See Which Event We Toasted to with Coffee Instead of Champagne!

During the Allure of the Seas transatlantic crossing, we held an official ceremony to present certificates to our baristas that successfully completed the intensive 80 hours of training to become certified Starbucks baristas.

It is really exciting to have the first ever complete Starbucks store at sea. Tammy, the Starbucks representative and trainer onboard, spoke at the graduation ceremony and shared how excited Starbucks was about the opportunity to be onboard Allure of the Seas and eventually Oasis of the Seas.

The Starbucks is located on the Royal Promenade and I’m sure it will be a huge hit with our guests. It has the same drink offerings as your neighborhood Starbucks, as well as a number of Starbucks-branded food items. Personally, I’m thrilled that I can now get my Venti Green Tea Lemonade onboard. Captain Zini is also thrilled – he even said that Starbucks would play a central role in navigational safety because he loves coffee and plans to stop by everyday for his Starbucks before going to the captain’s bridge.

Last week was the ceremonial first pour onboard Allure and both companies toasted to the beginning of a great new partnership. Captain Zini donned a Starbucks apron for this event while brewing the first cup of coffee which went to his boss…that’s right, his wife.

BY:Lisa Bauer|30th November, 2010 4 Comments

Announcing Oprah’s “Favorite Things” 2010: Allure of the Seas

In a recent blog post, I mentioned that if I’m not talking about news it means that something confidential is happening or nothing is happening. Today, a lot happened! In fact, it was one of the most wonderful days ever for the Royal Caribbean International brand in terms of public recognition.

We’re thrilled that Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas has been chosen as one of Oprah’s “Favorite Things” for 2010. In the same 24-hour period, the Today Show’s Hoda and Kathie Lee broadcast live from Allure.

All of this occurred while the movie “Jack and Jill,” starring Adam Sandler and Katie Holmes continued to film onboard.

We hope you had a chance to watch these exciting broadcasts. We hope you will go see the movie, “Jack and Jill,” when it is released next year. And don’t forget about Taylor Swift’s live concert in Allure’s AquaTheater on January 16th. Stay connected to our Facebook page to keep up with all of the activities and events onboard.

BY:Adam|19th November, 2010 18 Comments

“Lights! Camera! Action!” Allure of the Seas Is Almost Ready for her Close Up

With Lisa Bauer writing a blog entry for me every day during the Allure of the Seas’ crossing from Finland to Florida; it felt as if I’d been on vacation! Thank you, Lisa for another series of fun and informative entries on the wonderful new features of our beautiful new baby.

Although I have to go back to work writing my own blog posts, this job isn’t all bad. For example, yesterday I had a great experience with the director of the movie “Jack & Jill”, while the production team was filming some action in the pool area. It was the first time I have been literally in a Director’s tent while he and his associates are saying “action”, “cut”, etc. It was a pleasure to meet Adam Sandler and Katie Holmes. It was even more of a pleasure to hear each of them speak about the awesome experience their families are having during their time onboard. So, what do such movie stars have in common with millions of their fans? They had no idea how unbelievable an Oasis-class ship really is until they came onboard Allure!

For the second year in a row, this week is almost comically busy. Technically I “checked in” for the current non-sailing that lasts until we actually sail on the 19th. However, for a variety of reasons, I will not stay onboard overnight until the 20th. Don’t even try to figure that one out. One of the conflicts is with our industry association (CLIA) meetings that happen every November. I bounce back and forth amongst the ship, the hotel where the CLIA meetings are going on, the office in Miami, and my house, generally hitting at least three of those four places every day. Plus, my training continues in earnest following my great track success in Sanford, Florida two weeks ago where I won a gold medal (1500m) and a silver medal (800m) without actually beating anyone. Don’t worry, in December I will try competing against other humans.

Allure of the Seas is truly beautiful. Central Park is already completely planted and in great shape. We completed all of the U.S. Coast Guard inspections and the USCG was highly complimentary of the ship, our officers, and our crew. Everything is gearing up onboard for the inaugural cruises. Our U.S. Sales Force is having its meeting onboard and getting ready to host their travel agent producers starting on Friday. There are so many plans to execute that items worth an hour’s discussion get maybe three minutes. In the end, however, our people come through in a big Wow way. That is the real reason why I have a great job.

