The end of summer is upon us. We are finalizing our thoughts about the 2012 Plan for Royal Caribbean International. This is always a challenging exercise with 22 ships sailing around the world and customers coming from over 100 countries to those ships. We want to do the best we can for our guests, our shareholders and our employees. This is the primary process for making the necessary trade-offs. It’s never easy.
Even as we define next year’s activities and expenditures we are casting our eyes further forward. All of the strategic discussions about where our ships will sail from spring 2013 to spring 2014 are taking place at this time. There are a lot more opinions than there are ships. Now that we are offering our All Access behind the scenes tour onboard the ships, maybe Chris Allen should offer an All Access behind the scenes tour of our deployment planning. Just kidding.
A lot of progress is taking place with our Royal Advantage revitalization plans for Vision-, Radiance- and Voyager-class ships. We’re two months away from Splendour of the Seas’ revitalization dry-dock. At the same time, and with the same people, we are finalizing the design for our exciting Project Sunshine ship that Meyerwerft will deliver to us in late 2014.
Those are just a few of the major efforts. There are many more underway, from enhancing our web site to bolstering our databases that support the Crown & Anchor Loyalty program to planning our thousands of visits to travel agencies in the U.S. and around the world this fall (spring in Brazil, Australia, etc.). So there is no summer slowdown although our people need to take their vacations too.
Running recap: I made more progress but not quite what I had hoped. My first race was the USA Track & Field Masters Nationals in Berea, Ohio where I finished 14th with a personal best for 1500m of 5:00.62. It’s frustrating to have missed my goal for the summer by 63 hundredths of a second, but I felt like I belonged on the track with the running machines in my age group. Now I have to get closer to the top ones. My second race was at another national meet in August where I ran 5:01.81. So I needed to get a second faster but I got a second slower. This stuff don’t come easy.
Hi, Is there any plans to put a different ship in
Bayonne, N. J.? We like cruising out of there because it is close to our home but we are getting tired of the Explorer. We would like to see different ships up North either in Baltimore or N.J. I did hear at one time that they were going to bring Liberty of the seas up north but e have not seen any change yet.
I would love to see more cruises out of Boston during the spring & summer, like to Bermuda. Then I could share the wonders of Royal Carribean with my parents.
Thanks for your suggestion, Laurie. We’ll be sure to keep your suggestion in mind when creating our future itineraries.
Any idea I’d Independence will be sailing out of Southampton in Summer 2013?
Adam, Did you run the race in Berea, OH at Baldwin Wallace College? We live about 15 minutes from there. That is a terrific facility for a track meet. I would have come and cheered you on if I’d had known you were in town. Well congratulations on your achievement and good luck on future races & marathons.
Yes, this was the venue for the USA Track & Field Masters Nationals on July 31st where I ran 1500 meters.
I would love to see a different ship going from Bayonne, NJ. We cruise every year but are tired of the Explorer not that it isn’t a beautiful ship but how many times can you go on the same one. We sail from NJ and NY because it is close to our home. Please try to get another ship to our area. Thanks
Hi Teri, Brilliance of the Seas will port in N.J. next year in September and November. You can read more information and view their itineraries located here & here.
Are you planning to have any ships sailing from the West coast in the future?
Any plans to do the 14-15 night roundtrip to Hawaii from LA or San Diego.. Celebrity does it now but would love to see RCL do it again
WILL INDEPENDENCE BE SAILING OUT OF SOUTHAMPTON IN DECEMBER 2012. I KEEP LOOKING TO BOOK MY CHRISTMAS CRUISE FOR 2012 BUT CAN’T SEE ANYTHING FOR INDEPENDENCE. GOSSIP ON BOARD THE SHIPS IS THAT IT IS GOING ACROSS THE POND TO SAIL OUT OF THE US. IF THIS IS THE CASE, ARE WE BRITS GETTING A SHIP OF THE SAME CLASS TO SAIL OUT OF THE UK.
