MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Royal Caribbean sweeps with cruise industry Travel Weekly awards

Oasis of the Seas, “cruise ship, rookie” and “cruise ship, overall” awards

Miami-based Royal Caribbean swept half a dozen categories in the Travel Weekly awards, including the top spot for “cruise line, overall” as well as “cruise line, domestic” and “cruise line, Caribbean.” Royal Caribbean also won in the category of “cruise line, sales and service,” and the line's much-promoted new Oasis of the Seas swept the categories of “cruise ship, rookie” and “cruise ship, overall.”

Also taking home multiple awards was Royal Caribbean sister company Celebrity Cruises, which won in the categories of “cruise line, premium” and “cruise line, Europe.” Celebrity's groundbreaking, two-year-old Celebrity Solstice took home the award for “cruise ship, premium.”

Princess Cruises won the award in the “cruise line, Alaska” category. Crystal Cruises won in the luxury category. Viking River Cruises won for top river line, and Avalon Waterways' Avalon Scenery won for top river ship.

Travel Weekly is a trade magazine that caters to industry insiders including travel agents and travel industry executives. At the event winners were also announced among airlines, rental car companies, hotels and other categories of travel suppliers.

Travel Weekly says the awards were determined using a multi-step process that started with Travel Weekly readers submitting the names of companies they believed excelled over the past year.

“The professionals who read and rely on Travel Weekly have the expertise to select those businesses, destinations and hotels that provide a higher level of service to their clients” editor in chief Arnie Weissmann said at the event. “Our readers can be confident that these winners represent the best this industry has to offer.”

Travel Weekly also presented Lifetime Achievement Awards at the event to two cruise industry leaders: Richard Fain, chairman and CEO of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (the parent company of both Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises); and Jimmy Murphy, chairman of river cruise line AmaWaterways.