Posts Tagged ‘Liberty of the Seas’

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 6 Comments

“I Have the Greatest Job in the World”: A Day in the Life of an Open Deck Manager

My name is Philip Gephardt, and currently I am the Open Deck Manager on Liberty of the Seas, but will soon be transferring to Allure of the Seas. I have been with the company for over three years now, and have loved every ship I have been a part of. So, my friends from the shore side support team have asked if I could write about a regular day in my life, which of course, is not regular at all.

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BY:Philip Gephardt|19th August, 2011 6 Comments

Liberty of the Seas and Saturday Night Fever Dazzle

Although I had just written my “LB from LB” update after visiting Liberty of the Seas post dry dock, I traveled to Barcelona this week to sail with her again. I don’t want to get accused of playing favorites with the ships, but I promised the entertainment team I would be onboard when we premiered our latest Broadway Show, Saturday Night Fever the Musical. I also wanted to see how Liberty and the team onboard did after her first embark in Barcelona, as this is her inaugural season in Europe.

The guest reaction to SNF (That’s how we refer to Saturday Night Fever internally) was nothing short of amazing. The first song started and the guests were already clapping and totally into the show. The audience participation continued through the one hour and twenty minute long show, and culminated in a six minute finale that had the guests on their feet the entire time singing, dancing and clapping wildly. The cast is incredibly talented, in fact, the lead “Tony” actually just came from playing the lead in Grease on the West End in London. The caliber of the cast is unbelievable, because not only do they have to be great singers, but the level of dancing is also highly complex. I know I am biased, but this is the best show we have done yet. I don’t want to spoil too much, so everyone will have to sail on Liberty to experience this special show.

As I did my incognito walk around, I always enjoy watching the guest reaction to our product. This sailing was 4 nights and over 2,300 guests were Spanish. This is more than three times the usual amount of guests on this itinerary. It was very interesting to see what a great asset the digital signs were for our non English speaking guests. These signs are in five languages, and they were used extensively by our guests and got rave reviews. I stood behind a number of guests and asked if I could help them with anything and they said no, that they loved the signs and got the information they needed.

Captain Charles Tiege invited me to dine at the Captain’s table, and it was truly a reflection of the global nature of our brand. We had a number of our most frequent cruisers at the table, and it included couples from Texas, Germany, Canada, and two couples from Spain. As we introduced ourselves around the table, it was interesting to hear the Spanish guests say this was their 43rd cruise, and the German guests had just returned from Allure.

I’m headed home today and sailing on Majesty of the Seas this weekend for a Make a Wish Board retreat and also our Anchored in Excellence program, so I will be sure to update everyone on what is happening on Majesty next week!

BY:Lisa Bauer|9th May, 2011 4 Comments

Adam Returns with Revitalization News as the Royal Advantage Spreads through Radiance

Maybe it is time to end my sabbatical. I want to express my appreciation for all of my colleagues who have been writing entries about diverse aspects of the business. I will certainly continue with this practice as there is nothing like having people write in the first person about their passion to improve their part of our world.

I really cannot put my finger on why it suddenly became harder to write. Some of it was working on topics that were confidential for a sustained period, such as Project Sunshine, which we have now announced will yield our next new ship in 2014. Some of it was an even greater abundance of incoming emails than I would have ever thought possible. In any event, I apologize and will try to write more regularly going forward.

There is certainly no lack of excitement to write about. We are really pleased with the changes we have made to Freedom of the Seas and Liberty of the Seas. Now we are only a few weeks away from undertaking the revitalization of Radiance of the Seas as the next element of the Royal Advantage.

Our Radiance-class ships are truly beautiful and it is fantastic that the first of the class will receive additional features inspired by our newer ships. Radiance of the Seas pioneered many operational and management approaches that have become fleetwide over time. Some of those approaches contributed to her rough start back in 2001. In hindsight, we simply asked for trouble by having too many crew without prior shipboard experience take a new ship class into service. We wanted to (and did) break our previous paradigm of operations, as successful as it had been up until that point. But in so doing we caused guests, travel agents and ourselves more problems than we should have done. Eventually, however, “Project Radiance” led to the successful global, 22-ship operation that Royal Caribbean International is today. And our beautiful Radiance is about to become more beautiful still.

Although I am blogging about the revitalization of Radiance of the Seas, in the office this project is already old news. Next up this fall is the revitalization of Splendour of the Seas. That is one of the projects currently occupying us at headquarters.

BY:Adam|28th April, 2011 14 Comments

“Lady Liberty” is back at Sea and Showing off her New Enhancements!

