The 5 greatest locations you may go to on a Royal Caribbean cruise

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Is a Royal Caribbean cruise in your bucket record? You’ll discover no scarcity of choices when it comes time to select an itinerary.

The world’s largest cruise line by passenger capability presents voyages in nearly each nook of the world, from the Caribbean to the waters round Australia and New Zealand.

Royal Caribbean operates 26 cruise ships — greater than some other main cruise line. This permits it to deploy vessels on all of the traditional cruise itineraries in locations just like the Caribbean, Europe and Alaska whereas nonetheless having ships left over for extra unique routes.

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That stated, Royal Caribbean has a definite deal with the Caribbean and Europe — the most well-liked locations for its common clients. In a typical summer time, the road will deploy about half its ships on sailings to the Caribbean, Bahamas and Bermuda whereas sending one other six or seven vessels to Europe. The line sometimes sends three to 4 ships to Alaska each summer time.

During the winter, the road will transfer much more of its ships to the Caribbean and in addition ship a number of to Asia and Australia.

In all, Royal Caribbean’s ships go to greater than 300 totally different ports around the globe. Here are 5 of the highest locations you may attain on a Royal Caribbean ship:

The Caribbean and the Bahamas

There’s a purpose the phrase “Caribbean” is in Royal Caribbean’s identify. The line obtained its begin working cruises to the Caribbean method again in 1968, and the area nonetheless accounts for an enormous a part of its enterprise.

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In reality, the road sometimes deploys nicely greater than half its fleet to the Caribbean and Bahamas for at the very least a part of the 12 months. During the winter, the road may have most of its ships within the area. This winter, as an illustration, 22 of its 26 vessels are crusing within the Caribbean and Bahamas.

Related: The greatest Caribbean cruise for each kind of traveler

Royal Caribbean presents a broad vary of Caribbean and Bahamas itineraries from greater than half a dozen dwelling ports. If you’re in search of one thing quick, the road has you lined within the type of a number of fast, three- and four-night journeys from Florida ports to the Bahamas. It additionally presents an abundance of seven-night sailings to Caribbean and Bahamas ports in addition to a handful of longer journeys within the area that vary from 9 to 14 nights.

At the core of the road’s Caribbean and Bahamas program are its seven-night sailings, which break down into three broad classes:

• Eastern Caribbean voyages.
• Western Caribbean voyages.
• Southern Caribbean voyages.

A typical seven-night Royal Caribbean crusing within the Eastern Caribbean will embrace stops at St. Martin, St. Thomas and Perfect Day at CocoCay, the road’s personal island within the Bahamas. But the road generally swaps in stops at different islands corresponding to Puerto Rico or St. Kitts. There sometimes are three and generally 4 calls on an Eastern Caribbean cruise.

Related: The final information to Royal Caribbean

Royal Caribbean’s seven-night Western Caribbean voyages sometimes will embrace three or 4 stops at some mixture of the next locations: Mexico (Cozumel or Costa Maya), Honduras, Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Belize. Some embrace a cease at Perfect Day at CocoCay and in addition Labadee, Royal Caribbean’s personal seaside vacation spot in Haiti.

The line’s seven-night Southern Caribbean itineraries are extra destination-heavy with 5 and even six separate calls. They generally embrace a few stops at comparatively northward islands corresponding to St. Thomas and St. Martin however focus closely on southerly islands corresponding to Tobago, Trinidad, Grenada, St. Vincent, Dominica, St. Lucia, Bonaire, Aruba and Curacao.

Related: The 6 courses of Royal Caribbean ships, defined

When crusing to the Caribbean, Royal Caribbean ships usually sail out of PortMiami, Port Canaveral, Fort Lauderdale’s Port Everglades and Tampa in Florida; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Galveston, Texas; Bayonne, New Jersey (one of many ports for New York City); and Baltimore.

The line additionally just lately launched its first-ever Caribbean sailings out of Barbados. The voyages out of Barbados are all Southern Caribbean journeys. Using Barbados as a hub permits Royal Caribbean to supply Southern Caribbean journeys which are heavy in southerly islands.

Australia and New Zealand

Royal Caribbean has been sending at the very least one ship — although typically a number of — to Australia each winter for a few years. It presents a variety of itineraries out of Sydney and Brisbane that make calls not simply round Australia but in addition in New Zealand.

While the itineraries the road presents within the area differ in size — from simply two nights to fifteen nights — the shorter voyages are primarily geared toward a neighborhood Australian crowd in search of a fast getaway. Among North Americans, the most well-liked itineraries are the longer ones, which regularly are closely skewed to stops in New Zealand.

Related: Everything you’ll want to learn about Royal Caribbean’s loyalty program

Among a number of New Zealand itineraries are 12-night voyages from Sydney that function an all-New Zealand lineup of calls: Bay of Islands, Auckland, Tauranga, Wellington, Christchurch and Picton.

