Royal Caribbean has decided to redeploy one of its cruise ships away from Europe.  Navigator of the Seas will head to the Caribbean for the 2011-2012 cruise season and sail out of Port Everglades, Florida.  Navigator will offer various five- to nine-night Eastern and Western Caribbean itineraries beginning on Nov. 20.

Navigator had been scheduled to cruise in the Mediterranean and subsequently canceled a number of of 14-night Mediterranean cruises that had been scheduled between November and April out of Barcelona, Spain.

Before Navigator of the Seas can start its new deployment in the Caribbean, she will embark upon a 14-night trans-Atlantic journey from Rome, Italy to Port Everglades, Florida.

Navigator will return to Europe with an April 14, 2012 cruise that will send it back to Italy.

At the Sicily Travel Expo, Royal Caribbean announced that it will be in Sicily for the first time. In 2011, five vessels will be transitioning to Messina, Sicily which can bring nearly 160,000 passengers.

Palermo will be the first port of call for Grandeur of the Seas May 20, 2011. Mariner of the Seas, in her debut year in the Mediterranean Sea, will touch only once a Palermo October 1. On October 8, it will be Brilliance of the Seas' turn. The cruise season will close the Navigator of the Seas, for the first time in Palermo on October 24.

The Port of Valencia, Spain reached 37% of cruise passengers in 2009, putting it in fifth place in Spain's national ranking, after Barcelona, ​​Palma de Mallorca, Malaga and Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

With the arrival of Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas , the port receives 4,300 passengers and the Valencia Tourism Foundation has made ​​a special welcome, including on tastings of horchata.

The biggest cruise of the berth so far in Valencia, with 339 meters (more than three football fields in length), contains inside all sorts of attractions for passengers, suites, cabins three types, restaurants, swimming pools, pubs, nightclubs, shopping mall, casino and several sporting facilities, mini golf and boxing rings included.

Royal Caribbean won a 2011 RFID Journal Award for Best Use of RFID to Enhance a Product or Service.  The award was for Royal Caribbean's use of RFID technology to enable guests to prepay for unlimited soft drinks, and to then serve themselves fountain beverages without having to wait on a service bar line.

Royal Caribbean's RFID readers are built into the soda fountains that have antennas installed in the drip trays. 

Royal Caribbean's director of fleet beverage operations Bob Midyette claims each beverage container has a built-in near-field EPC Gen 2 RFID inlay from Alien Technology.  Back-end software confirms the guest's ID number and allows the fountain to dispense a 16-ounce drink.

"The system allows us to improve service to our guests," Midyette explains, "and enhance sales with something that feels like magic."

Royal Caribbean Associate Vice President & General Manager Jo Rzymowska said that booking trends in the United Kingdom are the slowest in the six years since she joined the company.  Rzymowska believes Britons are waiting longer than usual to book their summer holidays.

Speaking at the launch of a new travel agent training website in London last night, Rzymowska thinks people are just waiting until it's closer to their vacations to book, “This year the booking trends have been the latest in my six years in tenure,” she said. “There are definitely people who haven’t booked their summer holiday yet who are holding out.”

So why the slow down?  Rzymowska believes it's a combination of recent global events and concerns of economic uncertainty.

The good news for Royal Caribbean is that despite the reluctance of some to book, sales for 2011 are still up and Rzymowska thinks the rest of the year will be good as well.

The port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife in Spain was graced today with the first visit of Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas, the largest cruise ship in Europe.  Liberty has come to the Island from Miami as a stopover before the start of its summer season in the Mediterranean.

A statement released by the Port Authority ensures that the ship is two inches longer than its sister ship, Independence of the Seas, which is 339 feet long and 154,407 gross registered tons, with capacity to 4,375 cruisers.

Liberty of the Seas is served by 1,300 crew, 730 of them dedicated to ensuring safety on board.

The ship, built in Finland in 2007 at a cost of $ 800 million, remain in port until 18:00 pm and depart in the direction of Cadiz to continue to cover a voyage of fourteen days that end in Barcelona, ​​home port of their routes for the Mediterranean. 