Guest Blog Post: Lisa Bauer on Liberty of the Seas After Dry Dock

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Last week was a great opportunity to combine our Anchored in Excellence (AIE) visit to Liberty of the Seas with the chance to sail on her immediately after her dry dock last week to access the impact of the new venues and programming.

It was actually hard to believe what the team accomplished in seven days! When we boarded the ship, there was no evidence of construction, not a ceiling panel out of place, and all the new venues looked like they had been there forever. I’m very proud of the team. The only venue that we weren’t able to complete was the nursery, but we knew that would take longer and it will be open beginning this week.

The Cupcake Cupboard is prominent on the Royal Promenade and by the time I got there, my favorite flavor, Red Velvet was sold out! Thought everyone might enjoy a picture of the third Cupcake Cupboard in the fleet.

Another Royal Advantage enhancement was within Vintages. Our guests really loved the new furniture and atmosphere of the Vintages on Oasis class, so we remodeled the Vintages on Liberty, added a wine tasting table, and the very popular Wine dispensing technology. These new machines offer the ability to have 1, 3, or 5 ounces of wine and it is a great way to try new wines.

The new screen on the pool deck is already a huge hit with our guests. We showed Secretariat the first night it was up and the pool deck was packed. I can’t wait to see the reaction when our guests get to watch popular sporting events, like the Super Bowl, on the screen.

We were busy, because not only did we add the screen on the pool deck, we also added the 3D movie capability in the theatre. This 3D programming is one of the many elements of the DreamWorks® Experience that we launched this week on Liberty. The sail away party was very festive, and adults and kids alike approached the characters for a hug or picture. We did two character breakfasts this week, and I was very happy to have had chocolate waffles for breakfast! The parade is amazing on Liberty, and Shrek, Fiona, Po and the gang seem to “pop” up around the ship.

I really enjoyed watching our guests interacting with the digital signage. It was such a huge success on Oasis that we added it to Liberty, and it has quickly become a great resource for our guests.

During dry dock, we also greatly extended the WIFI capabilities of the ship, what we now call pervasive WIFI, so I was able to keep up with my colleagues in Miami from the comfort of my stateroom. The entire ship now has WIFI instead of just select areas.

I will be back on Liberty in late April, as our timeline to officially open our Broadway Show Saturday Night Fever is the April 21st sailing, and I can’t wait!

Not only was I able to sail and spend time on Liberty, but Radiance of the Seas was docked right across from us in Cozumel, so I joined Captain Claus and Hotel Director Clunis for a total walk around of Radiance to review all the new venues that Radiance will receive when she goes into dry dock in May this year.

Allure became known as the Ship of Entertainment, and now I am going to name Radiance the Culinary ship! When we did the full tour, the totality of all the new food & beverages was overwhelming. Radiance will feature a Samba Grill where the current SeaView café currently is located, a Rita’s Cantina, an Izumi, our highly acclaimed Chef’s Table, Giovanni’s Table will replace Portofino and both the Boardwalk DogHouse and the Park Café will be added! We may need to add more equipment in the gym with this plethora of food offerings. Of course there is a lot more to the revitalization than dining, and I believe the new Diamond Lounge will be beautiful, as will the new Concierge Lounge.

BY:Lisa Bauer|10th February, 2011 32 Comments

Keeping up in the Cruise Industry: Why Royal’s Revitalizations Offer an Advantage

Liberty of the Seas recently left the Port of Miami headed for Grand Bahama Island and her significant dry-dock that will underscore what we mean by the Royal Advantage. This is a historic event in the sense that we are going to enhance the offering of a ship that is not even four years old and very much still at the forefront of the industry. Why? Because we created possibilities with our Oasis-class that we can and will bring to Freedom-class beginning with Liberty of the Seas this week.

We have already promoted the new features and Lisa Bauer and others will describe the dry-dock and its aftermath in more detail. I simply want to emphasize that this dry-dock commences a program of revitalization that will keep our fleet preeminent in the cruise industry. Next up after Liberty is a similar body of work on Freedom of the Seas in March. Later in the year we will refresh Radiance of the Seas and then Splendour of the Seas. Although no decisions about further revitalizations have been made as of yet, we certainly hope to enhance the Royal Advantage on other ships in the fleet in the future.

Click here to see photos of Liberty of the Seas in dry-dock: Liberty of the Seas Revitalization Album

Note: Last week we found out that Royal Caribbean International won a Cheers Beverage Excellence 2011 Award for Best Chain Hotel Beverage Program. Our Beverage team, under the direction of Frank Weber, VP Food & Beverage, and Bob Midyette, Director, Fleet Beverage Operations, is justifiably proud to have won this prestigious award. Our competition includes all land based hotel groups in the U.S. and abroad, e.g., Hyatt, Marriott, Hilton, InterContinental, MGM, Ritz Carlton, Conrad, etc., plus of course all cruise lines. Well done!

