Posts Tagged ‘Legend of the Seas’

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

Adam Shares Memorable Travel Experiences from the 1970’s to Present Day

I recently posted an entry on some of some memorable work-related events from over the years. The topic today is memorable travel experiences I have had during my years at Royal Caribbean, and a few from before I joined the company. I would like to hear from you about your own favorite travel experiences.

1990 & 2002 – Alaska cruise and excursions most notably the Taku River flightseeing and salmon bake, the helicopter tour that landed on the glacier and the boat trip to see the orcas. This is a major bucket list experience and so far we have cruised twice in Alaska. Even if the local bear that ran to the grill and licked the remnants of the salmon was staged, it was entertaining. The views of the blue ice in the glaciers make for top notch sightseeing. But the best memory of all is the kayak trip near Ketchikan with my then-7 year old son in a rainstorm so powerful the water penetrated all seven layers of our clothing starting with the orange rain gear which only succeeded in turning our bodies orange.

Alaskan Glacier

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BY:Adam|26th September, 2011 4 Comments

The Puzzle of Placing Ships: Adam Takes a Look at the 2012 Deployment

Another year of Royal Caribbean International deployment is open, in this case from the spring of 2012 to the spring of 2013. Deployment means the placement of the ships on itineraries every day of the year except for when they are in dry-dock. Deployment is one of the most important and time-consuming processes we undertake each year. It is one of the most secretive processes we engage in while it is in process, and then one of the most publicized after we are finished.

Everyone cares about deployment – shareholders, customers, employees and communities. These are the same four constituencies we mention in our corporate vision statement. One of my occasional guest bloggers, Chris Allen, is Director of Deployment and Itinerary Planning. He oversees a small but ace team of experts who coordinate amongst numerous departments internally and with hundreds of ports externally to identify the right place for each ship on each day of each year. His team is charged with understanding the economics (i.e., profitability) of every decision we make with our fleet. As if that were not enough, another team led by Jason Liberty, our VP of Corporate Planning, evaluates ship profitability from its own perspective.

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BY:Adam|19th July, 2011 No Comments
CATEGORY: Deployment

Adam Discusses the Recent Events that are Shaping Royal Caribbean’s Future

Some updates from Royal Caribbean’s world:

The tragic events in Japan have posed a number of challenges to us as it relates to Legend of the Seas’ Asia program. Before I get into those, I will re-emphasize that our thoughts and prayers remain with the people who have suffered from the effects of one or more of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power plant breakdown.

Because we were enthusiastic to get going with our North Asia program in 2011, we had picked an early start date – March 14th – to begin our cruises from Shanghai to Japan and Korea. The series of disastrous events unfolded right as the program was beginning. Eventually, we had no choice but to relocate Legend to Hong Kong and Singapore for the spring and early summer period. That means we had to start from scratch to offer cruises that no one had anticipated selling or buying. While this year will not be what we thought it could be for Legend, I am incredibly proud of the efforts of our colleagues in China and Singapore for the way they have taken up the multiple challenges of dealing with this situation. Fortunately, China’s government has rescinded the travel ban to Japan and we look forward to resuming our scheduled program from Tianjin in July.

“It might be 20 years too late for my wife and me, but Royal Caribbean now has a honeymoon registry website at RoyalCaribbeanHoneymoon.com. I won’t even try to compete with the copy writers for this new offering: “(it) will be a site that allows brides and grooms to register to have guests make contributions to their honeymoon onboard one of our ships as their wedding gift. The couple will be able to register for items such as spa treatments, specialty dining, shores excursions, Gifts and Gear, onboard credits or cash contributions towards the cruise fare.” Having missed our chance by two decades, we’ll have to find out if it’s possible to register for a vow renewal.

I’m happy to say that thanks to the release of iPhone app v1.1 we have expanded our global reach to Brazil and Spain and this blog is now available in the mobile world. Please do not read my blog while you are driving! Also, if you are inclined to book your next cruise on our website, you can get inspired by our new destination pages and you can now hold up to four staterooms simultaneously whereas until now you needed to book one room at a time. You can even split the payment among different credit cards!

