Topic: Royal Caribbean plans record 10 ships in Europe

A record 10 Royal Caribbean International ships will sail Europe in 2011, president and ceo Adam Goldstein revealed on his blog. That is nearly half of the brand’s 22-ship fleet.
‘Just a few years ago, we would not have imagined such a scenario,’ he added.
News of the company’s 2011 Europe deployment has been trickling out with such earlier announcements as the decision to deploy the 158,000gt Liberty of the Seas from Barcelona.
The company plans to announce full details region by region in the coming months. Goldstein said that over the next 90 days Royal Caribbean will open all of its itineraries from spring 2011 to spring 2012 for sale.

From: Cruise-community.com

We're trying RCI for the first time in June for a short med cruise and are currently looking for a cruise line that offers fly-cruises at 7 days or less in the Med. If they get it right in June then we could be lining up as customers.

I shall be following the news from RCI with interest.

The Med is a huge opportunity for all cruise lines, with interesting ports at every turn, I just hope they apply some thought and innovation to the itineraries... I am really not interested in the current crop of med. itineraries and hope this will prompt something just a little different.

I also hope they don't do a carnival and let people book and then completely cancel the season because they got the sums wrong.

David

I agree, it would be a shame if these new ships all did the classic ports.

Personally I would like to see visits to some new ports and loads more in the Eastern med.

QUOTE:

The Med is a huge opportunity for all cruise lines, with interesting ports at every turn, I just hope they apply some thought and innovation to the itineraries... I am really not interested in the current crop of med. itineraries and hope this will prompt something just a little different.


David

I agree, it's all very well cramming cruise ships into the same old ports of call but there are different ports out there and here's hoping that RCI make the most of this venture even if it means more "tender" ports. ....Neil

I have to echo what you are saying about the choice of ports. Been there done that so many times now, its difficult to find something to whet my appetite for a med cruise. It must be even more limiting as to which ports these ships can call at due to the sheer size of them.

I echo your sentiments and I must admit that my daughter now plays "cruise bingo" with brochures. She sits down and crosses off all the ports that she has visited (as she's the youngest and not quite as well travelled as the rest of us) and if she been to all of them then it's "House" time.

I'd love to do a fly cruise from Athens or Crete that visited Istanbul and the black sea during school holidays but those sort of itineraries only seem to crop up on Adult only ships and on journeys of 16 days+ or even be able to do a river cruise with the children without having to pay horrrendous money for them (much easier than camping / caravanning to see the same amount in the same timescale!)

QUOTE:

I echo your sentiments and I must admit that my daughter now plays "cruise bingo" with brochures. She sits down and crosses off all the ports that she has visited (as she's the youngest and not quite as well travelled as the rest of us) and if she been to all of them then it's "House" time.

I'd love to do a fly cruise from Athens or Crete that visited Istanbul and the black sea during school holidays but those sort of itineraries only seem to crop up on Adult only ships and on journeys of 16 days+ or even be able to do a river cruise with the children without having to pay horrrendous money for them (much easier than camping / caravanning to see the same amount in the same timescale!)

Hi Shelley
Im on a Thomson ship later in year,outside school hols im afraid.
Sails from Marmaris and stops at Istanbul,Athens + Crete.
JC

QUOTE:

Hi Shelley
Im on a Thomson ship later in year,outside school hols im afraid.
Sails from Marmaris and stops at Istanbul,Athens + Crete.
JC

Hi John,

Have you seen Thomsons prices for a family of 4 recently! Premium is about the only way to describe them ~ I priced up ex Marmaris sailings and all of them topped £4000 for 2 weeks. For that I could sail P&O, Celebrity, MSC (& Have AI for £1k less!), etc.

They seem to have their market now and aren't doing any thing to lure those of us who are willing to try something different