If you've been cruising for a little bit of time, you probably remember a time when during the safety drills having to wear your lifejackets on your way to your station.  But Royal Caribbean has done away with the life jackets after confirming with the United States Coast Guard that a demonstration of how to use a lifejacket is all that's needed and actually wearing a life jacket is up to the cruise line.

Royal Caribbean's director of Maritime Safety & Compliance Christiaan Van Raalten discusses the change, “We started with the idea that if guests can proceed directly to their assembly stations without having to go back to their cabins to collect their lifejackets, it would greatly reduce congestion and help guests reach their assembly station much quicker.  We also were able to decrease the amount of time it takes to conduct a muster-drill".

Once Royal Caribbean stopped forcing guests to wear the lifejackets to the must-drills, other cruise lines including Celebrity, Carnival, Holland America and Norwegian followed along.

Robin Robinson posted a summary of the excursions on Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas Adriatic Sea itinerary.  This cruise itinerary is a departure from the traditional Mediterranean cruises most people consider so Robinson decided to see what it was like.

Some highlights if the cruise include

• Koper, Slovenia
  A peek into a medieval town, Koper and nearby Piran offer an authentic look at these seaside villages.  
• Ravenna, Italy
  Famous for its mosaics and World Heritage sites, Ravenna has a lot to offer from historical sites to Royal Caribbean's Racing Legends shore excursion, this tour also visits the Ferrari Museum in nearby Modena.
• Venice, Italy
  Royal Caribbean offers an overnight stay in Venice so you can experience this historic city by day and by night.

Photo by DotSail.it

Bermuda’s Brazilian Football School and Bermuda’s Sports Management Group have formed a partnership called Soccer@Sea thanks to an agreement with Royal Caribbean.  The Soccer@Sea group board Royal Caribbean ships where they train to better their soccer skills as well as play local teams 5-a-side games and beach soccer tournaments.

Soccer@Sea founders Steve & Karen Everitt are excited for the group to begin, “We will be bringing teams of soccer players to Bermuda on Royal Caribbean Cruise Ships to play local teams. This will give all the kids a taste of international soccer. Also with us will be international soccer coaches giving Bermuda’s local players the opportunity to meet and talk with them about soccer in other parts of the world".

Royal Caribbean's Ocean Fund is partnering with the Central Caribbean Marine Institute (CCMI), the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation and the Image Group to create a reference site never attempted before where the correlation between climate change and coral reef stress can be measured directly.

This new group is being headed up by Dr. Carrie Manfrino, an  Associate Professor of Oceanography at Kean University and CCMIs Director of Research and Conservation.

The study is setting out to determine the exact effect of rising temperatures and sea levels have on the stress coral reefs experience and if it is beyond sustainability.

The hope is the data collected will give scientists a better idea of the immediate effects of the changes on the coral reefs as well as help reef managers understand these threats so that they can more effectively conserve coral reefs and their associated flora and fauna.

Royal Caribbean discussed some of its environmental policies with the Sun Sentinel to help show their committment to reducing Royal Caribbean's environmental "foot print".

Royal Caribbean claims its cold storage room aboard Oasis of the Seas is the largest cold storage room of any ship in the world.  The cold storage room can be used to store many of the recycled items on the ship, such as hazardous waste, incinerator ash and cooking oil.

In addition, Royal Caribbean installed new photo kiosks to reduce paper waste from photos that were never purchased.  Royal Caribbean's Associate Vice President of Environmental Programs thinks the kiosks make sense, "Being environmentally-friendly is good business and every organization should strive to cut the amount of waste in their business".

Oasis of the Seas is also equipped with an advanced hull design with ecological coatings that reduce the water resistance of the ship, which has an effect of reducing the amoung of fuel needed.  Oasis also has an advanced energy management system to conserve power usage, and thin-film solar panels on its top deck.

Modern hull designs can result in up to 15 percent energy savings and ecological hull coatings up to five percent, according to the Fort Lauderdale-based trade group Cruise Lines International Association.

Pruitt said the Oasis is about 25 percent more energy-efficient than older ships in Royal Caribbean's fleet.

Given rumors that two Royal Caribbean ships would stop at Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico's executive tourism director, Mario Gonzalez Lafuente, said Puerto Rico will remain a major destination for cruise ships and the two mentioned above, the Adventure of the Seas and Serenade of the Seas relocated its operations to Europe for 26 weeks, but will return to local ports between November 2011 and May 2012.

 "It's a business decision that Royal Caribbean took, but it means a drop in activity," said the official, who announced that new vessels arrive in the country such as the Azamara Journey, the Carnival Dream and Disney Fantasy.

He added that the Freedom of the Seas and Navigator of the Seas will continue their regular visits to San Juan and were not affected by the above decision. While recognizing that the growing demand in other ports worldwide, as the Mediterranean and Asia, affected the Caribbean.

comScore, Inc, a company that measures Internet statistics, released its monthly analysis of web activity in the United States at the top online properties for June 2011 based on data from the comScore Media Metrix service.  Summer seems to have propelled the Travel category of websites as several Travel subcategories ranked among the top-gainers in June.

Within the surge came 116 million people visiting the Travel category in June, a record for the category, and of particular interest is the Ground/Cruise sites saw the strongest gains, up 14 percent to nearly 13.5 million visitors.

1. Amtrak.com 2.6 million visitors (up 14 percent)
2. FirstGroup plc 2.2 million (up 22 percent
3. Carnival Cruise Lines 1.5 million visitors (up 9 percent)
4. Royal Caribbean 1.1 million visitors (up 19 percent)

"Summer getaways were clearly top-of-mind for many Americans in June, sending millions of people to hotel, cruise, car rental and travel agent sites," said Jeff Hackett, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix. "And with school letting out for the summer, parents turned to the web to shop for ways to keep their kids active with sporting goods and other fun activities."

Many of our readers are eager to know the state of construction at Falmouth, Jamaica.  Being one of Royal Caribbean's newest ports of call, it's a common stop for many Royal Caribbean Western Caribbean cruises.  If you're curious what the state of affairs are, here are some photos of the port that Otterman34 posted on CruiseCritic recently.

Photo by Jason Trent