Royal Caribbean is offering deals on its winter 2013-2014 cruises to Australia and New Zealand of free stateroom upgrades.

Guests can book inside staterooms aboard Rhapsody of the Seas and be upgraded for free to oceanview staterooms, or you can book a balcony stateroom for the cost of an oceanview stateroom aboard Radiance and Voyager of the Seas.

The offer applies to new U.S. and Canadian individual bookings made on Jan. 30 through Feb. 28, 2013 aboard Royal Caribbean International ships departing from Sept. 2013 through April 2014 on 10-night sailings or longer in Australia and New Zealand. 

For more information, please visit www.RoyalCaribbean.com/AustraliaOffer.

Royal Caribbean senior vice president Lisa Bauer spoke to a group of travel agents in São Paulo, Brazil on Tuesday and discussed some of Royal Caribbean's plans for the future, including launching three new cruise ships by 2016.

Bauer spoke about Brazil's importance as an increasingly larger market, "Brazil is an important market and also strategic. São Paulo customers love our products and it's where we have a high satisfaction rate. We know that agents work hard for our sales and we want to hear what they have to say."

Bauer mentioned the new third Oasis class ship Royal Caribbean is building along with the two Project Sunshine ships that will launch in 2014 and 2015.  According to Bauer, news about all three ships will be communicated throughout the construction period of the vessels.

"We do a global search with our passengers to define what will be news. We will bring some of the existing ammenities and others that are innovative and different from anything I've done," she said.

According to Ricardo Amaral, vice president of Royal Caribbean, Latin America, the focus of creation is seeking a new experience to guests. "Maybe that's why we're the playmaker that invests more in renovations and construction," he said.

For Amaral, the concept of brand and quality are the main characteristics that motivate Royal Caribbean to be preferred among Brazilians. "We believe we have the best product for the Brazilian public for both the domestic market and for Europe," he said. Regarding the numbers, he only mentioned that the season in Brazil is very good, since he can not speak of results that have not been announced for investors.  

The new unlimited alcohol packages are now available for pre-purchase online prior to getting aboard your Royal Caribbean cruise.  

Royal Caribbean announced the all-you-can drink beverage packages last month and initially the package was available to purchase on the first day of your cruise.  Now, guests may pre-purchase the package online to expedite the process.

The package can be purchased via the Royal Caribbean website by logging in and going to "My Cruises" and then finding the "Alcoholic Beverage Packages" link.

Both the classic beverage package and premium beverage packages are available for purchase. The classic package costs $45 per person, per day and includes all beers, $6.25 or less, house wines by the glass, non-alcoholic cocktails & fountain soda and juices.  The premium beverage package costs $55 per person, per day and includes all well, call, and premium brand cocktails, all beers, frozen cocktails, house wines by the glass, non-alcoholic cocktails & fountain soda and juices.

The drink packages are available on all sailings 4 nights or longer and must be purchased by all guests in your stateroom, 21 years of age or older.  Package prices already include gratuity,

At the Seatrade Hong Kong Cruise Forum, experts predict that by the year 2020, 7 million passengers will be cruising in Asia compared to 1.7 million in 2011.  This goal will mean one of out five cruisers will be from Asia if the predictions hold true.

Royal Caribbean regional vice president and chairman of the Asia Cruise Association, Zinan Liu, said that Royal Caribbean has the most tonnage dedicated to Asia currently. 

According to Liu, Royal Caribbean has 276,000 gross tons followed by Star Cruises at 259,749 tons and Costa Cruises at 160,785 tons.

Royal Caribbean vice president for commercial development, John Tercek, says one challenge for the cruise line succeeding in Asia is tailoring the cruise line offerings to the Asian market.

"We are in a bit of an experimental stage," Tercek said.  "The potential is fantastic, but it's a question of what do the local clients want to do, and can we accommodate it?"   

One such difference is Asians prefer shorter cruises, as opposed to European and North American cruisers.  Asians typically like cruises of 5-nights or less while Americans and Europeans prefer 12-14 night cruises.  Another example is cruises out of China skip sun-bathing ports because Chinese guests tend not to enjoy sunbathing in harsh sunlight.

Perhaps the biggest challenge currently is the lack of ports in Asia that can handle the large cruise ships that Royal Caribbean has in its fleet. Of the 80 potential ports in Asia that were outlined by Liu, most lack the capacity to handle large ships such as Voyager of the Seas, which recently arrived in Asia.

Tercek believes the arrival of ships like Voyager of the Seas will help increase port capacity, "Wherever we take that ship, others follow because we cause the infrastructure to be built."

Royal Caribbean will hold a conference call on February 4, 2013 at 10am to discuss its fourth quarter 2013 financial results.

The call will be available on-line at the company'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. There is no passcode or meeting number. A replay of the webcast will be available at the same site for a month following the call.

In an interview with Marketplace, Royal Caribbean CEO Adam Goldstein talked about how cruise vacations are a luxury vacation for the rest of us.

More than 10 million Americans take a cruise for their vacations and it represents a good value for consumers still.

"The United States is still clearly the No. 1... market for cruisers in the world," Goldstein told Marketplace. "There are about 20 million people a year in the world taking a cruise right now and 11 or 12 [million] come from the United States."

"It's definitely become more available, when I got into the business in 1988 we aspired to be a mainstream vacation," Goldstein said. "It's definitely become more accessible but what the last few years of challenges, economically, have posed to us is the need to really get across the value message of what is included in the cruise purchase."

The value of a cruise is a big deal, considering industry market research firm Cruise Market Watch says the typical ticket price for a cruise passenger is $1311 whereas a 2010 American Express survey found the average American family will spend $4,000 on a vacation including airfare.

"First of all, we draw pretty broadly, obviously we offer upscale vacations," Goldstein said. "We are looking at household income of probably something like $75,000 and up generally speaking. The vast majority of our cruisers I would say would be middle and upper-middle class."

The Australian raised concern over the price of a Royal Caribbean cruise for Australians compared to other nationalities.  In the example, a 14-night cruise from Sydney to Auckland was quoted at $1900 per person for someone in Australia while a US-based travel agency online gave a quote of $1100 per person for the same cruise.

Royal Caribbean Australia managing director Gavin Smith addressed the issue and surmises the pricing disparities are a lot like the cost of Evian mineral water, "It is manufactured in France, but it is priced differently around the world."

Smith says generally speaking, the community living closes to the departure port of a cruise will pay the lowest price because they can travel with shorter lead time.

 "A Voyager of the Seas cruise [out of Australia] is cheaper for an Australian than for an American because we are trying to drive volume locally, [so] we adjust the price.

"It is not a deliberate intent by the cruise lines to price differentially between markets.

"We don't encourage Australians to book through non-Australian websites ... if you book through a foreign travel agent, you don't enjoy the [same] consumer protection," he concludes.