When Royal Caribbean announced the new innovation of virtual balconies coming to Quantum of the Seas, the next cruise ship that is being developed, company officials mentioned the virtual balconies will first be seen on Navigator of the Seas.

Navigator of the Seas was already scheduled for a refurbishment early next year as part of Royal Caribbean's fleet wide revitalization program.  The virtual balconies will now be added to the list of new features Navigator of the Seas will receive.  It appears Navigator of the Seas will be the "testing ground" for this brand new innovation.

The virtual balconies will be 80-inch LED projection screen that will show images of the ocean that is taken from elsewhere on the ship. 

Royal Caribbean CEO Adam Goldstein thinks the virtual balconies will be a great addition, "It's going to bring a completely different feel to the experience."

Navigator of the Seas will go into drydock next January to get the Royal Advantage upgrade package. It is scheduled to sail from Galveston when the upgrades are complete.

Goldstein said there will not be a specific surcharge for interior cabins with virtual balconies, but added that he hopes they will bring higher yields.

"The whole experience will be more valuable to our guests and we expect that to be reflected in the ticket price," he said. 

Quantum of the Seas is expected to enter service in Fall 2014. 

At Royal Caribbean's big press event yesterday, chairman Richard Fain and CEO Adam Goldstein showed the media a video of everything that is new and exciting about Quantum of the Seas starring Quantum of the Seas' godmother, Kristin Chenoweth. 

The video shows computer generated simulations of some of the ship's amazing new features including the observation pod called North Star, the skydiving simulator called Ripcord, the largest sports complex at sea called SeaPlex and the entertainment hub called Two70°.

The eight-minute long video is a great preview of everything guests can expect to find onboard once Quantum of the Seas launches in fall 2014.

After announcing some of the great new features and amenities aboard Quantum of the Seas today, Royal Caribbean gave the public a glimpse at the itineraries this brand new ship will offer when she enters service.

Based out of Bayonne, New Jersey, Quantum of the Seas will offer 7, 8, 11 and 12 night cruises.

The twelve night cruise will offer a Southern Caribbean itinerary with stops in Royal Caribbean's private island of Labadee, followed by San Juan, Philipsburg, Basseterre, Fort de France and Bridgetown.

The 7 or 8 night cruises will stop in Port Canaveral, Royal Caribbean's private island of CocoCay and Nassau.

The 11-night eastern Caribbean cruise will include stops at Labadee, San Juan, Charlotte Amalie, Philipsburg and Basseterre.

Lastly, the 8-night eastern Caribbean itinerary will stop at Labadee, San Juan and Samana.

Guests can begin booking Quantum of the Seas cruises, starting with Crown & Anchor Society members on May 27, 2013 followed by the general public on June 4.

Royal Caribbean announced today when guests can start booking their cruise on Quantum of the Seas.

Bookings will be available to Crown & Anchor Society loyalty program members starting May 27, 2013 before opening to the general public on June 4.

Quantum of the Seas will sail out of the New York Harbor from her homeport of Cape Liberty on 7- to 12-night itineraries during the winter 2014/15 season.

Royal Caribbean made its big reveal for Quantum of the Seas today and the big news was what special features will be aboard the new ship.

• North Star observation pod that gives views 300 feet above the sea
• Skydiving experience called RipCord by iFly
• Circus school with flying trapeze
• Bumper cars 
• Roller skating
• 80" virtual balconies that display live views of the outdoors in interior rooms.
• New entertainment venue called Two70°
• Largest indoor sports complex at sea called SeaPlex
  • Will offer bumper cars
  • Basketball court
  • Dancing
• A multi-purpose performance venue called Music Hall
• Larger cabins (average 9% larger)
• Cabins for single travelers and single cabins with balconies

North Star observation pod

New indoor cabins with virtual balconies that have real time views of the sea

SeaPlex indoor enetertainment zone

“This area is clearly one of the most critical population centers of our world — of the world,” said Royal Caribbean International President and CEO Adam Goldstein in an interview Monday. “And clearly we’ve put significant new capacity down into the Florida-Caribbean basin in the last few years with Oasis class. We felt like there was an opportunity in the market to bring state-of-the-art capacity to the New York area going forward.”

