Posts Tagged ‘Richard Fain’

The Royal Oldies: An Ocean-Sized Reunion

My name is Michael Bayley and I am the Executive Vice President, International at Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. Since joining Royal Caribbean in 1981 as Assistant Purser on the Nordic Prince I have worked with so many wonderful and talented people. Too many to count and too many to remember.

Over the years as I bumped into former shipboard and shoreside colleagues literally all over the world we would share our many memories and re-live some magical moments. Many times we would say good bye with the words “we really should get all the oldies together, it would be a blast”.
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BY:Michael Bayley|14th October, 2011 13 Comments

Project Sunshine: Adam Sheds a Little Light on the Next Fleet Member

A new ship project like Project Sunshine is a remarkable phenomenon. The physical ship won’t be ours until well over three years from now. Yet we already live with an unending series of deadlines that drive our team as the customer for the project. The shipyard, Meyerwerft in the case of Sunshine, metes out these deadlines so that our actions support the successful completion of their incredibly complex undertaking to create a state of the art cruise ship on time and on budget.

Since I cannot divulge anything about the new ship concept, I will write a little bit about the process. If you know anything about our company, you know that our Chairman & CEO Richard Fain is intensely interested and involved in all of our new ship projects. The only reason I use the word intensely is because I cannot think of a more intense word to use to describe his level of attention, fascination with and contribution to our new ships.

We have a specialized department at the company for these mega-projects called Newbuild. I think the real name is Fleet Design & Newbuild but everyone just says Newbuild. The short-hand is a misnomer because the department is involved in much more than new ships including our Royal Advantage revitalization program which has Radiance of the Seas in the dry-dock in Victoria, British Columbia getting a make-over as I write this. But the new ship design and construction process is the key involvement that Executive VP Harri Kulovaara, chief designer Kelly Gonzalez and the rest of the Newbuild team focus on the most. Harri’s number one responsibility is to make sure the ships come out as amazingly as Richard has in mind for them to do.

Our design process is immersive for our Marketing and Operations teams. We believe that the teams who have responsibility for understanding consumer desires and delivering the products and services should be directly involved in the Newbuild creative and design processes. This may sound obvious but I believe different cruise companies have different opinions about who to involve and when to involve them. In our case, there is an Executive Steering committee for Project Sunshine that is led by Richard, Harri and myself that oversees all aspects of the effort. Most of my leadership team participates on the committee. We meet every month, usually for a full day, to go over critical aspects of the project.

Another typical aspect of our company’s approach to new cruise ship design is to utilize a roster of design firms under our central direction. There is no one master designer who takes the project and runs with it. Harri and Kelly are constantly working with the designers on the various ship features and then the designers regularly must present to the Steering Committee and receive our feedback. This interaction is always interesting. To paraphrase former football coach Bum Phillips, there are two types of designer/architects you never want to have on your team – the ones who always push back and the ones who never push back. In fact, we are extremely fortunate to have an incredibly talented roster of creative and committed professionals who are determined that their particular assignment will add something very special to Project Sunshine. Many of these designers have been with us on previous projects and know the drill well.

The Executive Steering committee normally meets in Miami which requires a number of people to fly regularly from the shipyard in Papenburg, Germany to our headquarters. However, in May the Miami-based committee members traveled to the shipyard and held our monthly meeting at Meyerwerft. We might do this once or twice per year and in this case we had a very successful session that has the team even more enthused about Project Sunshine if that is possible. It certainly underscores the reality of the project when you go to a working shipyard and go through everything in detail. Shipyard CEO Bernard Meyer advised me that the larger of his two enclosed building halls is either the largest building in Europe or second to the building hall for the A380 airplanes.

Before we left, Richard, Harri and I took a quick tour of the nearly completed Celebrity Silhouette, our sister brand’s 4th of five Solstice-class ships. We have a long way to go on Project Sunshine before similar finishing touches are applied. But rest assured that behind the scenes, a lot of dedicated and knowledgeable people are propelling us towards the finish line in 2014. Eventually, we’ll tell you all about it.

BY:Adam|1st June, 2011 36 Comments

Richard Fain Remembers CruiseMatch’s Origins

 

Richard D. Fain - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

I’m happy to say my entry on CruiseMatch inspired at least one person, especially since that person happens to be our Chairman & CEO Richard Fain. Richard was involved in the birth of CruiseMatch and has enthusiastically supported its development over the years. Here is his postscript:

“Adam, seeing your blog about the next advance of CruiseMatch reminded me of its origins. It is hard to imagine, but this was back at a time when fax machines were still novel. We wanted to equip our travel partners with the latest technology and thought we were very advanced because we were giving away fax machines to travel agents just so they could receive confirmations of bookings.

While we thought that was impossibly futuristic, Ken Trippe was thinking even further into the future. He envisioned a computer system that would seamlessly connect us with our travel agent partners for all aspects of the booking process. He did more than envision it. He developed a system which he called CruiseMatch which would give travel agents direct access into our booking system. It would simplify their task, eliminate communication errors and make the whole process more efficient.

