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 21.

This week is the last week of 2013, and naturally, this means that many of us are starting

look forward to what's in store for next year.

I believe that 2014 is going to be a really big year for Royal Caribbean, and there's definitely

some things as fans we have to look forward to in the coming months.

Let's talk about what's on the radar for Royal Caribbean in 2014 and why this new year

will definitely be one to remember.

Here we go.

Looking forward to 2014, it looks to me like there's a lot in store for this new year in terms of Royal Caribbean changes and just new things in general.

By far, the biggest thing coming in 2014 will be Royal Caribbean's newest cruise ship that will enter service Quantum of the Seas.

Now, Quantum of the Seas is the first new Royal Caribbean cruise ship since the Ler of the Seas entered service back in November 2010.

So that's almost exactly four years.

Quantum and C's maiden voyage is currently scheduled for November 2014.

So again, four years since our last new ship.

Now, when Oasis of the Seas and then Allure of the Seas debuted, Royal Caribbean really

rewrote the book on how to announce to the world a brand new cruise ship.

Prior to those ships, cruise ship launches were still a big deal,

but they didn't quite garner the nationwide attention that the Oasis class did, in my opinion.

Since Oasis and Alert, other cruise companies have really played catch-up with launches of their new ships

and playing the whole marketing game of trying to vie for the most attention.

And really Norwegian, Disney, and to a somewhat lesser extent carnival, have all really,

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