Another brand new specialty restaurant to Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas is Izumi Japanese Cuisine.  For fans of having sushi at sea, this is the place for you to get your fix!

Atmosphere

Izmumi is located all the way up on deck 14 near the Viking Crown Lounge and offers a great view of the ocean and pool deck below.  

The restaurant itself is a blend of reds and blacks and feels like a modern sushi restaurant you may have been to back home.

The layout of the restaurant is somewhat crescent shaped, but it's mostly one large room with a small sushi bar in the back.  Most tables have a view out a window.

Izumi's decor is simple but has the feel of a classy Japanese restaurant. As you are seated, the waiter will bring you a warm towel to refresh yourself with and it helps sets the tone for your experience at Izumi.

Eats

On our Navigator fo the Seas cruise, we sampled the lunch menu, which is an all-sushi menu.  The dinner menu does offer non-sushi Japanese food, so keep that in mind when booking if you prefer more variety in your options.

To start with, Izumi currently offers complimentary edamame (a preparation of baby soybeans in the pod boiled in water together salt, and served whole)  and miso soup.  Both were good but I think the edmame was better.  I found the miso soup to be interesting given the color of the broth, which is usually clear but this was darker.  

The sushi menu at Izumi offers a number of choices to consider.  Another difference between lunch and dinner is at lunch there are no daily special rolls to also consider.  Lunch seems to be a strictly small menu with dinner greatly expanding the offerings.

The choices of sushi rolls range from pedestrian to more elaborate in nature.  Knowing that everyone has different tastes in sushi, I'll say I found the selection to be average.  I wasn't blown away by the variety but it was still on par with most sushi restaurants I've found on land.

I ordered a number of hand rolls during my visit to get a sense of the quality and size of the rolls.  For me, really good sushi will not only have fresh and good tasting fish, but it will also be large in size.  

The signature rolls definitely passed my test for what constitutes good sushi for the good size of each piece and the freshness of the fish. 

I believe there are two comparissons to make, how Izumi compares to land restaurants and how it compares to cruise ship sushi.  

Compared to sushi on land, I'd say Izumi is at least average if not slightly above average.  The traditional rolls were fairly tame (but then again, tuna rolls are hardly anything more than tame) and the signature rolls tasted as good as something I'd expect to find on land.

Compared to cruise line sushi, it blows any sushi I've ever had in the Jade section of the Windjammer out of the water by far.  It certainly held up to my memories of Izumi on Oasis of the Seas and I think Izumi is a great choice for sushi fans who are cruising.

The other good thing about Izumi was the rolls were not only large in size but ample in serving.  Each roll I ordered came with 8 pieces, which is a lot for any sushi roll.

In terms of value, the pricing of Izumi has changed from what you may remember.  Izumi on Navigator of the Seas has dropped the cover charge and simply charges a la carte.  This is good since a cover charge was silly but the price of the rolls were more than I remember on Oasis of the Seas.

Most signature rolls were $10 or more, which isn't cheap for sushi but the traditional rolls were all in the $6-7 range.  I've seen far worse in terms of pricing and the complimentary edamame and miso soup does add back a little bit of value.

Overall

Admittedly, I am a sushi fiend and can't get enough of the stuff so Izumi certainly made me happy while eating there.  I think it's a great place for lunch or even pre-dinner appetizer.  

While the variety of sushi isn't the best I've ever found, I did find what they did make tasted great.  Sushi is as much an art as it is a means of sustenance and Izumi balances this fine line quite well.  

In terms of value, it's about what you would pay for sushi at home from a decent sushi joint, so I think it fits the bill when you want a little Japanese flavor during your cruise. 

Izumi is open for dinner from 6:00pm to 9:30pm and for lunch at noon to 1:30pm.  We reviewed Izumi on Navigator of the Seas.

This month only, Royal Caribbean is offering a deal for families where their kids can sail for free on select cruises and they also are offering complimentary upgrades and reduced deposits on all bookings.

