Each day we are posting a brand new blog post to countdown until Royal Caribbean launches Harmony of the Seas. There's a lot to get excited about on this amazing ship and we're highlighting it all.

DreamWorks Experience

Ever since Royal Caribbean partnered with DreamWorks to bring their characters onboard Royal Caribbean's cruise ships, it's been a big hit.  Not surprisingly, the DreamWorks Experience will be coming to Harmony of the Seas as well.

DreamWorks Animation characters including Po of Kung Fu Panda; Shrek, Fiona and Puss in Boots of Shrek; and from Madagascar, Alex the Lion, Gloria the Hippo, King Julien and the Penguins will be available for guests to meet during their cruise.

DreamWorks Experience activities onboard will include

• A DreamWorks Character breakfast in the main dining room
• 'Meet and greet’ experiences throughout the day
• Photo opportunities with the characters
• Adventure Ocean programming featuring DreamWorks Animation
  • Story time
  • Dance parties
  • Adventures rooted in the popular character stories

Kids also get the chance to play with their favorite DreamWorks Animation characters at Adventure Ocean.

Of course, you will be abloe to watch DreamWorks films in your stateroom.

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

Royal Caribbean's Brilliance of the Seas rescued 18 Cuban migrants off the coast of Florida on Friday morning, following a 22 day journey at sea for the migrants.

The United States Coast Guard reported the rescue by the Royal Caribbean ship, which unfortunately also resulted in nine deaths prior to the resucue.

Brilliance of the Seas spotted the raft while on her way to Mexico, west of Marco Island in Florida. The migrants on-board suffered from severe dehydration, the Coast Guard said.

"Our deepest condolences to the families of the nine people who recently did lose their lives," said Captain Mark Gordon, chief of enforcement for the Coast Guard's 7th District. "Unfortunately, tragedy is all too common when taking to the sea in homemade vessels with no safety or navigation equipment. The dangerous waters of the Florida Straights can be unforgiving for the unprepared on ill-advised and illegal voyages."

Royal Caribbean notified its travel partners and guests that the first six sailings scheduled for Empress of the Seas have been cancelled.

Empress of the Seas sailings scheduled to depart on March 30, April 4, April 7, April 11, April 16 and April 21 have been cancelled.

The reasoning seems to be that additional work is needed before Empress of the Seas can rejoin the fleet.  In a statement to travel partners, Royal Caribbean explained, "Like many large renovation project, we are going to need more time to ensure the ship meets the high standards for quality our guests expect from Royal Caribbean."

As an alternative, guests may move to the same stateroom category on another Empress of Seas sailing between April 25, 2016 and July 23, 2016, and may also move to the same stateroom category on any Majesty of the Seas sailing between now and April 29, 2016 for the same cruise fare rate they paid for their original sailing. Guests who rebook to any Royal Caribbean Sailing will receive a $100 per stateroom onboard credit.

Guests who cannot or do not want to rebook, are eligble for a full refund of their cruise fare paid. 

The world's smartest ship, Ovation of the Seas makes her way down the Ems River on her conveyance from the Meyer Werft shipyard to the North Sea.

There are less than 99 days until Royal Caribbean's Harmony of the Seas debuts, and we are counting down every day with something different about this brand new ship!

Escape the Rubicon

Royal Caribbean first introduced an escape room game on Anthem of the Seas and the concept is now going to be added to Harmony of the Seas.

If you are wondering what an "escape room" is, it is essentially a group game, where players must solve clues hidden throughout one room in an allocated amount of time (usually 60 minutes) in order to find the "key" to escaping the room.

This is different kind of onboard activity that was pioneered by a group called Puzzle Break, which have created similar experiences on in a few cities.

After a briefing, guests search a room for clues and hidden messages and then try to put it all together to figure out the key phrase.  There are word searches, patterns and other challenges designed to get you thinking in a lot of different directions.

Escape the Rubicon will take place in a dedicated space designed in partnership with ShowFX Inc., a staple for Hollywood studios’ engineering, design and fabrication of custom entertainment equipment.

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

Royal Caribbean launched a new marketing campaign in Hong Kong, entitled "Cruise Extraordinary."

The new campaign is designed to show the cruise line's imaginative approach to cruising in the Chinese market and will be shown in targeted television and print ads.

Royal Caribbean wants to highlight the experiences guests can enjoy onboard that give are all about enjoying oneself on a Royal Caribbean cruise.

The new TV commercial was shot onboard Quantum of the Seas and Voyager of the Seas during actual cruises.

The commercial includes a cast of 200 actors and cost tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars and is aimed at guests who are looking for a different vacation adventure.  

Balwin Yeung, director of sales and marketing of Royal Caribbean Cruises Hong Kong said, “As the market leader in Hong Kong, this year Royal Caribbean has adopted a more visible positioning on the market with aggressive advertising and sales strategies to appeal to customers looking for something truly special.”

The commercial will be aired in Hong Kong starting from today and will work hand in hand with messages in other media to create more touch points for consumers to get a taste of the cruising experience.

Are you excited for Royal Caribbean's Harmony of the Seas to debut? We are too and that is why every day, we are posting something new about this incredible new cruise ship leading up to her arrival in less than 99 days.

Engine tests

Royal Caribbean's Harmony of the Seas wrapped up her first set of sea trials over the weekend, and part of that exercise was trying out her new engines.

This was the first time Harmony of the Seas had her engines used, which were aimed at testing the ship's propulsion and maneuverability.

Royal Caribbean released these images of the engines at work and while we are no engineering experts, it certainly looks like they are working well!

Photos by Royal Caribbean International

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

Last week, Royal Caribbean's Ovation of the Seas began her conveyance down the River Ems and it was the first real look the public got of this brand new cruise ship.

In the days that followed, a lot of really talented photographers were able to check her out and we wanted to show off some of their amazing work that exemplifies how beautiful this new ship is.

First up are these two beautiful night time photos of Ovation of the Seas by Björn Haß.

Here are some more great shots of Ovation of the Seas, taken by Andreas Depping.

And here are couple more from Jeroen Houtman of Ovation from a slightly different perspective.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I wonder what a 4K video is worth.  Here's a great one that was sent to us by Peter Sahara.

Royal Caribbean has already released some of its 2017-2018 itineraries, but has provided an updated deployment schedule for some of the itineraries that are still not available yet.

The updated deployment schedule is as follows

• Now open for booking
  • Caribbean, Europe and Alaska
• Week of April 4, 2016
  • Seasonal Caribbean, Northeast and Exotics
• Week of April 25, 2016
  • Dubai
• May 2016
  • Additional Caribbean
• Summer 2016
  • China

All itineraries and openings are subject to change without notice. Deployment schedules gives consumers an idea of when to expect particular cruise schedules to become available to start looking at future cruises.