Royal Caribbean Blog

Hope you are having a great weekend.  Here is all of this week's Royal Caribbean cruise news.

Symphony of the Seas completed its first set of sea trials earlier this week.

The sea trials took place between February 15 and 18, where almost every onboard system was tested. The ship is in its "completion phase", which means it is getting prepared to be delivered to Royal Caribbean in late March.

The sea trials included over 80 hours of sailing that covered 1,000 nautical miles off Belle-Île island. During the trials, the full range of the ship’s systems were activated at sea, most of those being already adjusted and presented for commissioning, both to Royal Caribbean and to the classification society.

Royal Caribbean News

• Symphony of the Seas will have a new set of sea trials scheduled for March 3rd.
• Royal Caribbean shared photos of Symphony of the Seas' sea trials.
• A new drone video was released, offering a look at every angle of Symphony of the Seas.
• Ovation of the Seas hosted the biggest game of Hide and Seek.
• We reviewed the Izumi sushi making class on Brilliance of the Seas.
• Royal Caribbean will be hosting a website usability test in mid-March.
• Royal Caribbean produced a new video that offers a hyperlapse look at Symphony of the Seas' construction.
• Royal Caribbean was named one of the World's Most Ethical Companies for the third year in a row.

Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast

The 238th episode of the Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast is now available that focuses on answering the many emails we receive from podcast listeners.

In this episode, Matt opens up the Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast inbox and dedicates the entire episode to answering questions and comments sent in by listeners.

Please feel free to subscribe via iTunes or RSS, and head over to rate and review the podcast on iTunes if you can! We’d appreciate it.

Royal Caribbean Around the Internet

Tampa Bay Business Journal reports Port Tampa Bay saw record cruise passenger weekends (thanks in part to Royal Caribbean).

Travel Codex looked at Liberty of the Seas and the activities offered onboard a recent cruise.

STX France shipyard has scheduled Symphony of the Seas for a 24 hour set of sea trials, which will depart on March 3rd and return 24 hours later.

Ouest France reports the second set of sea trials will take place between Saturday March 3rd and Sunday March 4th. 

The purpose of this set of sea trials is to mainly test the propulsion system tests that, "were not quite satisfactory during the previous campaign."

Symphony of the Seas completed her first set of sea trials earlier this month, where more than 80 tests were performed onboard.

Delivery of Symphony of the Seas is scheduled to take place on Friday, March 23rd.

Love Royal Caribbean? Need a "fix" until your next cruise? Every week we share our readers' favorite Royal Caribbean cruise photos so that we can all enjoy a "virtual escape" onboard!

We begin this week with a photo of a busy day on Anthem of the Seas, taken by Jason Nolan.

Next is this beautiful photo taken on Harmony of the Seas by Twangster.

John Bamber took this photo of DNCE performing on Oasis of the Seas.

We are back on Anthem of the Seas for this photo, this time of the SeaPlex.  This photo was taken by Matt (not me).

Jean Francois "Jay" Bekono took this photo from a day at sea.

Here is a look at a glacier, taken by Kinny Lee on Explorer of the Seas.

Kay Lynn Akers took this photo of Harmony of the Seas from onboard the Carnival Glory.

Thank you to everyone for sharing these wonderful photos with us.  If you would like to share your best Royal Caribbean cruise photos, use this form to submit them.

Have a great weekend!

Royal Caribbean begins today its Winter Escape Sale, offering guests up to $150 instant savings on cruises booked this weekend.

The Winter Escape Sale is valid on sailings booked between on February 23-26, 2018 on sailings departing on or after March 23, 2018. Offer excludes China departures. 

Offer details: Up to $150 instant savings

• 30% off cruise fare for all guests’ in the stateroom.
• Sailings 5 nights or less
  • Interior/Oceanview rooms: $50 instant savings
  • Balcony rooms: $75 instant savings
  • Suites: $75 instant savings
• Sailings 6 nights or longer
  • Interior/Oceanview rooms: $50 instant savings
  • Balcony rooms: $100 instant savings
  • Suites: $150 instant savings

30% off is combinable with NRDB (Summer Bonus), Caribbean Bonus, OBC, Free Gratuities, Free Upgrades, promotional OBCs and instant savings, NextCruise offers, restricted discounts (for example, Senior, Resident, Military), Crown and Anchor discounts and Shareholder Benefits. Winter Escape Sale is combinable with NextCruise offers, NRDB OBC, and restricted discounts (for example, Senior, Resident, Military) but is not combinable with Shareholder benefits and Crown and Anchor discounts. 30% off bookings made for China departures are combinable with NextCruise offers and Crown and Anchor balcony/suites discounts only. All offers are not combinable with any other offer or promotion, including, but not limited to, Standard Group, Interline, Travel Agent, Travel Agent Friends and Family, Weekly Sales Events, Net Rates.

Symphony of the Seas, Royal Caribbean's newest Oasis-class ship, under construction at the STX shipyard in France. The ship is scheduled to be delivered in March 2018.

Watch a hyperlapse tour of the world’s largest ship, Symphony of the Seas under construction at STX Shipyard in France. The ship is scheduled to be delivered in March 2018.

If you are anything like me, you look for any excuse to watch Royal Caribbean cruise videos as a means of taking a virtual escape.

We stumbled upon a new video posted by AT Drones of Symphony of the Seas, which shows the ship at STX France.

Symphony of the Seas recently returned from her four day sea trial, where more than 80 tests were performed onboard.

Royal Caribbean released new photos of Symphony of the Seas during her testing.

There will be another short sea trial that will need to be schedule prior to delivery in order to perform "a few more nautical performance trials."

Royal Caribbean is inviting the public to help test their website at their corporate offices in March.

If you are interested in helping Royal Caribbean test their site's usability, and you will be in South Florida between March 12-16, you can apply to join.

Those accepted to the test will conduct the testing at Royal Caribbean's corporate offices, followed by lunch onboard a cruise ship.

Our newest podcast episode is out to help give you a quick "audio escape" to a Royal Caribbean cruise!

Episode 238 is available for downloading, in which Matt is opening up the mail bag this week to answer more of your Royal Caribbean questions.

In this episode, Matt tackles topics such as taking a cruise to Alaska, sharing listener cruise reviews, discussing a strategy to get to Universal Studios, and which Caribbean itinerary is a better idea for kids.

Here’s the podcast page for Episode 238. And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast via RSS, Stitcher or on iTunes!

Take a listen and as always, let us know what you think! Please rate and review the podcast on iTunes and leave your comments below!