Royal Caribbean's Brilliance of the Seas and Splendour of the Seas will make a total of 40 cruises throughout Europe, with 41 stops in the summer of 2013.

Brilliance of the Seas will depart out of Harwich, England to ports in Northern Europe and the Baltic Sea with 12 night itineraries.  Meanwhile, Splendour of he Seas will offer seven-night cruises to the Adriatic and Eastern Mediterranean out of Venice, Italy.

Brilliance of the Seas will begin its summer season on May 15, 2013 and will offer eight trips to and from Harwich to scales and in Copenhagen Stockholm, Helsinki, Tallinn, Gothenburg and St. Petersburg where it gets a night.

Splendour of the Seas, which was upgraded in November 2011 with new amenities from the Royal Advantage program, will start its summer season on May 5 with a six-night cruise from Barcelona to Venice with a stop in Marseille, Florence/Pisa and Rome (Civitavecchia).  The ship will offer four itineraries, two in the Greek islands, one in the Greek Islands and Turkey, and another in the Greek Islands and Croatia.

Royal Caribbean passengers can for at least this winter, enjoy a cruise to Guadeloupe aboard the Brilliance of the Seas. The ship will offer departures from November 14, 2012 to April 3, 2013.

The ship will carry passengers every Wednesday to Pointe-à-Pitre for cruises of one week with two alternate routes: Guadeloupe, Saint Lucia, sea day, San Juan, Tortola, St. Martin, St. Kitts and return to Guadeloupe; Guadeloupe, Barbados, sea day, San Juan, St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. John's and back to Guadeloupe.

Royal Caribbean announced that the "Royal Advantage" program that is helping to refurbish the company's ships with ammenities seen first on Oasis class ships, will be coming to Independence of the Seas too. 

The work on Independence of the Seas will not be a revitalization like it has occurred on older ships, but rather will be "a less extensive upgrade".  The upgrade is currently slated to take place March 2013 (see below).

The Royal Advantage upgrades began in May 2011 with the revitalization of Radiance of the Seas with the goal of modernizing the fleet and bringing the closer in terms of amenities to the new Oasis class ships.

After the Radiance of the Seas, Splendour of the Seas followed in November 2011.  Royal Caribbean continued with their plan has this year with improvements to Rhapsody of the Seas in March, and the Grandeur of the Seas, whose revitalization process ended on June 1.  Work on Serenade of the Seas is scheduled for November and by 2013, the Vision Class ships will begin, starting with Legend of the Seas in January.  She will be followed by Vision of the Seas in March, Brilliance of the Seas in May, and Navigator of the Seas in November, in what will be the first Voyager-class ship to be upgraded.

By 2014 the remaining ships will be Voyager class, specifically the Adventure of the Seas, in January, the Voyager of the Seas in April, and the Explorer of the Seas in November.

Each ship is in dry dock for about a month and, on completion of the revitalization, becomes have new dining and entertainment, a specific area for babies and children from six to 36 months, new family cabins as well as increased coverage Wi-Fi and new technologies such as iPad in all staterooms and digital Wayfinders location.  

UPDATE: Our reader wdwgolfer called Royal Caribbean and heard that the Independence of the Seas refurbishment is scheduled for April 2013, after the 13 night transatlantic cruise that departs from Port Everglades on April 7. The dry dock is scheduled for 12 days.

Royal Caribbean will send Voyager of the Seas to dock in Keelung, Taiwan as part of its Asian itinerary in late August.

Lin Kai-ti, chairman of Royal Caribbean's Taiwan branch confined that Voyager of the Seas will bring its 3,800 passengers to the port later this year.

Voyager of the Seas has already been to Singapore in May and will make stop in Keelung across three cruises going from August through September. In addition to Keelung, the liner will take travelers to China's Shanghai and Tianjin, Japan's Fukuoka, and Jeju Island in South Korea.

Royal Caribbean announced that it will significantly increase its offerings from Marseille, France next year.

From May 6 to August 26, 2013, Royal Caribbean will offer 17 roundtrip cruises from Marseille, versus just 7 this summer. The itinerary will cover Barcelona, ​​Palma de Mallorca, Valencia, Civitavecchia (Rome) and Genoa.

Currently Grandeur of the Seas is scheduled to sail out of Marseille but in 2013, Legend of the Seas.  Legend of the Seas was delivered in 1995 by French shipyards, the ship 264 meters long and 69,000 tons can accommodate 2,074 passengers. It will benefit next winter from a vast revitalization program to renovate its public spaces and cabins, while bringing new entertainment and dining options on board.

Besides cruises from Marseille, Royal Caribbean will increase its presence in 2013 at the port of Toulon. Between May 27 and October 21, 2013, 22 cruises (versus 21 this summer) will be offered aboard Liberty of the Seas.

Royal Caribbean has made quite an impact on the Broadway community after Sunday's Tony Awards, when Oasis of the Seas' production of Hairspray was performed live during the annual award ceremony.

Some are saying the spot, which Royal Caribbean paid the Broadway League for the time, was an example of product placement gone too far.  Royal Caribbean and the Tony Award organizers are defending the act as a good fit.

The bit began with actor Harvey Fierstein walking on stage wearing a tuxedo jacket, a blue plastic inflatable inner-tube hugging his stomach, pink swim trunks, and hoisting a cocktail glass sporting a tiny umbrella.   Fierstein promoted Royal Caribbean's Broadway productions on select ships in the fleet and then we were shown a live show from the Beacon Theatre aboard Oasis of the Seas, where the sailing troupe of performers entertained audiences with two numbers from "Hairspray."

Charlotte St. Martin, executive director of the Broadway League doesn't think there was anything wrong with the sponsorship, "We thought it worked. They are a sponsor, they paid us to do it, and we felt that it was a good fit for the Tony Awards.  One of our goals is to spread the message about Broadway and make theater more accessible to people."

She added that this wasn't the first time the producers have tried to liven up the program, once simulcasting a musical number from Times Square. The cruise-line promotion, in the works for nearly a year, was simply a bid to reach new theater patrons, she said.

Royal Caribbean spokeswoman Lyan Sierra-Caro was also happy with how the production went, "We were very excited to bring our world-class entertainment to the millions of viewers watching last night's Tony Awards.  We also are thrilled to have partnered with the Broadway League to showcase the Broadway shows we offer onboard our ships."

On the flip side, many writers, social media commentators and others thought the spot was too much of a commercial.  Others in the theater community were more upset about the fact nonunion actors were used.

What do you think?  Was the Royal Caribbean spot tasteful?  Or was it a case of advertising going too far?

Photo by IssiC_MS

Royal Caribbean has committed itself to serving the port of Barcelona, Spain through 2013 and will make about 50 stops next year.

During 2013, Liberty of the Seas and Serenade of the Seas will home port in Barcelona and offer western Mediterranean itineraries but they will soon be joined by other Royal Caribbean ships.  Splendour of the Seas will arrive in May and Serenade of the Seas will offer a new route from Barcelona in January to the Middle East.

The news comes after Royal Caribbean opted to drop other Spanish ports such as Malaga, Valencia and the Balearic Islands will be dropped in 2013.  Royal Caribbean has promised to re-evaluate the situation in 2014 but for now, Barcelona remains a key port of call for Royal Caribbean in Spain.

In 2013, over 20,000 cruise passengers will call at Barcelona on Royal Caribbean ships that are based on other ports and that will mean about 1.2 million euros spent in Barcelona by tourists.