It seemed too good to be true and most of the industry was skeptical. But Ken insisted that we at least look at it with an open mind. Ken had given me my first job out of school and he had mentored me for much of my career, so I couldn’t refuse. Ken presented his “baby” to us and we were all blown away. The Son-of-a-Gun actually worked and did all he said it would. Who would have imagined? CruiseMatch became a crucial tool for us and for our travel agents. It has evolved continuously and Ken would be proud that his creation has advanced to the new level you described in your blog. It is one of his beautiful legacies.”

BY:Adam|28th April, 2010 1 Comment

Visiting Labadee for a Number of Reasons, Including a Site Visit of the Citadelle

On Friday, for the first time since October, Richard Fain and I visited Labadee. We had three goals for the trip. One, to meet our local management team and express our support for our people and their country. Two, for Richard to pursue the concept of building a school to serve the surrounding area. Three, for me to visit the Citadelle and understand what needs to be done to enable our guests to visit it when the ships call at Labadee. Joining us throughout the day were Minister of Tourism Patrick Delatour and one of President Clinton’s top advisers in Haiti, plus Craig Milan, John Weis and Maryse Kedar.

The site looked great and was in full stride with Independence of the Seas at the beautiful new pier.

I’ve been talking about the Citadelle for a long time so it made sense to actually go and see it for myself. It’s extraordinary. It is the largest fort in all of the Americas and it sits on top of a 3,000 foot mountain. How people in the early 1800’s got the rocks and munitions up that big hill is mind boggling. It was great getting the tour from the Minister of Tourism. Apart from his position in government, Minister Delatour is a historian/architect who has been personally involved in the restoration of the Citadelle since 1972. He explained, for example, that the cannons with Latin inscriptions are French, whereas the cannons with French inscriptions are British. Go figure. Each cannon has its own story. Many are still on their wooden mounts that allow the cannon to swivel and aim from various angles, waiting silently for the French invasion that will never come. The 360 degree view is phenomenal.

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BY:Adam|12th April, 2010 18 Comments

Global Development and More at Royal Caribbean International’s Fleet Operations Leadership Conference

This week is the Royal Caribbean International Fleet Operations Leadership Conference in Orlando. We have many of our Captains and Hotel Directors and some of our Chief Engineers and HR Managers there plus our shoreside leaders and guests from authors to travel agent producers to our onboard retail partners. Richard Fain and I kicked off the conference with a lively Q&A session. What a pleasure it is to be around this group of people. The longevity of some of the Captains is remarkable – several were reminiscing about being on Song of Norway in 1971. The focus of the conference is on the functioning of the shipboard Executive Committees because the success of a ship is a direct reflection of the success of the EC.

There are lots of things to discuss with this group and of course one of them is our continued global development. Among other things we will have 10 of our 22 ships in Europe in the summer of 2011. Just a few years ago we would not have imagined such a scenario. Over the next 90 days we will be releasing all of our itineraries from spring 2011 to spring 2012 for sale.

Almost any crisis in the world affects us. We are saddened by the destruction and casualties in Chile. While we don’t have as much involvement there as we do in Haiti, our sister line Celebrity Cruises operates out of Valparaiso, we are represented in Chile for sales and marketing by Interexpress and we had well over 100 crew there on vacation. While we are not aware of any of our own people who were killed or injured in the earthquake, there are some friends and family who lost their lives. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all Chileans.

On a much more positive note we have now accounted for all of our Haitian crew who were on vacation at the time of the earthquake there. Just after January 12th it seemed like we might not be able to account for dozens of employees. After weeks of little progress we have now made contact with everyone. We are very pleased about this but always mindful that many, many others were not so fortunate.

BY:Adam|3rd March, 2010 5 Comments

Happy New Year from Everyone at Royal Caribbean International

Happy New Year and welcome to 2010 everyone. I wish all of the readers a happy, healthy and prosperous year with at least one cruise in it.

We are just a few days away from the so-called “Wave” booking season when a somewhat disproportionately high % of our annual bookings are made. The reason for this phenomenon is rooted in people emerging from their winter holidays and wanting to get their next vacation on the books. It helps if the weather is unseasonably cold for a while and people suddenly want to get the heck out of the cold north. Even if they cannot escape right away it’s comforting to know they will eventually get to warmer weather.

Oasis of the Seas had a very successful holiday period and should now settle into a normal routine. We appear to have survived the supreme test of our Chairman Richard Fain and his extended family cruising on Oasis last week. I will hear all the details on Monday. In case you were wondering if I was onboard too to celebrate my 50th birthday, the answer is no. I was at a youth soccer tournament in Tampa.

Before we turn the page on 2009 altogether, I want to thank all of the guests who cruised on our fleet during the holiday season. I hope you enjoyed the vacation as much as you were hoping to do if not even more. It was our pleasure to serve you.

