There are less than 99 days until Royal Caribbean's Harmony of the Seas launches, and we are counting down each day with a brand new blog post all about this amazing new ship.

Royal Suite Class

To borrow a phrase from the movie industry, Royal Caribbean is rebooting the perks and services offered to guests staying in their most luxurious accomodations, and that includes guests aboard Harmony of the Seas.

The Royal Suite Class introduces three levels of service that offer guests the kind of luxury travel they have come to expect.

Star Class

As a Star Class Suite guest, you’ll enjoy the round-the-clock services of an exclusive Royal Genie personal assistant. During your voyage, your Royal Genie will attend to, and anticipate, your every need and desire. Your wish is your Royal Genie’s command.

Sky Class

As a Sky Class Suite guest, you’ll have special access to an exclusive concierge who will remain at your service throughout your time with us to assist you with priority reservations and theater seats, securing access to the private suite Sun Deck and any other requests that may arise.

Sea Class

Pamper yourself with luxury bathroom amenities by Hermès, Ferragamo and L’Occitane. Let the ocean gently lull you into the slumber of a lifetime on your luxury pillowtop mattress. And enjoy exclusive dinner access and breathtaking views through floor-to-ceiling windows in the Coastal Kitchen resturant.

Speaking of the Royal Genie, this is something brand new to Royal Caribbean, where Star Class guests can enjoy the round-the-clock services of an exclusive Royal Genie personal assistant.

The Royal Genie offers services such as

• Trained and certified by the British Butler Institute
• Escort aboard and have bags delivered directly to stateroom
• Assistance with packing and unpacking
• Arrange priority pressing, laundry and dry cleaning services,
• VIP seating at shows and dinner reservations.
• and a lot more!

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post as we celebrate 99 days of Harmony!

Welcome to March! We hope you are having a great weekend and are ready to sit back, relax and catch up with all the latest Royal Caribbean news!

Royal Caribbean released its summer 2017 European itineraries this week, allowing guests to book cruises for this upcoming season.

Guests can enjoy cruises all over Europe, on 8 of the line's cruise ships, including Freedom of the Seas for the first time.

Royal Caribbean is offering cruises to the Mediterranean, Canary Islands, Northern Europe and more in 2017.

We have a full breakdown of where each Royal Caribbean ship is going in summer 2017, so you can pick the right itinerary for you.

Royal Caribbean News

• Royal Caribbean updated and simplified its cruise cancellation policy.
• Our full review of Izumi on Allure of the Seas.
• Tidal Wave slide on Liberty of the Seas remains closed.
• Anthem of the Seas ended a cruise early again, due to a forecasted storm.
• The CDC confirmed Anthem of the Seas had a gastrointestinal illness outbreak.
• We shared 5 beautiful photos of Ovation of the Seas.
• Royal Caribbean Australia saw record-breaking bookings.
• Royal Caribbean signed a deal with Cintas to provide uniforms.

Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast

The 135th episode of the Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast is now available, and we have a roundtable review of our group cruise aboard Allure of the Seas.

Int his episode, Matt and everyone that was aboard the Royal Caribbean Blog group cruise recorded a review of Allure of the Seas, live at Vintages.  The group discussed their experiences onboard, discuss what they think of a ship the size of Allure of the Seas and discuss some of the fun experiences from our week aboard.

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.

99 Days of Harmony

To celebrate the countdown until Royal Caribbean's Harmony of the Seas debuts, we kicked off a brand new blog series, 99 Days of Harmony, that looks at what makes this new ship so amazing.  

Each day we are posting a new blog post all about Harmony of the Seas, so here's what you might have missed this week.

• FlowRider
• Columbus, The Musical!
• Coastal Kitchen
• Bionic Bar showcased at South Beach Wine & Food Festival
• Voom

How you can support Royal Caribbean Blog

So many of our readers have reached out to us to ask how they can help the blog and we are introducing the Royal Caribbean Blog Insiders for just that reason.

The Insiders group is a way readers can contribute to Royal Caribbean Blog and help fuel some of the really amazing ideas, projects and new content that we have lined up.

