Harris CapRock has completed installing advanced communication solutions across Royal Caribbean's cruise ships that will add high-bandwidth services onboard.  The new upgrades will improve crew morale, guest experiences and company operational efficiencies.

Royal Caribbean awarded the contract back in May 2012 to improve the communications services onboard Royal Caribbean's fleet.  Harris has upgraded these services across 33 ships, including sister companies Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Club Cruises.

“The new high-performing communication service deployed across our fleet enables innovative information technology solutions that improve both the crew and the guest experience while also improving our operational efficiencies. Harris CapRock’s capability as a world-class communications systems integrator makes this possible through seamless service delivery backed by 24/7 monitoring to ensure communications are always on,” said Bill Martin, vice president and chief information officer, Royal Caribbean.

During the nine-month process, Harris CapRock performed a number of services including the de-installation and installation of more than 120 large antenna systems onboard the fleet. Each ship was equipped with Harris CapRock’s SpaceTrack™ stabilized antenna systems, which deliver more than five times the amount of bandwidth previously available. The solution combines Ku-band and C-band connectivity to maximize service availability and avoid downtime.

Superstorm Sandy devastated many people in the northeastern United States and for one family, it ruined their cruise vacation.

Joanne Keating couldn't reschedule a cruise vacation that she had invested more than $4,000 into due to the storm and now 6 months later, she's had to work through losing her home and getting her life back.

"I had saved for years for this trip and I was taking my grandkids," Keating said.

They were setting sail November 4th, just days after the storm.

"How can you go on a vacation when you lost every single thing you own?" she wondered aloud.

Keating tried to appeal to Norwegian Cruise Line, even going as far as to write the CEO but no one would help make an exception to the rule of no refund or rescheduling. 

However, a local news reporter reached out to Royal Caribbean who's public relations representative was from Monmouth, New Jersey and helped make the Keating vacation a reality.  

Royal Caribbean is sending all of them on a 7 night cruise to Bermuda and the Bahamas on Explorer of the Seas.

Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas will call Galveston, Texas year-round starting in the winter of 2013, after she undergoes a refurbishment.

Navigator of the Seas will offer seven-night western Caribbean cruises after she enters drydock in February 2014 as part of Royal Caribbean's effort to update every cruise ship in the fleet.  

During Navigator of the Seas' time in drydock, she will receive

• FlowRider surf simulator
• Giovanni’s Table
• Park Café
• Izumi Asian Cuisine
• Virtual Balconies for select interior staterooms
• New panoramic oceanview staterooms – featuring full-length, floor-to-ceiling windows
• Outdoor oversized movie screen overlooking the main pool
• Royal Babies and Tots Nursery
• New Diamond Lounges for suite and Crown & Anchor Society members
• Cupcake Cupboard
• WiFi throughout the ship
• flat-panel televisions in all staterooms
• interactive signage

Royal Caribbean executive vice president of Global Sales and Marketing, Lisa Bauer, commented on the news, "We are thrilled to be homeporting Navigator of the Seas, with her new enhancements and first at-sea amenities year-round in Galveston. As part of our commitment to delivering the most innovative and contemporary vacation experiences to guests, the iconic FlowRider, as well as the new Virtual Balconies, will be among a new range of amenities being introduced aboard the Voyager class of ships – making every ship our best ship. These exciting and unmatched onboard amenities on Navigator of the Seas, offer adventurous family vacationers many opportunities to be WOW’ed in ways that only Royal Caribbean can deliver.”

Two of the new features, the virtual balconies and panoramic oceanview staterooms, are features that Royal Caribbean is "live testing" aboard Navigator of the Seas to get the technology ready for Quantum of the Seas, which will be under construction at the time.

Royal Caribbean announced that it is expanding its collaboration with award-winning chef Michael Schwartz that will feature seasonal tasting menus aboard Allure of the Seas’ fine dining restaurant, 150 Central Park.  Schwartz had previously been working on the food at 150 Central Park on Oasis of the Seas since 2011.

Schwartz has built his reputation as a chef on a commitment to cooking with sustainable foods at his flagship Miami restaurant.  Schwartz will continue to help the cruise line select and integrate fresh, high quality ingredients into 150 Central Park’s supply chain by leveraging his relationships with South Florida farmers and beyond.

Royal Caribbean executive vice president Operations, Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, commented on the news, "Royal Caribbean continually looks to deliver WOWs to our guests through innovative and diverse dining concepts featuring the freshest possible ingredients. We are thrilled to be able to grow our relationship with a respected hometown partner like chef Michael Schwartz and offer his locally-sourced menus at both our 150 Central Park locations.”

“I am thrilled about the opportunity this program has offered my favorite farmers to grow and improve their operations,” says chef Michael Schwartz. “Royal Caribbean has been a willing and enthusiastic partner in this program, and the collaboration has worked because of their commitment to the sustainable philosophies I care so much about. Adding Allure to the line-up offers economies of scale with benefits for everyone involved.”

Over the past year and a half since the unique farm-to-ship program began on Oasis of the Seas the cruise line has elicited an overwhelmingly positive response from guests to Schwartz’ fresh, simple, and pure approach to fine dining. What began with hydro naturally-grown baby beets, carrots and other produce from Swank Specialty Produce in Loxahatchee Groves Florida, grew to a portfolio of responsibly-raised produce, poultry and meats – from Poulet Rouge chicken from North Carolina’s Joyce Farms to grass-fed beef from White Oak Pastures in Georgia.

Port Canaveral, Florida has Enchantment of the Seas and Freedom of the Seas calling it him and it announced that it is expecting a third Royal Caribbean ship to be based out of the port for the winter of 2014-15.