BY:Adam|18th November, 2010 14 Comments

Toasting to the Grand Opening of Rita’s Cantina!

Well, I’ve seen it all now during the Allure of the Seas‘ transatlantic crossing. First we had ribbon cuttings, then red carpets, then meat carvings to celebrate the opening or “firsts” onboard Allure. Today we opened up Rita’s Cantina for lunch, and instead of a ribbon cutting we did a margarita pouring and toast. It was the best margarita I’d ever had!

The atmosphere at Rita’s is a lot of fun. Chips and salsa are my favorite, and the tricolored chips were served warm. For some reason, the basket of chips kept disappearing. :)

The staff at Rita’s added to the festive atmosphere by dancing and singing to the song “Tequila”. Everyone in the restaurant got into the spirit. Then the wait staff at Johnny Rockets decided they didn’t like the competition from the newest restaurant on the Boardwalk so they came out and did a dance to try to get everyone to come to Johnny Rockets. I think we are going to see a fun rivalry between these two restaurants! The experience made the Boardwalk come alive in a very cool way.

The menu at Rita’s Cantina has a nice variety of traditional Mexican dishes, I had the chicken quesadillas which were good. I also got to enjoy great company since I was joined by our VP of Food and Beverage, Frank Weber, Chef Molly Brandt from 150 Central Park, Anja Zini, and Claudia King McWilliams, Director of Housekeeping and Guest Services. Rita’s will be open for both lunch and dinner for a cover charge of $7.95.

BY:Lisa Bauer|9th November, 2010 22 Comments

Dine with us Brazilian Style!

Everyday I check my BlackBerry to see where our Food and Beverage Director Joao is inviting us to dinner. Today I was surprised when the invite was for the Grand Opening of the Samba Grill a Brazilian style steakhouse that is exclusive to Allure of the Seas.

There is a very playful competition between our equally amazing Food and Beverage team (F&B) and our Entertainment team. The F&B team has done several ribbon cuttings on this journey. To compete, the Entertainment team rolled out a red carpet and served champagne for the opening of the 3D Movie Theater Experience. Not to be outdone, the F&B team wanted to come up with yet another way to commemorate the big event of opening up another new venue.

Instead of a ribbon cutting or a red carpet, we had a ceremonial meat carving! One of our Gauchos (servers) brought out a skewer of filet, and I had the honor of carving the first piece of filet for Samba. (Frank Weber, our Vice President of Food and Beverage gave me lessons with a very large knife prior to this event).

For our actual dinner, we started with the salad bar, which is quite extensive. For those guests that don’t wish to partake in the meat offerings, we are offering a vegetarian option for Samba Grill for $15.00.

Our Gaucho was from South America, and it was a great experience. Naturally we had to taste every course that she brought. We had everything from chicken wrapped with bacon, to scallops, shrimp, pork loin, filet mignon and lamb to name a few! There were also several side dishes that accompanied the proteins, such as black beans and rice, corn on the cob, zucchini, fries, and plantains.

I didn’t think my fellow tablemates, all the members of the F& B leadership team, were ever going to turn the light on our table from green to red, signaling our surrender to stop the plethora of meats from coming. Finally the group agreed that we had sampled everything, and just when I thought we were done, out came the desserts. My insider tip is to try to save at least a little bit of room, because the desserts were great.

The cover charge for Samba Grill is $25.00 and I believe our guests will really enjoy this new dining experience on Allure of the Seas. My other insider tip: you may want to skip lunch if you are coming to the Samba Grill for dinner. Or you could do what I did and run 5 miles after!

