Adventure of the Seas rescued 19 people early this morning, who were trying to get to Spain from Morocco.

The small boat was sighted in the waters bordering Almeria and Murcia, Spain at about ten o'clock at night when many passengers were eating dinner.  The rescue took about 45 minutes around the area of Costa del Sol.

Of the 19 immigrants, mostly from Morocco, eight are children. All are in good health, except for the only woman traveling with them, 31 weeks pregnant, was taken to a hospital for further examination. Upon arrival at the port of Malaga, all immigrants were assisted by Red Cross and then turned over to the state security forces.

Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas became the largest cruise ship to visit Busan, South Korea on July 19th after she made her maiden call.

Voyager of the Seas stopped at the second largest city in South Korea as part of her first season in the far east.

Lee Jae-Myung, Royal Caribbean's representative in South Korea, commented on the occasion, “We are proud to have added yet another popular Korean destination to Voyager of the Seas’ North Asian itineraries.”

“Busan, a cosmopolitan city with breath-taking mix of hills, mountains and the ocean, has always been one of Royal Caribbean’s top destinations in the region. With our multiple calls lined up this season, thousands of international guests will be able to enjoy the city’s scenic beauty, tourist attractions and famous seafood delights.”

Voyager of the Seas will also be calling at Fukuoka and Okinawa on the seven night cruise from Shanghai. Other itineraries in the ship’s Asian season include three and five night cruises from Singapore, along with five and seven night cruises from Shanghai and Tianjin. She will be calling at Busan six more times this year.

A Green Tech Marine GTM R15 compact exhaust gas scrubber recently installed aboard Royal Caribbean's cruise ship Liberty of the Seas has received a MARPOL "Statement of Compliance" certificate from DNV.

This scrubber has shown that the measurements of exhaust gas emission and wash water criteria have been shown to be well below the required limits stated in the MEPC guideline 184(59). This will ensure Liberty of the Seas is compliant with the 0.1 percent sulfur limit that will be required in ECAs from 2015.

Beyond the efficient removal of SOx and other particles, the GTM R15 offers a number of advantages over other scrubbers, such as its minimal footprint requirement and low weight. It is also energy efficient, requiring virtually no external chemicals and allowing for installation during operation.

The GTM R15 that Green Tech Marine and Royal Caribbean are pilot testing was installed onboard Liberty of the Seas while the ship was in service. The compact design required no extra space as the scrubber replaced the ship's exhaust silencer.

Prior to the shipboard pilot, a preliminary scrubber test was performed shore side in Norway for 11 months. After several visits to analyze the scrubber's performance, Royal Caribbean committed to a pilot test.

Over the next 4-6 months Green Tech will continue to test the GTM R15 onboard Liberty of the Seas to demonstrate that the scrubber can be operated continuously over a sustained period of time and maintain the same positive results as the initial tests achieved.

Royal Caribbean will hold a conference call on July 26, 2012 at 10am to discuss its second quarter 2011 financial results.

The call will be available on-line at the company's investor relations web site, www.rclinvestor.com. To listen to the call by phone, please dial (877) 663-9606 in the US and Canada. International phone calls should be made to (706) 758-4628. There is no passcode or meeting number. A replay of the webcast will be available at the same site for a month following the call.

The Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) said more than half of travel agents they polled are claiming to be selling more cruises this year, compared to last year.  Moreover, 25% said by midyear the numbers were similar to 2011.

This is good news for the cruise industry after the Costa Concordia shipwreck hurt bookings, but the industry sees that as an "isolated event".

Travel agents report that 15 percent expected growth of more than 25% this year compared to last year and another 25% predict a rise of 11-15 percent.

CLIA president, Christine Duffy, commented on the news, ""Particularly for the U.S. consumer market, people certainly saw the Costa Concordia as a terrible tragedy that was a very isolated event and not indicative of how the broader cruise industry operates. And I think that bears out in the fact that we are seeing cruise bookings up over the same time last year. There is still a lot of consumer confidence in the cruise product."

