Mariner of the Seas has been voted number one for having the best cruise ship refurbishment of the year as part of Cruise Hive’s Cruise Ship Awards 2018.
Best Cruise Ship Refurbishment Announced
We’ve been announcing the annual Cruise Ship awards this week and for the “Best Cruise Ship Refurbishment” category Mariner of the Seas received the most votes. The Royal Caribbean cruise ship just about won over Carnival Paradise which is operated by Carnival Cruise Line.
Mariner of the Seas (Royal Caribbean)
The Royal Caribbean vessel received a huge $120 million renovation as part of the cruise line’s Royal Amplified program which covers upgrades on 10 ships in four years. The Voyager-class ship was renovated in the Summer of 2018 before her new service sailing short Caribbean cruises from Miami, Florida.
During the refurbishment which took place in Cadiz, Spain the ship was completely refreshed with some major new features including Sky Pad which is virtual reality trampoline experience located at the aft, The Perfect Storm waterslides, laser tag, escape room and a new FlowRider which is already popular on other Royal Caribbean ships.
New ways to drink and dine onboard were added including The Bamboo Room, Playmakers Sports Bar & Arcade, Jamie’s Italian and Izumi Hibachi and Sushi.
You can read our full post about the Mariner of the Seas dry dock including some great video footage from Royal Caribbean. The ship has been truly transformed and is the best refurbishment of the year according to Cruise Hive readers.
The ship is now sailing short 4-night and 3-night cruises to the Bahamas including calls in Nassau and the cruise line’s own private island of CocoCay.
Carnival Paradise (Carnival Cruise Line
Mariner of the Seas only just won with Carnival Paradise coming in second place. The Carnival cruise ship underwent a major month-long dry dock in March 2018 and the ship received some pretty big updates.
Some of the biggest updates was a new WaterWorks Aqua Park, 38 new staterooms, new balconies added to exciting staterooms and all the FUN 2.0 updates which were already on other ships in the fleet such as Guy’s Burger Joint and the RedFrog Rum Bar.
The Fantasy-class vessel resumed year-round Caribbean cruises from Port of Tampa, Florida on March 26, 2018.
The Results
In third place for the best cruise refurbishment of 2018 came Carnival Legend. The ship underwent an upgrade at the Portland, Oregon shipyard in May 2018.
Sun Princess which is operated by Princess Cruises came on fourth place and the with the least amount of votes was Silver Spirit, a luxury vessel from Silversea Cruises.
Thousands of Cruise Hive readers voted in this year’s Cruise Ship Awards. Readers were only able to vote once in each category since the awards opened up at the beginning of September 2018.
In 2017 Carnival Dream came out on top for best cruise ship refurbishment and in 2016 it went to Cunard Line’s iconic Queen Mary 2 in the annual awards.
