The reults of the 2015 Cruiseline.com Members Choice Awards have been announced and Royal Caribbean walked away with 20 overall awards and 6 first place finishes, giving them the most total awards of any company in the competition.

The Members Choice Awards are culled from over 8,100 cruise reviews submitted by the site's members and then verified through travel agent partners.

Royal Caribbean came out in first place along these categories

• Best Cruise Line
• Best ship (Allure of the Seas)
• Best ship for first timers (Allure of the Seas)
• Best line for first timers
• Best line for tweens and teens
• Best line for suites

You can see the complete results from the awards here.

Due to heavy fog in the Tampa Bay area, Royal Caribbean has canceled the already delayed February 23 sailing of Brilliance of the Seas.

Photo by Dustin Fox

Royal Caribbean notified passengers on the scheduled sailing their cruise would not occur because of the existing delay and anticipated upcoming delays with additional fog.

Royal Caribbean will provide each guest a full refund of the cruise fare as well as a future cruise certificate worth 25% of the cruise fare paid for the February 23rd sailing.

Brilliance of the Seas was scheduled to return to Tampa yesterday but heavy fog at sea prevented the ship from entering the port.  Royal Caribbean originally postponed the start of cruise to February 24 but the additional delay forced Royal Caribbean to cancel the sailing all together.

Just a day after announcing the name of the third Oasis-class cruise ship, Royal Caribbean confirmed that this brand new cruise ship will feature water slides onboard.

Royal Caribbean will add three water slides to the ship's Pool and Sports Zone.  The new slides will take guests down three decks in a series of twists and turns.

Other details surrounding Harmony of the Seas, including where it will be homeported or where it will sail to, have yet to be announced.

Harmony of the Seas is about halfway done with construction at STX France and scheduled for delivery in mid-2016.

Over the weekend, Royal Caribbean's newest cruise ship floated out of its Meyer Werft shipyard and already we found a lot of really beautiful photos of this new ship and wanted to share them.

The talented photographer Jeroen Houtman sent us these great shots of Anthem of the Seas.  Enjoy!

Royal Caribbean's Brilliance of the Seas was delayed returning to her homeport of Tampa, Florida today due to heavy fog.

Brilliance of the Seas was due to arrive at the Port of Tampa this morning but the ship ran into thick fog in the Gulf of Mexico, making the return to Tampa Bay unsafe.

Brilliance of the Seas is about four hours away from Tampa and surrounded by fog.

As a result of the fog, Royal Caribbean has pushed back the next cruise's embarkation by one day to tomorrow.

A Royal Caribbean issued a statement “Because of the current Coast Guard advisory, and the uncertainly of when Brilliance of the Seas will arrive to Tampa, we have decided to delay boarding for your cruise until tomorrow."

The fog not only caused a delay in the returning passengers getting off the ship but also delayed the subsequent cruise for passengers eager to begin their cruise vacation.

As a gesture of goodwill, and to thank guests for their understanding, Royal Caribbean will provide each stateroom with an onboard credit. Additional details regarding the onboard credit will be provided to guests tomorrow.

UPDATE: The February 23rd sailing has been cancelled.

After weeks of speculation, Royal Caribbean announced it will name its third Oasis-class ship Harmony of the Seas.

Drum roll please...Royal Caribbean's newest ship to be named #HarmonyoftheSeas. More details to follow soon!

— Royal Caribbean PR (@RoyalCaribPR) February 23, 2015

Rumors of the ship's name had been circulating around the internet for a while now but Royal Caribbean chose to hold back the ship's official name until now.

UPDATE: Thanks to an intrepid blog reader, we have a better look at the rendering for Harmony of the Seas, which reveals multiple water slides, which would be a first for the Oasis-class and a fairly unique addition to any Royal Caribbean ship.

Photo posted by Tomáš Malíšek

Despite the fact we now know the name, little else is known about Harmony of the Seas.  Harmony has been in the shadow of Quantum of the Seas and Anthem of the Seas but guests can expect more information to start coming out more frequently in the months leading up to her debut.

