Happy weekend Royal Caribbean fans!  The big news this week surrounded the return of Grandeur of the Seas to service after more than a month of canceled cruises to repair fire damage to the aft of the ship.  

While a few parts of the ship are still being repaired, most of the ship is good to go. Check out our photo update from onboard Grandeur of the Seas and see how this great ship looks like.

Royal Caribbean News

• The third Oasis-class cruise ship Royal Caribbean has on order has secured financing.
• Wondering how to book an excursion through Royal Caribbean? We share the basic steps on when and how to book your adventures off the ship.
• Word on the street is that Quantum of the Seas will make stops in Bermuda in 2015.
• Speaking of Quantum of the Seas, it looks like the shipyard where she's being built is getting ready to lay the keel.
• Have questions about Royal Caribbean's unlimited alcohol package? Here are answers to all the questions we could think of!
• Want to work for Royal Caribbean and live in Brazil? Royal Caribbean is hiring!

Join us for the first ever Royal Caribbean Blog Cruise!

We're so excited to announce the first ever group cruise for readers and staff of RoyalCaribbeanBlog.com aboard Quantum of the Seas!  This is an exclusive group where we are inviting you, our readers, to join us on one of the first Quantum of the Seas sailings on an 8-night cruise to the Caribbean.

This Royal Caribbean Blog group cruise is all about enjoying this brand new ship with other fans who are big fans of Royal Caribbean.  Don't miss this opportunity to check out the brand new cruise ship as well as be a part of exclusive events for those that book with our group!

For more details on booking the cruise, the itinerary and prices, check out the Royal Caribbean Blog group cruise page and if you have any questions, email me!

Royal Caribbean Around the Internet

USA Today reports we still don't know what started the fire on Grandeur of the Seas.

Cruise Critic is reporting a number of passengers have been bumped off of Grandeur of the Seas due to repairs not being complete.

The Royal Gazette covered a group of students in Bermuda that received Royal Caribbean's Hospitality award scholarship.

Royal Caribbean has come to an agreement to get an unsecured loan for up to €892 million to finance its third Oasis-class cruise ship. COFACE, the export credit agency of France, will guarantee 100% of the financing, according to a filing.

As soon as the loan is funded, it will amortize semi-annually and will mature 12 years as soon as STX France shipyard delivers the new ship, which is currently scheduled for the second quarter of 2016.

Interest on the loan is expected to accrue at a fixed rate of 2.6%, including the applicable margin, or at a floating rate equal to EURIBOR plus 1.15%.

Société Générale is serving as facility agent and mandated lead arranger, BNP Paribas as documentation bank and mandated lead arranger, and HSBC France as mandated lead arranger.

Royal Caribbean has signed an agreement with Assist Card Brazil, one of the largest provides of travelers assistance in the world.  The partnership is the consolidation of a global agreement existing between the two companies.

In Brazil, Assist Card has developed a specific product for Royal Caribbean, which covers medical care in the event of accident or illness during travel, medicines, dental care, transportation and repatriation, among other benefits. The contract - which is exclusive to June 2014 - aims to serve approximately 50,000 Royal Caribbean guests at this time.

"Besides the increase in the amount of product coverage, the big news is the benefit Cashless where travelers no longer have to pay for medical services performed on board and request a refund by returning to the country," explains Roberto Oliveira, Commercial Manager of Assist Card Brazil.

Assist Card is the largest travel assistance company in the world, for over 40 years in the market offering local solutions to emergencies abroad, at no additional cost to your customer. Currently, the company is present in 110 countries, which provides the unique ability to work in minutes almost anywhere in the world. For years, the company performs more than 200,000 visits to people traveling.

The company operates 24 hours every day, making call in the language of its seven million customers worldwide and offers access to more than 155,000 service providers of international medical and dental care, legal and baggage. In addition to these services, the company also offers Trip Cancellation Insurance, Personal Accident and Baggage among others.

Royal Caribbean allowed select travel agents and members of the media to tour Grandeur of the Seas before she resumes normal service for guests tomorrow.  The ship is fresh off over a month of repairs after a fire broke out on the aft of the ship in late May.

Grandeur of the Seas is not 100% repaired but enough of it is good to go that the cruise line feels ready she can sail.  Annette Owens from MEI-Travel provided some of these photos exclusively for Royal Caribbean Blog and we've also included some other photos as well to show you how the ship is.  All work on Grandeur of the Seas is expected to be complete by July 19.

Public areas of the ship that we know are closed are

• Diamond Club Lounge (re-opens July 19)
• South Pacific Lounge (re-opens July 19)

Rear of Grandeur of the Seas showing no signs of fire damage (Photo courtesy of Royal Caribbean)

Chart detailing which areas have been repaired and updated. (Photo courtesy of Cruise Critic)

Sections of the rear deck are closed off to passengers to complete repairs. (Photo courtesy of MEI-Travel)

Crew working on a muster station near aft of ship. (Photo courtesy of MEI-Travel)

Grandeur of the Seas first cruise back since it's fire last May is June 12 but unfortunately a few passengers have been forced to not go on the cruise because of unfinished repair work stemming from that fire.

Royal Caribbean confirmed to Cruise Critic that some passengers have been forced to "re-accomodate" to another sailing because of the repairs that are still needed.

Royal Caribbean spokesman Harry Liu commented on the action, In the past weeks, Grandeur of the Seas staff and crew and many others have worked tirelessly to restore the onboard spaces that were affected by a fire in May."

"Every member of Grandeur of the Seas' staff and crew demonstrated a heroic response that night and has since been dedicated to bringing the ship back into service. "

"We unfortunately had to re-accommodate some guests on the July 12 cruise to later sailings so that additional needed workers may stay onboard in order to complete these remaining tasks as quickly as possible." 