BY:Adam|8th November, 2010 6 Comments

GUESS What Happened Today

We continue to open more and more of the unique venues onboard Allure of the Seas. I received an e-mail from Christian Compton, our Project Manager for Fleet Design and New,Building, giving me a hard time because we hadn’t opened the Guess Boutique yet. When we came up with the idea, the space was already designed and built, so Christian and team had to completely redo the store. I promised him if he built it, it would be very successful. So today when I received a note from him asking why the first Guess purchase at sea hadn’t taken place yet I decided today was the day!

Last year on Oasis of the Seas we had the first Coach purchase at sea, and today I had the honor to make the first Guess purchase in our very chic Guess store. We had a big ceremony complete with a ribbon cutting and champagne. Captain Zini and I co-hosted the event. He made a toast and said he hoped that the store would be very successful, that our guests would love it and it would make a lot of revenue…..except from anyone related to him. I replied that I wasn’t toasting to that, and because he said that, he had to buy his wife Anja a present.

We officially opened the store and I bought the first Guess bag, and Captain Zini bought the first piece of jewelry for Anja. These pictures are pretty funny so I thought I would share them.



The Guess store features handbags, jewelry, watches and sunglasses and is really cool. We wanted to take a picture to commemorate the event, and Captain Zini had to have sunglasses. You can see why he now has the nickname Captain Hollywood! I know our guests are going to be WOWed by this new addition to Allure.

BY:Lisa Bauer|7th November, 2010 2 Comments

Come “Move it Move it” with the crew of Allure of the Seas

Entertainment Galore!

Allure of the Seas is certainly the ship of entertainment, and this was totally showcased today in a very powerful way. The entertainment team practiced the parade which is called “Move it Move it “and is based on the fun theme song from the DreamWorks movie Madagasar. It features thirteen of the favorite characters from the DreamWorks Animation films Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda and How to Train your Dragon. We’ve decide to call this event a “Street Spectacular,” as it is so much more than a parade!

The cast includes seventy five members of our Entertainment and Guest Activities team and all twelve divisions onboard will have staff and crew participating for a total of 150 people in the production!

It will be scheduled twice each cruise and includes many fairytale characters including the three little pigs, Big Bad Wolf and Fairy Godmother. I personally loved the the rocking soundtrack, explosion of color, dancing through the streets, fun characters, stilt walkers, scooters, bikes, and the overall celebration! The crew cheered wildly as we all watched. I thought everyone might enjoy this photo we took after the rehearsals.


The Wows continued today with the “World Red Carpet Premier” screening of How to Train Your Dragon in 3D for the crew.. We had a big celebration with a red carpet and champagne to kick off our first 3D screening in the Royal Caribbean International fleet. I have to say the quality of the movie was not only as good as, if not better, than the shore side movie theaters. After the red carpet screening, we gave the crew the opportunity to get their pictures taken with key characters from the movie.

Overall, it was a high energy day with lots of firsts again for Allure of the Seas. I’ve already seen the line up for tomorrow, so lots more excitement to come!

BY:Lisa Bauer|5th November, 2010 No Comments

From Service Standards to iPads Onboard Allure of the Seas

Busy Day on Allure!

Today was unusually busy onboard Allure of the Seas as each of the key departments had a number of unique things happening. We kicked off our “Polishing the GOLD” training sessions. This program is built upon evolving our Gold Anchor brand standards and is very focused on encouraging our crew to ensure they are offering personalized service. The training helps to identify the barriers of being able to deliver the service, and also gives examples of “heroes and legends” around the fleet complete with stories of how others are Delivering the WOW with personalized service. Another objective of the training is to identify ways that our supervisors and managers can reward, recognize and reinforce the crew at the time that they see personalized service being delivered. Due to this, we are also revamping our shipboard recognition program. Everyone onboard is very excited about this program. Polishing the GOLD has been rolled out on Freedom of the Seas, and will be a fleet wide program by the end of the year.

Our Entertainment & Activities Team was officially stress testing the DreamWorks characters today with a photo opportunity session. We invited the crew to get their pictures taken to evaluate how long the pictures take, the correct poses with the characters, how we handle multiple guests in one picture, and the overall process. We then reviewed the photos with the characters so they can see what looks best and know how to pose in the most photogenic way. We believe our guests will really love the photo opportunity and want to ensure it is an easy process. The characters can only be in costume for 20 minutes, so we also have to rotate the characters. Here is a sample picture with the shore side entertainment team lead by VP Peter Compton.

