Welcome to the Royal Caribbean blog podcast, a weekly look into the world of Royal Caribbean cruising.

I'm your host, Matt Hodgeberg, and this is episode number 63.

You've asked for it, and so this week, we're looking at how a European cruise compares to cruises out of North America.

Joining me on today's episode is Donnell Kavanaugh from Ireland.

Welcome to the show, Donald. Thanks, ma. Pleasure. On today's episode is Donal Kavanaugh from Ireland. Welcome to the show, Donald.

Thanks, ma. Pleasure. On today's show, brought you on here because our listeners listened to an episode a couple weeks ago. We talked about, you know, the idea you actually wrote in about more European focus. And I know that Donald, you and I both are big fans of Cruisecast, which is another podcast, great podcast by friends of mine.

And, you know, we wanted to make sure that this podcast was equally paying attention, if you will, to the European theater.

And, you know, I'll tell you, you know, Royal Caribbean is definitely going back into the European mode, and you alluded in your email that you sent in earlier, you know, that maybe it was a little more on the fence because Royal Caribbean invested quite a bit in Europe a couple

years ago, and that really didn't work out too well. But I really feel like they've really

turned it around here, and they're starting to, it's starting to pay back dividends. In fact,

they were making money here as of the bookings that we saw earlier this year. So, Donald, you're a veteran of European cruises

and you've got an upcoming cruise on Liberty of the Seas. Let's start with European

cruises first. Let's start there. When you look at a European cruise, how is it different

than a cruise in North America? I've cruised the Caribbean once and we're about to go on our fourth European cruise now this coming weekend.

I think the difference is, to my mind, my one Caribbean cruise was on freedom out of Port Canaveral

and my perception of that cruise was, it was relaxing. We went to Labody and just sat on a hammock

and had a swim and then we went to Ocherias. and just sat on a hammock and had a swim.

And then we went to Ocho Rios.

We climbed Duns River Falls, did the ruins in the park.

Then we went to Grand Cayman, did the snorkeling and did the stingray.

And then we went to Cosimel and did a Chankana beach and did the Discover Mexico.

But it was very relaxing.

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