From March 1 through 31, 2014, Royal Caribbean is offering the option of kids sailing for free, complimentary upgrades and 50 percent-reduced deposits aboard select ships sailing Australia, The Bahamas, Bermuda, Caribbean and Europe, departing May 1 through Dec. 15, 2014.

Kids Sail Free

Royal Caribbean’s “Kids Sail Free” limited-time offer provides free cruise fare for third and fourth guests of all ages in triple or quad occupancy staterooms.

The “Kids Sail Free” offer is available fleetwide, excluding Quantum of the Seas and Grandeur of the Seas. Third and fourth berth staterooms are limited on select sailings and the offer is only applicable while inventory last.

Complimentary Upgrades and 50 Percent-reduced Deposit

Royal Caribbean is also offering as an option the chance to upgrade your stateroom. Guests may book a balcony stateroom for the same price as an ocean view stateroom on Oasis of the Seas, Allure of the Seas, Freedom of the Seas, Liberty of the Seas, Independence of the Seas, Explorer of the Seas,Adventure of the Seas, Navigator of the Seas, Voyager of the Seas, Brilliance of the Seas, Jewel of Seas, Radiance of the Seas, and Serenade of the Seas, or an ocean view stateroom for the price of an interior stateroom on Enchantment of the Seas, Legend of the Seas, Rhapsody of the Seas, Splendour of the Seas, Vision of the Seas and Majesty of the Seas.

Those that book a Royal Caribbean cruise aboard the ships noted above also will enjoy 50 percent-reduced deposit, starting at $50 per guest. 

March 05 Update: It turns out this deal is NOT age restrictive.  Essentially, any 3rd and 4th passenger in a stateroom are free!

Happy weekend Royal Caribbean fans!

The big story this week was around Royal Caribbean putting the first Anthem of the Seas sailings for sale to the public.

The new sailings range from 3 to 14 night cruises out of Southampton to Spain and the Mediterranean.

The good news is after just the first day of being on sale, Royal Caribbean saw record breaking sales for the new ship.

Early reports show that Anthem of the Seas has already seen two-thirds of bookings for premium balcony and suite accommodations in just its first day and a half on sale.

Royal Caribbean News

• Royal Caribbean will offer cruises to the Black Sea for the first time ever in 2015.
• .Royal Caribbean announced 2015 Alaska cruises.
• We reviewed Giovanni's Table on Navigator of the Seas.
• We also reviewed Chops Grille's new menu!
• Royal Caribbean won a number of awards at the Cruisers' Choice Awards.
• Royal Caribbean is holding a contest for Brits to blog on Allure of the Seas for a month.

Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast

Have you listened to the Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast yet? Our thirtieth episode came out this week and it's all about answering our listeners' questions.

The people that listen to the Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast are what this podcast is all about so Matt dedicated an entire episode this week to answering their emails.  We covered topics such as virtual balconies, Crown and Anchor Society benefits and what to do on Barbados.

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

Beyond Ships talks with hotel director of Allure of the Seas.

Boot Camp has an interview with a member of the group that developed the virtual balcony.

Royal Caribbean has a behind the scenes look at the Caribbean Cup Challenge.

It's Friday and that means it is time to share with all of you the great Royal Caribbean photos our readers have sent us to showcase.  Each week we ask our readers to send us their favorite Royal Caribbean cruise photos to share with everyone, so let's see what we have this week.

Our first photo comes from Kayla and it's from her balcony on Radiance of the Seas.  Gotta love days that involve a view like this!

Nancy Geiger sent this photo of a group of friends that went on Navigator of the Seas last spring out of Rome.  Her opinion? "Best. Trip. Ever."

This photo is from Michael Poole from Navigator of the Seas in March 2013 and he writes, "If you ever get a chance to sail on a voyager class ship you can access the helicopter pad from deck 4.  

Funny story about this picture…  Once you get up to the helipad at night its pitch dark and you cannot see a thing.  I took a picture with my flash on and headed back to the room.  Once I finally looked at my picture, you can see I was not up there alone!  I had no idea anyone was up there with me."

