Port Canaveral, Florida received approval from a federal panel to widen and deepen the channel.

The United States Army Corps of Engineers Civil Works Review Board gave unanimous approval of the port's feasibility study and that the project may continue to seek approval from other state and federal agencies.

The project need the approval of the Corps of Engineers to receive federal assistance for future maintenance of the channel.

The proposed project would widen Port Canaveral's 400-foot-wide channel by 100 feet and deepen it by 2 feet along its 3.5-mile length.  Work is expected to begin in July and be completed by the fall of 2014.  The widening and deepening of the channel would allow Port Canaveral to accommodate larger cruise and cargo ships.

Tom Weinberg, Canaveral Port Authority Chairman, said the decision by the review board, “is a huge deal. This is a significant milestone to have this level of approval so quickly.”

Port Canaveral estimates that, if its cargo and cruise business increases as projected, this project and related developments at the port could generate nearly 3,500 permanent jobs for Brevard County. It also will mean an estimated 3,413 temporary construction jobs.

Royal Caribbean has struck a deal to have CA Technologies provide integrated and automated IT management solutions that aim to improve the guest experience aboard all of its cruise ships.

The deal will simplify IT management both on shore and onboard the cruise ships.  Royal Caribbean will use a range of CA Technologies solutions, including application performance management, infrastructure management, automation, and project and portfolio management.

Royal Caribbean is planning a massive IT upgrade program to modernize its legacy applications that will take place over the next 12 to 18 months.

Royal Caribbean Chief Information Officer Bill Martin commented on the deal, ""Our investment in technology has increased dramatically. Thanks to CA Technologies Business Service Innovation approach, we have transitioned our focus from maintaining IT systems to delivering new, innovative guest services with speed and agility. CA Technologies has enabled us to transform our IT organization and address the high expectations guests have as a result of the trend towards consumerization of IT. Guests want wireless access to the Internet from their smartphones, tablets, laptops and game consoles the second they board the ship to access a range of services; it's imperative that we provide them the best possible experience with those services."

CA Application Performance Management helps Royal Caribbean ensure quality of service and quality of experience for its Web sites. CA APM enables the cruise company to identify and resolve potential problems before they cause downtime and disruption for guests.

Royal Caribbean uses CA Spectrum(R) and CA Virtual Assurance for Infrastructure Managers to manage its on-board network and data center devices. The integrated solution, used on SL class and OA class ships, enables Royal Caribbean to monitor its infrastructure across multiple platforms via user-friendly dashboards that help the organization drill down to identify and fix the root cause of a problem before it impacts guests.

Royal Caribbean also uses CA Client Automation to track networked assets and deploy software upgrades remotely to help minimize the need for IT staff to travel around the ship and ensure devices remain continuously available.

Royal Caribbean hosts what it calls a "WOW Sale" usually once per quarter to attract new cruise bookings and if you're considering booking a cruise during one of these sales, here are some things to keep in mind.

What is a WOW Sale?

WOW Sales are promotions Royal Caribbean runs to attract new cruise bookings.  Wow Sales are more targeted at people who have never cruised with Royal Caribbean before than veteran Royal Caribbean fans, although there's absolutely no reason someone who has sailed with Royal Caribbean before cannot take advantage of the sale.

What does the WOW Sale offer?

There are two basic components to a typical WOW Sale.  The first is reduced deposits on new bookings.  Usually that means you only need to put down 50% of the normal deposit amount for your cabin.  This greatly reduces the amount of money you need to put up to hold a cabin for a booking.  It's a great benefit if you're looking at a longer cruise and/or a bigger cabin.  As an example, a 7-night balcony may usually require around $700 for a deposit but with the WOW Sale, that would be cut in half to $350.

In addition to the reduced deposits, Royal Caribbean offers onboard credit depending on your cabin.  This can be up to $200 of onboard credit per cabin and the amount varies depending on how long your cruise is.  Typically the onboard credit offered is as much as you can usually get for a cruise.

Do cruise prices go down as well?

During a WOW Sale, the actual cruise fares do not usually change.  The sale is mainly about offering booking incentives rather than a reduction in the price of the cruise.

What are the drawbacks of a WOW Sale?

The chief drawback to booking a WOW Sale is for those that have sailed with Royal Caribbean in the past and have other discounts.  WOW Sales prohibit combining the sale offer with other discounts including Next Cruise Credits, balcony discounts from Crown and Anchor Society status or Crown and Anchor Society saving certificates.

