanche of negative comments concerning Royal Caribbean's decision last week to strand over 100 of its passengers in San Juan without any compensation, Royal Caribbean has decided to offer those who didn't make the ship a compensation package.

The incident occurred when Hurricane Irene threatened San Juan, Puerto Rico where Royal Caribbean's Serenade of the Seas was docked.  Port officials needed to have the ship leave early, so Serenade was forced to leave a few hours early and subsequently left 145 passengers and refused to offer them any compensation.

Royal Caribbean spokeswoman Cynthia Martinez confirmed that a compensation package was indeed being offered but declined to provide specifics.

The aftermath of the incident spilled over when people heard of what happened and were upset over Royal Caribbean's indifference to the plight of those left behind.  Despite earlier saying the cruise giant would not offer anything (they claimed they were within their rights to do what they did), Royal Caribbean is hoping to reverse the negative perception that has taken hold in the court of public opinion.

UPDATE: Here is a statement from Royal Caribbean:

 “As a gesture of goodwill, and in recognition of the time they missed on board Serenade of the Seas, Royal Caribbean provided each guest who was not able to arrive to the ship before it departed San Juan but met the ship later, with a future cruise certificate for 30% of the cruise fare paid for their sailing.

“We are in the process of contacting those guests who were not able to sail with us at all to inform them of their compensation, and would prefer that the impacted guests learn of the amount directly from the line before it is disclosed publicly.

“We are compensating these passengers because we understand that this was an unusual situation, and we want to provide our guests with another opportunity to sail with Royal Caribbean International in the near future.” 

Vendors on the Berry Islands of the Bahamas are upset with Royal Caribbean over a newly opened signature store on its private island of CocoCay.  These vendors claim the new store has cost their revenues to be slashed by 75%.

Mary Neely-Knowles, a spokeswoman for the Coco Cay vendors, claims the vendors cannot compete with Royal Caribbean's store despire the store being open for only two weeks.

“We are selling T-shirts with the Coco Cay logo on it and they are selling T-shirts with the Coco Cay logo on it and Royal Caribbean . . . their t-shirts are $10, ours is $18."

“And we can’t sell any lower [because] most of our T-shirts come from the States or Nassau [where] they start from $7 to $8, so you have to sell $15.

“So why do they need to sell the same straw items, the hats, T-shirts, lotion, sunglasses and things that we are selling? We can’t compete.”

Neely-Knowles went on to claim that workers have noticed a shift in the purchases passengers have been making.  In addition, Royal Caribbean's cashless system of purchases has further created problems for the vendors as many passengers are now disembarking without cash.

A letter obtained by the Guardian Business shows Royal Caribbean received approval from the Bahamian  Director of Investments, Gaydene McClain for the store under the condition the items sold in the store would “have Royal Caribbean’s logo” on it.

The vendors believe that the distinction wasn't enough and that their items overwhelm the vendors with similar goods.

The fact of the matter is governments in the Caribbean enter into these agreements with cruise lines as a way of constructing state-of-the-art cruise facilities, which in turn guarantees long-term cruise traffic.  Officials from the Bahamas government assert it would very difficult for the Bahamas to maintain or grow its share of the cruise industry without such competitive incentives.

Hurricane Irene caused enough damage to Royal Caribbean's private island of CocoCay in the Bahamas that Royal Caribbean officials had to cancel three stops over the weekend to the island.  The damage has been repaired and CocoCay is open for business once again.

Royal Caribbean's Monarch of the Seas was able to stop today at CocoCay.  Royal Caribbean said it made all the repairs it needed and  that “the site is back to business as usual.”

Can a floating city of 6,000 passengers per week touring holiday and not leave behind a sea of ​​waste? Cruise companies fight tooth and nail that they follow environmental policies, and ensure that they meet international standards even with the challenge of being sustainable and non-polluting by the account that brings. Only in Spain, in the first half of the year there have been 3.2 million cruise passengers, 17.7% more than the same period of 2010, a total of 1,632 large ships. And the craze for this type of trip, relatively new in Europe, has for decades sweeping the United States.

Each cruise company usually develops its own sustainability plans. One of the largest in the world, Royal Caribbean, said that for 40 years have implemented various measures "to protect the environment," but it was in 1992 when they launched the Save the Waves program, focusing on the "reduce, reuse and recycling waste" in all vessels in its fleet.Royal Caribbean monitors their ships pollution (managing the tons of garbage produced daily) and strictly prohibiting passengers to throw any litter overboard. In fact there are cameras that could determine from which little cabin is thrown into the sea.

Royal Caribbean places posters in the restrooms asking not to throw the towels on the floor unless changes are required to avoid unnecessary washing and reduce pollution.

Royal Caribbean has on its ships an environmental program officer, whose duty it is to instruct the crew about managing waste. Royal Caribbean's procedures were the first certified ISO 14001 in the sector.

The International Cruise Victims Association, a non-profit group formed by victims and families of victims of cruise crimes, slammed Royal Caribbean in a recent article for offering prepaid drink packages.  ICV strongly condemns Royal Caribbean for promoting the consumption of alcohol on their ships by offering unlimited drinks for one price.

ICV has sent its unhappiness with the package directly to Royal Caribbean's board of directors with the hopes the company will change its policy.

Royal Caribbean Chairman Richard Fainhas characterized the all-you-can-drink packages as "hugely successful." Fain also has said about rhe packages, "It's very dramatic how much people like buying the drinks package, for example, and not have to worry about that." The idea is to give the passenger "a more customized all-inclusive experience."

Royal Caribbean has been forced to cancel stops to its private island in the Bahamas, CocoCay, through Monday due to the effect Hurricane Irene had on it.  Royal Caribbean's reasoning for cancelling is being described as, "we feel our guest's experience ashore would be disrupted".

The following stops have been canceled

• Majesty of the Seas - August 27
• Monarch of the Seas -  August 28
• Freedom of the Seas - August 29

As a result of this itinerary change, Royal Caribbean has decided to amend the following itineraries as follows

• Monarch of the Seas will now stay overnight in Nassau, Bahamas, arriving at 12:00 p.m. today and departing at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday, August 28.
• Majesty of the Seas will also stay overnight in Nassau, Bahamas, arriving at 12:00 p.m. today and departing at 5:00 pm. on Sunday, August 28.
• Freedom of the Seas will call on Nassau, Bahamas, on Monday, August 29 from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

No word at this time if any further cancelations will be necessary.  Royal Caribbean reported sending a team yesterday to evaluate the damage to the island.