Finally, you can watch our two mini-movies, “Royal Reunion” directed by and starring James Brolin, and “The Allure of Love” directed by and starring Jenny McCarthy, at any time by going to our web site or just by searching “Ocean Views films”. They are about 11 minutes each, or less time than it will take to make and eat the popcorn.”

BY:Adam|13th June, 2011 2 Comments

A Team Truly Anchored in Excellence

Anchored in Excellence. Three of my favorite words. We created this phrase 12 years ago to describe our aspiration for our people and our relationship with our employees and guests. It is about our company, not just the Royal Caribbean International brand. In fact, we developed Anchored in Excellence after we brought Celebrity Cruises into the company alongside Royal Caribbean International. The Anchor in Anchored is from Royal Caribbean’s crown & anchor symbol. The X in Excellence is from Celebrity’s symbol.

The expression of Anchored in Excellence takes many forms, from a simple credo card, to the annual visits of every ship in the fleet by senior operations management. I intend no higher praise than when I tell a ship, department, team, or person, that they are Anchored in Excellence.

The qualities of being Anchored in Excellence are exhibited every day in countless ways. Most of them in the delivery of Gold Anchor Service to our guests onboard the ships, but also shoreside across the globe, and in innumerable ways. However, every once in a while there is a major tangible expression of what it means to be Anchored in Excellence. One such example occurred last week, and I can summarize it by repeating here the internal letter I broadcast by email to our people across the company:

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Dear Employees:.

Please join me in expressing my appreciation and gratitude to the crew onboard Legend of the Seas for their valiant efforts. .

Monday, as Legend of the Seas was sailing in the Taiwan Strait, it received a distress call from the Panama-registered freighter Xin Yi. Legend of the Seas noted the position and set a course towards the location. Legend of the Seas was the first ship to arrive at the distressed ship, which was sinking. Faced with very rough seas and heavy winds up to 75 miles per hour, crew members onboard Legend of the Seas immediately began search and rescue operations. Once the Taiwan Coast Guard arrived at the location, they began assisting with air and sea searches. Together with the Taiwan Coast Guard, Legend of the Seas was able rescue three of the crew and assist in the rescue of another nine of the cargo ship’s 22 crew members.

After taking part in the rescue operation for approximately 12 hours, the ship was advised by the Coast Guard that they would assume control of the search for the remaining missing crew members. Legend of the Seas resumed its journey to Hong Kong with three of the rescued sailors onboard. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the cargo ship’s 22 crew members and their families. .

To the Captain, Officers and crew of Legend of the Seas - we are extremely proud of your important contribution to this unfortunate event. Congratulations on a job well done!

This was an awful situation. Even the ship’s heroic efforts could not prevent loss of life as at least one crew member was confirmed dead, and at least three were still missing as of last report. But if Legend of the Seas had not responded in the manner it did, the outcome would have been much worse still. I cannot describe how I feel about Legend of the Seas’ team more powerfully, and succinctly, than to say they are truly Anchored in Excellence.

It is already a great accomplishment to make such an impact once in a year. But I am proud to say that this episode is only one of many such examples from 2010, which has also included our Haiti earthquake relief efforts, the opening of the new primary school on our property at Labadee, the repatriation by Celebrity Eclipse of UK citizens trapped on tour in Spain by the volcanic eruption in Iceland, and many local community service efforts around the world.

BY:Adam|25th October, 2010 12 Comments

Paying Homage to Our Older Ships As They Continue Delivering the WOW

Our readers have expressed a lot of interest in Legend of the Seas (above), in particular and the role of the older ships in the fleet in general. When you think about how many guests have had a great Royal Caribbean vacation on Monarch of the Seas, Majesty of the Seas, Legend of the Seas, Splendour of the Seas, Grandeur of the Seas, Rhapsody of the Seas, Enchantment of the Seas and Vision of the Seas since they were introduced in the period from 1991 to 1998, it’s no wonder. The bottom line is these ships are still very important to our brand and to our company.

