The International Cruise Victims Association, a non-profit group formed by victims and families of victims of cruise crimes, slammed Royal Caribbean in a recent article for offering prepaid drink packages.  ICV strongly condemns Royal Caribbean for promoting the consumption of alcohol on their ships by offering unlimited drinks for one price.

ICV has sent its unhappiness with the package directly to Royal Caribbean's board of directors with the hopes the company will change its policy.

Royal Caribbean Chairman Richard Fainhas characterized the all-you-can-drink packages as "hugely successful." Fain also has said about rhe packages, "It's very dramatic how much people like buying the drinks package, for example, and not have to worry about that." The idea is to give the passenger "a more customized all-inclusive experience."

Royal Caribbean has been forced to cancel stops to its private island in the Bahamas, CocoCay, through Monday due to the effect Hurricane Irene had on it.  Royal Caribbean's reasoning for cancelling is being described as, "we feel our guest's experience ashore would be disrupted".

The following stops have been canceled

• Majesty of the Seas - August 27
• Monarch of the Seas -  August 28
• Freedom of the Seas - August 29

As a result of this itinerary change, Royal Caribbean has decided to amend the following itineraries as follows

• Monarch of the Seas will now stay overnight in Nassau, Bahamas, arriving at 12:00 p.m. today and departing at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday, August 28.
• Majesty of the Seas will also stay overnight in Nassau, Bahamas, arriving at 12:00 p.m. today and departing at 5:00 pm. on Sunday, August 28.
• Freedom of the Seas will call on Nassau, Bahamas, on Monday, August 29 from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

No word at this time if any further cancelations will be necessary.  Royal Caribbean reported sending a team yesterday to evaluate the damage to the island.

Port Canaveral, Florida is celebrating the start of construction of a new cruise terminal with a scheduled completion date of July 2012.  The new terminal should be large enough to handle any cruise ship in the world, including Royal Caribbean's behemoth Genesis class ships such as Oasis and Allure of the Seas.

Port Canaveral Port Authority Chief Executive Officer J. Stanley Payne says the new Terminal 6 dock will be large enough to accommodate "the absolute largest cruise ships in the world," including Royal Caribbean's 6,200-passenger, Genesis-class ships.

Currently Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas is home ported in Port Canaveral, which was the largest passenger ship ever built (by gross tonnage) from 2006 until construction of Oasis of the Seas, so large ships are something Port Canaveral can handle.

Royal Caribbean's private island of CocoCay in the Bahamas appears to have been damaged to some extent by Hurricane Irene as it passed by.  

Royal Caribbean spokeswoman Cynthia Martinez said in an email, "We have a Miami-based team heading to CocoCay as we speak. Once they arrive, we'll have a better idea of the damage."

It is unknown at this time when Royal Caribbean ships can return to the island.

Royal Caribbean's two largest shareholders, A Wilhelmsen AS and Cruise Associates, have informed Royal Caribbean that they have terminated the Shareholders’ Agreement between themselves.  The deal between the two shareholders meant they agreed to vote their shares for the election as directors of four nominees of each shareholder. With the termination of the Shareholders’ Agreemnt, the two shareholders are no longer obliged to vote their shares in this manner.

Royal Caribbean is not included in the agreement but did issue a statement that the decision has nothing to do with Royal Caribbean as a company.  Richard Fain, Royal Caribbean's Chairman had this to say,  "This action is solely between the two shareholders and does not involve the Company.  We do not expect today’s announcement to result in any change in the Company’s operations or strategic direction."

Per Royal Caribbean's Articles of Incorporation stipulate that when the Shareholders’ Agreement was in place, the approval of at least one director affiliated with each of the two shareholders was required for certain corporate actions. Now that the agreement is terminated, this is no longer a requirement. In addition, Royal Caribbean noted that these changes are consistent with current trends in best practice for good corporate governance.

Royal Caribbean has announced it will hold a one-day sale on all of its cruises to the Bahamas and Caribbean this Saturday, August 27.  Called the "One Day Saturday Super Sale", the sale will be valid on Bahamas and Caribbean sailings departing between September 1, 2011 and December 31, 2011.

Royal Caribbean is promising...

• $25 to spend onboard when you reserve an inside or outside stateroom
• $50 to spend onboard when you reserve a balcony or suite

One offer per stateroom and all bookings must be made on August 27, 2011 between 12:00am ET and 11:59pm ET.  Offer is not combinable with any other offer or promotion, including, but not limited to, Interline, Travel Agent, and Net Rates, Crown & Anchor Discounts, Shareholder Benefits or Next Cruise offers, promotions, or benefits. Offer is available to US and Canada residents only.

Royal Caribbean announced that Explorer of the Seas will depart Cape Liberty, Bayonne, NJ earlier than expected this weekend.  The Saturday, August 27 sailing will depart at 4pm EST, one hour earlier than originally scheduled.

All guests are asked to arrive at the pier no later than 3:00pm EST.

The change is due to the impending arrival of hurricane Irene and Royal Caribbean wants to get the ship out of the path of the storm.  No other changes have been announced but Royal Caribbean is monitoring the situation.

Royal Caribbean is planning on sending more ships to Australia, but the company has concerns that the Australian ports could become overwhelmed by demand in the very near future.

Royal Caribbean feels that if a new terminal in Sydney, Australia isn't built soon, the port will reach capacity in 2013.  Australia is enjoying increasing demand and the market for cruises is expanding so quickly that the facilities in place today will not be able to keep up with the increasing number of large cruise ships entering Sydney harbor.

Royal Caribbean's Australian managing director Gavin Smith released a statement that covers the growing concern, "We have a good situation that needs attention before becoming a problem."

Royal Caribbean wants the New South Wales government to reconsider the $60 million allocated by the previous Labor government to build a new terminal in White Bay, in Sydney's inner west.

Smith continued, "Our view is $60 million is a considerable amount of money to invest in a permanent terminal west of the Harbour Bridge that most ships calling into Sydney in the future won't be able to use.  It would be more prudent and viable to redeploy a large part of the funding towards a terminal (east of the bridge) the whole industry can use"

Royal Caribbean has a good reason to be concerned, given their announcement that they will quadruple the amount of guests they will handle over the next few cruise seasons.

We first told you about passengers who missed their Royal Caribbean cruise earlier this week when Royal Caribbean was forced to depart San Juan, Puerto Rico earlier than scheduled due to the impending threat of Hurricane Irene.  

Today, Royal Caribbean has denied any responsibility for leaving 145 passengers at port to get Serenade of the Seas of the way of the storm three hours early.  Royal Caribbean contends that port officials began to limit harbor traffic at 12:30 pm on Sunday, forcing the ship to depart early.

Of the passengers left behind, 15 had purchased their airfare through Royal Caribbean and were subsequently given a hotel stay for two nights and flown to Aruba to join the cruise on the rest of its voyage.  The other 130 passengers, however, were on their own.  The reasoning, according to Royal Caribbean is, "Independent guests were advised of hotel availability in the area, but the expense was on them given that it was a weather-related event."

Furthermore, Royal Caribbean says there was simply no way of contacting the passengers in time to alert them to the change, “There was no way to notify our guests of this change in departure time. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused our guests, but this decision was made by the Port of San Juan to ensure the safe transit of all guests and crew through the port.”

It turns out Royal Caribbean isn't alone in this.  Another 300 passengers missed their Carnival Cruise when Hurricane Irene prompted the Carnival Victory to leave port four hours early.