Royal Caribbean Blog reader Gary is onboard the first sailing of Navigator of the Seas after her month-long refurbishment and is sending us photos of what's new on the ship.

We will update this post regularly today with new photos showcasing some of the changes coming to the ship.

Around Navigator of the Seas

Renamed Star Lounge

Solera store on the Royal Promenade

New R Bar

FlowRider & Pool Area

Pool area with large LCD screen

Newly moved mini golf course

FlowRider entrance

The FlowRider

Junior Suite

Photo of Gary's junior suite stateroom. Notice the new flat screen LCD television.

Sabor Modern Mexican

Entrance to Sabor Modern Mexican specialty restaurant

A look inside Sabor

Larger dining room inside Sabor

Gary's Observations

• Plush new carpet in most of the common corridors and stairs. Very nice.
• New furniture in the lounges(or at least recovered) and bars.
• Flooring around pool decks either have been power washed or replaced. Again very nice.
• The golf area is completely new. Flow rider is a big hit.

Thank you to Gary for taking the time to send us these photos and be sure to check this post regularly for more photos.

Quantum of the Seas adviser Dhani Jones has a new video out today that shows him exploring activities to bring aboard Royal Caribbean's next cruise ship, Quantum of the Seas.

Hey everyone! Episode 27 of the Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast is now available for your listening pleasure.

This week, we're sharing the details about our cruise on Navigator of the Seas to the Western Caribbean that begins this weekend.  Let's look at why we picked this cruise, the cool things to do on Navigator of the Seas and our plans for each port of call.  

Be sure to also check out our pre-cruise summary of what our plans are for the cruise and for how you can read our live blog each day from the cruise.

Here’s the podcast page for Episode 27. And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast via RSS or on iTunes!

Take a listen and as always, let us know what you think! Please rate and review the podcast on iTunes and leave your comments below!

Royal Caribbean is sending the largest cruise ship in the world, Allure of the Seas to Barcelona, Spain in summer 2015 to offer Mediterranean cruises.

Sailing from Barcelona, while also offering embarkation in Rome, Allure of the Sea’s seven night itinerary will feature calls in Palma de Mallorca, Marseilles, La Spezia (Florence and Pisa), Civitavecchia (Rome), and Naples.

Allure of the Seas will arrive in Barcelona in May 24, 2015 and offer cruises until October 2015.

The Mediterranean cruises will go on sale to Crown and Anchor Society members Febryary 12, 2014 and then go on sale to the general public on February 18.

Moving Allure of the Seas to Spain makes sense considering Royal Caribbean is bringing three new large cruise ships online over the next three years, with many (if not all) of them coming to the United States.

Royal Caribbean finished refurbishing work on Navigator of the Seas, which will begin offering service from Galveston, Texas tomorrow.

The refurbishment work on Navigator of the Seas is part of Royal Caribbean's fleet wide effort to revitalize all of its cruise ships with features and ammenities first seen on Oasis-class. Unique to Navigator of the Seas, work has been done to give guests a preview of new features on Quantum of the Seas.

Royal Caribbean touts this list of changes that have come to the cruise ship

• FlowRider surf simulator
• 81 virtual balcony inside staterooms
• New panoramic ocean view staterooms
• New specialty restaurants
  • Sabor Modern Mexican
  • Chops Grille (revamped)
  • Izumi Japanese Cuisine
  • Giovanni's Table
• Renamed the main dining room to Sapphire
• New digital signage
• Bow-to-stern Wi-Fi service
• New flat-panel televisions in every stateroom
• An oversized LCD movie screen overlooking the main pool
• New Diamond Lounge for Crown & Anchor Society loyalty member guests
• Royal Babies and Tots Nursery added.
• Champagne Bar has been re-conceptualized into Royal Caribbean’s signature, retro-chic R Bar

It looks like part of Royal Caribbean's plans for 2015 include swapping Jewel of the Seas and Navigator of the Seas.  Royal Caribbean will move the larger Navigator of the Seas to San Juan in 2015 according to a report by Caribbean Business.

The change will occur in May 2015 according to the report and is a good sign for the blossoming cruise port of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Caribbean Business writes, "In May 2015, Royal Caribbean is scheduled to replace the Jewel of the Seas—which currently carries out weekly trips, with San Juan as its homeport—with a bigger ship, the Navigator of the Seas." 

Royal Caribbean is rumored to be releasing their 2015/2016 deployment schedule sometime in the timeframe of late February or March 2014.

Hi everyone, I'm really excited to announce our next live-blog experience as we get ready for a cruise aboard Navigator of the Seas for a 7-night Western Caribbean adventure.

It is my hope to provide to our readers a daily look at what this cruise will be like and share our experiences with you.  This means I will try to post photos every day along with a written report of how things are going (internet permitting).

If you're new to our live blogs, check out the live blogs we did for Freedom of the Seas and Jewel of the Seas last year for an idea of what's in store for you. I'm hoping to give our readers a daily look into what we did that day, what was good/not good and what we have planned for the next day.  

For this cruise, we're flying from New York to Houston, Texas on Saturday, February 8 to start our adventure. We're flying in a day early because we want to be good little cruisers and make sure we get to our port in plenty of time and be able to enjoy some time in Galveston (the port our ship leaves from).  Luckily a friend of a friend (hi Paul!) is giving us a ride to and from the airport, which is making things very easy on us.

