The Centers for Disease Control is reporting Royal Caribbean's Legend of the Seas experienced an outbreak of gastrointestinal sickness that affected 114 passengers and 2 crew members.

Those affected by the sickness experience symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea.

Legend of the Seas is currently on a two week cruise that started on March 30 and continues until April 14, 2015.

Cruise lines are required to report the total number of gastrointestinal cases, with online updates posted when they account for more than 3 percent of passengers and crew.  The outbreak on Legend of the Seas is affecting 6.53% of the passengers and 0.27% of the crew.

Royal Caribbean is undertaking direction from the CDC to inhibit the sickness and prevent further outbreaks, including increasing cleaning and disinfection procedures making announcements to notify onboard passengers and crew of the outbreak, encourage case reporting, and encourage good hand hygiene.

Once Legend of the Seas returns to San Diego, CA, Royal Caribbean will provide additional cleaning crew to complete a thorough public and accommodation super-sanitization cleaning and disinfection, plan staged disembarkation for active cases to limit the opportunity of illness transmission to well guests, and plan for sanitation of terminal and transport infection control procedures.

When the sun goes down, Royal Caribbean's cruise ships seem to come alive with beautiful colors, reflections and lighting.  

Here are some of our favorite photos from a recent cruise aboard Quantum of the Seas.  Most of these photos were taken on the top decks of the ship, and there are also photos of Quantum of the Seas at night while docked in San Juan, Puerto Rico.  Enjoy!

To view any of these images in a larger size, click the image.

Your Thoughts…

So which Royal Caribbean ship is your favorite at night? Do the newer ship classes look best at night or the smaller ships have a certain je ne sais quoi about them after the sun goes down? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Hope you had a great week (maybe one week closer to your next Royal Caribbean cruise?) and you had a chance to keep up with what's new with Royal Caribbean this week. But if not, here's a roundup of this week's news.

Earlier this week Royal Caribbean took delivery of its newest cruise ship, Anthem of the Seas at a ceremony in Bremerhaven, Germany.

Ship builder Meyer Werft handed over the second Quantum-class cruise ship to Royal Caribbean.  

Anthem of the Seas will have her inaugrual ceremony in Southampton, U.K., on April 20, 2015..

Anthem of the Seas will sail its inaugural season from Southampton before the ship repositions in November to Cape Liberty, New Jersey.

Royal Caribbean News

• Guests can get their port taxes and fees paid for free through April 15.
• Royal Caribbean has named its giant giraffe art on Anthem of the Seas Gigi.
• Read our full review of Jamie's Italian specialty restaurant on Quantum of the Seas.
• Take a photo tour of a Category L stateroom on Quantum of the Seas.
• Royal Caribbean will expand its stops in St. Kitts in 2016.
• We found some photos of Explorer of the Seas in drydock.

Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast

The eighty-eighth episode of the Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast is now available and this week we are previewing a listener's upcoming transatlantic cruise on Serenade of the Seas.

In this episode, Matt welcomes Beth to the podcast to discuss her 15-night cruise that will take her across the Atlantic ocean and then tour Northern Europe.  We will explore why Beth chose this particular cruise and her plans for onboard the ship.

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.

Join us aboard the largest cruise ship in the world!

We're so excited to announce the next group cruise for readers and staff of RoyalCaribbeanBlog.com aboard Allure of the Seas!  This is an exclusive group where we are inviting you, our readers, to join us on a fantastic Allure of the Seas sailing on an 7-night cruise to the Western Caribbean.

This Royal Caribbean Blog group cruise is all about enjoying a fun Royal Caribbean cruise along with other fans who are big fans of Royal Caribbean.  Don't miss this opportunity to check out the amazing ship as well as be a part of exclusive events for those that book with our group!

For more details on booking the cruise, the itinerary and prices, check out the Royal Caribbean Blog group cruise page and if you have any questions, email me!

Royal Caribbean Around the Internet

Royal Caribbean posted a blog post all about Gigi the Giraffe on Anthem of the Seas.

The Orlando Sentinel notes cruise ships don't get older, they just get face lifts.

Campaign reports TBWA\London will be Royal Caribbean UK's agency for marketing in the UK.