If you have access to one or more of these discounts, a WOW Sale usually doesn't make financial sense.  Keep in mind, WOW Sales are targeted at people that have never sailed with Royal Caribbean before since it offers them the best booking incentives a first timer can expect to see.

How can I book a WOW Sale?

You can book a WOW Sale either by booking through Royal Caribbean directly or through your preferred travel agent.

Royal Caribbean is doing its part to make another record cruise season for Sydney, Australia.  The city expects 265 visits before the cruise season ends in April 2013.

Many of the passengers that will help set that record will be traveling aboard Radiance of the Seas, including the 2100 people it brought to the city yesterday after a 17-night trip from Hawaii.

Royal Caribbean managing director of Royal Caribbean Cruise Australia expects up to 750,000 Australians to take a cruise in 2012.  That is a 34% increase from 2010 when just 620,000 Australians went on a cruise.  

''The stronger economy is providing a better return, and the better return is attracting a better quality of ship."

That's great news for Royal Caribbean and the cruise industry, considering there just a 4% increase in American cruises and 5% among British cruisers over the same period of time.

Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas arrives in Sydney on November 22 and will bring even more passengers than Radiance.

Many of us have pondered just how Royal Caribbean manages to prepare all the food over the course of a cruise to feed its passengers and The Daily Traveler took a look behind the scenes at Royal Caribbean's food preparation to see how it's done.

Royal Caribbean vice president for food and beverage operations Frank Weber says time is importing, "We start loading around 7 a.m. in the morning, so we have until 3:30 p.m. to send something back to our produce supplier, like a pallet of tomatoes, and to get a replacement a little later in the afternoon."

Longshoremen then load supplies onto the ship. Royal Caribbean transfers the food from wooden pallets to metal trays, which can be more easily cleaned, to prevent ship contamination by anything that might have been on the wood. For similar reasons, other packaging, such as cardboard, is incinerated.

Technology assures smooth sailing by alerting crewmembers to how many passengers are grabbing a bite. Royal Caribbean, for instance, has head-counting cameras in the ceilings of its main dining areas that count when and where passengers are gravitating to and subsequently provide data that can be used to anticipate peak serving times.

The cruise ships offer simple menus so their cooks can prepare food to order and serve it at the perfect temperature (i.e. offering a single main version each of meat, poultry, and seafood).  The exception is the specialty restaurants onboard that serve a small, subset of passengers.

Simplified menus allow chefs to synchronize meal creation with the needs of diners. "We don't pre-cook the steaks and keep them in a warmer as you would in a typical hotel banquet operation," says Weber, describing a method that's common to better cruise lines. "And we don't plate food until the waiter is on the path to deliver it."

Royal Caribbean is planning to hold it's final WOW sale of the year from Monday, October 15 through to Wednesday, October 17.  The sale will offer half priced deposits on new cruise reservations as well as up to $200 onboard credit per cabin.

This WOW sale is valid on all worldwide sailings of three nights or longer departing after January 1, 2013.

• Cruises of 3 to 5 nights get US$50 onboard credit per stateroom
• Cruises of 6 to 9 nights get US$100 onboard credit per stateroom
• Cruises of 10 nights or more get US$200 onboard credit per stateroom

Royal Caribbean commercial director Adam Armstrong believes the WOW sale will help already strong 2013 sales figures, “Since these special offers also apply to all of our worldwide cruises, now is also a great time to start thinking about cruises further afield. For example, why not take advantage of current earlybird airfares to Europe and combine them with the ‘WOW Sale’ offers on one of over 280 cruises with Royal Caribbean in the Mediterranean and Scandinavia?”

A year and a half after Royal Caribbean opened an office in France, the company has decided to get rid of twenty of its 38 positions.

Royal Caribbean has decided to downsize the office, opting to have the financial services and reservations shared with the Royal Caribbean office in Spain.  The commercial and communication department will remain in Paris but rely on guidance from the Spanish office.

Spain's Royal Caribbean office opened in 2006 and shown double-digit growth in the number of customers every year, except for 2012.

In early 2011 Royal Caribbean decided to re-open an office in France, after it left the country 10 years earlier.  The economic crisis and the impact of the Costa Concordia disaster have all contributed to lowered expectations.  Royal Caribbean was hoping the office would help bring about 40,000 to 45,000 French passengers in the first year but that number ended up being 32,000.