We met with all the wine tenders onboard to introduce another innovation on Allure. It is an iPad application for Vintages, our wine bar. It is very interactive and will give guests the opportunity to learn about different wines, regions, and food pairings and also play games. Guests will be able to order wine and tapas and “set their table”. The order will automatically go the wine tenders to place the order. We did a contest for the crew to name the new program, so I will announce the winner in a few days.

BY:Lisa Bauer|4th November, 2010 2 Comments

Allure of the Seas: How Many Crew Members Does it Take?

What a Crew!

Today was a very busy day onboard Allure of the Seas. The day started with the first Executive Committee Meeting for Allure. It was very unique because we have both leadership teams onboard at the same time. We have Captain Zini and Captain Johnny, both staff Captains, Chief Engineers and Hotel Directors. This is a great opportunity to take a unified team approach for leading the ship.

We also had our first “all crew” meeting today. When we are in regular operations, we will have a crew of 2,176 but right now we have 70 extra crew members onboard for start-up, totalling 2,246. Currently, there are crew members from 78 different nationalities! I think that is a record for us. About 428 of the crew are joining Allure from Oasis of the Seas, and the remainder are from the balance of our fleet. Of course, we do have a few new-hires onboard, especially our DreamWorks characters.

With such a large crew, we had to use both Studio B and the Amber Theatre for the meeting. All of the Food & Beverage crew was in Studio B and the rest of the crew was in the theatre. Because of the great technology onboard Allure, crews in both areas could see Captain Zini host the theatre and our Hotel Director, Raimund, host Studio B,. The purpose of this meeting was to introduce crew members to the Executive Committees, and discuss the importance of training and drills, learning the ship, and most importantly, to inspire and motivate them to Deliver the Wow to our guests.

The meeting was great fun; we even put a challenge out for the crew to achieve the most successful Maiden Voyage ever. While Captain Zini said he isn’t competitive and thought Oasis was amazing, he thinks Allure has the opportunity to be even better (I hope Captain Bill isn’t reading this, by the way). Captain Zini also said it is a good rivalry between sister ships and reaffirmed that Oasis is outstanding before saying if he had to choose between sisters, why would he choose the older, heavier and shorter one? Needless to say that won a huge round of applause and laughter from the group. Allure’s crew is definitely fired up to deliver an amazing guest experience.

I’ve been able to capture some of our experiences during the transatlantic crossing on video. Click here to view Chef Marco’s birthday party, the wine pairing selection for 150 Central Park - our signature specialty restaurant - and my view of the Great Belt Bridge crossing from the top of the ship. Stay in tune with my latest videos by subscribing to our You Tube channel or bookmarking the page.

BY:Adam|3rd November, 2010 No Comments

Come Onboard and Place Your Bets!

We made it!

Today’s big event onboard was cruising under the Great Belt Bridge. Last year we crossed under at night, so it was a very different perspective to do it in the daylight. Captain Zini made a joke that he thought it was ironic that we planned the first crew casino night the same day as the bridge because it made the whole day about gambling. We held a contest onboard with the crew for $100.00 to whoever took the best picture. We are in the process of collecting all the submissions and will post the winning photo when it is selected. I was on Deck 18 as we went under the bridge with Captain Zini’s wife, Anja. All of the crew was out on deck and it was a sea of blue Allure start up jackets everywhere. As we went under the bridge, we were cheered on by the crowd with thunderous applause. I can’t wait to see the pictures.

As if the excitement from the bridge wasn’t enough, we held the first crew casino night officially opening the casino with the ribbon cutting. Everyone had a great time and a lot of money was donated to the crew welfare fund. Captain Zini was dealing black jack. Cruise Director Ken Rush has the record for the biggest loss. He needs black jack lessons!

BY:Lisa Bauer|2nd November, 2010 2 Comments
 

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