Port Interim CEO John Walsh indicated that Royal Caribbean will make an official announcement regarding adding a third ship to the port in about two weeks.

Royal Caribbean announced its three- to five-night Caribbean and Bahamas cruises throughout 2014-15 that depart from Tampa, Port Canaveral, Port Everglades and Miami.  Nearly all of the ships offering these cruises have recently been refurbished to include up to 10 onboard dining options, more onboard amenities and better entertainment.

From Port Canaveral and Miami respectively, Enchantment of the Seas and Majesty of the Seas will continue year-round three- and four-night Bahamas cruises, calling at Nassau and CocoCay, Royal Caribbean’s private island paradise in The Bahamas. On Majesty of the Seas’ four-night sailing, guests also call at Key West, Fla. At CocoCay, guests enjoy a private island with many watersports options; plenty of beautiful beaches to soak up the sun, sip refreshing cocktails, and enjoy a seaside barbeque lunch; and shopping at a colorful craft market.

Throughout the summer 2014 season, vacationers also can choose a Caribbean getaway from Port Everglades aboard Vision of the Seas. A four-night itinerary takes guests to Cozumel, Mexico, and two five-night itineraries take guests to Cozumel and Roatan, Honduras, on one, and another to Key West, Fla., and Grand Cayman. Guests also will delight in the high-flying, acrobatic musical production overhead in the four-deck high Centrum, while guests enjoy a cocktail at the new retro-chic R-Bar below.

Also from Port Everglades, Liberty of the Seas will sail four- and five-night Western Caribbean cruises for the winter 2014-15 season, offering the broadest range of innovative and popular amenities and entertainment that were introduced aboard the world-acclaimed Oasis-class and Freedom-class ships on a short cruise. Guests enjoy the FlowRider surf simulator, the four-bedroom, four-bathroom Presidential Family Suite – which can accommodate up to 14, as well as the exclusive DreamWorks Experience, featuring DreamWorks Animations’ lovable ogres Shrek and Fiona, Po the Kung Fu Panda and Madagascar’s Alex the Lion and Gloria the Hippo, a 3-D movie theater showing some of the latest DreamWorks Animation films, Broadway-musical Saturday Night Fever, and more. Liberty of the Seas’ four-night cruise calls at Cozumel, Mexico, and its two five-night itinerary calls at Cozumel and Belize City, Belize, on one, while another at Ocho Rios, Jamaica, and Labadee, Royal Caribbean’s private beach destination.

From Tampa, Brilliance of the Seas also will offer four-night cruises to Cozumel, and two five-night Cozumel itineraries, which will additionally call at Key West on one, and at Grand Cayman on another.

As part of Royal Caribbean's decision to move Mariner of the Seas to Asia, the large cruise ship will call on Goa and Kochi May 24 and 26, respectively, this year.

Mariner of the Seas will offer three-to-five-night cruises from Singapore to Penang, Langkawi and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, and Phuket in Thailand in June. Subsequently, it will move to China and offer a choice of four-, five- and seven-night North Asian sailings from Baoshan, Shanghai. Later in the year, the ship will return to Singapore and offer sailings till March next year.

Ships like Mariner of the Seas are able to visit ports in Asia thanks to construction of new cruise terminals.

Ratna Chadha, Chief Executive, TIRUN Travel Marketing, said, “In the past year, Royal Caribbean International’s guest capacity in Asia has witnessed a threefold increase and our regional cruise offering has been augmented with two Voyager Class ships. We are pleased to bring more opportunities for WOW!, closer to home for Indian travellers."

Royal Caribbean is planning to make more reductions to its fleet of cruise ships offering European sailings in 2014.

Included in Royal Caribbean's first quarter financial results, the company indicated it plans to reduce 2014 year-over-year capacity in Europe by an additional 10%.  This change will mean in 2014 its European cruises will account for 25% of its capacity.

Royal Caribbean has steadily been scaling back the number of cruise ships it sends to Europe after a few years in a row of mediocre sales thanks in part to financial instability in the region as well as negative media related to the Costa Concordia tragedy.

Royal Caribbean did report demand for its "micro-deployment" of Oasis of the Seas to Europe in 2014 is showing "exceptionally strong" demand.  The two-month adventure to Europe for Oasis of the Seas centers around a scheduled drydock stop in Rotterdam.

Royal Caribbean reported its first quarter 2013 financial results today with almost double net income this year compared to the same period in 2012.

Royal Caribbean chairman Richard Fain was excited to report the news, "It was a gratifying first quarter. Ticket revenues were better than expected, costs were well controlled and it was encouraging to see record guest satisfaction and noticeable improvements in onboard spending as a result of our revitalization efforts."

Royal Caribbean's first quarter 2013 net income was $76.2 million ($0.35 per share) compared to $47.0 million ($0.21 per share) in the first quarter of 2012.

Both onboard revenue and ticket pricing improved, contributing to a Net Yield increase of 3.6% on a Constant-Currency basis. NCC excluding fuel were also better than anticipated, primarily due to timing, and declined 0.5% on a Constant-Currency basis.

Bunker pricing net of hedging for the first quarter was $699 per metric ton and consumption was 5,000 metric tons lower than expected at 345,900 metric tons. Versus the first quarter of 2012, fuel consumption per APCD was 1.2% lower.  

Look forward to the rest of 2013, Royal Caribbean's booking volumes are averaging 5% ahead of last year.  Bookings from North America have remained strong since the beginning of the year, even with the company's expectations of "modest disruption" of demand for Caribbean cruises thanks to negative media coverage.  Demand in Europe increased in early February and Royal Caribbean expects pricing improvement for the region this year. Demand from China has weakened somewhat due to itinerary changes related to the territorial dispute with Japan.