Royal Caribbean has selected managed communications specialist Harris CapRock Communications to handle its fleet-wide communications.  

The five year deal provides hybrid satellite and terrestrial communication systems that will enable Royal Caribbean to improve overall communications performance while enhancing guest experience and crew morale.

For its part, Harris CapRock will deploy a fully managed VSAT and terrestrial communications system that will enable access to Royal Caribbean's corporate network and business applications, broadband internet, and telephony services.

The hybrid service combines Ku-band, C-band and shore mobile connectivity, designed so that the ships can switch from one preferred platform to another to maximise service availability and avoid downtime. Each ship will be equipped with two or three of Harris CapRock's stabilised VSAT antenna systems.

Royal Caribbean's Vision Class ship, Splendour of the Seas, will call Bari, Italy home for the summer months and it has the locals excited for the change.  Royal Caribbean director general of Italy, Gianni Rotondo, commented on the news, "We are proud to count among our home port ships in Bari Royal Caribbean and the achievement of an important strategic and especially considering the location and the possibility' of finally have an outlet to the south."

Splendour of the Seas will offer summer cruises of 6, 7 and 8-nights and will visit ports in Greece and Turkey from its new home port in Puglia.  In total, Splendour will transport 73,000 passengers.

After Royal Caribbean refurbishes Brilliance of the Seas in the spring of 2013, it plans on sending her to the United Kingdom later that year.

Brilliance of the Seas will offer eight 12-night cruises to Northern Europe and the Baltic Sea out of Harwich, England starting May 15, 2013. These voyages will include stops at Copenhagen; Stockholm; Helsinki; Talinn, Estonia; Gothenburg, Sweden; and an overnight in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Brilliance of the Seas also will operate a single 11-night Norwegian Fjords and Iceland itinerary departing July 27, 2013 that will call at Bergen and Geiranger, Norway; Lerwick/Shetland, Scotland; Klaksvik, Faroe Islands; and Reykjavik, Iceland (for an overnight stop). The ship will be based in Harwich through Aug. 31, 2013, when it will depart for Boston on a 15-night itinerary that will include calls at Le Havre, France; Portland, Dorset, U.K.; Cork (Cobh) and Dublin, Ireland; Klaksvik; and Reykjavik.

Brilliance of the Seas is scheduled to spend the summer 2012 sailing to Northern Europe out of Copenhagen and Amsterdam. 

The Port of Gijón, Spain will host the docking of Royal Caribbean's Vision of the Seas tomorrow.  This will be the first cruise of the season and will bring the city 2,435 passengers and 765 crew.

The Royal Caribbean ship will dock at North Pier Extension area, from Vigo bound for Portland (United States).

This is the same ship that opened last year the springs in the area of enlargement, reports the Port Authority of Gijón.

This is the first of nine cruise ships expected this year will host the Port of Gijón, reinforcing the role that has been gaining in recent years in passenger traffic.

Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas will homeport in Messina this summer and the mayor officially welcomed the new ship.  At a ceremony this morning, Messina Mayor Giuseppe Buzzanca celebrated the occasion along with the Commissioner of the Port Authority, Dario Lo Bosco, and the Director General of Royal Caribbean Cruises John Rotondo.

The choice by Royal Caribbean of Messina confirmed the strengthening of the commitment on the peninsula and the eye towards the markets of southern Italy, allowing Royal Caribbean to serve 14 ports in Italy.

Navigator of the Seas will visit Messina each week for 27 times between May and October, transporting 84,000 passengers during its  7-night itineraries in the Eastern Mediterranean

Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas will visit Cadiz, Spain this year and will be the largest ship to ever dock at the port.  The ramifications of which will bring over 31,500 cruise passengers to the city and have a direct and indirect financial impact of "more than 1,800,000 euros."

Liberty of the Seas arrives in Spain after serving the Caribbean cruise season and will also visit Mediterranean ports after Cadiz of Malaga, Valencia and Barcelona.

Royal Caribbean is building up its selection of beers available on its cruise ships to offer its passengers an even greater variety of choices.

In the past year, Royal Caribbean has been adding new beer choices to the menus of bars and pubs found across its fleet.  Included are small US brewery beers such as a wheat beer from Oregon's Widmer Brothers brewery and an India pale ale from Washington state's Redhook brewery.

Royal Caribbean's director of fleet beverage options BOb Midyette commented on the additions, "We thought we'd define what is state of the art and what is world class (in beer choices) to provide some diversity to our guests."

The new beer menu is available on half of its ships and features more than 40 beer choices, which is up from about 25 a year ago.  The ships featuring this expanded beer selection include all five of its Voyager class ships, its three Freedom class ships and its two new Oasis class ships. Royal Caribbean's newest pub, the Quill & Compass, debuted last year on the recently revamped Radiance of the Seas.

News that Royal Caribbean plans on having Vision of the Seas stop at the Caribbean island of Martinique in the winter 2012-2013 have the island excited.  Royal Caribbean is returning to the island after a hiatus of more than 3 years.

The Martinique Tourism Authority is heralding the development as a major step forward in its efforts to grow the island’s tourism receipts from the U.S. market.

Commissioner of the Martinique Tourism Authority, Karine Roy-Camille, commented on the news, "Royal Caribbean’s return to Fort-de-France is the latest testament to the fact that Martinique is well positioned for tourism growth and 100% open for cruise business.  This is certainly good news for Martinique and a strong building block for further expansion in the cruise sector over the coming years.”

Martinique boasts great shopping opportunities in the downtown portion of its capital Fort-de-France. Retailers promise the best of Parisian fashion, jewelry, porcelain, perfumes and other fine goods are here, and for U.S. travelers most of it is available at a 20% discount.