Wonder of the Seas the world’s largest cruise ship whose construction lasted two years left the French shipyard of Saint Nazaire on Friday night.

Anthem of the Seas completed the UK domestic cruises and is now sailing to the U.S. coast. The planned operations of the vessel are starting out of the Cape Liberty Cruise Port in Bayonne, New Jersey, in about a week. It will be the second Royal Caribbean’s ship sailing from New Jersey, but Anthem of the Seas was the first in the fleet to restart in the UK and the fifth overall in the fleet globally.

Since I have worked on land, I have attended so many focus groups related to large corporations and other government entities attempting to figure out how to maintain long term employees. Just as the cruise industry, I presently work in a high burnout profession where the turnaround is 5-10 years.

Besides the increasing number of companies which are following the trend of decarbonizing their business, Royal Caribbean, one of the biggest cruise brands shouldn’t miss the opportunity to take a place in establishing those ambitious goals. Destination Net Zero - is in fact the company’s slogan for its decarbonization plan, a long-term one that has the year 2050 as its deadline. But more immediate goals have also been made public.

Royal Caribbean International shared construction updated on its first cruise ship powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG), Icon of the Seas. The construction is well underway with the recent installation of the LNG Fuel Tank. The company released a video of the first tank recently installed weighting 307 tons. The thank is 90 feet (27 meters) long and 26 feet (8 meters) tall.

From November 8, the current pre-departure polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test will be replaced with an antigen rapid test (ART) for all the guests on Royal Caribbean’s Quantum of the Seas. The test will be taken at the cruise terminal on the departure day. Currently, only two cruise ships are sailing from Singapore - Royal Caribbean’s Quantum of the Seas and Dream Cruises’ World Dream. 

Spectrum of the Seas ‘Ocean Getaway’ cruise-to-nowhere scheduled for October 21, from Hong Kong was canceled late on Thursday after one crew member onboard was suspected to have COVID-19 during routine testing.

To celebrate the new partnership with the Premier League Football Club Wolverhampton Wanderers commonly known as Wolves, Royal Caribbean have welcomed hundreds of season ticket holders aboard their October cruises around the UK.

While Prime Minister Scott Morrison indicated a restart of international travel for states which reach 80 per cent double dose vaccination, which could happen as soon as next month for NSW, ACT and Victoria, cruise lines told the media they have still no updates on when the ships can return to Australia. 

by Nancy Soulé

I’ve endured this adventure three times so far. It seems to be the norm as the new starting point for any contract, so better get used to it for a while. My first experience was on one of the first ships out in November of 2020, and that one was especially spooky. It was sailing out of Singapore and the precautions were extensive.