Our flight leaves New York at 10:00am, so we will be arriving in Houston with enough time to get to Galveston and explore a little. We ended up booking the Galveston Beach Hotel through Name Your Own price option on Priceline, which got us a really good rate compared to anything else we found online.  The next day, we will board Navigator of the Seas as early as humanly possible and start the real fun on February 9th!

This is our first time on Navigator of the Seas and what drew me to this cruise is it is her first 7-night cruise since her month long drydock, where she received a number of upgrades. Many of these upgrades are really quite interesting and unique to Navigator of the Seas and I'm really excited to see them in person.  Also, my daughter is old enough for Adventure Ocean this cruise so I know she is excited to try it and I'm excited to have time with my wife enjoying the new ship just the two of us.

In addition to the exciting changes coming to Navigator of the Seas, the itinerary really appealed to us.  We've never been to Belize City or Roatan previously and have always enjoyed our time in Cozumel.  I've blogged about our plans for Cozumel, Belize City and Roatan, so you can see what we're thinking for those stops.

Who is going

Matt (me), Marissa (wife) & Gabriella (3 year old daughter).

Our itinerary

Next update should be on our Galveston day, Saturday, February 8.  Stay tuned for all of our live blog updates right here.

Unfortunately Royal Caribbean news was dominated this week by the outbreak of gastrointestinal sickness (most likely Norovirus) on Explorer of the Seas.

After hundreds of passengers got sick earlier in the week, Royal Caribbean decided to bring the ship back two days early for thorough cleaning.  Royal Caribbean also went a step further to offer 50% refunds on the cruise fare to all passengers on the ill-fated ship.

In the end, over 600 cruise passengers became sick and it created a media circus around the ship.  Royal Caribbean apologized to its guests for disappointing them and will take "several steps to compensate them for their inconvenience."

Royal Caribbean News

• Royal Caribbean posted its fourth quarter profits that beat Wall Street estimates.
• Royal Caribbean decided to skip the option to build a fourth Quantum-class cruise ship.
• However, Royal Caribbean is still considering building a fourth Oasis-class ship.
• Royal Caribbean signed a five-year deal with the Port of Galveston.
• Here's our guide to avoid getting sick with Norovirus on your cruise.
• How to make Royal Caribbean specialty restaurant reservations.
• We have a preview of Royal Caribbean's virtual balconies that debut next week.

Royal Caribbean Podcast

In the mood for a beach day? The twenty-sixth episode of the Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast is available and we're exploring Royal Caribbean's private island of CocoCay.

In this episode, Matt gives an overview of this island paradise including what there is to do here, the dining options on the island and a look at the cabanas available to rent.  This island in the Bahamas is a popular destination for Royal Caribbean fans because of how beautiful the landscape is and how relaxing an experience it is.

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

CruizeCast has a new podcast episode out, with a review of the Caribbean Princess.

Cruise Critic has a look at what it's like to have Norovirus and be quarantined on a cruise ship.

When Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas emerges from dry dock next week, among the new changes onboard the ship will be virtual balcony staterooms that feature an 80 inch high definition LCD screen in select inside staterooms.

Fox News interviewed Ronnie Farzad, Royal Caribbean’s head of entertainment technology, and he says the new screens stretch from nearly floor to ceiling and wall to wall, complete with the sound of the seas in real-time from the camera location. Royal Caribbean is also included a banister for a feeling of safety.

Why a banister?  Well, Royal Caribbean told Fox News that they tested a simulated virtual balcony with 30 to 40 people at Royal Caribbean headquarters, and many of the testers complained that an open ocean view is a little scary because there was nothing to keep passengers from “falling in,” especially if the ship is moving in high seas, Farzad said.  

While Navigator of the Seas only has about 80 staterooms with virtual balconies, there will be a virtual balcony in every interior cabin on Quantum of the Seas. There will even be smaller virtual balconies in the studio staterooms that accomodate solo cruisers on Quamtum of the Seas.

Charlie Miller of Control Systems, the concept design company behind the virtual balconies, spoke to Fox News about several of the challenges in creating an authentic feel to Royal Caribbean’s virtual balconies. 

Another challenge was making it all look the way designers envisioned, as Fox News reports, "Designers wanted to create virtual banisters and even balusters, the vertical poles that hold the banisters in place. But the banister had to appear to be outside the window, like on a real balcony. And that created a whole new set of visual challenges, because the look of a real banister changes all the time as the sun and the ship change directions. The answer was to incorporate sun movement charts and powerful GPS data to add “real” shadows and highlights to the virtual banisters. At the same time, they decided not to put virtual glass between the balusters."

Last week plans for construction to begin on the renovations of Cape Liberty's cruise terminal were halted after the construction plans impacted a September 11th memorial.  The renovation plans are back on track now after the Port Authority has come up with a plan for ensuring the 9/11 memorial is not destroyed.

NJ.com is reporting the small group of memorial pavers that encircle the 9/11 Teardrop Memorial at the south end of the Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor will be temporarily removed when repair work at the site begins.

The renovation work on the terminal is necessary to allow the port to accomodate Royal Caribbean's newest cruise ship Quantum of the Seas for her November 2014 arrival.

“The start of the construction is contingent on the city of Bayonne’s approval,” said Port Authority spokesman, Steve Coleman.

Coleman estimates the pavers will be out of the 9/11 memorial ground for roughly three to five months.

“These pavers will be restored to their original locations when the work is finished,” said Coleman.