Adam Goldstein, President and CEO Royal Caribbean International
Adam is a father and a Phillies fan. He’s got a mean table tennis serve. Read More
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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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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Delivering the Wow!
One of my responsibilities as Senior Vice President of Land Operations for Royal Caribbean International is an area we call Guest Port Services (GPS). GPS is the team of professionals that meet you either at the airport or at the pier when you check in for your cruise. We refer to ourselves as the department of First and Last Impressions since we are your first point of contact prior to your cruise and generally the last people you see before you leave to go back home.
In South Florida, the airport and pier staff are all Royal Caribbean employees as we have year round operations. During the busy Winter months when many of the ships are back in the Caribbean, our Miami and Port Everglades pier agents assist over 50,000 guests on any given weekend. That is a lot of customer touch points!
I have been with Royal for 11 years and seen my fair share of both complimentary and complaint letters over this time. However, I recently received a letter from one of our guests who had a situation prior to boarding Oasis of the Seas in Port Everglades that was worth sharing.
You can imagine that over time I receive some interesting emails and letters. It goes with the territory but every once in a while I am unusually impressed. When that happens, with the permission of the writer, I will publish it here.
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.
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.
Over the weekend of July 23/24, the Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. track & field team, known as the “Cruisers”, stepped up into the big time of corporate amateur athletic competition. We traveled to San Ramon, California (southeast of Oakland) to compete in the US Corporate Athletic Association Corporate Cup challenge.
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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Since my debacle at Albuquerque in March where I tried my first track meet at national level and had a terrible race, I have been very focused on ramping up the quality and intensity of my training. My next opportunity to run the way I believe I can run was in Houston in June at the National Senior Games. Fortunately, things went much better than they did in New Mexico.
Before I get to the race, a few observations about the environment of masters track racing. The bottom line is I really enjoy the atmosphere. Of course there are a few hyper competitive (fill in the blank)s but for the most part the men and women are mutually supportive and a pleasure to be around. They know a lot more about training and racing than I do at this point. I take that deficit as a positive – if I can learn more over the next few years I will have a better opportunity to improve relative to my competition. Nevertheless, there are runners who are and most likely will always be on a higher level.
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Do you have a question you would like to ask Adam?
LISA BAUER
Senior Vice President, Hotel Operations Royal Caribbean International
CRAIG MILAN
Senior Vice President, Land Operations Royal Celebrity Tours
Craig Milan is the president of Royal Celebrity Tours, the land tour division of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., which offers unique land tours in conjunction with cruises in Alaska, Europe, Australia & New Zealand, South America Asia and Dubai. Craig can also provide our readers with the latest information on government relations, shore excursions, our private beach destinations, commercial development, guest port services and port operations. Craig is a competitive open water swimmer and an avid triathlete.
JOHN WEIS
Associate Vice President, Guest Port Experience Royal Caribbean International
John Weis, Associate Vice President of Guest Port Experience manages our two private beach getaways CocoCay, Bahamas and Labadee, Haiti, all shore excursions world wide and was involved with the Clinton Global Initiative. His past blog posts have shared the latest on our work with rebuilding Haiti and offers ways for our guests to get involved. John is married and has two children, a boy and the girl. He is an avid diver and boater and has lived in South Florida for the past 35 years.
BETSY O'ROURKE
Senior Vice President, Marketing Royal Caribbean International
Betsy O'Rourke is the Senior Vice President of Marketing where she is responsible for all aspects of the global cruise line's marketing program, including brand strategy and positioning, consumer and trade advertising, web and loyalty marketing, research, brand development, and communications. Betsy shares exciting news on upcoming brand partnerships, campaigns and the Crown and Anchor Society. She was born in California, lived in Europe for ten years and her first job was crewing on day boats in Malta.
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