Quantum of the Seas is in the midst of construction currently and already, there's a lot of anticipation for Royal Caribbean's newest class of cruise ship.  With any new ship, questions surrounding the design and architecture process pop up regarding what obstacles and challenges does Royal Caribbean face and how do they get around them.  

We had the chance to speak to Royal Caribbean Design Manager for New Builds Jodi Barozinsky, who is working on the design of Quantum of the Seas about how a Royal Caribbean ship is designed.  Barozinsky has been designing Royal Caribbean ships for a long time, starting with Vision class ships, followed by Radiance class, Voyager class and Oasis class.

Jodi started out working with Royal Caribbean as a design consultant in the 1990s and eventually was hired by Royal Caribbean to work exclusively for them.  Since her work on Oasis of the Seas, she has been working in the design department managing the various designers throughout the world that work on Royal Caribbean's ships.  

Her early work on Vision class, Radiance class and Voyager class was centered around the casino, the theater, kids  area and suites.  Starting with Oasis class and continuing to Quantum class, she's focused more on the overall design of the ship, primarily in the public areas and with the design consultants.

Looking at Quantum of the Seas, the biggest challenge Barozinsky identified was the sheer large span of time involved from when a project begins and when it ends and wanting to keep the design contemporary and relevant to what's hip when the ship launches.

"The period of time that we start and finish is a fairly long period. Sometimes three to four years. Staying up on top of what's current and what's cutting edge is always a challenge," Barozinsky said about how time factors in. "That deadline at the end, they're still delivering that ship in October of 2014.  So, trying to stay current and make sure the design is right for the day it gets delivered is a huge challenge."

As an example, Jodi mentions on Quantum of the Seas they had designed all of the dining rooms and about a year later the Operations team felt the design wasn't, "current" and had to be re-designed.  Thus, the dining rooms have been designed twice so far on Quantum of the Seas.

Another challenge is living up to Royal Caribbean's slogans of delivering the "WOW" to their guests and so with every new class of ship, the designers are tasked with coming up with that new "WOW" while staying within the budgetary confines of the project.

"To get those WOWs in there, it may mean compromising something else that's not as critical and deciding on what those compromises are to get the WOW."

The other consideration for coming up with these WOW ammenities is the small details, like with Oasis class what to do when a deluge of rain hits the ship and where does the water go considering there's a huge "hole" in the middle of the ship where Central Park is and prevent flooding.

Another challenge for Quantum of the Seas is that the designers are calling the ship, "the technology ship", which refers to how the team wants to bring in the newest cutting edge technology onto the ship.  This includes the way Royal Caribbean operates the ship, the signage, art work and so more much. 

When asked about what guests should look for in the design of a Royal Caribbean ship, Barozinsky thinks it's the small, overlooked details of basic design that are major considerations that many guests don't notice.  An example is at any bar, there cannot be anything over the top that may collect dust for health code concerns.  Moreover, what they do design needs to hold up so that something does not need to be torn out and redesigned later due to a health issue.

Also Barozinsky is rather proud of the lengths Royal Caribbean goes to in terms of guest accessibility.  She mentioned Royal Caribbean has its own special guidelines for the cruise line to follow and the result has been a lot of compliments from guests with special needs because they find the ships very accomodating.

So what's the most rewarding aspect of designing a Royal Caribbean cruise ship?  Jodi thinks it's seeing the interest that they get from the highest executive level for what they do and so their work is very imporant and knowing what they work in sails in ports all around the world.  

"Anyone you talk to, whether I'm travelling next to some stranger on a plane and they ask what you do and you get into a conversation.  They know that ship, they know about that room that you designed.  To me, it just feels good.  It made a difference and someone actually noticed something that you worked on.  You can really take pride in that."

If Jodi's work sounds really fun and interesting and you're perhaps a student in college looking to be a designer to, her advice to them is take college courses on ship design, which are already being offered these days.  

Barozinsky also mentioned that Royal Caribbean offers summer internships to interior design or architecture college students and would be a great avenue to take to get the right background to work on a Royal Caribbean team.  She also says you have to love it and you give it your all and be willing to work hard.  And the reward?  The cultural aspect of working with the foreign shipyards as well as the guests you are designing for that come from all over the world.

Royal Caribbean updated the way it offers select guests complimentary upgrades effective earlier this week.

