Royal Caribbean reported third quarter financial results today and the big "star" of the results was the onboard spending, with a 7% increase overall.  So what is Royal Caribbean's secret?  They think it's all about the revitalization program.

During the financial results conference call, Royal Caribbean Chief Financial Officer Jason Liberty pointed to a few key factors that are part of the fleet-wide renovations to why the company is seeing better guest spending onboard their ships.

• Specialty Restaurants
• Casino
• Internet
• Unlimited alcohol packages
• Shore excursions

"We benefited from new onboard venues introduced as a result of our revitalizations, and we saw further strength in spending from our U.S. customers, which helped generate improvement in gaming, beverage, specialty dining and shore excursions," Liberty said during the conference call.

Royal Caribbean CEO Adam Goldstein elaborated on how the company is looking to get more onboard spending, "So as I believe we mentioned earlier, gaming, beverage, shore excursions, retail and also some of the smaller revenue streams, internet has been doing well for us, which we wanted to see because we made a significant investment in, I think, 7 or 8x more bandwidth to the ships this year, and that seems to be paying off. So a number of the investments that we have already made, we would expect to continue to pay dividends and revenue growth into 2014 and beyond. And we continue to look under every stone for onboard revenue opportunities that don't conflict with the satisfaction of the product offering."

Basically, guests are spending more money in all these aspects and most of these venues are areas of the cruise ships that get upgraded or added as part of the revitalization program.  

When each ship is refurbished, more restaurants are added and wifi is spread out to more areas across the ship. Add to that the new drink packages and Royal Caribbean is offering its guests more opportunities to spend money.

During Royal Caribbean's third quarter financial results conference call, Royal Caribbean CEO Adam Goldstein mentioned that as part of the fleet-wide revitalization program, all Voyager class ships will recieve 75 new staterooms.

Voyager class ships are the next batch of Royal Caribbean's ships to get the upgrades that will roll out many new ammenities and upgrades, first seen on the Oasis class.  These new staterooms, however, are a departure from other ship upgrades and unique to the Voyager class.

The order of upgrades is currently scheduled as follows

• Navigator of the Seas: February 2014
• Adventure of the Seas: April 2014
• Voyager of the Seas: May 2014
• Explorer of the Seas: February 2015

Mariner of the Seas received her upgrade back on May 2, 2012 and did not recieve a stateroom upgrade at that time.

Royal Caribbean reported its third quarter fiscal results today of a net income of $377.9 million or $1.71 per share, compared with $367.8 million or $1.68 per share last year.

Royal Caribbean attributes the increase in revenue compared to last year to close-in demand in Europe and Asia as well as good cost control, despite cost impacts from the Celebrity Millenium unscheduled drydock.

Booked load factors are ahead of this time last year in all four quarters of 2014, according to the company. It forecast that 2014 should be the fifth consecutive year for yield growth.

Prices for the first quarter are in-line with the same time this year and are up for the second, third and fourth quarters.

Royal Caribbean Chairman Richard Fain commented on the company's results, "We are beginning to see the payoff from our efforts to improve returns during these challenging times. We have a ways to go, but our strategy and our investments are driving higher revenues and achieving cost efficiencies that bode well for 2014 and beyond. We are especially grateful for our employees' dedication to our profitability improvement initiatives."

Overseas, things are looking good for Royal Caribbean with booked load factors and rates both up significantly year-over-year for Europe.  Asian bookings are up “considerably” despite a continued territorial dispute between China and Japan.

Advance bookings for Alaska cruises are also “providing encouragement for yield improvement.”

There was one giant guest aboard a recent Royal Caribbean cruise that probably stuck out from all the other guests considering it was 6.5 feet long and tentacles.

Two rare giant species of squid are on their way to the Smithsonian Institution’s preserved cephalopod research collection in Washington DC.  The effort is a joint collaboration between Royal Caribbean, Department of Environment and the University of South Florida St. Petersburg.

The squid, which are about two metres long, are described by local scientists as being in excellent condition and will provide important scientific data as these two deep sea cephalopod species are rarely encountered as adults.

Dr Janice Blumenthal was happy with the assistance Royal Caribbean provided to allow for the specimens to be studied further, "It was a pleasure to work with all the Royal Caribbean staff to arrange this unique transfer. They were extremely efficient in arranging the complex logistics of transporting the rare squid aboard their ship and importing them into the United States – though this was of course the first time any of us had attempted this."

Another episode of the Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast is now available for your listening pleasure!

