We love to share your Royal Caribbean photos every Friday and give everyone a quick "mental escape" to look at some stunning photos.  We want your photos too, so send us your best Royal Caribbean photos to share with the world.

Let's start things off with a photo from Bill Brown of Allure of the Seas docked in Nassau along with some other cruise ships.  Allure just makes the others look so small and cute.

Next is a photo from Bradford Benner, who wrote to us with this description, "our three balcony a open on the enchantment aft that we had to close as they have not taken the time to fix to sately keep open, would have been a better cruise if we could have had them all as one."

Ross and Pam sent us this shot of Radiance of the Seas at Moorea.  I love large-scale photos like this that show off the scale of the ship and its surroundings.  Perfect!

Next is a photo of Voyager of the Seas docked in Valencia, Spain in 2012 as part of a 42 day voyage from New Orleans to Singapore(!) sent to us by David Domanski.  I'm not sure if I'm more jealous of the great photo, the ship or the amazing itinerary they were on.

Victor Sacal sent in this photo of his loft suite from Oasis of the Seas and this just reaffirms the idea that I need to book myself one of these suites.  Right after I can convince my wife we can live on Ramen noodles for a while to help pay for the cruise.

Rounding things out this week is a photo from Tom & Diane Trudnowski of sunset, as seen from their balcony on Freedom of the Seas.  Great shot, especially with the reflection in the water and the color of the ship.

If we didn't include your photo this week, then that means you need to send it in to us for use on a future Friday Photos post.  We want to see your favorite Royal Caribbean cruise photos and you can use this form to send them to us.

Royal Caribbean is offering a one-day sale on Saturday, October 19, 2013 for those looking to book a cruise in November or December of this year.

Book a Royal Caribbean cruise on October 19th that departs between November 1 – December 31, 2013 and you can get up to $100 onboard credit. If you book a cruise that departs from November 1 – December 20, you will receive up to $50.  But if you book a cruise that sails around the holidays, between December 21–December 31, and Royal Caribbean will double the onboard credit offer to $100. 

• Inside & Outside Staterooms will receive $25 onboard credit
• Balcony and Suite Staterooms will receive $50 onboard credit
• Holiday Inside and Outside Staterooms will receive $50 onboard credit
• Holiday Balcony and Suite Staterooms will receive $100 onboard credit

Offer applies to new individual bookings (not applicable to groups) made on October 19, 2013 from 12:00AM-11:59PM ET for all sailings departing Nov 1 - Dec 31, 2013. Onboard credit is per stateroom.

Ship builder Meyer Werft has announced their web cam is up and running in Hall 6 to document the build process of Quantum of the Seas.

The web cam is available via the Meyer Werft web site, although it is worth noting the web cam is not a live cam, but rather a static photo that is updated periodically, usually once per week.

With the cam online, anyone can monitor the progress Quantum of the Seas makes as it is put together. The cam will be available until the ship work in dry dock is completed.

Royal Caribbean has scheduled a conference call for Thursday, October 24, 2013 at 10am Eastern time to announce the results of it's third quarter fiscal calendar earnings.

If you're interested in hearing the results live, you can listen on-line at Royal Caribbean's investor relations web site, www.rclinvestor.com. To listen to the call by phone, please dial (877) 663-9606 in the US and Canada. International phone calls should be made to (706) 758-4628. A replay of the webcast will be available at the same site for a month following the call.

Royal Caribbean came away a winner yet again after the winners were announced for the Cruise Critic 2013 Editors' Picks Awards.

For the third year in a row, Royal Caribbean won the Best Entertainment award for its impressive entertainment options across its entire fleet – including Broadway performances like "Hairspray" and "Chicago," ice skating productions and aerial shows.

Cruise Critic described the reason Royal Caribbean won as follows, "Entertainment on Royal Caribbean's ships doesn't stop with the theater. The line smartly uses every inch of public space to pack in music, shows, comedy and Broadway productions. While its large ships get the headlines for high-diving and ice-skating productions, passengers on its smaller ships will love entertainment options such as atrium aerial shows and piano bar sing-alongs."

Royal Caribbean CEO Adam Goldstein appeared on CNBC and discussed his disappointment with the United States' government shutdown and its impact on Royal Caribbean's business.

Goldstein commented on how the government shutdown has affected Royal Caribbean, "We are receiving most of the services that we need, particularly from the United States Coast Guard and Customs & Border Protection. But as you mentioned, when it comes to bringing our customers to national parks such as Acadia up in Maine, we are not able to do that and it's very frustrating for us and for our guests."

When asked if it was financially better for Royal Caribbean to keep guests onboard their ships or allow them to go on excursions, Goldstein responded, "It's not a money making proposition to disappoint your customers. They bought these vacations a long time ago with high expectations. They want to see these national parks.  We're not going to improve our situation by being a part of their frustration."

Royal Caribbean issued a warning today for guests on the October 17 Grandeur of the Seas cruise out of Baltimore, Maryland that their luggage service may be affected.

The longshoremen’s union at the Port of Baltimore is currently on strike. If the strike continues tomorrow, there will be a delay in moving guests’ luggage on and off the ship. 

As a result, Royal Caribbean is asking guests guests scheduled to sail on Grandeur of the Seas on October 17, not arrive at the port before 1:00 p.m. Check in for this sailing will take place between 1:00 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.

The sailing’s departure time will be delayed until 7:00 p.m. to accommodate this event, but it will not impact the scheduled itinerary. 

The latest Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast episode is now available for your listening pleasure.

Episode 11 is now available for downloading and it's chock full of our listener's stories.

In this episode, we are sharing our first Royal Caribbean cruise experiences.  Matt shares his first cruise experience aboard Royal Caribbean and describes why he booked the cruise and what kept him coming back (and back and back).  We also have first Royal Caribbean cruise stories from our readers to share and how they fell in love with cruising with Royal Caribbean.

We also have a lot of listener feedback to share, mostly from last week's unlimited alcohol package episode, so we're sharing everyone's opinions on the packages as well as answering some questions.

Here’s the podcast page for Episode 11. 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's Legend of the Seas sailed into the port of Souda, which is on the island of Crete and marks the first time Legend of the Seas visited the port.  

During the time she was docked in Souda, the Mayor of Chania, Manolis Skoulaki and the ship's Captain met to exchange souvenirs onboard.  The small ceremony commemorated Legend's arrival to the port and is a common practice among first time visits for cruise ship.s

The meeting was also attended by the President of the Port Authority of Chania, Costas Brokalakis and the shipping agent, Nicholas Tsagkarakis.

The Caribbean island of Curacao's Minister of Economic Development met with different organizations about adding a second mega pier for cruise ships as well as a cruise terminal in Caracasbaai. 

The Curacao Chronicle reports Royal Caribbean has shown "great interest" in the island.  Royal Caribbean President of Commercial Development, John Tercek, indicated to Minister Stanley Palm that his company is interested in the second mega pier in that area.

Tercek agreed with the Minister that further discussions were needed regarding Caracasbaai so that other aspects of the project can be researched further, including nature and the environment.  Tercek also said that the Caracasbaai project does not preclude current plans on a second mega pier. The aim is to offer the city center as part of a tour which leaves from Caracasbaai.