Royal Caribbean announced it has promoted Lori Cassidy to Associate Vice President of Global Corporate, Incentive & Charter Sales. 

In her her new role, Cassidy is responsible for all sales, service, and marketing efforts pertaining to global meeting, incentive and full-ship charter business, as well as the Royal Caribbean loyalty gift card and individual incentive certificate programs. 

Cassidy will lead the Global Corporate, Incentive & Charter Sales and Service team in managing, developing and servicing meeting, incentive and group event opportunities with incentive houses, brokers, independent meeting planners, corporate planners and travel planners around the world. 

Cassidy began working with Royal Caribbean in 2008 as Director, Corporate, Incentive & Charter Sales, and has since taken on increased responsibility and successfully grown the meeting, incentive and charter sales channel for the international cruise line.  Cassidy continues to report directly to Vicki Freed, Senior Vice President, Sales and Trade Support & Service, Royal Caribbean International. 

"Lori is an asset to our group travel partners and a respected member of our organization.  Her incredible experience, skill and instinct for the business make her a strong leader for her team, resulting in continued momentum and stronger relationships around the world,” said Vicki Freed, Senior Vice President, Sales and Trade Support & Service, Royal Caribbean International.  “This is a hard-earned, well-deserved promotion within the Royal Caribbean Sales and Trade team, and we look forward to her continued success.” 

Cassidy has been in the cruise industry for over 22 years. Prior to joining Royal Caribbean International, she was with Carnival Cruise Lines for 15 years holding Director positions in Corporate & Incentive Sales for five years and Business Development for 10 years, respectively. 

Royal Caribbean's Legend of the Seas will be based out of Brisbane, Australia for the next five months as she begins offering service in the area for the summer cruise season.

Legend of the Seas arrived at Brisbane’s Portside Wharf yesterday.

With her time there, about 30,000 passengers will arrive and depart on Legend of the Seas while in Brisbane, and is expected to pump $20 million in to the Queensland economy.

Legend of the Seas' first cruise was a three-day cruise and will offer other cruises to the South Pacific, Queensland coast and New Zealand.

Royal Caribbean’s regional vice president Gavin Smith commented on the arrival of Legend of the Seas, "Southeast Queensland is our second biggest market in Australia and lots of our passengers were flying down to Sydney from Queensland anyway."

Another week has gone by and that means we are all one week closer to our next Royal Caribbean cruise!

This week, the big news was Royal Caribbean's announcement that the Broadway show Grease will be added to Harmony of the Seas and Independence of the Seas in 2016.

The news is unusual, given that in the past Broadway shows have been added to only one ship at a time.

The all-new, never-before-seen stage production, specially adapted by Royal Caribbean Productions, will boast a soundtrack of crowd favorites such as “Summer Nights,” “Greased Lightnin’,” “Look at Me, I’m Sandra Dee,” “Born to Hand-Jive,” “Beauty School Dropout” and more.

Here is the rest of the Royal Caribbean news you may have missed this week.

Royal Caribbean News

• Royal Caribbean released Jewel of the Seas refurbishment details.
• Royal Caribbean is launching a 72-hour sale on Monday.
• Speaking of sales, guests can get double points on suites on Oasis and Allure of the Seas.
• Our list of the top 10 Brilliance of the Seas hidden secrets.
• Our full review of Izumi on Brilliance of the Seas.
• Royal Caribbean committed to using cage-free eggs on its ships by 2022.
• We posted a review of Paradise Beach in Cozumel.
• Two Royal Caribbean ships had an historic meeting in Australia.

Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast

The 122th episode of the Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast is now available and this week, Matt reviews his recent cruise aboard Brilliance of the Seas.

In this episode, Matt shares his experiences on Brilliance of the Seas, including dining, activities, shore excursions and entertainment.

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.

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

Writing Horseback blogged about the Carousel at Sea on Oasis of the Seas.

Cruise & Ferry interviewed Royal Caribbean Chairman and CEO Richard Fain.

In the Loop Travel listed seven thrilling shore excursions in the Caribbean (hint: Labadee made the list).

Cruise Currents shared 6 reasons to love Anthem of the Seas.

Royal Caribbean's Jewel of the Seas is scheduled for an April 2016 bow-to-stern $30 million renovation that will bring a lot of big changes to the ship.

During her refurbishment, Jewel of the Seas renovation features will include

• New 2 bedroom Family Suite stateroom
• All staterooms will be renoveated with an additional 42 staterooms added
• New specialty restaurants will be added
  • Giovanni's Table (replaces Portofino)
  • Vintages (replaces Champagne Bar)
  • Izumi (replaces Seaview Cafe)
• Pervasive Wi-Fi & Digital signage throughout the ship
• New poolside movie screen
• Diamond Club added to the Viking Crown Lounge
• Renovated Chops Grille
• Renovated Spa and retail shops
• Concierge Club will replace Hollywood Odyssey
• Shoreside Dining Room, Explorer’s Court and Yacht Club will be removed.
• Addition of Voom high-speed internet

The newly renovated Jewel of the Seas will include 42 new staterooms

• Deck 2 will have 9 new staterooms
• Deck 4 will have 9 new staterooms
• Deck 7 will have 1 new stateroom
• Deck 8 will have 2 new staterooms
• Deck 9 will have 7 new staterooms
• Deck 10 will have 2 new staterooms
• Deck 11 will have 12 new staterooms

Royal Caribbean says staterooms will be available to book beginning December 2015.

From May through October 2016, Jewel of the Seas will cruise round-trip from Rome on an array of itineraries showcasing the best destinations of Italy, Greece and Turkey. These 7, 8, and 9 night itineraries mainly sail through the Greek Isles.

Jewel will complete her European itinerary in October 2016 after which she will return to her home port of San Juan, Puerto where she will sail 6, 7, 8 and 9 night Southern Caribbean itineraries.

We have gotten reports of construction taking place on the Royal Promenade of Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas this week.

Royal Caribbean Blog reader James Carruthers sent us these photos of the construction walls that are up near Cafe Promenade.

No word yet on what the construction is there for, but it will be interesting to see what is there once those construction walls come down.