Royal Caribbean will increase its calls to the Caribbean island of St. Kitts in the summer of 2016.

Two of Royal Caribbean's biggest cruise ships, Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas, will make scheduled stops in St. Kitts in the 2016 summer season as part of an expanded summer offering to the island.

Oasis of the Seas will make four stops and five from Allure of the Seas will make five stops next summer.

Freedom of the Seas, Adventure of the Seas and Independence of the Seas will also make off-season calls in St. Kitts next summer.

In total, five Royal Caribbean ships will make 51 calls to St. Kitts between May and September 2016, which is up from the 25 calls the cruise line made during the same period in 2015.

St Kitts Tourism Minister Lindsay Grant commented on the news, “With two Oasis-class ships contributing to an increase in total summer port calls from Royal Caribbean on the whole, the line will be bringing significantly more cruise passengers to our shores next year during what is typically the off-season for cruising in the Caribbean. We anticipate that this will lead to an increase in the amount of money spent in our shops, restaurants, activity providers and other businesses and thereby boost St. Kitts’ local economy. I’m very grateful Royal Caribbean for their expanded partnership, which has been developing over the years.”

We love to share the amazing Royal Caribbean photos our readers have sent us each and every week for Friday Photos.  Basically, it's a showcase of the best Royal Caribbean photos from our readers and this week's batch looks to be the best yet.

If you have photos that you would like included in an upcoming Friday Photos blog post, then please send us your best Royal Caribbean photos!

First up this week is a photo by Keith Davis from Jewel of the Seas.  The great thing about the Radiance class of ships is the views you get of the ocean from all over the ship!

Next is a photo of the Starwater preshow by Kim Olsen on Quantum of the Seas.  Starwater is an amazing spectacle and I can't wait to see it again!

Patrick Kortendick sent us this photo of Independence of the Seas in Labadee.  Even on a cloudy day, Labadee is still paradise!

Here's another photo from Quantum of the Seas, and this is one is by Victor Sacal of Roboshow.  Those robot displays are very impressive.

There's no such thing as too many photos from Labadee, so here's one by Harry Yerikyan of Oasis of the Seas in Labadee.  Looks like a much brighter day!

Thank you 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.

Ship builder Meyer Werft delivered Anthem of the Seas to Royal Caribbean today in Bremerhaven, Germany.

Anthem of the Seas is the second in Royal Caribbean's Quantum-class and is equipped with the latest and greatest features onboard from technology, to safety, to environmental friendly features to entertainment.

Anthem of the Seas will depart from Bremerhaven to Southampton, UK on April 14, 2015. More than 1,300 invited special guests and dignitaries will be present at the ship’s inaugural ceremony in Southampton, U.K., on April 20, 2015.

Photo by Royal Caribbean

Anthem of the Seas will sail its inaugural season from Southampton before the ship repositions to its permanent homeport of New York in November.

Royal Caribbean's Anthem of the Seas has a new giant piece of art, named Gigi the Giraffe.  Check out Gigi's addition to Royal Caribbean's newest cruise ship.

In the United States, income taxes are due in just a few days so Royal Caribbean is getting into the "spirit of the season" with a new promotion where Royal Caribbean will cruise taxes, port charges and fees, a savings of up to $200 savings per guest

For five days only, from April 11 through 15, 2015, vacationers who book a new Royal Caribbean International sailing will have their cruise booking taxes, port charges and fees paid by the cruise line.

With Royal Caribbean’s Tax-Free Holiday, U.S. residents can save up to $200 per guest when they make a new booking on a six-night or longer Bahamas, Caribbean and roundtrip-Europe itinerary.

The offer applies to sailings that depart on April 15, 2015, through March 31, 2016, but does not include Quantum of the Seas and Anthem of the Seas.

For more information, please visit www.RoyalCaribbean.com/TaxFree starting Saturday, April 11.

Royal Caribbean's Explorer of the Seas is in the middle of a drydock refurbishment in Cadiz, Spain and we've found some photos of the ship getting some work done. Enjoy!

Photos above by Puerto de Cádiz

A photo posted by Jesus (@jesuscollants) on Apr 5, 2015 at 11:41pm PDT

Thanks to Scott Sanders for alerting us to these photos!