Beginning on November 11th, Crown and Anchor Society members will be considered for a complimentary stateroom upgrade the week prior to a sailing.  The only way to qualify for an updated is to select your upgrade preferences at the Crown and Anchor website at http://www.royalcaribbean.com/CrownandAnchor.

Complimentary upgrades will only be processed for members whose preferences have been registered. 

Upgrades will only be offered within a week prior to the desired sail date as follows:

• Grand Suite to Owner's/Family Suite

• Jr Suite to Grand Suite

• Balcony to Jr Suite

• Oceanview to Balcony

• Interior to Oceanview

The change appears to be a move to standardize the upgrade process, where unsold staterooms were offered to Royal Caribbean passengers that had previously booked the cruise with less direction in terms of who qualifies and when.  While not explicitly mentioned, we are assuming upgade preference will start with the highest level of Crown and Anchor Society membership and filter down through the ranks as availability dictates.

It's podcast day and we have a fresh Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast for you to enjoy this week about a topic I think many of you can relate to.

Episode 15 is now available for downloading and it tries to answer the core question of why someone might want to book a Royal Caribbean cruise.

In this episode, Matt looks at what the appeal of a Royal Caribbean cruise is. Matt lists what aspects of a Royal Caribbean cruise seperate Royal Caribbean from the rest of the industry and why you should consider Royal Caribbean for your next (or first) cruise vacation.

We are also answering more listener emails this week all about Royal Caribbean cruising.

Here’s the podcast page for Episode 15. And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast via RSS, Stitcher 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 unlimited alcohol packages have been wildly popular since they debuted last year and there's a number of reports that the cruise line is revamping its unlimited alcohol packages by adding some more options.

According to readers on Cruise Critic, Royal Caribbean has told certain callers that they will change their unlimited drink package options starting on November 15.

The rumored changes and additions to the options are as follows:

• New $20 per day, per person non-alcoholic drink package that includes fountain soda (with the Freestyle cup), specialty coffee & tea, fresh juice.

• Classic unlimited alcohol beer and wine package will remain the same bit with the addition of the Freestyle cup for soda

• Premium unlimited alcohol package will add the Coca-Cola Freestyle cup as well as bottled water and wine up to $12 a glass. 

• A new Ultimate unlimited alcohol package will cost $65 per person, per day and be the same as the Premium package, but adds fresh juice, Red Bull and specialty coffees & teas

These additions and changes to the unlimited alcohol packages are not confirmed by Royal Caribbean directly yet but enough people have had it independently verified by calling the cruise line to warrant reporting the potential change.

Since this is still a rumor, guests cannot purchase the new packages yet. Once we receive confirmation by Royal Caribbean, we will post any and all details to clarify details.  

11/14 9:38am UPDATE: More information is coming in pointing to this rumor being accurate.  Some more details on the new plans include the fact gratuity is included in all the packages. The biggest change for the unlimited alcohol packages is not everyone in the stateroom has to get it.

Select package ($40 per person, per day) includes beer, wine by the glass value up to $8, non-alcoholic cocktails, and the Fountain soda package with cup. 

The Premium unlimited alcohol package ($55 per person, per day) includes cocktails up to $10 value, frozen cocktails, beer, premium wines up to $12 value, non-alcoholic cocktails, 500 ml bottled still water and Fountain soda package with cup. 

Ultimate package ($65 per person, per day) is virtually unlimited including all that is included with the premium package but with no price limit and is $65 per person per day.

A 20% discount off of select premium wines are offered with the Select, Premium and Ultimate packages.

The basic soda package and water package stay intact 

Royal Caribbean is testing a new Wi-Fi technology known as 802.11ac to optimize their Wi-Fi connectivity for the new wave in mobile data usage onboard its ships.  

Network World is reporting that Royal Caribbean is testing Meru Networks' just-released 11ac product, the AP 832.

"It’s a two-radio product, each radio capable of running in either 2.4 or 5Hz bands, supporting three spatial streams, a maximum data rate of 1.3Gbps, and the ability to run all three streams and support 80-MHz wide channels on both radios over existing 802.3af Power-over-Ethernet."

