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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Recently I had the opportunity to join Radiance of the Seas in Alaska for an Anchored in Excellence visit, as well as to see the results of the recent dry dock. The transformation in a number of the venues is unbelievable. Perhaps the biggest examples are the addition of the Quill & Compass, an authentic English pub offering an extensive selection of imported beers and ales, along with the variety of all the new dining venues. I was only onboard for three days, so it took a lot of effort to “sample” all of the experiences. It was a high caloric visit needless to say.
Captain Bill and I are just wrapping up a considerable schedule of ship visits to Splendour of the Seas, Mariner of the Seas and Vision of the Seas. It was a great opportunity to see how all three ships were doing in South America.
Prior to joining Splendour in Buenos Aires, I had the opportunity to spend the weekend with Captain Zini (Allure) and his wife Anja. They were great tour guides and Buenos Aires is an amazing city. As Adam will attest because he always teases me, I am quite the food critic when it comes to steak. I definitely had the best steak I’ve ever had in Buenos Aires - every meal was a great experience.
The ship visits were a great opportunity to see a full immersion product come to life. Portuguese is the primary language spoken onboard, and the entertainment and dining are reflective of the local culture. There is a great atmosphere onboard, and the pool deck is the central gathering spot with lots of music, dancing and even a poolside barbeque. We also have a large number of Brazilian crew members and they do an amazing job and are very engaging and really deliver our signature GOLD Anchor service.
The timing was great to start with Splendour, as we were able to announce to the crew that Splendour was Ship of the Year! It was also good timing because we were able to review all the exciting plans for her extensive revitalization in November of this year. We had our colleagues from the New Build department and architects join us for this leg of Anchored in Excellence (AIE) so we could confirm all the locations of the new venues and ensure we finalized all our plans. Splendour will have an extensive 28 day dry dock in November, and the revitalization scope includes everything from fully refurbished staterooms, to the addition of 124 balconies, Giovanni’s Table, Izumi, a Park Café, and Pervasive Wifi, a Diamond Club, a nursery, an upgraded Concierge lounge and an outdoor Movie Screen.
Mariner was making her way around the Horn and had the opportunity to do a few extra sailings in South America during Carnaval. This was definitely an experience! Mariner is getting ready for her transatlantic crossing for her first ever European season. There is a great spirit onboard as the crew is really looking forward to visiting new ports.
The final leg of our AIE experience was a visit to Vision of the Seas. The ship is doing great, and is currently the number one performing ship in our fleet. It was great to see the Captain, Srecko Ban, who learned to speak Spanish during his time on Enchantment, also learning Portuguese now. The guests loved it!
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!
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!
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.
I hope everyone is having an enjoyable holiday season.
The microscope may not recede from Oasis of the Seas for a long time. But that reality doesn’t obscure that we have reached the holiday season for the whole fleet and our full global portfolio of “winter” programs. The word winter of course reflects a northern bias. We have Splendour of the Seas and Vision of the Seas in Brazil and Rhapsody of the Seas in Australia because it is very much summer in those regions. Plus Legend of the Seas is in sunny Singapore and Brilliance of the Seas is a few weeks away from its first voyage from Dubai. Still in the Caribbean, but very much part of our global expansion strategy, Enchantment of the Seas has begun our Panama/Colombia program.
The preparation for these programs is a year-round phenomenon. We are either delivering these programs or we are processing the lessons learned and developing the next season’s program. As we have grown our international offices’ capabilities, we look increasingly to our distant colleagues for feedback on product content, distribution and pricing. We’re very happy to have Americans and all nationalities cruise on these products, but I will note that the ships in Brazil have mostly Brazilians onboard, the ship in Australia has mostly Australians onboard and so forth. That’s no different than if you take a land vacation to such countries, but some of our guests are surprised to find this to be the case. In the 1990’s our worldwide cruises were primarily to take Americans on exotic itineraries. Now our worldwide cruises are for all nationalities with the usual case being that the nationalities nearest to the homeport are the largest % of the guest mix.
Switching subjects, I am coming up to my last race in the 45 – 49 age category shortly to be followed by my first race in the 50 – 54 age category. I am running well and hungry for best times and medals. There will still be faster runners in Miami in my age group, but only a handful. I will have multiple chances during the first quarter to run a 5k under 19 minutes. That’s the primary target. Meanwhile, my team at work collectively bought me a new table tennis table which is really nice of them. Thanks! They may really want to facilitate my table tennis abilities or they may want me to play more table tennis and leave them alone.
Lisa Bauer - Senior VP, Hotel Operations
We’ve had some requests to share some of our challenges, personally and professionally, as well as a sneak peak behind the scenes. I guess I could start with the personal challenges. I’m in the dog house at home, because right before leaving for Turku, we got a new chocolate lab puppy, Coco Chanel. My husband is at home with the puppy, who apparently is a hand full, and he has to take her to puppy class on Saturday afternoons instead of playing golf. So, personally I’m not too popular. The other personal challenge I am having is I was training to do the half marathon in Miami in January. Due to the rough weather, it hasn’t really been conducive to going to the gym or running, so a little behind there as well. Other than that, life is pretty good. I’m so lucky to work with such amazing people, most of my team is onboard and it doesn’t really feel like work when you are surrounded by such talented and great people. Most days I am just in awe, and very proud, of what they are capable of doing.
On the professional side, I’m not saying we don’t have challenges, because we certainly have some…… Due to the severe weather, we are behind with the installation of bolidt (outdoor floor covering) on our outer decks and pool decks. We are working around the clock to ensure this work is complete prior to our arrival in Port Everglades. We are behind putting the scenery into the theatre because we couldn’t have our crew up on ladders or in high places due to the wave heights and the ship motion. Our crew internet hasn’t worked yet due to server issues, and we had an air flow issue in Chops and the smoke was blowing into the restaurant instead of into the exhaust. We also have some cracks in the jewelry store and the locks don’t work. These are pretty good examples of some of the challenges, all of which we will address.
A frequently asked question: Will Royal Caribbean ever build smaller ships? A few considerations:
First, even as the average cruise ship size increases over time, it is in our interest to have a balanced and flexible fleet profile. There are both physical parameters (e.g., Panama Canal) and market parameters (e.g., starting up in Dubai) that dictate a mix of smaller ships as well as Oasis-class ships. We are very fortunate to have the 1,800 guest Legend of the Seas and Splendour of the Seas in our fleet to spearhead our global expansion.
Second, we are able to utilize larger ships on routes that we would not have believed possible even ten years ago. The fact that we will have a Freedom-class ship and three Voyager-class ships in Europe in 2010 is remarkable in comparison to our thinking in the late 1990’s that we would have a maximum of one or two Voyager-class ships and they would always be Caribbean-based. Now our view is we will use any of our ships anywhere in the world where it makes economic and logistical sense.
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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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