Episode 12 of the Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast is now available for downloading and streaming.

On this week's episode, Matt compares the various classes of Royal Caribbean cruise ships to share the differences and similarities between each class.  There's also a recommendation for which class is better for first time cruisers and which class of ships is better for veteran cruisers. 

We will also share more listener feedback, including your questions and comments.

Here’s the podcast page for Episode 10. 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!

Quantum of the Seas is actively under construction at the Meyer-Weft shipyard in Germany and today we have a new video to show off the ship's progress.

Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas was the means by which the French Riviera Cruise Club worked with Royal Caribbean to continue delivering huminitarian aid to Haiti for the second year in a row.

Games and toys were collected by the club to be loaded on board Liberty of the Seas, a regular caller at Villefranche-sur-Mer, on Tuesday for shipment to Haiti.

Last year the French Riviera Cruise Club donated books and school materials collected in Villefranche with the help of the municipal council and the Centre de Découverte du Monde Marin. The items were delivered to Haiti just before Christmas.

During this operation, Royal Caribbean took the opportunity to raise awareness among the elementary school children of the importance of respecting the countryside and protecting the environment.

The donation enabled the completion of a library. Extra books were sent to other public schools, and medical aid was provided to the Red Cross.

This year, the school director and some of the teachers requested toys and games for the children, prompting the current donation.

National Cruise Week begins today and Royal Caribbean is joining in with a cruise sale of up to $100 onboard credit on seven-night cruises that sail during summer 2014.

The sale is valid on 7-night cruises departing between June 1 and August 31, 2014.

If you book between today and October 25 an interior or ocean view stateroom, guests will receive $50 onboard credit with code SPO1.

Guests that book a balcony or suite stateroom will receive $100 per stateroom with code SPO2.

The National Cruise Vacation Week offer is applicable only on new individual bookings and the option code must be registered at the time of booking.

It's been quiet in terms of Quantum of the Seas news but we got a few tidbits this week related to Royal Caribbean's newest cruise ship that is actively under construction.

Ship builder Meyer Werft launched the Quantum of the Seas webcam, which will offer periodic photo updates of how the ship's construction is progressing.  The photo of the webcam may only update one per week or so, but it's still a welcome addition to be able to see Quantum become a reality.

The other Quantum of the Seas news is a report that previously scheduled itineraries for that included a stop in Samana, Dominican Republic are being cancelled next year.  Itineraries that had stops scheduled in Samana have now mostly replaced the Samana port call with an additional day in San Juan or a sea day.  

What else was in the news this week? Read on…

Royal Caribbean News

• There's a report that indicates Allure of the Seas will go to Europe in 2015.
• Royal Caribbean is in talks with Curacao to build a new mega cruise ship pier.
• Royal Caribbean's third quarter financial earnings report is scheduled for October 24.
• Royal Caribbean won the Best Entertainment award for the third year in a row.
• Like night photos of cruise ships? Check out our Jewel of the Seas night photo gallery.
• Royal Caribbean's CEO was none too happy with the shutdown of the United States governement in the past two weeks.
• Here's our full review of the Seaview Cafe.

Royal Caribbean Podcast

The eleventh episode of the Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast is available and this week we are sharing our first time on Royal Caribbean stories.

In this episode, Matt shares his first experience on a Royal Caribbean cruise, including why he booked it, what he liked about it and why Matt decided to cruise with Royal Caribbean again (and again and again).  We also have lots of your listener feedback to share too!

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

Royal Caribbean has a post up about how formal wear has changed on cruises.

Kuki has a new post wondering if ship libraries are wasted space.

Cruise Director Richard Spacey wrote about cruise vacation etiquette.

Dhani Jones, Quantum of the Seas advisor, is on a Fox Sports Radio podcast describing his work with Royal Caribbean.

MyNews13 has information on Port Canaveral is hosting an annual convention to discuss port expansion.

It's possible Royal Caribbean will be sending the largest cruise ship in the world. Allure of the Seas, to Europe in 2015 according to port information.

According to a ship docking schedule for cruise ports in Italy, Allure of the Seas is scheduled to dock in Naples in October 2015.

The news of Allure of the Seas going to Europe at all has not been confirmed nor announced by Royal Caribbean but cruise schedules are often produced well in advance to secure a spot.  

One possible scenario is Allure of the Seas is going to Europe for routine drydock maintenance and will offer a few cruises while "in the area", which is similar to what Oasis of the Seas has planned for next summer.