Harmony of the Seas is under construction at the STX shipyard in St. Nazaire, France and is scheduled to debut in April 2016.

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.

The big news this week was all about Anthem of the Seas' float out that took place yesterday.

After a few days delay due to poor weather, Anthem of the Seas finally made her way out of the Meyer Werft shipyard dry dock and is now one step closer to launching.

Anthem of the Seas will conduct a few last-minute changes while in the shipyard harbor before her conveyance on the River Ems in March.

Royal Caribbean News

• Speaking of Anthem of the Seas, her godmother will be a (singing) travel agent.
• Dates have emerged for Royal Caribbean's 2016-2017 deployment schedule.
• Royal Caribbean announced new shows that guests will enjoy onboard Anthem of the Seas.
• Royal Caribbean named a new Senior Vice President of Hotel Operations.
• Our tips for what you need to know before taking a solo Royal Caribbean cruise.

Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast

The eighty-first episode of the Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast is now available and we've got an exclusive interview with an Anthem of the Seas' designer.

In this episode, Matt welcomes back to the podcast 5+Design designer Tim Magill to discuss the public spaces he and his team have worked on, on Anthem of the Seas.

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

In The Loop Travel shared seven things you'll enjoy on Quantum of the Seas.

Cruise Hangout shared a video by the brains behind Two70's shows on Quantum of the Seas.

Facebook group Anthem of the Seas is the perfect spot for tons of Anthem of the Seas information.

My San Antonio calls Quantum of the Seas "a billion dollar beauty".

Royal Caribbean's newest cruise ship, Anthem of the Seas, succesfully was floated out of Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany yesterday despite numerous weather related delays.

The float out was originally scheduled for 1:00pm local time but had to be pushed back several times.  Eventually the ship left the building dock and was towed at a slow pace to the shipyard harbor. 

While in the harbor, Anthem of the Seas will receive some last changes and tests.

The next major milestone for Anthem of the Seas will be her conveyance on the River Ems to the North Sea for sea trials.  She will then make her way to Southampton, England to begin offering cruises.

After the 2015 cruise season in Southampton, Anthem of the Seas will head to Cape Liberty, New Jersey in November 2015 to offer cruises to the Bahamas and Caribbean.

Royal Caribbean's eagerly awaited deployment opening schedule appears to be available for its world wide cruise itineraries.

An internal Royal Caribbean document points to when Royal Caribbean will post the deployments for regions around the world.

• Week of March 9
  • Summer/Fall Caribbean
  • Northeast and Canada
• Week of March 16
  • Europe and Alaska
• Week of March 30
  • Winter Caribbean and Northeast
• Week of April 13
  • Exotics and Australia
• Future Deployment
  • China

These dates may be subject to change.  Royal Caribbean has strongly hinted the deployment schedule would be coming out in March and this information supports it.

Deployment schedules gives consumers an idea of when to expect particular cruise schedules to become available to start looking at future cruises.

Royal Caribbean announced today it has named Mark Tamis as its new senior vice president, Hotel Operations.

Tamis will oversee Royal Caribbean's hotel services, food, beverage, entertainment and private destinations, and will report directly to Royal Caribbean CEO and President Michael Bayley.

"Mark has extensive knowledge and a proven track record of success in the hospitality industry and I look forward to welcoming him to the Royal family," said Bayley. "In his role, Mark will lead the dedicated men and women who work every day to deliver the best vacation adventures to our guests from around the world. And I am confident that he can help us take our award-winning experience to even greater heights."

Tamis comes to Royal Caribbean after serving as senior vice president, Guest Operations with Carnival Cruise Lines.

Tamis is also active in various civic and community service organizations including Big Brothers Big Sisters and Special Olympics, and founded www.dadsforgiving.org, an organization that encourages fathers to volunteer with their children to benefit their communities.