Any plans to have other ships leave out of Boston that go places other than Bermuda and New England?
Thanks!
Lorrie
Hi Lorrie, please check out this 14-night Caribbean Cruise that leaves from Boston in both October 2011 and October 2012. We hope this information is helpful.
We on the West coast would like to know if there are any plans to bring another ship dukk time to the West Coast. Mainly either Los Angeles or San Diego?
When will you do world cruise
I would love to see Buenos Aires as a departure port..
We LOVE your cruise ships. We started with Carnival and then went to Royal. We are true Royal Carribean fans now. Allure of the Seas is the best ship EVER. We enjoyed everything about it. It was so big we didn’t get a chance to see everything because we were in the shows so we had to stop attending the shows so we could see the ship.
Is there a way to possibly get some better tasting, quality of food? We went on Allure of the Seas this summer and noticed the food, especially in the dinning room, wasn’t the quality of food we had on other Royal ships.
Also, is there a way to get the bigger ships, like Allure of the Seas, to go out of Galveston during the summer and not just the winter?
Keep up the great work and we look forward to cruising the seas with Royal in the near future.
Any plans to do a Panama Canal full transit in the near future?
I also would like to see different ships sailing out of New Jersey. Explorer of the Seas is fantastic, but would like the option of trying a different one. Would also like to see more ten day crusies.
what is the deal with Retired Military? we have never been offered a discount, and was told when I asked about it, it is only offered on certain ships, how do you know what ships offer this discount, once you have paid for your cruise three months in advance, they are not going to offer it to you then, as a discount, would be interested in your answer to my question, we are loyal to Royal Lili-Ann
While we understand the needs of growing revenue and interests of stockholders, please keep a few more ships in the U.S. over summer months other than placing most of them in Europe. Many families can not travel during school months, and therefore must vacation in the summer. RCCL offers a fantastic product and we are loyal to Royal, but you do not give us many “Caribbean” choices in the summer months.
Thank you for your suggestion, Bron.
I’m a fifteen year old girl from Saudi Arabia who is completely obsessed with the idea of cruising! I was just on my first cruise in July on the brilliance and I LOVED it! I’m ALREADY trying to convince my parents to go on the independence next June! hahaha. A couple of friends (Who I met on the brilliance) and I always joke around about working for Royal when we grow up
hahaha xxx
We are happy to hear you loved your first cruise as much as you did, Dee. We hope to see you back onboard soon.
Do you have any plans for setting up ships around south africa ?
Thank you for your inquiry. We currently do not have plans to set up ships in South Africa.
Are there going to be cruises out of Oslo in 2013?
We have been quite pleased with the program that we have out of Oslo on Vision of the Seas. This program continues for 2012 and we will formally announce our summer 2013 deployment in March of next year.
Adam, are there news to brazilian cruisers for the next yers?
We went on our first cruise August 2011 on the Allure of the Seas with our 10-year old daughter. She will not let us cut the wristband off and taped one that did! This is all she talks about with her friends and family. She shows off pictures and her segment of the DVD Cruise’s week in review. We has such a great time and look forward to taking friends and family in 2013!
I am Concerned about the possible Change out of Port Canaveral. I understand that Monarch of the Seas is only sailing through April of next year and that there may be plans to discontinue the bahamas cruise out there. I know that Monarch is an older ship and they have to retire sometime. What are the plans to continue the cruises out of Port Cavaveral.
Monarch of the Seas is actually open for sale and deployed out of Port Canaveral through April of 2013. This time frame is consistent with most of our programs which are generally not announced beyond early 2013. In addition to Monarch of the Seas, Freedom of the Seas is also open and offering alternating 7 night Eastern and Western Caribbean itinerary for a similar time frame.
We are still reviewing and finalizing our plans, for our entire fleet, for late 2013 and early 2014. Please look for announcements early next year.
Hi Adam , please keep RCCL sailing from Bayonne NJ for many years to comw! LOVE the Voyager class ships, how about Freedom class to New Jersey?? Thanks!