Consider Monarch of the Seas and Majesty of the Seas, each doing 3 & 4 night cruises to the Bahamas. Each ship takes about 2,500 guests on a cruise twice a week. The two ships together carry 500,000 of our guests each year, including an important percentage of our first time cruisers. We revitalized each of these ships in recent years and are glad to have done so.

The other six ships, mentioned above, comprise the Vision Class. Some of our veteran cruisers know instinctively that this “class” is really more about cousins than siblings. Essentially, the class consists of three pair of two ships. Legend and Splendour were built in France in ‘95 and ‘96. Grandeur and Enchantment were built in Finland in ‘96 and ‘97. Rhapsody and Vision were built in France in ‘97 and ‘98. Of these, only Enchantment thus far has been revitalized not to mention stretched.

While we don’t have anything to announce in the way of revitalizations, the Vision Class ships are clearly important to our expanding business. Legend is in Asia, Rhapsody will soon be back in Australia, Splendour and Vision are headed to Brazil in a few months, and Grandeur will be in the Mediterranean next summer. We are attracting many first time cruisers from high potential countries by placing these ships in or near their home markets. These same itineraries also offer a great diversity of opportunity for our experienced cruisers to explore the world with Royal Caribbean. We spend a lot of time and effort working with our ship teams so they can deliver the “Wow” to widely varying guest mixes. Our satisfaction ratings this year underscore that our shipboard colleagues are meeting this challenge well.

Even as we are in the homestretch of preparations to take delivery of Allure of the Seas, our team is highly cognizant of the valuable role that our older ships play in Royal Caribbean’s world. We look forward to having them in our fleet for the foreseeable future. Please feel free to write and tell us your favorite Vision Class moments.

BY:Adam|2nd September, 2010 45 Comments

The December Diamond Celebration!

By Betsy O’Rourke

In June we announced some significant changes to the Crown & Anchor Society Loyalty Program that were member-driven including a new onboard booking bonus as well as enhanced onboard benefits by tier. We know how important our repeat guests are and we are proud to have so many loyal to Royal members. Last year, we launched the Diamond Celebration in December to recognize our two top tiers in the Crown & Anchor program. These very special cruisers have sailed with us a minimum of 11 times and our Diamond Plus members have sailed at least 25 times. We are fortunate to have several thousand members who have achieved this very special status within our program, and we decided that we needed to celebrate them.

The idea started because we were launching Oasis of the Seas last year, and we know that our most frequent cruisers like to sail our newest ships so we thought we could make it even more of a special occasion. But then my colleague Lisa Bauer, SVP Operations, said, “Why don’t we do this on all of the ships for the month of December?” and we all thought it was a great idea.

Royal Caribbean values our guests who return to us again and again for the Royal treatment, and the Crown & Anchor Society’s Diamond Celebration is our special way of honoring and thanking our most frequent guests for their loyalty.

During our December Diamond Celebration, Diamond and Diamond Plus-member guests can attend the special nightly Diamond event, during which Crown & Anchor Society members can mingle with senior ship officers and staff, and with each other. In addition to the standard benefits, Diamond and Diamond Plus-level members will be recognized and pampered by the entire Royal Caribbean Gold Anchor staff and crew with commemorative Crown & Anchor Society gifts and other surprising onboard elements. Crown & Anchor Society members will also receive one additional Crown & Anchor Society cruise credit for sailing during the December Diamond Celebration.

Last year we had many Diamond and Diamond Plus members sail in the month of December. We received so many lovely comments and emails thanking us for all of the special events and gifts. Every ship competed for the best scores from our guests and Voyager of the Seas and Legend of the Seas tied for first place.

