The 2011-2012 cruise season will kick off in St. Kitts with Royal Caribbean's Serenade of the Seas arriving on October 8th.  

Serenade of the Seas, a cruise ship with a capacity of 2,450 guests, will dock at Port Zante and make two calls in October with a total of 16 stops for the season.  Serenade of the Seas will bring a total of 40,640 passengers during the 2011-2012 season.

In addition, Port Zante will welcome Royal Caribbean's Explorer of the Seas six times as well as Navigator of the Seas and her 8 calls.

After Royal Caribbean decided to move Navigator of the Seas from Europe to the Caribbean, St Kitts has been added to her itinerary for the 2011-2012 cruise season.

Navigator of the Seas' new winter schedule will have her sailing out of Fort Lauderale, Florida on a series of five and nine-night Eastern and Western Caribbean itineraries starting on November 20.

Harry Liu, Royal Caribbean Spokesman, says the last minute deployment is about demand, “We are responding to vacationers’ demand for more Caribbean options this coming winter (and) spring".

St. Kitts and Nevis’ Minister of Tourism Richard “Ricky” Skerritt announced that Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas, the largest cruise ship in the world, will make a stop to St. Kitts in December 2011.

Allure will make a stop at the island's Port Zante cruise pier on December 30.

Royal Caribbean's vice president of Government Relations, Michael Ronan, is excited about the news of bringing Allure to St. Kitts for the first time, "Royal Caribbean International is delighted to bring the world-renowned Allure of the Seas to St. Kitts. While Allure of the Seas is the world’s largest and most revolutionary cruise ship, the ship’s ports of call are also very important to our guests. We look forward to bringing more of them to beautiful and vibrant St. Kitts."

Royal Caribbean now expects 45 ports of call to St. Kitts in the 2011-2012 season by its ships, doubling the 2010-2011 season when just 20 calls were made there.