Tests of the new networking gear have been conducted at Royal Caribbean's "ship lab" in Florida, which mimics conditions on board a ship, involved four Meru AP832 access points with 11ac and 11n clients. The results of the tests found up to 782 Mbps receiving and 634Mbps sending.  That is a signifigant upgrade compared to the company’s existing 11n Wi-Fi target of 200Mbps.

“We were able to see a 40 percent improvement with the new [11ac] chipset,” says Greg Martin, IT director for Royal Caribbean.

The potential benefit of this technology for Royal Caribbean is doing away with Ethernet cabling for numerous VoIP phones, digital signage, kiosks and similar endpoints.  In addition, it will reduce the cabling needs aboard the cruise ships, which is expensive.

The next test comes in December when Royal Caribbean will use the 11ac products in a pilot program at its Oregon call center. A limited test is also planned for Navigator of the Seas in January.

Royal Caribbean plans to deploy 11ac as the standard in all new ships, and phase in 11ac upgrades to the existing fleet. The next new ship, Quantum of the Seas, likely will be the first of the company’s ships to get a stem-to-stern 11ac wireless LAN.

Adding Wi-Fi to Royal Caribbean's ships has been a boon financially, with more guests buying internet access onboard their ship and that has translated well to the company's bottom line in recent quarters.

Royal Caribbean has released a new video on how they are using virtual reality as a tool for engineers and designers to work on Quantum of the Seas throughout its construction process.

Royal Caribbean in the United Kingdom is beginning to spin up the public relations machine to prepare its fans for a big announcement on November 21, 2013.  Many are speculatiing it will be the formal announcement that Anthem of the Seas, the new Quantum-class cruise ship, will be based out of Southampton, England.

Royal Caribbean UK is teasing the event with the phrase, "A date that'll be music to your ears", which seems to play on the ship's name of Anthem.

The special event will be held in London at 4:30pm local time.

There's been speculation for months that Anthem of the Seas will be based in the UK, with a cruise port schedule site tipping many off earlier this year.  Royal Caribbean has been quiet on details for Anthem of the Seas beyond it had its first steel cutting back in August.

Anthem of the Seas will be the second Quantum-class ship behind sister ship Quantum of the Seas.  She is expected to debut in the spring of 2015.

After suffering with propulsion problems that have hampered her speed for weeks now, Royal Caribbean is considering sending Allure of the Seas for an early dry dock to fix the lingering issues.

Travel Weekly is reporting that the propulsion problems we reported on earlier are getting to the point that the cruise line thinks maintenance now is the best solution.

Travel Weekly quoted Royal Caribbean chairman Richard Fain saying that an early dry dock is a possibility, "We’re considering it, sure.We’re in the process of trying to assess [whether] we move up the drydock, and if it makes sense we will."

As it stands now, Allure of the Seas is scheduled for a dry dock repair in 2015.

The issue affecting Allure of the Seas is one of its propulsion pods is damaged and the ship has to travel slower.  As a result, time has been shortened at ports of call because the ship takes longer to get between any two points.

Royal Caribbean is joining the worldwide effort to provide humanitarian relief efforts to the victims of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.

Royal Caribbean has taken steps to help crew members attempt to communicate with relatives inthe Philippines. Company executives also held a special meeting Monday morning with more than 200 Filipino crew members aboard Vision of the Seas, which was docked near the company’s headquarters in Miami, to let them know that more would be done, including matching contributions from employees dollar-for-dollar.

Royal Caribbean said its efforts to help the people of the Philippines would raise $1 million. 

Royal Caribbean chairman Richard Fain commented on the effort, "Our hearts go out to everyone affected by the storm. More than 12,800 of our employees call the Philippines home. We want to do everything we can to help them, their families, and their neighbors heal from this terrible tragedy."

Royal Caribbean cares a lot about the plight of the storm victims, especially considering Filipinos make up the largest nationality represented across Royal Caribbean's cruise line.

The cruise company will collaborate with its local manning agency, Philippine Transmarine Carriers, Inc. (PTC), to assess the storm’s impact on crew members and their families. The companies have deployed an emergency team to the hardest-hit areas in the Philippines, and will establish a central communications point where employees currently on Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, Pullmantur, Azamara Club Cruises, CDF Croisieres de France, and TUI Cruises ships, can ask for assistance in reaching their family members, and where employees who are not currently on ship assignments can check in.

Photo by hortonheardawho