Second Royal Caribbean ship to be based at Tampa

[Jason]

Royal Caribbean International announced Thursday that it will expand its cruise offerings out of the Port of Tampa next year when a second ship, the Vision of the Seas, begins trips to the Caribbean.

Since January 2002, Royal Caribbean's Brilliance of the Seas has offered seasonal four- and five-night cruises to the Caribbean. The Vision of the Seas will add seven-night cruises.

Both ships will call the Port of Tampa home through the 2014-2015 winter. The Brilliance of the Seas just completed a remodeling in May. Vision of the Seas is set to be similarly upgraded in September.

The Vision of the Seas is a 915 foot long ship that can hold up to 2,000 passengers with a crew of 742. It will start sailing out of Tampa on Nov. 15, 2014. It will depart every Saturday and make stops at such Western Caribbean destinations as Grand Cayman, Cozumel and Costa Maya in Mexico, Roatán in Honduras and Belize.

"We look forward to having two our most recently revitalized ships, Brilliance of the Seas and Vision of the Seas, sailing from Tampa in 2014," said Adam Goldstein, the president and chief operating officer of Royal Caribbean, in a prepared statement. "The Port of Tampa has been a great partner for more than a decade and we look forward to continued growth with the Tampa Port Authority in the future."

By Tampa Bay Times

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[Sarge6870]

I'm glad to hear about this! Making Tampa a local port for me, it gives me more options. Other than Tampa, the closest port to me would be Port Canaveral which is a 3 hour drive to get to. I could never understand why more ships don't sail from Tampa. The Port of Tampa has the ability to allow ships to visit both the Western & Eastern Caribbean.