Information about Royal Caribbean's Quantum of the Seas is starting to leak a little early after Royal Caribbean posted a video introducing the ship (and subsequently removed it).  One big bit of information we do know is where Quantum of the Seas will sail out of.

Quantum of the Seas will sail out of Bayonne, New Jersey, which is located close to New York City.  Royal Caribbean will send Quantum of the Seas on a few itineraries including 5-night Bermuda cruises as well as 9-night Bermuda and Caribbean itineraries.

Royal Caribbean's newest cruise ship will formally be revealed today at 10am at a media event in New York, but photo stills of the new cruise ship's computer generated renderings are now online.

More details will be announced at the media event that is scheduled for 10am this morning, and will be streamed LIVE right here.

We're about 24 hours away from Royal Caribbean's big event in New York City to reveal more details about its newest cruise ship, Quantum of the Seas.  The special event will take place on Tuesday, April 16, 2013 at 10am eastern time, when Royal Caribbean will pull back the curtain a little more to share more about its latest cruise ship.

Quantum of the Seas is under construction in Germany at the Meyer Werft shipyard and there's lots of speculation as to what this ship will include.  Some experts are expecting two to three cruise ship enhancements that are not just new to Royal Caribbean, but to the cruise industry as well.  Some ideas of what these innovations could be include various multi-functional day-to-night public spaces, as well as state-of-the art environmental technologies.

We will provide live coverage of the event as well as any live video feeds that may be available.

The Navantia ship yard in Cadiz, Spain signed an agreement last year to make upgrades to Royal Caribbean's Brilliance of the Seas but a labor strike at the port could put those plans in jeopardy.

Royal Caribbean is scheduled to send Brilliance of the Seas on April 24 to the port, with the intentions of making improvements to the ship as well as perform maintenance.  The date for the work coincides with the new threat of a labor strike in the metal sector and a call for demonstrations in Cadiz shipyards.

The strike could be avoided if labor can get the industry to sign a collective agreement between April 17-19 but unions have already threatened to extend the protests.  Spokesmen for metal workers are in favor of going for an indefinite strike if no agreement prior.

The possibility of these labor issues clashes with Royal Caribbean's needs.  The contract stipulates the shipyard has half a month to repair the cruise ship.  Setbacks with labor could lead Royal Caribbean to cancel the contract, as was done in March when labor issues arose and forced the MS Grand Holiday to move the work to the French shipyard in Marseilles because of the uncertainty of the labor situation in Cadiz.

The port expect the strike to not happen again, especially since Royal Caribbean has a history of sending its ships to the port for work over the years.  Starting in 2009, Voyager of the Seas was refurbished there as well as Splenodur of the Seas, Grandeur of the Seas and Serenade of the Seas.

Royal Caribbean has taken its highest ever pre-booking registrations from its customers who are excited to try Oasis of the Seas cruise ship in Europe.

Royal Caribbean will offer a limited number of sailings aboard Oasis in fall 2014, when the largest ship in Europe will sail the Mediterranean as well as stop in Southampton, England.

Royal Caribbean reports its reservation teams have had to work overtime as well as hire part-time employees to handle all of the cruise bookings since the ship's European bookings went on sale to Crown and Anchor Society members this week.

Employees from other departments across the business have even been pulled in to answer phones and take bookings, said Royal Caribbean.

Royal Caribbean Associate VP and general manager UK and Ireland Jo Rzymowska spoke about the demand, "The thousands and thousands of pre-registrations to be one of the first to book Oasis of the Seas' European cruises are simply mind-blowing and the ship really is living up to its incredible reputation as being a game changer for the industry."

"We have increased the size of the team and have contingency team members ready across the whole business to handle the peak in calls we are expecting when the ship opens for general sale on Thursday at midday."