Greetings from Splendour of the Seas!
This week I had the opportunity to visit Splendour of the Seas while she was in dry dock in Cadiz, Spain. It actually felt more like being at a yard for a new build than at a refurbishment. In almost all public areas, the ship was stripped down to the steel. This picture of the pool deck showing the tremendous amounts of debris is a good gauge of the amount of “deconstruction” that had to take place before the new venues and revitalizations could take place. The team had 450 containers of garbage! We underestimated the amount of materials that would be taken off the ship, and the containers were smaller than we usually use, so this put us a little behind schedule at the beginning.
My travels have continued with visits to San Juan for the annual Florida Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) conference and to Asia/Pacific for company business.
The FCCA conference is always an intense affair because of the economic significance of the cruise industry to many of the island nations of the Caribbean basin. The focus of the meeting has evolved over time and this year the impact of the globalization of the industry was more evident than in the past. Although new ships still make their presence felt in the region (not the least of which being Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas), the growth of other cruise markets and the predominance of “homeport” cruises (i.e., cruises originating on the U.S. Coast that do not require air travel for many of the guests) have caused the number of cruise visitors to certain ports to decline quite dramatically. Many of these ports are to the south and southeast of San Juan. So it was important that the conference took place in San Juan. The government of Puerto Rico took advantage of the opportunity to restate its commitment to the cruise industry. They really put on an impressive showing from Governor Fortuno on down.
The air has turned crisp and fresh and just in time for the October edition of our “Ask Adam Blog Series.” To see the answers to September’s questions please click here, or if you have a question you would like to ask Adam regarding Royal Caribbean news, what he’s have been up to or just curious about anything Royal related, please follow this link to our Facebook discussion page.
How many passengers will the refurbished Splendour of the Seas hold in 2012?
– Pamela B.
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Intro from Adam:
Recently I asked Maryann Delany to share highlights of her career in entertainment production. Since the blog post generated an exceptional level of feedback from our readers, we wanted to provide a similar entertainment “Day in the Life” guest blog, but this time from a performer’s point of view.
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I am Celia Mei Rubin and I’m currently onboard Liberty of the Seas as a featured singer. “What does that mean,” you may ask (you may not ask, but I shall tell you anyway). My job entails playing Stephanie Mangano in the musical, Saturday Night Fever, singing in an aerial show aptly called, In The Air, singing in a daytime concert by the pool, Summer Breeze, and singing in a nighttime jazz set in one of the ship’s lounges. I also sing a song in a parade and in the farewell show that is performed at the end of every cruise.
Randomness:
- Someone once said the business of America is business. Even taking that into consideration, the outpouring of grief and accolades for Steve Jobs after his death was remarkable. And it wasn’t limited to America. There is a global recognition that his leadership and accomplishments were transformational. As both an admirer and a customer, I join in the mourning of his untimely passing and wish the leadership of Apple well in the daunting task of carrying on with Jobs’ vision. He obviously inspired a lot of people. Who else do you find similarly inspirational?
My name is Åsa Persson, I am from Sweden and I am the Ice Captain onboard Allure of the Seas. I was five years old when I started to skate and little did I know back then that my ice skating was going to give me a career onboard a cruise ship! I started in the local skating club because my sisters skated and I thought that it looked like a lot of fun. I ended up loving the sport. When I was ten I was selected by the Swedish Figure Skating Association to be part of a small group of young skaters who showed a lot of promise. At the age of 13 I won my first National Championship and before I retired as an amateur I won four National titles and had been a finalist at the World Championships.
I traveled all over the World for International competitions and I am very fortunate for all the amazing experiences my skating had given me. However, my last couple of years as an amateur were difficult for me because I kept getting injured. Any sport at a high international level is very strenuous on the body and mine couldn’t handle it. I lived and trained in Canada at the time and I started to worry that I was going to become injured for life.
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Hi, my name is Desmond Elvis Reggie Charles and I am one of the Stage and Production Managers onboard the world’s largest cruise ship, Allure of the Seas. I come to you all the way from the Spice Island of Grenada.
I have been working for Royal Caribbean International for the past 17 years. I started back in October 1994 where I had the privilege of joining Royal Caribbean International’s Sovereign of the Seas as a drummer/vocalist in a Caribbean band called “Heat Wave”. I eventually formed my own band called “Blue Orchid”. This was followed by a transfer to the entertainment technical department onboard Voyager of the Seas. After three months as a Lounge Technician I was promoted to Sound Technician for the first ice rink at sea. I continued to move up the ranks of the technical team going from Sound Technician to Head Sound and Light Technician and now to the company’s most senior entertainment position, Stage and Production Manager. Today, I work onboard Allure of the Seas managing the operations of a 1,400 seat theater.
My name is Michael Bayley and I am the Executive Vice President, International at Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. Since joining Royal Caribbean in 1981 as Assistant Purser on the Nordic Prince I have worked with so many wonderful and talented people. Too many to count and too many to remember.
Over the years as I bumped into former shipboard and shoreside colleagues literally all over the world we would share our many memories and re-live some magical moments. Many times we would say good bye with the words “we really should get all the oldies together, it would be a blast”.
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