Of course, this year we hope even more of our members will join the December Diamond Celebration and I’ll be sure to report back and let you know. We already know that several of our members have booked both the Dec 1 and the Dec 5 sailing on our newest ship, Allure of the Seas. Our crew onboard all 22 of our ships are already thinking about how they’re going to surprise and delight our loyal to Royal guests.

BY:Adam|20th August, 2010 16 Comments

Updates From My Trip to Asia (with Videos)

My annual summer trip to Asia transpired last week. I can always count on two things to be true. First, it is logistically daunting, in this case nine flights and over 48 hours in the air and no stays beyond two nights in one place. Second, it is exciting and rewarding to work with our people in the region to spur the development of our brand and the cruise industry overall.

First I was in Singapore, our Asia/Pacific Regional headquarters. Jennifer Yap and her team have done a very nice job of establishing our presence and the team is looking forward to the return of Legend of the Seas for the winter season. Because Singapore (thus far) allows a large local competitor to require travel agents to sign contracts restricting them from promoting other cruise lines, we have consumers coming into our office to book their cruises directly with us. This is unique amongst our global offices and it was interesting to observe the dynamic between the consumers and our people.

When I first visited Singapore in 1990, it was a strikingly modern city with many gleaming office towers. With the recent opening of their two so-called integrated resorts or IRs, Singapore has graduated to a whole new level of 21st century sophistication. I stayed in the Marina Bay Sands, one of the two IRs, and toured the other IR which is on the island of Sentosa. They are very different from one another, with Marina Bay being more for “MICE” guests – that is, Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions – and Sentosa being more for families. Both IRs have substantial casinos and an array of top notch restaurants and other attractions including a new Universal Studios theme park at Sentosa. The big attraction at Marina Bay is the park that sits on top of the three 57 story towers. Incredible.

Then I shifted to China, traveling first to Shanghai, then to Beijing. In each case I spent time with government officials who are interested in developing the “cruise economy” as they call it; with port officials because the Chinese are seriously focused on infrastructure development; and of course with travel agents because somebody has to find customers to put on Legend of the Seas or there is no cruise economy. It was clear to me that Dr. Zinan Liu and his team have gained significant experience in their roles since I was in China a year ago. This is the brave new world and we have a lot of work to do to capture the huge potential of China as a cruise market.

One night in Shanghai I visited the World Expo with Dr. Liu and his leadership team. This is the World Expo of World Expos. It is to Shanghai what the Olympics were to Beijing. They are projecting 70 million visitors from May to October. Most of the visitors are Chinese but there are many international tourists as well. It is simply enormous. With the benefit of VIP passes we were able to see both the China pavilion and the Japan pavilion in one evening including dinner. Without VIP passes one would have to expect multi-hour lines for any of the principal pavilions. There are multi-stop bus routes inside the complex. It is really something to see the whole world come to Shanghai.

Another night in Beijing, I had a very different experience with an evening function we had for travel agents. What made it notable was that Dr. Liu had arranged for a table tennis table so the Chinese travel agents could torment me. I actually would have been ok if I had brought my own paddle. While everyone knows the Chinese hold the paddle differently, I had no idea that a Chinese paddle has a short, stubby handle to facilitate that grip. To make matters worse, the paddle had dimples on one side and a flat surface on the other side. I did not want to hit with the dimples, so I had to guess where my opponent would hit the ball so I could get the flat surface on that side. Oh brother. I won three of five matches under those conditions. Next year I will bring my paddle.

Finally, I visited my brother who lives in Japan with his wife, daughter and newborn son. My adorable niece mostly speaks Japanese but she knows a good number of English words. From her I learned that animals in Japan make very different sounds than animals in the US. I’m not sure why that should be, but I can now report that cows and dogs do not say moo and woof in Japan.

I got back to Miami exactly in time to see Spain defeat the Netherlands in the World Cup final. Congratulations to Spain. Our colleagues at Pullmantur in Madrid and in Royal Caribbean’s Barcelona office should be open for business again in a few weeks. Just kidding.