Royal Caribbean is launching a new honeymoon registry so that friends and family can purchase gifts for a newly wed couple on their cruise honeymoon vacation.

Some of the options available include paying for dinner at a specialty restaurant onboard their ship, a couple's massage, purchasing an excursion, or just helping pay for the cost of the cruise.

The new honeymoon registry can be reached at http://www.RoyalCaribbeanHoneymoon.com

More than 1,000 volunteers associated with Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. will spend this Saturday painting and landscaping their South Florida community as part of the company's 14th annual G.I.V.E. Day.

G.I.V.E., which stands for "Get Involved Volunteer Everywhere," is a community service event that brings together Royal Caribbean employees, their families, friends, vendors and business partners to assist non-profit organizations and improve the quality of life in their local communities. The volunteers will be painting and landscaping three South Florida locations - Covenant House in Fort Lauderdale, Children's Harbor in Pembroke Pines and the Holocaust Memorial on Miami Beach.

"As one of the largest employers in South Florida, we are committed to supporting and helping our local communities. It is part of our Corporate Social Responsibility," said Michele Nadeem, vice president of Global Corporate Communications, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. "We believe that the personal satisfaction and fun of assisting our neighbors on G.I.V.E. Day will help inspire our employees to pursue volunteer and public service opportunities throughout the year."

Covenant House Florida serves runaway, homeless and at-risk youth under 21, including teen parents and their children in South Florida. Without a fresh coat of paint in over 15 years, this facility is a perfect location for G.I.V.E. Day volunteers. Since there is also a dire need for shade on the property, volunteers will be landscaping the site as well.

Children's Harbor in Pembroke Pines provides residential services for foster children in a family-style setting, and community based services for the prevention and intervention of abuse and neglect. The five homes on site are in need of painting, and volunteers will also assist in cleaning up and landscaping the children's playground area.

The Holocaust Memorial on Miami Beach was dedicated and opened to the public in 1990. The Memorial is composed of a large plaza of Jerusalem stone and a large lily pond set against a backdrop of green forest. Volunteers will landscape the area around the educational center, as well as paint the memorial's lamp posts.

Now in its 14th year, G.I.V.E. Day is an example of how the more than 40,000 Royal Caribbean employees give back to their communities around the world, by donating thousands of volunteer hours to assist their communities with neighborhood development, civic drives, environmental improvement and disaster recovery. Similar G.I.V.E. Day events are also being planned for and will take place in Wichita, Kansas; Anchorage, Alaska; Seattle, Washington; and Springfield, Oregon. 

Royal Caribbean had canceled stops in Japan after the earthquake devastated the country and has now officially decided to change Legend of the Seas' schedule for cruises between April 23 and July 16, 2011.

The new itineraries include two- to seven-night itineraries out of Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

For those that were already booked on a cruise that has had its itinerary changed due to the earthquake, Royal Caribbean is offering options and refunds.

• Passengers booked on canceled sailings out of Yokohama will receive a 100 percent refund of their cruise fare. Plus, travelers booked on the April 23, May 8, May 16 and May 24 sailings will receive a 10 percent future cruise credit
• Those booked on the April 30 sailing will receive a 20 percent future cruise credit
• For sailings departing between May 24 and July 16, if those who are booked already choose to cancel, they can receive a full refund plus a 10 percent cruise credit towards a future sailing.

Royal Caribbean chairman Richard Fain sat down with Smart Money for a question and answer session to talk about the state of Royal Caribbean today.  Here are a few of the questions of particular interest.

SmartMoney: Historically, cruises have been cheaper than vacations on land. Has the gap narrowed?
A cruise is still a better value. It frustrates me that [so many people] haven't cruised. Eighty percent of Americans haven't taken a cruise!

SmartMoney: Asia has the growth everyone wants. You have done little there.
We are getting to that point. The Chinese government in particular has made a decision that cruise tours are good for the country. They have started making investments in port facilities. [Our participation] couldn't have come much earlier.

You can read the entire interview here