People that are new to cruising many not be aware of the sheer amount of things to do aboard a Royal Caribbean ship and that's why Travel Weekly highlighted some of the best activities on cruise ships today that aren't expected by a new passenger.

Voyager of the Seas' sports deck is something that stands out because there's so much to choose from.  You can go in-line skating, use the jogging track, try the golf simulator and more.  Aboard Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas, you can zip line, learn to surf or play basketball.

If entertainment is more your thing, the ice shows in Studio B aboard Voyager of the Seas is another fun option.  In addition, the DreamWorks Experience offers you the chance to meet passengers from Kung Fu Panda or Shrek.  Oasis and Allure of the Seas have an Aqua Theater where athletes perform  acrobatics, trapeze artistry and water ballet.

Wärtsilä Hamworthy has signed a deal with the Meyer Werft to build hybrid scrubbers for Royal Caribbean's new Sunshine Class ships that have been kept very secretively.

Wärtsilä Hamworthy is a leading marine scrubbing technology company and will provide a total of four hybrid scrubber systems for the two ships that are under construction in Germany.

The choice of scrubbers for Royal Caribbean's new Sunshine class vessels will enable the new ships to travel anywhere in the world, because the scrubbers will be compliant with the 2015 Emission Control Area (ECA) 0.1% sulfur limit, as well as the worldwide 0.5% limit from 2020 and the impending North American ECA, by removing sulfur emissions and harmful particulates from the vessel's exhaust. 

Royal Caribbean and Meyer Werft chose this solution not just because it ensures universal compliance with sulfur limits, allowing maximum choice over voyage routes and destinations; it also allows significant flexibility in the operation of the scrubber itself. The hybrid approach allows switching between open-loop and closed-loop scrubbing. This means that at sea, scrubbing using only sea water can be enabled but while maneuvering or in port the system can be closed, re-circulating the water already within the scrubber.

Royal Caribbean's two new Sunshine Class ships are both under construction, with the first ship ready for delivery in the fall of 2014 and the second ship ready by spring 2015.  Both ships will accommodate 4100 passengers.

Bahrain's Culture Ministry tourism marketing and promotion acting director Mohammed Al Subaie claims that Royal Caribbean and Costa Cruises are considering returning their cruise ships to the country of Bahrain, after pulling the ships due to civil unrest.

"Discussions are also being held with Costa Cruises and Royal Caribbean, who have expressed willingness to come to Bahrain."

"After the last two seasons were severely affected due to the unrest, we spoke to several of the cruise companies who said they were reluctant to come to Bahrain because insurance premiums had been substantially increased," he said.

"They said they could look at Bahrain favorably if there were other incentives so we took a decision to do that."

Bahrain agreed to a number of measures to offset higher insurance costs and Bahrain feels there is has been expressed willingness to return.  These measures include cutting the port fees in half for cruise ships.

The civil unrest in Bahrain meant cruise operators would have to pay an additional $300,000 in insurance charges over the course of the cruise season.

A new TV show will air on Royal Caribbean's ships called "The Avid Cruiser Takes On...", which aims to showcase the various things you can do while at the many ports Royal Caribbean visits.

The series will be comprised of 10-minute shows that feature cruise destinations, primarily in Europe, and showoff what passengers can do in these ports.  The show hopes it will "get people off the ships, and into the destinations".

You can view the episodes on Royal Caribbean ships and possibly on the company's sister cruise brands such as Azamara Club Cruises and Celebrity Cruises.

The first episode is about Copenhagen, Denmark.  Destinations that will be highlighted in future episodes include

• Stockholm, Sweden
• Le Havre, France
• Var Provence, including Toulon, Sanary-sur-Mer, La Seyne-sur-Mer, and Saint-Tropez
• Venice, Italy
• Nice, Villefranche, Cannes, Antibes
• Charlottetown, PEI
• Corner Brook, Newfoundland
• Halifax, Nova Scotia
• Sydney, Nova Scotia
• Saint John, New Brunswick