Posts Tagged ‘Cruises’

Adam Endures 49 Hours in the Air as His Travels Continue

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.

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BY:Adam|15th November, 2011 5 Comments

Ask Adam Blog Series - October 2011 Answers


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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BY:Adam|8th November, 2011 19 Comments
CATEGORY: Our Company

Ovations: Preparing a New Cast for a Broadway Show on Liberty

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.

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BY:Adam|3rd November, 2011 7 Comments

Enjoy a 5-Course Meal Onboard Oasis with Master Chef Michael Schwartz

In today’s post we are going to do something a little different. Instead of writing about the new delicious dishes coming October 29th to Oasis of the Seas’ 150 Central Park by Chef Michael Schwartz, we are going to show you. So please sit back and relax as you enjoy a 5-course meal.

BY:Adam|21st October, 2011 11 Comments

The Rise to the Top: A Day in the Life of a Royal Caribbean Stage & Production Manager

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.

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BY:Desmond Charles|18th October, 2011 20 Comments

Ask Adam Blog Series - September 2011 Answers

Fall is in full swing and so is the September edition of the “Ask Adam Blog Series.” To see the answers to August’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.

Do you plan on having a ship stay year round in Tampa? Other cruise companies do. Thank you.
- Karol W-W.

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BY:Adam|11th October, 2011 14 Comments
CATEGORY: Our Company

One Last Performance: Royal Caribbean’s Director of Entertainment Takes Her Final Bow

Over recent months we have featured a number of our crew in “day in the life” entries such as the one immediately below. The response to them has been very favorable but I would like to hear a little more about specifically what makes them enjoyable to read and how we might make them even more so. From my standpoint, I find it interesting that the authors of these guest blogs appear to be so schedule driven. Our shipboard colleagues rightfully speak about how flexible and guest-centric they must be because just about everything is happening onboard at all times. Their blog entries indicate that the way they accomplish the seemingly impossible is to inject structure (i.e., a schedule) into their endlessly unique days. When we ask them to tell us about their “typical” day they often respond by reciting their schedule. When I see this I sometimes ask them to give us more “color commentary” to go with the “play by play”. The goal is to give you (and me!) as much insight into their world as we can bring to a blog entry.
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My name is Maryann Delany and I am the Director of Entertainment for Royal Caribbean Productions. My team and I are located in Hollywood, Florida in a 38,000 square foot rehearsal facility. We are approaching our 11th year here where we audition, cast, contract, house, costume, teach and rehearse singers, dancers, actors, flyers, gymnasts, ice skaters, swimmers, divers and DreamWorks® costume characters, to name a few, We create and produce all entertainment and entertainment-related activities for 22 Royal Caribbean International ships, and two Azamara Club Cruises ships. Collectively we have 14 ice shows, 18 Parades, four water shows, 56 theater productions and three Broadway shows, Hairspray, CHICAGO: The Musical and Saturday Night Fever.

Sovereign of the Seas

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BY:Maryann Delany|4th October, 2011 25 Comments

Adam Shares Some Humorous “Outtake” Stories during his Time at Royal Caribbean

There must be a subliminal current of nostalgia running under our buildings, because we’re quite focused on our history right now. There is a history videography project going on at the moment and there is also a first ever company sponsored reunion event for employees from the early years coming up soon in South Florida. This prompted me to think about some of the past moments I remember or came to know about that wouldn’t show up in press releases or webisodes. There are more where these came from, and feel free to volunteer your own Royal Caribbean “outtake” moments.

1. 1988, underneath Heathrow Airport. During the three plus months of insanity while our company was experiencing a merger and a potential acquisition by Carnival, we had a lot of tasks to complete in Europe. At one point, our CFO, Treasurer and I needed to catch the next flight to Oslo fast. I went to the airport in a different car from the other two and we encountered each other in one of the tunnels under Heathrow, all running as fast as we could with our suitcases – in opposite directions! Fortunately we made the flight.
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BY:Adam|22nd September, 2011 20 Comments
CATEGORY: Our Company

Finalizing Plans for 2012 and a Look at 2013 and Beyond

The end of summer is upon us. We are finalizing our thoughts about the 2012 Plan for Royal Caribbean International. This is always a challenging exercise with 22 ships sailing around the world and customers coming from over 100 countries to those ships. We want to do the best we can for our guests, our shareholders and our employees. This is the primary process for making the necessary trade-offs. It’s never easy.

Even as we define next year’s activities and expenditures we are casting our eyes further forward. All of the strategic discussions about where our ships will sail from spring 2013 to spring 2014 are taking place at this time. There are a lot more opinions than there are ships. Now that we are offering our All Access behind the scenes tour onboard the ships, maybe Chris Allen should offer an All Access behind the scenes tour of our deployment planning. Just kidding.

image-ship-royal-caribbean

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BY:Adam|13th September, 2011 32 Comments
CATEGORY: Our Company

Ask Adam Blog Series - August 2011 Answers

As the summer begins to wind down here is the August edition of our “Ask Adam Blog Series.” To see the answers to July’s questions please click here, or if you have a question you would like to ask Adam regarding Royal Caribbean news, what he’s been up to or just curious about anything Royal related, please follow this link to our Facebook discussion page. Now let’s get to the questions.

Adam, are you from Brooklyn?
- Michael B.

Actually I am from Philadelphia.

Can frequent Royal Caribbean International cruisers submit name ideas for future ships?
– Steph R.

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BY:Adam|9th September, 2011 10 Comments
CATEGORY: Our Company
 

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