Royal Caribbean will send Brilliance of the Seas to Tampa in 2013-2014, replacing Jewel of the Seas.

Brilliance of the Seas will offer four and five-night western Caribbean cruises with stops in Cozumel, the Cayman Islands and either Key West or George Town.

Prior to arriving in Tampa, Brilliance will enter drydock in May 2013 and be revitalized to give it a major refurbishment including New onboard dining and entertainment options, revitalized staterooms, and other amenities including Wi-Fi, digital way-finding systems and an outdoor LED video wall.

Royal Caribbean Chairman Richard Fain was awarded the Seatrade Personality of the Year 2012 award at a dinner held at London's Guildhall.

About 400 people witnessed the 24th annual Seatrade Awards, which is a shipping industry event that recognizes companies in the areas of safety at sea, clean shipping and innovation, as well as individuals that make significant contributions to the shipping industry.

Seatrade chairman Chris Hayman spoke about why Fain deserves the award, "through his exceptional leadership and perseverance Royal Caribbean has blossomed in different directions to become a global cruise company operating 40 ships under the Celebrity Cruises, Royal Caribbean International, Pullmantur, Azamara Cruises and CDF Croisières de France brands."

Fain was praised for two achievements at Royal Caribbean: Overseeing the remarkable development in the hardware of the product, ‘not just size and volume but the transformation of the onboard experience incorporating elements that no one would have even dreamt about 25 years ago’; and secondly globalisation, both in deployment of cruise ships and sourcing of passengers. ‘Under his leader ship the company has moved ships to Asia, Middle East, South America and other parts of the world which are now all considered as major destinations and sources of passenger growth,’ he added.

Fain accepted the award and offered a few words of thanks for the honor, "I take this award with great humility. To receive this honor from Seatrade, handed to me by the IMO Secretary-General Koji Sekimizu, is very much a reminder of how important it is that each and every one of us in this great industry to which I have devoted my business career, maintains a high level of excellence."

"I am unusual in this room in that there are not many people who have crossed over from real shipping to cruising. When I first joined Royal Caribbean 90% of our ships sailed from Miami, within a few minutes reach of our offices, now more than 50% of our business is coming from outside the US."

Voyager of the Seas has become the largest cruise ship to ever dock at Port Rashid in Dubai after arriving this morning.

Voyager sailed from Barcelona on April 30 and stopped in Alexandria, Egypt and then passed through the Suez Canal on her way to Dubai.

Voyager of the Seas is making a stop in Dubai as she makes her way to Asia to re-locate to the region.  This summer, Royal Caribbean has plans to have Voyager of the Seas offer cruises out of Singapore and Shanghai with a series of 4 to 7-night itineraries to ports of call in Southeast Asia, Japan and South Korea.  Following those cruises, Voyager of the Seas will head south to Australia and New Zealand.

Royal Caribbean has released their schedule of cruises to the Caribbean for 2013-2014 and are now open for bookings.

Royal Caribbean is planning cruises for Oasis of the Seas, Allure of the Seas, Independence of the Seas, Freedom of the Seas, Navigator of the Seas and Serenade of the Seas to bring a total of 140 sailings across 31 itineraries what will make stops at 20 different ports.

New to the schedule will be cruises out of New Orleans, Lousiana aboard Serenade of the Seas.  The first cruise out of the Big Easy will be a 9-night Caribbean cruise on December 12, 2013 that will stop at Key West, Nassau, Labadee & Ocho Rios.  Following that cruise, Serenade will alternate between 7-night cruises to the Bahamas and Western Caribbean.

It will be business as usual for Oasis and Allure of the seas.  They will continue their popular 7-night western and eastern Caribbean cruises out of Port Everglades, Florida.

Also calling Port Everglades home will be Independence of the Seas, who will offer 6-night cruises to the western and eastern Caribbean.

Freedom of the Seas will continue to operate out of Port Canaveral, Florida and alternate between 7-night eastern and western sailings.  

Finally, Navigator of the Seas will debut in Galveston, Texas with two western Caribbean cruises.  Both are 7-night sailings and one itinerary calling at Falmouth, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel, while the other at Roatan (Honduras), Belize City (Belize) and Cozumel.

Earlier this year, reality television show star Kate Gosselin had planned to host a week long cruise aboard Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas.  We've now learned that this group cruise has been canceled due to "poor cabin bookings".

The travel agency that was coordinating the cruise has informed those that did purchase cabins to the cruise and those people will have their cruises refunded.  The travel agency opted to cancel the cruise with the impending 90 day cancelation window looming and simply cut their losses.

Royal Caribbean general manager of Royal Caribbean Italy,  John Rotondo, spoke about the future of Royal Caribbean and Sicily as Royal Caribbean debuted in port their today.

"We will increase our presence in the region.  By adding Catania programming we want to intensify our presence in Sicily and we are confident that its strategic position will allow cruise passengers to visit a territory rich in priceless beauty."

"The whole region has great potential and we are sure will play an increasingly significant role in strategic planning and Royal Caribbean in the Mediterranean".

Royal Caribbean is planning on sending Grandeur of the Seas for a five-week upgrade that will cost $48 million to the Navantia ship yards in Cadiz, Spain.

The changes coming to Grandeur of the Seas include

• technological upgrades
• new entertainment offerings
• a new Diamond Lounge for Crown & Anchor Society loyalty guests
• a Concierge Lounge for suite guests and top-tier loyalty guests
• a transformed Viking Crown Lounge
• an overall refreshment of furniture, carpet, upholstery and staterooms
• new dining venues including
  • Giovanni's Table
  • Izumi 
  • Park Cafe
  • Chops Grille
  • Chef's Table
• Addition of Royal Babies and Tots Nursery for children ages 36 months to six years old
• Ship-wide WiFi
• Outdoor video screen overlooking the pool deck

The renovation is part of Royal Caribbean's planned fleet revitalization and is the third of six Vision-class ships that will be fully renovated.

Grandeur of the Seas will finish its refurbishment on May 31, at which point she will embark upon an 11-night Mediterranean cruise out of Barcelona, Spain.

Royal Caribbean has been awarded the title of "Middle East's Leading Cruise Line" once again by the World Travel Awards.  This marks the third consecutive win for Royal Caribbean.  

The 19th annual World Travel Awards gala event took place on April 30th, 2012 at the Jebel Ali Golf Resort & Spa in Dubai, and was attended by hundreds of travel executives from around the world.

Helen Beck, Royal Caribbean's Regional Director, commented on the award, "Our crew is focused on delivering a great vacation experience and personalising the service they provide to each and every one of our guests. In fact, this year marks the ten year anniversary of our ‘Gold Anchor Service’ programme, which is the framework for delivering the Royal Caribbean International experience. Our guests consistently tell us that this type of special interaction with our crew and the exceptional service they receive creates memories that last a lifetime and are the reason they keep coming back to us."