BY:Adam|27th January, 2011 34 Comments

When I Think “Royal Caribbean 2011,” I Think…

We have our plan for 2011. Of course I cannot blog about what is in the plan (stronger! higher! faster!) but I can remind myself and the readers about some of the exciting things that lie ahead in 2011.

First, following Allure of the Seas’ highly successful introduction, Royal Caribbean now has 22 ships in service throughout the world scheduled to deliver the Wow to over three million guests in 2011. Our satisfaction ratings are strong and we are fully engaged every day in learning how to serve a completely global mix of guests better and better. Our ships, service and destinations are what led us to declare the Royal Advantage a few months ago. We look forward to adding to the Royal Advantage as often as possible in 2011 and beyond.

It’s particularly pleasing that our loyal Crown & Anchor Society members have reacted so positively to the program changes we made in 2010. As I have written here from time to time, we look forward to making the Society even more attractive in 2011.

I look forward to another year of working successfully with travel agents in the U.S. and around the world. Almost every major travel agency group in the U.S. announced Royal Caribbean as their Cruise Line of the Year during their fall conferences.

We are all excited about the revitalizations that will take place next year. The features we will add to the still-new Freedom of the Seas and Liberty of the Seas and the extensive facelifts we will give to Radiance of the Seas and Splendour of the Seas will make the Royal Advantage even more obvious on those ships.

Falmouth, Jamaica will (finally) come on line as a new destination in the first quarter of 2011. As far as I know, our Falmouth project has been the largest infrastructure development project in the Caribbean basin in recent years. Our guests from Oasis-class and other ships will be able to choose from shore excursion possibilities from Ocho Rios to Montego Bay.

Our offerings in Europe next year are a remarkable step for Royal Caribbean. With Liberty of the Seas in Barcelona and a total of eleven ships in the region during the summer, we will have more capacity in Europe than any other cruise line. Remember, if you want to see the Mediterranean and have reliable air conditioning in your hotel room, Royal Caribbean is the way to go in 2011.

There’s a lot more I could say; from improvements to our web site to a second ship in Australia (Radiance), to possibly another Royal 5k or two. But it should be pretty clear by now that three or more nights on a Royal Caribbean ship in 2011 is well worth considering. Better yet, well worth reserving so you can begin selecting your specialty restaurants, spa appointments and excursions in advance of your cruise.

There are 30,000+ men and women who work for Royal Caribbean International, so there are at least that many reasons for me to express my appreciation for the efforts and accomplishments of 2010. And a special thank you to my leadership team: Marta Barrios, Lisa Bauer, Michael Bayley, Diana Block, John Fox, Vicki Freed, Eleni Kalisch, Craig Milan, Ken Muskat, Betsy O’Rourke, Barbara Shrut and Bill Wright. Happy Holidays!

BY:Adam|21st December, 2010 4 Comments

Boogie to the Beats of Saturday Night Fever!

By Lisa Bauer

The music is some of the most recognizable in the world. The movie single- handedly launched the world wide disco phenomenon. It was the idea that Saturday Night Fever has such global appeal that inspired us to add this amazing show to the entertainment line up on Liberty of the Seas in April of 2011 as she transitions to her first European season. Most importantly, it was our guests that selected this show when we did a survey searching for show options for Liberty of the Seas. I, of course wasn’t surprised this show was selected, especially watching the reaction that our 70’s night party had onboard with everyone singing and dancing in the Royal Promenade, and it is a standing (OK dancing) room only! This show also appeals to all ages, as one of my fondest memories is twirling with my 11 year old nephew Kyle after he asked me to dance to “Night Fever.”

We know that entertainment is one of the most important elements to our guests, and since we’ve introduced Hairspray and soon to premier Chicago: The Musical, it is clear that this level of Broadway and West End productions have truly elevated our entertainment line up. Of course, it also means that we can’t even take a breather after Allure of the Seas . My entertainment team, fresh off delivering a plethora of parades, ice, water, and production shows on Allure of the Seas, will not have any rest – but rather will head to New York next week to begin the auditions for Saturday Night Fever. We will begin a search for 24 talented cast members that will bring this show to life. I have no doubt that the theatre on Liberty of the Seas will have our guests out of their seats and singing and dancing to the Bee Gees’ mega hits during these shows!