Here's a photo of Allure of the Seas while in the Bahamas back in 2011 sent to us by Bill Brown.  Quite a collection of ships!

Gerard Lefebvre sent us this photo from San Juan of the bridge of his ship. Great shot!

Lastly, here's a photo by Steven B. that he took in 2012 on Explorer of the Seas somewhere in the Eastern Caribbean. Love it!

Thank you to everyone who sent photos in this week.  Be sure to send us your Royal Caribbean photos too so we can include them in upcoming Friday Photos posts.

Rhapsody of the Seas and Splendour of the Seas offer cruises in summer 2015 to Greece, Turkey and – for the first time for Royal Caribbean – Black Sea itineraries. Rhapsody of the Seas and Splendour of the Seas’ summer 2015 Europe seasons also are now open for bookings. 

In June 2015, Rhapsody of the Seas will mark Royal Caribbean’s first time in the Black Sea, offering passengers three round-trip sailings, 10- and 11-night in duration, from Istanbul, Turkey. Guests will join the ship in making maiden port calls at Burgas, Bulgaria; Odessa, Yalta and Sevastapol, Ukraine; and Sochi, Russia, with overnight stays in Odessa, Sochi and Istanbul. Rhapsody of the Seas’ arrival at Istanbul will be preceded by a series of sailings that will reposition the ship from Sydney, Australia, to the Black Sea on Apr. 17, 2015. The ship will sail Australia’s north coast to Singapore; follow the Indian sub-continental coast to Dubai; and transit the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean to arrive for the summer season on June 1. 

From July to mid-November, Rhapsody of the Seas will homeport at Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy, and sail seven- to 11-night Greece and Turkey itineraries. The seven- and nine-night itineraries focus on smaller ports such as Katakolon, Thessaloniki, Mykonos, and Santorini in Greece; and Bodrum, Turkey.  Rhapsody of the Seas will then reposition to Sao Paolo, Brazil, for the winter season on a Royal Caribbean trans-Atlantic Ocean Voyage, departing from Barcelona, Spain, on Nov. 19. 

Rounding out Royal Caribbean’s summer 2015 Europe season, Splendour of the Seas will return to homeport at Venice, Italy, for the 10th consecutive summer season, and sail seven-night Adriatic and Greek Isles round-trip itineraries for an extended season through November. A special 12-night itinerary from Barcelona to Venice will kick off the season and sail on May 4 to the French and Italian rivieras as well as Dubrovnik and Split, Croatia. 

Royal Caribbean announced its 2015 Alaska cruise season, which will include two Radiance-class ships, Radiance of the Seas and Jewel of the Seas.

From May to early-September 2015, Radiance of the Seas will alternate northbound and southbound Alaska and Hubbard Glacier cruises, both seven-night itineraries from Vancouver, B.C. and Seward, Alaska, respectively. Guests will cruise the Inside Passage and by Hubbard Glacier, and call at Ketchikan, Icy Strait Point, Juneau and Skagway.

On a special Sept. 4, 2105, sailing, Radiance of the Seas will sail a seven-night round-trip itinerary from Vancouver; cruise Tracy Arm Fjord to Sawyer Glacier; and call at Icy Strait Point, Juneau, and Ketchikan. For its part, Jewel of the Seas will sail seven-night round-trip itineraries from Seattle, Wash., which cruise the Alaska Inside Passage and also Tracy Arm Fjord to Sawyer Glacier, and call at Juneau, Skagway, and Victoria, B.C. 

Additionally, vacationers can select among four Jewel of the Seas’ sailings that explores the California Coast, ranging from six to eight nights in duration, at the beginning and end of the ship’s Alaska season. Furthermore, a 14-night westbound Panama Canal sailing, departing May 2 from San Juan, Puerto Rico to San Diego, and a 15-night eastbound trans-Canal sailing, departing Oct. 10 from Los Angeles to San Juan, will bookend Jewel of the Seas’ 2015 Alaska and California season. 

