Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas has been in Australia for a little over a month now and already is garnering positive reviews from Australians.  Among its amenities, passengers cite the ship's crew as being very friendly and capable.

"One thing that surprised us was the attitude of the people," the ship's captain Claus Andersen said. "We've never experienced anywhere where the people are so friendly."

Anderson cited a story from a trip to West Australia when they docked at Port Hedland and its very warm welcome after it was decided that one pier couldn't accomodate Radiance of the Seas so they opted to dock at Pibara port instead.  Anderson described the workers there as, "This was the very first time they'd had a cruise ship through but they looked like they do it every single day."

Radiance's Captain was also impressed by the efficiency and flexibility of the Australian Immigration Department in handling the chaos caused by the sudden shut-down of Qantas Airlines when Radiance was in Fremantle. The schedules of hundreds of passengers flying into Perth to board the cruiser were thrown into disarray and the ship had to stay another day. To help clear the passenger backlog, the department brought on two officials until midnight.

After debuting in Italy earlier this year, Mariner of the Seas will return to Italy in the summer of 2012.

From June to September of next year, Royal Caribbean will offer will offer a new itinerary of 7 nights in the Western Mediterranean. The cruise, leaving from Civitavecchia and Genoa will include stops in the Mare Nostrum in Cannes, Barcelona, ​​Palma de Mallorca and Valencia.

On September 9, there will be a stop in Provence Ajaccio, Corsica. 

Royal Caribbean has been tight lipped about its new class of cruise ships known as Project Sunshine  but the cruise community has been speculating about how many ships Royal Caribbean will order.  

As of today, there's just one 4,200 passenger ship on order (which is due to be complete by the fall of 2014) but there's room in the contract for up to 4 ships.  So among the many questions out there, many are wondering if more than one Project Sunshine ship is on the way.

According to Seatrade Cruise Review, the Finnish air condition contractor Koja Oy recently said that it had signed a contract with Meyer Werft " for the delivery of air conditioning systems for the first two Sunshine-project ships".  Included in that contract is an option for delivering air conditioner systems for third and fourth ships, if Royal Caribbean orderes them.

Based on that snippet of information, it sounds like Royal Caribbean is eyeing two ships to start with but we'll have to wait to get a better idea of what's to come when Royal Caribbean is ready to talk.

Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas and Freedom of the Seas can add a new achievement to their list of accolades: they both feature the the largest of its kind, state-of-the-art automated wine serving system in the Vintages Wine Bar.

With just one swipe of a passenger's SeaPass card, guests can sample selections of wine from around the world using the automated WineStation intelligent dispensing system.

The WineStation preserves wines perfectly for up to 60 days by utilizing temperature control.  The system allows passengers to try 48 varities of wine not usually offered by the glass. Using the WineStation's LCD screen, guests can see the  the varietal, year and region, and the lit bottles encourage guests to experience the labels.

Royal Caribbean's Director of Fleet Beverage Operations, Bob Midyette, talked about the new system, "We pride ourselves on always seeking the newest and most effective solutions to provide our guests with an unmatched vacation experience.  The WineStation has become a very successful option to help our guests explore wines on their own, or with one of our knowledgeable, friendly and engaging wine tenders. We look forward to offering this on more ships in the future."

Greece has been hampered by bad economic news for months now, but Royal Caribbean is doing its part to help the nation out a little.  Royal Caribbean announced it will invest in the port of Heraklion by spending money on port infrastructure upgrades, construction of a hotel and a conference center.

Royal Caribbean's strategy in Greece is to target six ports: Piraeus, Heraklion, Thessaloniki, Rhodes, Kos and Mykonos.  The plan is to transform one of these ports into a cruise hub, which will bring in thousands of visitors each day.

Currently, Heraklion and Rhodes are the leading candidates for that distinction.

The plan includes port infrastructure and construction of a 4-star hotel, a conference center of 1,000 square meters, a shopping centre of 3,000 suare meters and a marina for 120 yachts.

Royal Caribbean estimates over a 5-year span that 800,000 passengers per year could visit Heraklion, which would bring an annual revenue of over €3 million.

Over 50 passengers aboard Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas suffered from the effects of Norovirus on their cruise last week.  Royal Caribbean promptly sanitized the ship before another cruise could go forward.

Royal Caribbean reported 54 passengers and 10 crew members who became ill due to Norovirus on the cruise that finished on Saturday.

Oasis of the Seas was sanitized to help combat the spread of the illness and Oasis left port again on schedule to begin another seven-day cruise.

The manufacturers of the Azipod podded propulsion system that is found aboard many cruise ships has made modifications to the design that have improved hydrodynamic efficiency by more than 2 percent.

The modifications include a newly optimized Azipod fin shape and a new pod cap structure, called the X-tail. The revised fin structure receives water flow from the propeller at a new, less acute angle, and its new curved design redirects the flow more efficiently. The unit's new X-tail, installed for the pod cap structure, straightens water flow on ejection from the Azipod propulsor, minimizing water swirling.

Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas was the first ship to benefit from the new fin shape and X-tail. The Azipod modifications were completed during her drydocking in May 2011. Radiance saw the benefits immediately in her sailings from May to September when more than 2 percent in hydrodynamic efficiency improvement was achieved.

Anders Aasen, Associate Vice President of Technical Services for Royal Caribbean, discussed the importance of being more efficient, "The fuel efficiency improvements measured on Radiance of the Seas are welcomed reprieve in today's higher fuel prices. Any improvements we can make on fuel efficiency will serve us well for future operational costs."

When Splendour of the Seas comes out of drydock next week, she will be offering all of her passengers soon an iPad in every cabin.  In addition, Royal Caribbean is planning on rolling out iPads to every Vision class ship (Vision, Grandeur, Rhapsody, Enchantment and Legend of the Seas) by 2014.

With the iPads, passengers will be able to

• Access the daily Cruise Compass of events and activities
• Access personal daily itineraries, including shore excursions
• Monitor their onboard account
• Order room service
• View restaurant menus
• Access the internet
• Watch movies

All of the features of the iPad will be complimentary, except for the Internet access.

Royal Caribbean senior vice president of Hotel Operations, Lisa Bauer, commented on the news, "Based on consumer research, we added the iPads to greatly enhance guest communication, interactivity and to continue to offer industry leading technology that helps enhance the guest experience.  This is just one of the many exciting ways that Royal Caribbean continues to provide our guests with the ultimate cruise experience."

Royal Caribbean expects every cabin onboard Splendour to have an iPad by February 2012.