Tag Archives: Quantum class of ships

Anthem of the Seas gets giant giraffe art piece

Posted on by
Reply

T0406ANTHEMGIRAFFE.jpg

Anthem of the Seas, the sister ship to Royal Caribbean’s Quantum of the Seas, will apparently have a giant giraffe in the spot occupied by a pink bear sculpture on Quantum.

Photos of the enormous giraffe being hoisted aboard Anthem emerged on Twitter, and Royal Caribbean retweeted the photo under the heading “It’s a bird… it’s a plane… no, it’s a Giraffe. Anthem of the Seas’ larger than life art piece.”

The giraffe appears to be wearing a bright yellow swimming singlet and has a pink inner tube float around its midsection.

Other than the Quantum series, Royal Caribbean ships do not have large sculptures on the upper deck. The 30-foot-tall magenta bear, which Royal named Felicia, was fashioned by Denver-based artist Lawrence Argent out of 1,340 stainless steel triangles that weigh eight tons.

Argent called his composition “From Afar.”

British travel agent to be Anthem godmother

Posted on by
Reply

Emma Wilby will christen the Royal Caribbean ship and sing for an audience of about 1,300.

Royal Caribbean International picked a 27-year-old travel agent to dedicate Anthem of the Seas in Southampton, England, later this month, underscoring the cruise line’s connections to the trade and to young travel agents in particular.

Emma Wilby, an agent at Thomson Holidays, is from Sunderland, near Newcastle in the North East of England. She will christen the ship and sing for an audience of about 1,300 invited to the April 20 event.

Royal Caribbean said Wilby is a military wife and budding singer who performs in the Military Wives Choir in Kinloss, Scotland, where she is based with her husband, a Royal Engineer for the British Army.

She was picked from a large group of agents who applied for the honor, Royal Caribbean Chairman Richard Fain said.

“We thank all travel agents, who we value and are honoring by naming a fellow travel agent as the godmother of our newest ship,” Fain said.

Anthem will sail in Europe from April through the fall before moving to its permanent home port at New Jersey’s Cape Liberty.

Royal Caribbean to deploy Ovation of the Seas in China

Posted on by
Reply

Anthem of the seas shown above

Royal Caribbean International said it will deploy Ovation of the Seas to China in 2016. The ship is the second newbuild that will be devoted to the Chinese market.

The 4,000-passenger Ovation will be homeported in Tianjin, near Beijing, adding a fourth port in China to Royal Caribbean’s lineup.

In May, Royal Caribbean will redeploy its Quantum of the Seas to Shanghai from its current homeport in Bayonne, New Jersey. Ovation is also a Quantum-class ship, meaning two of the three Quantum ships will be sailing from China year-round.

No other cruise line has put a newbuild in China, much less two.

“We are furthering our commitment [to China] by bringing two of the world’s newest and most advanced Quantum-class cruise ships to the region,” Royal Caribbean President Michael Bayley said at a news conference in Beijing.

Ovation of the Seas, the third Quantum-class vessel, is scheduled to enter service in spring 2016. The second Quantum ship, Anthem of the Seas, will make its debut in Southampton, England, on April 22 and will sail from New Jersey after a summer season in Europe.

Bayley said that Royal Caribbean is taking other steps to strengthen its cruise operation in China. It has created a curriculum with Tianjin Maritime College to train culinary and restaurant service employees and hired more than 3,000 students since the academy opened in August 2014, Bayley said.

Also, Royal Caribbean is investigating potential Chinese drydock facilities to revitalize Legend of the Seas as early as 2018 and potential logistics centers in China to supply its ships deployed in the region.

It is also looking at an inbound-tourism business model that would bring thousands of North Americans to visit China.

The addition of Ovation will bring to five the number of Royal Caribbean ships sailing in China by 2016. In addition to Quantum and Ovation, the cruise line has positioned Mariner of the Seas in Shanghai and Voyager of the Seas in Hong Kong. Legend of the Seas will sail from Tianjin in 2016 until Ovation’s arrival, and then reposition to Xiamen.

A 52-day cruise from Southampton to Tianjin on Ovation opens for sale on March 26.