As a way of saying thank you for your contribution, there are some fun rewards for being a member of the Royal Caribbean Blog Insiders.

Becoming a member of the Royal Caribbean Blog Insiders is completely up to you and you can cancel at any time. No questions asked! 

As always, thank you for visiting Royal Caribbean Blog and being a part of our community!

Royal Caribbean Around the Internet

Porthole Magazine has a look at the design of Royal Caribbean's smart ships (written by me!).

Travel Pulse criticizes the way the media has unfairly reported on cruise news lately.

CNBC posted a video interview with Royal Caribbean COO Adam Goldstein about Ovation of the Seas.

Captain Greybeard wonders why cruising has such an image problem.

Shermans Cruise tried the White Truffle Dinner on Anthem of the Seas.

The brand new Tidal Wave water slide on Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas remains closed to guests, despite the ship returning to service following a dry dock nearly a month ago.

The Tidal Wave is the first Boomerang style slide at sea, but has never opened to guests in the voyages since the ship resumed sailings.

At a Captain's Corner talk event on Liberty of the Seas this week, the ship's Chief Engineer commented that their team discovered the variation of guest weight, and the position a person may take on the tube you ride on, makes a wide range of operation. In order to ensure that it is strong enough for all, there is a good chance that people will hit the top of the slide with some regularity. Not hard, but still make contact.

Royal Caribbean has had to design padding for the areas where guests may impact the slide, and that is being built currently.  

The Chief Engineer indicated they hope some pieces of this new padding waiting in Galveston, when the ship returns there on Sunday.

After all padding parts are delivered, the team will install and paint them.  The Chief Engineer estimated that he doesn't see the Tidal Wave running for a few more sailings yet.

The new hair-raising slide features a steep drop that propels riders up a near vertical wall for a moment of weightlessness and into free fall.

Special thanks to Royal Caribbean Blog reader Paul Crow for conveying the update to us.

Royal Caribbean is getting into the "summer mood", by rolling out a new bonus offer of up to $100 onboard credit, plus 50% off your deposit.

The Summer Splash Sale allows guests to combine with the 30% off every guest deal that is currently ongoing.  With this new limited time offer, guests can enjoy

• 30% off every guests, every ship
• Free onboard credit
  • 5 nights or less sailings
    • Interior & Ocean view staterooms: $25 onboard credit
    • Balcony & Suite staterooms: $50 onboard credit
  • 6 nights or longer sailings
    • Interior & Ocean view staterooms: $50 onboard credit
    • Balcony & Suite staterooms: $100 onboard credit

Cruise must be booked Mar 4-8, 2016 and applies to Caribbean, Bahamas and Bermuda sailings departing May 1-Sep 30, 2016.  Offer excludes all China sailings.

30% Savings is combinable with Crown & Anchor discounts, NextCruise offers, and Shareholders benefits. Any dollar off discounts or promotions, such as Crown & Anchor discounts, are applied first, followed by Offer, which is applied to final balance. Caribbean Sale OBC Offer is combinable with 30% Savings and restricted rates (for example, Seniors, Residents, Military). All Offers are not combinable with any other offer or promotion, including, but not limited to Canada Sale, Standard Group, Interline, Travel Agent, Travel Agent Friends and Family, weekly Sales Events, Net Rates.

Offer available to residents of the United States and Canada.

Thanks to Jason Poole for alerting us to this new promotion!

Happy Friday! Each week we invite everyone reading to submit your favorite Royal Caribbean cruise photos, so that we can share them right here on the blog!

Here are some photos that we have to share this week!

We will start things off with this photo of Allure of the Seas in Cozumel, by Dave Rimington.  Great colors!

In our next photo, we are getting up close and personal with Anthem of the Seas.  Denny C sent this photo from a recent cruise, where he "enjoyed every minute" of the experience.

I love a good sunset at sea photo, and we have one from Susan Widdowson.  Susan took this photo on Independence of the Seas, back in September.  Beautiful!

