Royal Caribbean International is to operate the 3,114-passenger Voyager of the Seas (1999/137,276gt) for the Asian market in summer 2012. She was scheduled to sail in the Mediterranean next summer, but after the end of her winter Caribbean season from New Orleans, will now arrive in Shanghai in June for a schedule of cruises of between four and ten nights, to ports in Japan and Korea. Between August and October, Voyager will be based out of Singapore and then she goes to Sydney until April 2013. Specific itineraries have yet to be announced.
The smaller 1,800-passenger Legend of the Seas (1995/69,490gt) has been operating in the region for some years and will also return in 2012. The addition of Voyager is a bold move and provides a huge capacity increase for the Asian market, which has been served by smaller and older vessels.
Costa Cruises has also increased capacity in the Far East, with the 2,259-passenger Costa Victoria (1996/75,166gt) joining 1,766-passenger Costa Classica (1991/52,926gt) during 2012. The onboard product on both Voyager and Legend will be tailored to cater to the Chinese source market.
