Royal Caribbean aims to expand in the Italian cruise market and announced Genoa, Italy as the second port of call for Mediterranean cruises.

Starting on July 23, 2011 and running to September 3, 2011, Mariner of the Seas will sail from Genoa and offer Western Mediterannean seven-night cruises to the guests that will visit Cannes, Ajaccio, Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca.

Mariner of the Seas arrived in late March for the first time ever in the Mediterranean where she sails from Italy in the port of Civitavecchia.  In October 2011, two alternating 12-night itineraries in the Eastern Mediterranean (at the beginning and end of season) and itineraries of seven nights in the central western Mediterranean in the season. 

We're hearing a report that Royal Caribbean's Serenade of the Seas will replace Brilliance of the Seas in cruises that leave from Dubai in the winter 2012-2013 season.

The new sailings aboard Serenade of the Seas will offer 17 sailings that depart every Monday on seven-night itineraries that include stops in the United Arab Emirates and Oman  from December 2012 through April 2013.

In addition, guests aboard Serenade of the Seas can choose a Royal Caribbean cruisetour, that will allow them  to explore attractions further inland. 

Royal Caribbean will keep Serenade of the Seas in Dubai until a April 15, 2013 sailing that will bring her back to Barcelona.

Royal Caribbean’s senior vice president of sales and trade support and services, Vicki L. Freed, believes travel agents play a vital role in selling Royal Caribbean cruises still.

In an interview with Travel Market Report, Freed indicated that Royal Caribbean still values the role travel agents play in today's market, “We look at travel agents as a very efficient cost of distribution.  You can’t look strictly at cost per transaction. It really has to be looked at as a value that the travel agent brings to us.”

In addition, the knowledge a good travel agent can have will often be helpful to the customer, "Travel agents bring value because oftentimes the consumer comes in thinking they want a certain type of vacation and a knowledgeable travel agent can say, ‘I think I have a better alternative.’".

For the first time, Royal Caribbean will offer cruises departing from the harbor of Toulon, France next year. Every Sunday from June 3 to October 21, 2012, Liberty of the Seas will sail from the port of La Seyne-sur-Mer for cruises of eight days and seven nights in the western Mediterranean.

Commissioned in 2008, this giant 339 feet long and 158,000 tons in 1800 has cabins, a capacity of 3600 passengers in double. The cruises available with boarding at La Seyne will dock in Villefranche-sur-Mer, Livorno (trips to Pisa and Florence), Civitavecchia (Rome), Naples and Barcelona, ​​before returning to the harbor of Toulon.

Note that this year, the Liberty of the Seas is already visiting the port Var, without loading or unloading of passengers. 

Photo by ravennanotizie.it

Royal Caribbean has awarded WR Systems the right to supply its Emsys (Emissions Monitoring System) to Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas ship.

The Emsys system will monitor performance and provide emissions compliance data for an EcoSpec Exhaust Gas Cleaning System. This new tech will be installed sometime in mid-2011.  This is a test program to see if it can be implemented fleet wide to reduce Royal Caribbean's environmental footprint.

The Emsys system is based on solid-state Laser technology and has been awarded full Type Approval from the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) in line with the International Maritime Organization's (IMO) MARPOL Annex VI NOx Regulations, and the IMO Exhaust Gas Cleaning System Guidelines. The system also carries the MED wheelmark.

The Emsys system is unique in that it includes the first sensor that can measure Particulate Matter that is "outside of the stack".  This is important because it reduces the capital cost and eliminates the need to install sensitive measurement equipment in each of the monitored exhaust stacks. The integral Particulate Matter sensor has been developed to meet the requirements of the forthcoming US 'Emissions Control Area' (ECA) regulations, where Particulate Matter has been included in the regulatory language.

Royal Caribbean's Senior Vice President of Marine Operations, William S. Wright, chose Emsys because of its low maintenance and high accuracy capabilities, "It is important for RCL to demonstrate, with the highest accuracy and traceability, the emissions reduction performance of the EcoSpec emissions abatement system. As part of our on-going environmental commitment to reduce our air emissions, the Emsys system can provide the necessary data for both compliance purposes and our own internal technology evaluation criteria".

There is a big party today at the port of Ravenna, Italy to celebrate the inauguration of the new cruise terminal , which partner Royal Caribbean has a hand in .    After the ceremony to open the new cruise terminal, authorities and journalists boarded Voyager of the Seas, the first of the  Voyager Class ships in Royal Caribbean's fleet , which this year will be calling 20 times in the port of Romagna, for a total of nearly 77,000 passenger movements.

On the other side of the dock is Brilliance of the Seas, one of four elegant Radiance class from Royal Caribbean.

Voyager of the Seas is the big news this year in the Adriatic where she is positioned for the first time in Italy, from Venice. Voyager of the Seas offers weekly cruises with stops in Koper, Ravenna, Bari and Dubrovnik and overnight at Venice.  In the Adriatic, Voyager of the Seas joins Splendour of the Seas , which sails between Greek Islands and Turkey with more than 10 and 11 nights departing from Venice, and confirms the growing interest in Royal Caribbean towards the Italian market.

Voyager of the Seas is therefore not the only ship of the group to touch Ravenna: Brilliance of the Seas will sail through the Mare Nostrum for the whole" summer.

Photo by Daria Rebbecchi

Representatives from Royal Caribbean along with five other cruise lines visited the port of Santander, Spain today in a reconnaissance trip being made to the tourist area in the north of Spain.

Today and tomorrow, these representatives will look at tourist destinations in Cantabria Santander, Santoña, Laredo, Castro Urdiales, Park Cabárceno Soplao Cave, Altamira, Santillana del Mar, Comillas and San Vicente de la Barquera.

The visit is organized by Cruise Forum, an organization for the promotion of Santander as a destination for cruise ships and to improve the quality of services received by the passengers of such vessels on its scale in the port of Santander.