In addition to witnessing the majesty of Alaska by ship, vacationers also can explore Alaska’s interior on a variety of exciting Royal Caribbean Cruisetours, which combines a sailing aboard Radiance of the Seas with a three- to six-night land tour adventure. oyal Caribbean takes care of all the planning, transportation and lodging on fully escorted tours that spend at least one night in Denali National Park and one leg on the Wilderness Express, a plush, glass-domed train cars that offer panoramic views of the grand Alaskan frontier. Vacationers also can combine a Radiance of the Seas or Jewel of the Seas’ Alaska cruise with one of four pre- or post-cruise land tours throughout the Canadian Rockies and the Okanagan Wine Valley. For a comprehensive Alaska and the Canadian Rockies adventure, the Ultimate Cruisetour combines both region’s land tour programs with a seven-night cruise aboard Radiance of the Seas for a 19-night grand adventure on land and sea.

Of all the specialty restaurants on Navigator of the Seas, the one that slides in "under the radar" has to be Giovanni's Table and I'm not exactly sure why.

Giovanni's Table serves family-style Italian food and replaced Portofino's as the Italian specialty restaurant onboard Navigator of the Seas in February 2014.  

This is our second time eating at Giovanni's Table, with our first back on Oasis of the Seas in 2010.  I rather enjoyed my meal last time so this time we wanted to try lunch and see how good (or bad) Giovanni's Table is on Navigator of the Seas.

Atmosphere

Giovanni's Table is located on deck 11 near the Windjammer and across from Chops Grille.   As I stated earlier, it was added as part of the ship's refurbishment and I made reservations online as soon as they became available.

When I showed up at 12:30pm for our lunch reservation, I found literally no one else in the restaurant. At the time this was our first specialty restaurant of the cruise so we thought maybe they just weren't popular but later found all the other specialty restaurants onboard packed. 

The space Giovanni's Table occupies is a large rectangular room, with lots of blues and whites. There's no checkerboard red and black stereotypical Italian restaurant decor here, it looks more like its upscale Portofino sister than Sorrento's Pizzeria.

The nice thing about eating lunch at Giovanni's Table is you can see the ocean quite easily.  We were seated at a window table and being able to watch the ocean during our meal was calming and quite beautiful.  

I often point out Chops Grille misses out on having a view since it's only open for dinner and glare from the lights prevents from seeing outside, so it's nice having a view with our meal at Giovanni's Table.

Eats

The menu at Giovanni's Table offers a number of choices, which are all supposed to be family style.  Family style usually means it's a large serving meant to be shared among two or more people.  

Frankly, I found most dishes to be small enough for just one person to enjoy, although I may be a victim of gluttonous American dining standards.  That's in contrast to my time on Oasis of the Seas a few years ago when our meal at Giovanni's Table had much larger serving sizes.  That isn't a bad thing necessarily, just pointing out the difference.

As with many Royal Caribbean specialty restaurants, you can order as much as you like from the menu so we started off with appetizers.

The Caprese salad is always a good choice and we were quite pleased with the freshness of the ingredients.  

I also ordered the baked eggplant parmigiana.   I'm a bit of a connoisseur of eggplant parmigiana, as it's become my go-to Italian dish in recent years.  It wasn't just fried eggplant in sauce with some cheese, rather the eggplant was more lightly fried and then baked in with a combination of a great sauce and light cheese.  I really enjoy it.

Last, but not least, my wife also wanted to sample their Caesar salad.  My wife's ideal Caesar salad is a salad where it's only made up of the dark green lettuce leaves, as opposed to the light green crunchy part.  This salad was about as close to perfection as she's seen in some time in that regard.

For our entrees, I decided to keep it traditional and try their lasagna and meatballs.  First came the lasagna, which is described by Royal Caribbean as a traditional meal lasagna. 

What I liked about the lasagna was that it was topped in meat sauce and a light use of cheese (not the shredded kind).  I feel like lasagna should be more about the meat and pasta and less about the cheese and this hit the nail on the head.