The Bermuda Sun is reporting that Royal Caribbean's newest cruise ship that is under construction, Quantum of the Seas, will make regular stops to Bermuda in 2015.

Last night a spokesperson from Bermuda said: “We have received an application from Royal Caribbean to deploy the Quantum of the Seas on a Bermuda itinerary for 2015 but no decision has been made."

“The Ministry is continuously working with our partners in the cruise industry to secure new itineraries for their ships.” 

As of now, Royal Caribbean is only allowing bookings on Quantum of the Seas through April 2015, but itineraries after April 2015 have yet to be announced.

Bringing Quantum of the Seas to Bermuda is a boon for the local economy, with up to 4,180 passengers descending onto the island to put money into the local economy.  It's especially good news after Royal Caribbean cut back the number of cruises going to Bermuda in 2013 by 11.

Quantum of the Seas will sail out of Port Liberty in New Jersey and replace Explorer of the Seas.

Keen eyes have spotted what appears to be the beginning stages of laying the keel for Royal Caribbean's Quantum of the Seas cruise ship at the Meyer Werft shipyard.  Meyer Werft provides a web cam to track the progress of their ship construction and a web cam that was pointed at a Norwegian Cruise Lines ship under construction appears to have caught sight Quantum of the Seas' keel.

The timing sounds about right for Meyer Werft to begin construction on Quantum of the Seas. We had heard her keel was expected to be laid on August 5.

The process of keel laying is basically the joining of the first modular blocks of the cruise ship and is the ceremonial beginning of the ship's life.

Do you think this is the first building block for Quantum of the Seas?

Royal Caribbean posted a new photo from the aft area of Grandeur of the Seas, showing the work being actively done on the ship to prepare her to return to service this weekend.

Other than the photo, Royal Caribbean reports is looking good and finalizing repairs.  The work being done is to repair fire damage that occurred over a month ago in the aft area of the ship at a dockyard in the Bahamas.  Grandeur of the Seas is expected to arrive back in Baltimore on July 11th and be ready to sail on July 12th.

Royal Caribbean announced it will sponsor the Real Club Mediterráneo de Málaga.   The Real Club Mediterráneo is an aquatic based sports organization.  The result of this new agreement, is Royal Caribbean will have a branding presence at sporting events, club facilities, its website and other communication media.

"For Spain's oldest club alliance with Royal Caribbean is a strategic impetus in promoting water sports and strengthening the image of Malaga as a city open to the sea and modernity, contributing to the vision of our future as Nautical Center the new Puerta del Mar Malaga ", praised the president of Real Club Mediterráneo, José Agustín Gómez-Raggio.

The Mediterranean Club, the oldest in Spain, focuses an important business sector, social sports and the city of Malaga. Since its inception in 1873, this institution is dedicated to the promotion and sports activities related to the sea, especially rowing, sailing and swimming.

Since Royal Caribbean rolled out its unlimited alcohol packages last year, there has been a lot of questions out there about package specifics.  So without further adieu, we present answers to the most common questions we've seen about the alcohol packages.

Someone I am cruising with does not/cannot drink alcohol but I would like to.  Can I buy the package just for me?

The rules of the Royal Caribbean unlimited alcohol package stipulate everyone over the age of 21 in a stateroom must buy the package, however, if someone in your cabin has a medical reason why they cannot drink, then you can speak with guest services onboard your ship about getting the package removed for that person.

This is something you must do onboard the ship on the first day of your cruise.  A letter from your health professional should suffice.

As of November 15, 2013 Royal Caribbean no longer requires every eligible adult in the same stateroom to purchase an unlimited alcohol package. 

How much are drinks a la carte? I want to decide if the unlimited package is worth it.

Prices for alcohol varies but generally speaking, you can get most beer onboard for about $5-6 per beer.  Mixed drinks will run you closer to $7-10, depending on the drink and how good alcohol you want.  

How much do I have to drink per day to "break even" with the drink package?

To break even on the standard drink package, you would need to drink about 8-10 beers/glasses of wine.

To break even for the premium drink package, you would need to drink 6-7 mixed drinks per day.  Of course, if you mix in beer or wine, then you will need to increase the amount of drinks per day since beer and wine are cheaper.

These are approximations and it depends on how expensive/cheap your drink happens to be. 

For the premium alcohol package, is ____ included?

• Martinis are INCLUDED
• Shots are INCLUDED, although certain uber-premium brands, like Patron, were not included.
• All beer is INCLUDED
• Mixers are INCLUDED (including Red Bull)
• The only spirits not avail are any Scotch over 12 years old Cognac VSOP and above
• Ultimate Vodka, Belvedere. chopin and Grey Goose are INCLUDED
• Patron is NOT INCLUDED
• House wine are INCLUDED (although we've heard the included house wines are not very good)
• Drinks on Private islands are INCLUDED
• Virgin (non-alcoholic) mixed drinks are INCLUDED

What does the unlimited alcohol packages not cover?

Package does not include room service or in-stateroom purchases, specialty coffee, mini bar items, canned sodas, bottled water / juice and souvenir glassware, specialty beers as listed on bar menus, or super premium category beverages. 

What beers are NOT included with either drink package?

Officially, all beers $6.25 and under are included.  Here are the beers we've found not to be covered.  There may be others...

• Sam Adams Imperial White
• Sam Adams Double Bock
• Foster's Oil Can
• Grolsch Premium Lager
• Chimay Blue 750ml

Are you charged the price of the unlimited drink package each night? All at once? At the end of the cruise?

Royal Caribbean will charge you immediately on the first day for the duration of your cruise for the price of the package.  So for a 7-night cruise for the premium package, you will be charged $385 (7 nights x $55) per person.

Did we miss your question? Post it in the comments below and we will try our best to answer it!