A 15-night New Zealand itinerary out of Sydney options cruising in New Zealand’s famed Milford Sound in addition to Doubtful Sound and Dusky Soun; moreover, the ship stops in Dunedin, Wellington, Christchurch, Tauranga, Auckland and Bay of Islands.

Alaska

Royal Caribbean isn’t the largest participant in Alaska cruises. The giants of cruising to Alaska are Princess Cruises and Holland America, that are sister traces that management a big proportion of the market. Still, Royal Caribbean has a major presence in Alaska, and its massive, activity-filled ships are a preferred choose with households seeking to go to the vacation spot.

The Alaska cruise season is a brief one, lasting roughly from May to September. For the approaching 2023 season, Royal Caribbean plans to have 4 ships within the area — all working seven-night sailings.

• Ovation of the Seas and Quantum of the Seas: These 4,180-passenger sister vessels are Royal Caribbean’s latest and largest ships scheduled to go to Alaska. They’ll sail to Alaska round-trip from Seattle with calls at Alaskan ports corresponding to Sitka, Juneau and Skagway; and Victoria, British Columbia. They’ll additionally go to Endicott Arm for glacier viewing.
• Brilliance of the Seas: The 2,142-passenger ship will sail to Alaska round-trip from Vancouver with a go to to Tracy Arm Fjord and calls at three or 4 of the next Alaska locations: Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, Haines, Icy Strait Point and Sitka.
• Radiance of the Seas: The 2,143-passenger Radiance of the Seas will sail one-way Alaska voyages between Vancouver and Seward, Alaska. Calls will embrace Hubbard Glacier and 4 or 5 of the next Alaska locations: Ketchikan, Icy Strait Point, Juneau, Skagway, Sitka and Haines.

The enchantment of the one-way sailings on Radiance of the Seas is which you could mix them with Royal Caribbean-organized land excursions of Alaska; land excursions can final from two to 5 days. So, all in all, you’ll have created a nine- to 12-night “cruise tour.” The land tour portion of such journeys brings visits to such well-known inside Alaska places as Denali National Park and the city of Fairbanks.

Related: Everything you wish to learn about Royal Caribbean cabins and suites

Europe

Royal Caribbean is a serious participant in Europe, with a variety of itineraries within the Mediterranean and throughout Northern Europe.

Some of the road’s signature Mediterranean routings provide the prospect to see iconic locations corresponding to Barcelona, Spain and the Italian cities of Florence, Rome and Naples in a single cruise. Or, you may join a Mediterranean cruise that focuses on the Greek Islands.

In Northern Europe, Royal Caribbean will take you to such famed Baltic cities as Stockholm; Tallinn, Estonia; Helsinki; and St. Petersburg, Russia, in a single crusing (though, for now, St. Petersburg has been faraway from Royal Caribbean itineraries because of the battle in Ukraine). Itineraries that zero in on the Norwegian fjords additionally can be found.

In all, the road historically deploys round 10 vessels to the area annually on a seasonal foundation, and the ships keep from spring till fall. Voyages vary from three to 14 nights in size.

Among the longest sailings that Royal Caribbean presents in Europe are 12-night journeys out of Civitavecchia, Italy (the port for Rome), that embrace an in a single day keep in Piraeus, Greece (the port for Athens), and day stops in Rhodes, Greece; Kusadasi, Turkey (for a go to to the ruins of Ephesus); Ashdod and Haifa, Israel; and Naples.

In Northern Europe, Royal Caribbean ships largely sail out of Southampton, England; Amsterdam; Copenhagen, Denmark; and Stockholm.

In the Mediterranean, the road’s hubs are Barcelona, Civitavecchia and Ravenna, Italy (which just lately took the place of Venice as a house port).

Asia

In latest years, Royal Caribbean has constructed up an enormous enterprise promoting cruises out of Chinese ports corresponding to Shanghai and Tianjin (the port for Beijing) which are aimed squarely on the Chinese market. They provide Chinese-language programming and Chinese-centric meals and actions. However, Royal Caribbean additionally markets some Asia voyages to North Americans.

Among the itineraries meant for a Western crowd are nine-night Thailand and Vietnam cruises out of Singapore that embrace stops at Bintan Island, Indonesia; Nha Trang and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; and Bangkok.

There are also 10-night “Japan Explorer” sailings that soak up Aomori, Hakodate, Akita, Kanazawa, Sakaiminato and Kagoshima, Japan; and Busan, South Korea.

Note that a number of the line’s Asia sailings have been on maintain over the previous three years because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The voyages are within the technique of resuming as international locations within the area have dialed again COVID-19-related journey restrictions.