I ordered the meatballs because the waiter mentioned the meatballs as being what the restaurant was known for and I think I read a few other places about the meatballs too. 

Being someone who usually goes for a "When in Rome..." kind of attitude, I ordered the veal meatballs to give it a try.

I will be honest and say I did not love the meatballs, however, I feel that could be because I don't really like veal and not because the meatballs were of poor quality.  

Dessert at Giovanni's Table is offered from the dessert cart (there is no menu, per se).  The waiter brings the cart over and you pick out what you would like.

My wife decided to try the pappardelle pasta in a radicchio cream and pancetta.  It sounded good to her but it was something she had never tried before.

She found the pasta to be interesting and she ate it but different than what she was used to ordering at an Italian restaurant.  I think she liked it overall but noted it was a little more different than she thought it would be.

I was stuffed so I took the chocolate cake to try and it was tasted great, although I chose not to eat more than a bite or two.

My wife sampled the canoli because in her perfect world, after the Caesar salad with only dark green leaves are served, it will be followed by a parade of canolis.  She really enjoy their canoli and gave it a thumbs up.

Overall

Giovanni's Table stood out for us because of the freshness of the food we had.  My pet peeve is food that tastes like it just came out of a microwave but I really felt like what we ordered was prepared at the time and tasted wonderful.

It's also worth noting lunch is only $15 per person, which for what you get is a great value.  Given what you get for the money, it's one of the better deals on Navigator of the Seas and for lunch it was well worth it.

I also need to point out how good our waiter was because my daughter was in a foul mood that day (she needed a nap and was hungry).  Had the restaurant not been empty, I'm sure me or my wife would have brought her back to the stateroom as not to bother the other diners.

Our waiter really went above and beyond by trying to entertain her with tricks, tours of the galley and even letting her sit on the Vespa scooter that is near the entrance.  The little things he did to keep her happy really made our meal enjoyable and stood out as why specialty restaurant waiters are among the best Royal Caribbean has.

I think the food at Giovanni's Table is quite good and if you like Italian food at all, it's hard not to go wrong here.  I won't pretend that the food at Sabor and Chops Grille were tastier, but considering Giovanni's Table is open for lunch whereas the others are not, I think it makes for a perfect choice for lunch.

Giovanni's Table is open for lunch 12:00pm to 3:30pm and open for dinner 6:00pm to 10:00pm and we reviewed Giovanni's Table on Navigator of the Seas.

Royal Caribbean opened up bookings just yesterday for one of its newest cruise ships, Anthem of the Seas, and already it's sold at a record pace.

In fact, early reports show that Anthem of the Seas has already seen two-thirds of bookings for premium balcony and suite accommodations in just its first day and a half on sale.

Royal Caribbean managing director for the United Kingdom and Ireland, Stuart Leven, told ITCM, "Since the announcement in November last year that Anthem of the Seas will call Southampton its home, the reaction from holiday makers and agents has been phenomenal. It’s been two weeks since we confirmed the itineraries and it’s clear that the anticipation has been there and converted to vigorous first day sales and we haven’t even announced all of our ground breaking features for this amazing new ship.    

Anthem of the Seas clearly has great appeal and the high value bookings reflect that guests want to holiday in a new and innovative way and in style.  Thank you to Crown and Anchor loyalty members and partners for delivering a record breaking welcome to this new ship." 

Anthem of the Seas is currently under construction and will launch in April 2015. 

Royal Caribbean opened up bookings to the public for the first time for one of its newest cruise ships, Anthem of the Seas.

Anthem of the Seas, the second in the Quantum-class of cruise ships Royal Caribbean is actively constructing, will have its maiden sailing out of Southampton, England in April 2015.

She will offer 3 to 14-night cruises from Southampton in her first season.  

The inaugural cruise on Anthem of the Seas will be a 14-night cruise to Spain and the Mediterranean.

Anthem of the Seas is the sister ship of Quantum of the Seas, which launches in November 2014.  There is still yet a third unnamed Quantum-class cruise ship that will also be built.