Royal Caribbean Makes Major Announcements for 2008

Starting in January, all staterooms will be non-smoking. Already, hallways, corridors, restaurants, entertainment venues, and most interior public spaces are non-smoking. In addition, one lounge or bar on each ship will be set aside as a non-smoking public room.

A new home port of Colon, Panama, will be inaugurated in the 2008 - 2009 winter season. Royal Caribbean will begin 17 seven-day sailings from the port aboard its 2252-passenger Enchantment of the Seas. Ports of call will be Cartagena and Santa Marta, Colombia; Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao in the Dutch Antilles.

South America cruising will be conducted by four Royal Caribbean ships in the 2008- 2009 Southern Summer season. There will be 19 roundtrip sailings from Sao Paulo, alone. Colon in Panama will also be a home port for roundtrip itineraries. There will be room for 113,000 passengers on the expanded schedule.

Three South America cruises totaling 46 days will start off 2009 for the 3114-passenger Mariner of the Seas. It will wend its way from Fort Lauderdale, around Cape Horn, to its new home port of Los Angeles, where it will be the largest ship based there.

Royal Caribbean is also starting a new cruise line dedicated to the French market. It’ll be called CDF Croisieres de France and start with the 376-cabin Holiday Dream, formerly the Europa when it was owned by Hapag Lloyd. It will be renamed Bleu de France, serve French cuisine, use French as the official language, and operate out of Marseille starting in the spring of 2008.