Tag Archives: royal caribbean international

New Features for Mariner of the Seas in Short Cruise Market

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Mariner of the Seas

Royal Caribbean International today announced the details of a $90 million refurbishment on the Mariner of the Seas, as she moves into the Caribbean short cruise market and is redeployed from the Asia and China market.

Service starts from Miami with a three- and four-day cruise program in June, with the ship sailing to Nassau and CocoCay.

“At Royal Caribbean, we believe in the constant pursuit of adventure and that every weekend is an opportunity to experience something new and live life to its fullest,” said Michael Bayley, President and CEO, Royal Caribbean International. “With the new Mariner of the Seas, we invite travellers to weekend like they really mean it and make the most of a quick getaway than they even thought was possible.”

Among the highlights is the Sky Pad, a brand new virtual reality, bungee trampoline experience on the Mariner of the Seas.

Guests will strap in and put on a virtual reality headset, which the company said will ” transport them to another time and planet to bounce over moon craters or compete in intergalactic games. The out-of-this-world experience is for guests of all ages, and also can be enjoyed without virtual reality headsets, for those who prefer to look out over the ocean as they leap toward the sky.”

Other additions include The Perfect Storm, a duo of racing waterslides called Cyclone and Typhoon, and a glow-in-the-dark laser tag experience in Studio B, where friends and family can team up to play “Battle for Planet Z.”

Mariner will offer Puzzle Break: The Observatorium, a new escape room experience.

The company is also adding the FlowRide surfing simulator to the ship.

New food and beverage options include Jamie’s Italian, Starbucks and Izumi Hibachi & Sushi.

Royal to resume New Orleans sailings

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Vision of the Seas
Royal Caribbean International said it will put a ship in New Orleans for the 2018-19 winter season, after an absence of three years.

The Vision of the Seas will sail 7-day itineraries to destinations in the Bahamas and the Yucatan Peninsula, Royal said.

In addition, the Enchantment of the Seas will move from Miami to Galveston, joining the Liberty of the Seas there. The Vision will offer two 16-day Panama Canal transits between Miami and Los Angeles before repositioning to New Orleans, the first time in three years that itinerary will be offered.

Photo credit Dawn Jones, Entrance of the first lock.

Royal also said that the Mariner of the Seas will return to Miami from the Asia-Pacific region to sail short cruises, the first time a Voyager-class ship has been assigned to that duty. The 3- and 4-day itineraries to the Bahamas begin on June 21, 2018, after a 32-day revitalization.

From Celebrity, wind of change

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The Celebrity Edge Stateroom Concept.
I suppose a 90-ton platform that hangs over the side of a ship and moves over the span of 14 decks is impressive, but there’s another marvel of technology on Celebrity Cruises’ new Edge-class ships that shouldn’t be overlooked.

The Edge-class cabins will have hair dryers in the bathroom.

What’s the big deal, you ask?  Isn’t just about every hotel room in the civilized world so-equipped?

Exactly the point.

I’m not 100% positive that Edge is the first with this cutting, er, edge equipment, but I can say that to the best of my memory, none of the ocean ships I’ve been on recently have had them.

Instead, there’s usually a dryer in the drawer of a bureau, or in a cloth bag sitting on a cabinet shelf, for use in the cabin itself. A few older ships have low-powered dryers fastened to the wall.

I don’t know exactly why wiring cruise cabins for hair dryers has been such a difficult challenge. I do know that the problem goes back a long time.

Vicki Freed, senior vice president of sales, trade support and services at Royal Caribbean International, once looked back on how the industry has changed and recalled that when she worked at Carnival Cruise Line in the 1970s, she couldn’t plug in a hair dryer in any outlet in her cabin.

Carnival solved the problem by designating a cabin on each deck as a blow-dry suite and wiring it specially so that the appliances wouldn’t blow all of the circuit breakers that they normally would have.

Cruise lines eventually figured out how to wire the cabin for portable hair dryers, but not the bathrooms.

Most of the appliances that are going to be plugged into a cruise ship cabin outlet don’t draw as much wattage as a hair dryer, which can pull as much as 2,500 watts. That’s more than a coffee maker or a toaster (not that they’re allowed) and way more than a laptop computer, which only draws about 100 watts.

That much power consumption can use up a lot of the capacity of a typical household electrical circuit.

Most cruise ship bathrooms don’t have any outlets at all, except for one that is limited to electric shavers, which consume about 20 watts. Lighting is about the only electrical application in the bath.

That has left cruise passengers perched on an upholstered stool, their knees shoved into a little cubby space beneath the desk, in a posture that may or may not be comfortable, at the mirror above the desk in their cabin trying to dry their hair before a gala night out at some specialty restaurant.

So three cheers for the bright engineer at Celebrity or STX France that has figured out the age-old hair dryer in the bathroom problem. That’s progress we can all believe in.