Posts Tagged ‘Cruising’

An Enormous Undertaking: Refurbishing Splendour of the Seas

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.

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BY:Adam|18th November, 2011 9 Comments
CATEGORY: Guest Posts, Ships

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

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

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

Adam’s Favorites: Insights into Adam’s Favorite Cruise Activities, Vacation Style and Favorite Destinations

In a week I’ll be on Oasis of the Seas for several nights. You’ll see this afterwards and most likely I will comment on what actually transpires during my trip. Here are some pre-cruise thoughts.

People inside and outside the industry ask me questions such as “Do you like to cruise?”, “How often do you cruise?”, “What do you do on a cruise?”, “What is your favorite cruise?” and “What else do you do for vacation?” So here are my short answers to those questions.

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BY:Adam|23rd August, 2011 9 Comments

Adam Returns from Falmouth: An Update on the Latest Developments

Oasis of the Seas for three nights may not be as much fun as Oasis of the Seas for seven nights, but I’m only allowed so much enjoyment at one time especially when I am working. So I took my three nights and am happy to report I’m pleased with what I experienced at sea and on land.

The primary purpose of the trip was to see Falmouth, Jamaica. The secondary purposes were to get reacquainted with Oasis of the Seas and to see the latest at Labadee.

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BY:Adam|16th August, 2011 22 Comments
CATEGORY: Oasis of the Seas

New Challenges Daily: A Day in the Life of a Facilities Manager on Independence of the Seas

My name is Keith Radmore and I am a Facilities Manager on the Independence of the Seas. So what does a Facilities Manager do? Well, I am responsible for a myriad of things including the cleanliness of the ship, managing the operation of the pool decks, including the very popular H2O Zone water park for our younger guests, and the maintenance of technical equipment in the laundry, galleys and water systems.

Each and every day is different, and I am always confronted with various challenges, which makes my role extremely interesting. So when I was asked if I would like to share my experiences, of course I said yes. So here we go, I will try and paint a picture of what we do and why we do it.
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BY:Keith Radmore|5th August, 2011 12 Comments
CATEGORY: Our Company

My Recent Work with the Cruise Lines International Association and the Energy Security Leadership Council

I recently spent two days in Washington, DC along with others from the cruise industry. The primary purpose was to attend a Board meeting of the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA). We have our summer Board meeting in Washington, DC every year so that the cruise line executives and CLIA’s Executive Partners (mostly top suppliers and key ports) can get an update on what’s happening inside the Beltway and have a chance to do some visits to Members of Congress or at least to the congressional staff.

The cruise companies are first and foremost competitors. So there’s an odd ambiance at these meetings that we all need to work through to attend to the association’s business. And there is never a shortage of business to address. Most of the collective effort of the industry is in the areas of safety, security, environment, medical and public health. But the U.S. government and most other governments seem to come up with an unending array of challenges that keep us on our toes.
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BY:Adam|2nd August, 2011 No Comments

Royal Caribbean and Make-A-Wish: Making Wishes Come True at Sea

My name is Kristin Pearce and I work in the Community Relations department in Royal Caribbean’s Miami office. Our team handles all company initiatives related to the Make-A-Wish Foundation (MAW). June is our company-wide fundraising month for Make-A-Wish called Destination Joy. Many departments in our offices compete for fundraising contributions by hosting ice cream sales, bingo games and even a china and crystal sale, all with the goal of raising money for this amazing organization. As part of our partnership, we host a program called Wishes At Sea, where any given ship could have up to two MAW families onboard. Of course, they are given the Royal VIP treatment and the ship’s crew tries to accommodate every specific aspect of the child’s wish while onboard.

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BY:Kristin Pearce|29th July, 2011 5 Comments
CATEGORY: Charity
 

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