The Alicante Port Authority announced today that Royal Caribbean has agreed to have Independence of the Seas make six stops at Alicante, Spain in 2012 after an agreement was reached between the two entities.

This agreement has been announced in the course of the exhibition "Seatrade Cruise Shipping Convention, which since yesterday and tomorrow is held in Miami, and where the APA participated as part of the Spanish delegation.

Through this collaboration, the Independence of the Sea will arrive at the port of Alicante on six occasions between the months of June, July and August 2012.

Independence of the Seas was considered the world's largest until the construction of "Oasis of the Seas" in November 2009.

Royal Caribbean has decided to  cancel all stops in Japan due to the massive earthquake and tsunami that hit the country last week.

Its Legend of the Seas ship will forgo stops at Fukuoka, Japan and will instead skip ahead in its itinerary to Busan, South Korea.

In a statement, Royal Caribbean explained the motivation behind the change, "We are aware that several countries have issued advisories discouraging travel to Japan, and many of our guests have expressed concern about whether it is safe to call there. Although the areas of concern are far from Fukuoka, Japan, there is no doubt that the situation remains fluid and continues to deteriorate. Therefore, we have decided to cancel Legend of the Seas' port call."

With a maximum number of passengers by 3436 guests, Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas will arrive for the first time in Europe and will add another large cruise ship to that side of the Atlantic. Between April and October of this year, Liberty of the Seas will offer a selection of cruises with a length of four to seven nights in the western Mediterranean from its homeport of Barcelona, Spain.

At the beginning of the season is a series of short cruises on the program. On April 16, 2011 the first route leads to a 5-night trip to Villefranche (Nice), Civitavecchia (Rome) and Cagliari on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia. This route is booked for other departure dates between April 2011 and May 2011 from 479 EUR per person in twin inside cabin. 

Cruise Critic reports Royal Caribbean is planning on rolling out All-You-Can-Drink Packages to its customers in the near future onboard some of its ships.

There are three packages that will be offered

• $29 per day per person: the beer and wine package includes all brews, house wine by the glass and a 25 percent discount on other liquors and wines
• $39 per day per person: includes the above package and includes ll cocktails and premium and specialty liquor.
• $49 per day per person: Premium Package builds on the second tier, but also offers wines by the glass up to $10 and more premium liquors

Currently the packages will start with UK based cruises with it available from March 13 on Grandeur of the Seas and from March 14 on Independence of the Seas and Legend of the Seas

With another Royal Caribbean ship moving from the Caribbean to Europe in the summer of 2012, the Caribbean Tourism Organization has expressed concern over the growing momentum to take business away from their region of the world.

Royal Caribbean announced earlier than Serenade of the Seas would be leaving the Caribbean in favor of a European itinerary and the CTO is taking steps to develop alternative strategies, with the goal of becoming more competitive in the cruise line business during the summer period.

The Caribbean is still an in-demand place to visit and remains highly rather and Caribbean cruises form a significant part of tourism in general.  Supporting this data is the fact that arrivals increased by 6% in 2010, which continues to build upon strong tourist figures that have been steadily accumulating over the past four decades.

Of particular concern is the Southern Caribbean, which experiences good demand in the winter but the summer season is disadvantaged by the geographic factor and the high cost of fuel.

Royal Caribbean International has released today its new iPhone application in Spanish, a free download that allows users to manage and view any information about the company's cruises.

Director of communications for Royal Caribbean in Spain, Marc Pedrol, noted that the application is a new active channel with which to maintain contact with the cruisers.

"We've always made innovation one of our core values ​​and this tool allows us to take a step further in this direction. We want to be close to our customers and we can see from how many more channels the better," he said.

The search for cruise is one of the strengths of this application that the user can obtain information on the available outputs and real-time price of all the routes chosen by the cabin for travel.

Also possible to other information on Royal Caribbean International as news, promotions, ports of call, complete descriptions of ships and cabins and all the entertainment and dining options on board.

Among the most intriguing sections of the application is a WebCam, you can see live the life of the ships 'Oasis of the Seas' and the 'Allure of the Seas'.

Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas was in dry dock receiving new upgrades and has now finished them.

The new renovations include

• New large screen TV (18.5 feet) on the pool deck that will play movies and sporting events
• New shops and dining options to promenade area, including the Cupcake Cupboard
• Vintages, a wine tasting bar, has been remodeled
• LCD wayfinder system added
• Broadway show added (Saturday Night Fever)

These and other changes have been added after these features become popular on Oasis and Allure of the Seas.  Royal Caribbean CEO Adam Goldstein referred to these upgrades as "Oasis-sized".

Royal Caribbean has decided to end port of calls in Barbados after moving Serenade of the Seas to Europe for the Summer 2012 cruise season.

The move has upset Caribbean officials, namely the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), which has expressed concern about the loss.  CTO Secretary General Hugh Riley said they are aware that repositioning is a normal course of business within the cruise sector, particularly during the summer months.

The brand new Oasis and Allure of the Seas cruise ships can thank Handling Specialty for creating the three huge underwater lifts, two tilting diving boards and one rotating trampoline for Royal Caribbean's newest ships.

These innovations are what make the AquaTheater shows possible.  These systems, manufactured in Canada were shipped to Turku, Finland, where they were installed over the course of about 18 months to create the AquaTheater stage area for the largest and deepest freshwater pools at sea.

"This is very high profile and very exciting," said Handling Specialty president Tom Beach, adding the devices have already been featured in a couple of documentaries, including a Discovery Channel show, The Mighty Ships.