Speaking of Independence of the Seas, Ken Slusser shared this photo of the Royal Promenade lit up for evening activities during his recent March 2015 cruise. Love that Royal Promenade!

Check out this photo of Jewel of the Seas' Captain Thore Thorolvsen dancing during the "Flag Parade" event.  Jan-Arild Knutsen says the Captain was dancing a Norwegian folkdance, "HALLING".  Bra jobba!

Here is a great shot of Central Park at night on Allure of the Seas, by Sebastian Söderström.  After seeing this view every evening last week, I can tell you it is even more beautiful in person!

We will wrap up this week's photos with this one of Anthem of the Seas in Labadee, by Matthew Hull.  Two of my favorite places in one photo!

Thanks to everyone who sent in their photos this week. Have a great weekend and be sure to send us your photos so we can post them next week by using this form.

Royal Caribbean released its summer 2017 itineraries today and bookings for the European season will open on Friday, March 4, 2016.

Here is a breakdown of the deployments by ship.

Jewel of the Seas

Jewel of the Seas will sail from Italy on seven- and nine-night voyages that visit Greece and Turkey, as well as seven-night sailings through the Western Mediterranean – offered more frequently with additional departures dates in 2017 – visiting France, Spain and Italy.

Freedom of the Seas

Freedom of the Seas will host guests on seven-night sailings through the Western Mediterranean, departing from Barcelona, Spain.

Brilliance of the Seas

Brilliance of the Seas will offer eight European destinations with a 12-night itinerary, departing from Barcelona, Spain.

Independence of the Seas

Independence of the Seas will sail the Mediterranean and the Spanish Canary Islands from Southampton, England with itineraries that extend from 7 to 14 nights.

Navigator of the Seas

Navigator of the Seas will sail the Mediterranean and the Spanish Canary Islands from Southampton, England with itineraries that extend from 7 to 14 nights.

Serenade of the Seas & Vision of the Seas

Both ships will head to northern Europe with a checklist of ports that includes Copenhagen, Denmark, Tromso, Norway and Stockholm, Sweden.

2017 Europe Adventure Collection Deployment Summary Guide

Watch this time-lapse video Royal Caribbean released of the North Star installation on Ovation of the Seas at Meyer Werft Shipyard in Germany.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has reported 3% of the guests and 1% of the crew aboard Royal Caribbean's Anthem of the Seas have reported being ill during the February 21 - March 4, 2016 voyage.

The CDC report shows 125 guests and 16 crew members reported symptoms, such as vomiting or diarrhea.

In response to the outbreak, Royal Caribbean and the crew aboard the ship reported the following actions:

• Increasing cleaning and disinfection procedures according to their outbreak prevention and response plan,
• Collecting stool specimens from passenger and crew gastrointestinal illness cases for testing,
• Making daily reports of gastrointestinal illness cases to the VSP,
• Sending 4 Hotel and Housekeeping Operations Managers, 3 Public Health staff, one nurse from the cruise line corporate office to oversee and assist with implementation of the sanitation and outbreak response procedures,
• Sending 10 additional internal cleaning crew and 10 contract cleaning staff and equipment to the ship to assist in the execution of the ship’s outbreak response,
• Consulting with CDC on plans for their comprehensive sanitation procedures in Bayonne, NJ, including:
  • planning staged disembarkation for active cases to limit the opportunity of illness transmission to well guests, and
  • planning for sanitation of terminal and transport infection control procedures.

Two CDC Vessel Sanitation Program environmental health officers and an epidemiologist will board the ship in Bayonne, NJ on March 2, 2016 to conduct an environmental health assessment and evaluate the outbreak and response activities. Specimens have been collected and will be sent to CDC for testing.

Anthem of the Seas voyage was cut short, but Royal Caribbean reports the reasoning was not the illness, but a forecasted storm in the path of the ship.

Some #AnthemoftheSeas guests have experienced norovirus symptoms. About 10 per day from 6,000 total pop. Didn't affect decision to return.

— RCLcorp (@RCLcorp) February 29, 2016