Liberty of the Seas certainly has a special place in my heart – her initials are LB, as are mine. She arrived in the US during the inaugurals on my birthday back in 2007, so I am thrilled that during her dry dock in January, we will be adding a number of exciting features that our guests truly embraced on Oasis of the Seas . Everything from Cupcake Cupboard to a nursery, our award winning digital signage, outdoor movie screens, our DreamWorks line up, and 3D movie capabilities will all be new features.

Get your dancing shoes on and get ready to join us on Liberty!

BY:Lisa Bauer|12th October, 2010 23 Comments

Share Your “Over the Top” Cruise Stories With Us

There’s something about cruising that lends itself to “Over the Top” stories. A recent example is the story of a family that excitedly arrived at the pier to check in for Liberty of the Seas in honor of their son’s Bar Mitzvah. There was only one problem: the family had no documentation for the son whatsoever.

Notwithstanding our and travel agents’ efforts to communicate the documentation requirements in brochures, eDocs, web sites and various other ways, these guests did not have anything for their son. Incidentally, we are currently in the process of making the documentation requirements easier to understand in order to help spare any future confusion and last minute emergencies.

With the sand running out of the hourglass and no family back home, which was a thousand or so miles from the ship, they were able to arrange for a friend to break into their house via the back door window, find and fax the necessary documents. The Bar Mitzvah present was preserved with minutes to spare. In honor of this family’s determination (unfortunately not in honor of their advance preparations), I ask our readers to post their “Over the Top” stories of what they or people they know have done to get on a cruise.

A related topic is things that guests, especially children, do to express their appreciation for having experienced the Wow on a Royal Caribbean cruise. I recently received through Customer Relations a phenomenal bound and desktop published PowerPoint from a 5th grader named Abigail. She had a page for every letter of the alphabet to explain something about her cruise on Explorer of the Seas. She did this as a project for school but also sent us a copy. I brought it to my staff meeting and all of the leaders of our brand wrote a comment to Abigail about her work. So my question for our readers here would be, what are the best expressions of appreciation for a cruise that you have ever heard about or seen first hand?

BY:Adam|17th August, 2010 21 Comments

Guest Post - BIG NEWS on Freedom of the Seas and Liberty of the Seas!

Lisa Bauer - Senior VP, Hotel Operations

It seems like just yesterday that we were broadcasting the Today Show onboard Freedom of the Seas when we introduced her to the world, and then one short year later, her sister Liberty joined our fleet. It’s hard to believe that the year was 2006, and these two amazing ships are already set to go to dry-dock in the first quarter of 2011. This presented us with a very unique opportunity to take advantage of the fact that both ships were going to dry-dock, as we wanted to begin to further enhance the already amazing guest experience on these ships by introducing a number of key innovations from Oasis. We focused on those experiences that were most important to our guests, so drum roll please…..

A major focus will be on entertainment and activities, and we will introduce large outdoor movie screens pool side, like those found in the aqua-theatre. This has been a huge hit on Oasis, where our guests have enjoyed everything from family movie nights, to watching the Super Bowl and next month we’ll be broadcasting World Cup Soccer. In addition to the outdoor screens, we will also be introducing 3D movie screens and projectors in the main theatre to take advantage of all the new 3D movies being produced, which will be a very unique brand offering. Continuing with the entertainment, we will also feature a children’s puppet show on both ships, which is a wonderful family experience that incorporates live theatre and puppeteering. Another very popular activity from Oasis, Live the City, will also join the activities line up. It’s a scavenger hunt style activity where guests get the inside look at how our ships are built, the inner workings of the operation and interesting facts. Another WOW from Oasis was the first Nursery for our brand, and because of its amazing popularity, we will also be introducing a Nursery on Freedom and Liberty, adding to our acclaimed Adventure Ocean children’s program.

As a finale on the entertainment line-up, and based on the overwhelming success of Hairspray on Oasis, and soon Chicago on Allure, we also had the unique opportunity on Liberty of the Seas to negotiate rights to another Broadway Show, which will be added in 2011, but I am going to keep the actual show a secret for now. (A girl can’t tell everything at one time!)

On the culinary front, we had a lot of fun trying to decide which features from Oasis to bring to these ships, and the overwhelming favorite was Cupcake Cupboard! We can’t seem to bake enough cupcakes to keep up with the demand, and the guests love the cupcake decorating classes. It will be interesting to see if Red Velvet remains the top favorite on these ships, or if Turtle moves into the #1 cupcake spot :)

Our favorite wine bar Vintage’s will also be getting an update that will include the very popular wine tasting table, as well as enomatic wine dispensers that have become a favorite on Oasis.

The interactive digital signage on Oasis, which was touted as one of the top cruise innovations of 2009, will also be part of the Freedom and Liberty new programming.

BY:Adam|14th May, 2010 53 Comments
 

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