BY:Adam|26th July, 2010 11 Comments

Guest Post- An Interesting Week in Ops and a Sneak Peek!

It’s been a very interesting week. I just returned from an Anchored in Excellence (AIE) visit to Monarch of the Seas. We joined the ship in Nassau and sailed back to Port Canaveral. I have to say that I was truly impressed with the teamwork and spirit onboard. I was also very happy to see the strong focus on crew satisfaction. The Monarch Executive Committee has been putting a lot of focus on revitalizing the crew areas, including an updated gym, new food stations and the crew outdoor deck areas.

I had forgotten that we had used Monarch to test the Izumi concept for Oasis. We had a dinner with the executive committee at Izumi and all cooked our own dinners with the hot rocks. It was a good reminder of how we always test concepts in the fleet before rolling them out to a new build or to the rest of the fleet. The Jade area on Monarch was also great and in addition to the hot rocks, guests can also get Sushi, or Chop’s Grille salads, shrimp cocktail and steak.

I have to say that it really shows the power of the guest service and value of the crew when I look at how Monarch is performing on our balanced scorecard. She is the number two ship in the fleet and her ratings are consistently improving and above target. I told the crew that if all you had to do was be the newest ship to be on top of the scorecard it was one thing, but to have a 19-year-old ship in the second position, and closing in on the number one spot, was clearly a sign of the focus on guests and “Delivering the Wow” at every opportunity. (In case you were wondering, Legend of the Seas is currently number one in the fleet)

One of our guests certainly had the Wow delivered to her on Oasis this week. She was playing the slots and put in three coins for the max bet and won $125,000! This happened on the first night of the cruise. The ship was all a buzz about her big jackpot. (I went to Gulfstream to try my luck after reading about her luck, but only won $32.00 playing Fireball, my new favorite slot machine)

There are a lot of discussions about Allure this week, as Ken Rush, our start up Cruise Director, is already in town working on the compasses and activities line up for Allure. There is so much additional programming and activities related to the DreamWorks events that we will probably have at least 26 versions of the compass before we finalize the ultimate week that showcases two ice shows, Chicago, Blue Planet, two aqua theatre shows, 3D movies, parades, as well as all the other special activities and events! There is so much we have planned that I think our guests will need to sail for two weeks in order to experience it all.

BY:Adam|23rd July, 2010 2 Comments

Guest Post: Fleet Operations Conference

Lisa Bauer - Senior VP, Hotel Operations

Lisa Bauer - Senior VP, Hotel Operations

Last week we hosted our fleet wide Captains and Hotel Directors for a conference in Orlando. The theme of the conference was Leadership, and our overall Executive Committee effectiveness. The Executive Committee onboard is comprised of the Captain, Staff Captain, Chief Engineer, Hotel Director and Human Resources Manager.

It was a great 5 days with the group. There were several highlights, too many to note, but I thought I would share a few…

We have a shipboard advisory committee comprised of 3 Captains and 3 Hotel Directors – their leadership was so inspiring during various sessions. The fleet really looks up to these gentlemen, and it is clear to see why.

The team building event was held at Universal Studios and it featured a scavenger hunt based on our conference theme – this group is so competitive I couldn’t believe it. It is funny to note the teams that had a few women on them did the best – because they would actually ask for directions :)

One of the key highlights of the conference was the awards ceremony. South Florida Make-A-Wish President and CEO Norm Wedderburn presented each ship in the fleet an award for their contributions and support of Make-A-Wish, and we had a Wish Family attend and share the power of the wish. (There wasn’t a dry eye in the room). There were lots of awards that night, but the big award was Ship of the Year, which went to Legend of the Seas. Captain Bill and I presented this award, and we couldn’t agree on who would actually open the envelope to announce the winner, so we did “rock, scissors, paper.” It took us 8 ties before I finally lost and he got to announce the winner.

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BY:Adam|12th March, 2010 17 Comments
 

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