Giving Credit Where Credit is Due

I definitely feel the temptation to stick to the “news” be it good, bad or ugly. The truth is there has to be a balance in order for readers to get a comprehensive view of life at Royal Caribbean International. At least that’s my opinion. So I would like to introduce some key people to you.

For starters there are now more than 30,000 men and women working at Royal Caribbean International. About 90 percent of these work on the water. I could not be more proud of these employees. They are truly amazing. They often have families far from the ships. In many cases they are able to support their families at a much higher standard of living than they would have been able to do by working nearer to home. Their loyalty to us and our guests is something special.

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BY:Adam|29th May, 2009 16 Comments

Addressing Recent Royal Caribbean Policy Changes

It would be great to blog about good news all the time. Oasis of the Seas, My Time Dining. The positive reception to the altered Mariner of the Seas itinerary that merits consideration for future itinerary planning. And did I mention Oasis of the Seas? Actually, I noted the ship twice on purpose, once for the unprecedented physical features you probably know about and a second time for the many operational enhancements we have not yet made public. More on those soon.

There is of course more to our current reality than incessant good news, and one of my responsibilities/opportunities is to blog about sources of guest dissatisfaction when they arise. We never seek guest dissatisfaction, however as I have noted in a previous entry we are constantly managing trade-offs that are inherent in our business. Some of these issues have been well noted by our guests, particularly our valued loyal guests, in recent months. I will comment on these issues, knowing the readers will not necessarily agree with my view. But thanks for reading just the same.

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BY:Adam|27th May, 2009 91 Comments

An Impressive First Taste of Dubai

After threatening to go to Dubai for a number of years, I finally went for my first ever visit. I was favorably impressed, notwithstanding Dubai is obviously suffering from a recession which is slowing its monumentally ambitious plans for the future.

My reasons for going were to generate media coverage in the region for next year’s Brilliance of the Seas program, to meet tourism officials from the ports of call Brilliance will visit when she arrives in January and to interact with European travel agents we had brought to Dubai for a familiarization. Arabian Travel Market was taking place in Dubai at the same time so all of the nearby destinations were present. And when I say present, what I mean is that I have never in my career seen such elaborate trade show stands. I think some of the hotel companies could have saved money by dragging a whole hotel on to the trade show floor rather than use the booth displays I visited.

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BY:Adam|26th May, 2009 10 Comments
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Growing a Cruise Brand Globally

The development of our global interests, even in difficult economic times, is key to our future. As a result, my most significant travel is to countries where cruise markets and/or ship deployments are very promising but in a less developed state. Often that means China, Singapore, Australia, Brazil or even Dubai where I visited last week and am pictured here with a representative from Abu Dhabi. I like to say that our guests and crew come from everywhere and our ships go everywhere. This is more obvious with each passing year. Royal Caribbean International is already a truly global brand with even more global opportunity ahead whenever the worldwide recession abates.

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BY:Adam|20th May, 2009 14 Comments

The Business Triangle

If one is going to be involved in managing a business then one must take what I call the Triangle into account at all times. The Triangle is shorthand for the three crucial constituencies whose interests we must look after in order for our business to be successful: customers, employees and shareholders. As an aside, I’ll note that sometimes people internally refer to travel agents as a type of customer while others believe the Triangle should be a Diamond with Travel Agents as a 4th constituency. However one looks at this, travel agents are important in our world. So are the destinations and communities we serve around the world.

Let’s look at each of the three constituencies of the Triangle in turn:

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BY:Adam|18th May, 2009 17 Comments

We Have a Passionate Community, and I’m Listening

So what have I learned after one week of this blog? A few observations at this early juncture:

People are passionately attached to the Royal Caribbean International brand. They really want to be involved with it whether on a cruise or in between cruises. This passion is an incredible asset for our brand and company. It is an asset we can never take for granted. There are many ways to protect this asset but the most important way is to continue to Deliver the Wow onboard our fleet.

People are hungry for information and they want immediate satisfaction. This is obvious from the reaction to the blog and also from the reaction to the live chat that preceded the blog. This hunger is a challenge for the blog. I want us to be responsive without this blog morphing into a customer service center. The fastest way for us to respond to posted questions would not involve me – my colleagues would receive the questions, research and answer the questions and then post or otherwise communicate the answers. I’m not comfortable with that approach because I want to know what is coming in and what is going out. This takes more time but at this stage of the game I prefer to sacrifice some speed in return for more involvement in the process by me. We’ll adjust as we go.

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BY:Adam|15th May, 2009 139 Comments

A Bit of Personal Triumph

What do you call a blog entry when it is one more than your colleagues are expecting from you? A special edition, I suppose.

In my first entry I mentioned I was preparing for Miami’s Corporate Run. That’s not a big deal since 17,240 people participated in the Corporate Run this year. However, Royal Caribbean’s quest for excellence encompasses the dedication of our runners, and our competition with Carnival plays out on the 5k race course, not just on the water. Although I’m old enough to be a parent of the best runners in the city, I trained HARD for this race for two years. I missed last year because we were introducing Independence of the Seas in the U.K. More significantly, thanks to a bad back, I did virtually nothing at all athletically from the early 1980’s until 2006.

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BY:Adam|13th May, 2009 19 Comments
CATEGORY: Adam's Posts
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Addressing Concerns About Travel to Mexico

For the past two weeks, the big issue has been Influenza A (H1N1) formerly known as Swine Flu. We altered itineraries on a number of ships, in an abundance of caution, to avoid calling in Mexico until we have a better understanding of the situation. Mexico is arguably the most important cruise destination on the planet, with both the east and west coasts of great significance to many ships and itineraries. Having to suddenly exclude Mexico from our portfolio of destinations is unprecedented and we look forward to returning there ASAP.

I imagine people outside the company never feel we respond quickly enough. They are so hungry for the “news.” From my standpoint, it was remarkable how quickly we reacted. We were at least hours and, for the most part, days ahead of our competition in providing new itinerary details and compensation policies our web sites in press releases.

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BY:Adam|11th May, 2009 40 Comments
CATEGORY: Adam's Posts
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A Message from Royal Caribbean International

On behalf of Adam and all of us here at Royal Caribbean International, we’d like to thank all of you who have taken the time to check out Adam’s new blog and leave comments on his first post. We are extremely excited by the number of visitors in our first few days and the level of discussion already taking place here. We fully encourage our readers to exercise their voice for all types of feedback, be it praise, concerns, questions or suggestions, but we also ask that you keep the conversation appropriate to the format of a blog, which is exchange of ideas and opinions. The purpose of this blog is for Adam to address important issues and questions pertaining to Royal Caribbean, share his thoughts on the industry, and provide insights into Royal Caribbean. Any unique personal customer issues regarding past or future cruises, or Royal Caribbean policies, should always be directed to Royal Caribbean customer service. If you have such an issue, please get in touch with customer service representatives at (866) 562-7625 or email us using our contact form here.

In regards to all other feedback, you can be certain that we value every opinion shared and will constantly be listening to what our readers have to say. Adam is personally following the commentary and is looking forward to the opportunity to address your thoughts and suggestions as time permits. A company blog is a unique opportunity to engage in conversation with our partners, customers, and potential customers and we look forward to using it as a platform upon which we can continue to make Royal Caribbean cruises the best offering on the market.

BY:admin|8th May, 2009 31 Comments
CATEGORY: Uncategorized
 

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