BY:Adam|3rd January, 2010 7 Comments

Royal Caribbean International Wins Big at the Travel Weekly Awards; And More on 2010 Planning

A victorious evening for Royal Caribbean International at the Travel Weekly Awards in the Big Apple! A real tribute to all of the men and women who work for this great brand. We won Best Cruise Line Overall, Best Caribbean Cruise Line, Best Cruise Ship Overall (Freedom of the Seas) and Best Sales and Service. Not only that but our sister brand Celebrity Cruises won Best Premium Cruise Line, Best Cruise Ship Rookie (Celebrity Solstice) and Best Cruise Ship Premium (Celebrity Solstice). So our two brands won 7 of the 11 awards. Outstanding.

A reader posted an interest in knowing more about our 2010 Plan that I referenced in my previous entry. Obviously the content of our annual operating plan is confidential and I would not disclose any of it. Some things about next year are obvious and I have commented on them through the brief history of this blog. We need to prepare for the arrival of Allure of the Seas late next year. We need to leverage the incredible publicity that has surrounded Oasis of the Seas for the benefit of the entire fleet. We need to continue our aggressive global expansion.

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BY:Adam|3rd January, 2010 1 Comment

Oasis of the Seas’ Guest Surveys are In!

It’s wonderful when people tell you how great Oasis of the Seas is. It’s even better when your paying guests confirm the sentiment with their survey results. By a narrow margin over Liberty of the Seas in 2007, the overall vacation experience rating for Oasis was the highest in at least the last 12 years of Royal Caribbean maiden voyages. Our team is thrilled and rightfully so. Apart from the numerical outcome, there were nearly 1,000 Diamond Plus and Diamond members of the Crown & Anchor Society onboard plus a very large number of Platinum and Gold members as well. So the guests were rating the ship with very experienced eyes.

There was a very nice celebration last night at Richard Fain’s home with just over 100 of the key personnel who invested up to six years on the project. In addition to a number of our company’s senior leaders, we had many of the outside architects and designers as well as internal colleagues from Food & Beverage, Entertainment, Special Events, Corporate Communications, Marine Operations, Safety & Environment, Human Resources, Treasury, Sales & Marketing, Supply Chain, Guest Port Services and more. I know it’s stating the obvious, but there were bagpipers in attendance.

There is no rest for the weary. When the ship is in Port Everglades this Saturday, Richard, myself, Harri, Lisa, Bill and others will be walking Oasis from bow to stern and top to bottom, discussing all the customer feedback we have received so far, and what if anything we should do in response, either for Oasis itself or possibly for Allure. Even after it’s over, it’s not over. Such is the nature of our obsession with delivering the Wow.

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BY:Adam|17th December, 2009 9 Comments

Oasis of the Seas in “Normal” Operation; and My Induction to the U.S. Travel Association Hall of Leaders

Oasis of the Seas is on her maiden voyage after having returned from a very successful four night cruise featuring Oasis’ first port of call at Labadee on Thursday. With the new dock, new facilities and new attractions, Labadee is a state-of-the-art, world-class port of call for any size ship. You should pick a cruise that goes there in the near future. Congratulations to our Private Destinations leadership team that oversaw a brilliantly successful project in a challenging environment on time and on budget: Associate VP John Weis and Site Managers David Scott and David Southby and their people, under the direction of SVP Craig Milan.

Now that Oasis is in “normal” operation, we are sifting through mountains of data and feedback about how it is going. Operations, new initiatives, new technologies, onboard revenue centers, etc., are all under the microscope of read and react. Overall things are going very well and I am expecting solid ratings for the first cruise as compared to first cruises of previous first of class ships. Nevertheless, the first cruise was a one time, four night cruise and now we need to deliver a seven night cruise to our guests inclusive of our three regular ports of call.

Surprise! The rest of the business never stopped while we were introducing Oasis. We are immersed in details of the 2010 Plan, final preparations for our (northern) winter programs and beginning the countdown to the early 2010 “wave” booking season. With the influx of congratulatory of emails on the Oasis inaugurals, my email in-box has attained a new level of fertility.

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BY:Adam|7th December, 2009 3 Comments

Oasis of the Seas’ Inaugural Period: One Historic Day After Another

Monday was a very special day for all of us at Royal Caribbean. Not just Royal Caribbean International but all of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. I would like to express my appreciation publicly for the incredible effort that thousands of our people devoted to making Oasis of the Seas the amazing ship it is and the inaugural period the smashing success it has been.

The buzz onboard throughout the naming day, ceremony and evening was probably beyond anything I have experienced in my 21+ years with the company. Everyone including our seven fabulous godmothers just seemed so pleased to be a part of the day. The view from the speaker’s podium that Richard and I shared during the ceremony, looking forward from the back of the Aquatheater pool area, was incredible. People were watching the festivities from every deck and every angle. When the fireworks went off after the bottle broke, we could not see them from our vantage point but the noise they made was overwhelming. And many people commented on the full or nearly full moon that presided over the event.

Overall the 18 nights were more successful than we had hoped, and we had had high hopes. As I mentioned previously, people constantly struggled for words to express what they wanted to say about the ship. That continued until Tuesday morning.

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BY:Adam|4th December, 2009 4 Comments
 

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