Nation of Why Not?

New Samba Grill Restaurant to Debut on Allure of the Seas!

Almost every business day is interesting, but not all days are created equal when it comes to the blog. Some days are more confidential than others. This is the time of the year when we finalize our business plan for the next year, and there isn’t anything I can blog about on that. At all times there are projects underway that may or may not come to fruition. If they are going to happen, we generally go public with a press release followed by a blog entry while other communication efforts unfurl. Prior to that, there is nothing I can write about the initiative. So, if I’m not writing about new news there are two main possibilities: i) nothing is happening; ii) something is happening.

One thing happened the other day that was notable. We got to participate in a taste test luncheon of the new Samba Grill restaurant that will debut on Allure of the Seas. That was a major Wow, and I don’t even eat red meat! I’ve been to churrascaria restaurants over the years - I’m still feeling full from the first one I ever ate at in Brasilia in 1984 - but not to one with the quality we experienced in our test kitchen. While I did not sample the various cuts of sirloin and Filet Mignon, there was plenty for me starting with the fabulous appetizers and continuing through skewers of salmon, shrimp, and chicken before concluding with a selection of tasty desserts. The advance bookings for Samba Grill are behind only those of Chops Grille and Giovanni’s Table, even though we really haven’t marketed the new concept beyond the press release. This will be an excellent addition to Allure of the Seas.

We’re going to combine two of my passions on the December 12th. Allure of the Seas cruise - running and cruising. With the help of numerous interested parties, we are offering the opportunity to do an actual 5K run/walk race in St. Maarten on Thursday, December 16th. In addition to the race, there will be fun runs and instruction both onboard and in Nassau and St. Thomas opportunities to meet high profile racing athletes, and more. Unfortunately, I cannot take the whole cruise, but I am hoping to run the race.


BY:Adam|1st October, 2010 5 Comments

Medical Tranquility and Peace of Mind

We recently received a compliment about our onboard medical team and their services. We also received an inquiry about medical services onboard and how we recruit physicians. Our shipboard medical facilities are built, stocked and equipped to meet or exceed guidelines established by the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), and the Cruise Ship & Maritime Medicine Section, which address many critical areas, including medical facility size, equipment and supplies, staff credentials, medical record and communication systems, medications, procedures, basic laboratory and x-ray facilities, and health and contingency planning. Each of our ships has a well stocked formulary of medications, including thrombolytics (clot busters), based upon categories of pharmaceuticals established by ACEP as appropriate for the shipboard environment.

We recruit doctors and nurses from around the world who meet these stringent standards, and we also strive to stay at the cutting edge of medical technology where appropriate in consideration of the limited nature of the shipboard environment at sea. Recent examples include phasing in the newest in digital X-ray technology, as well as a TeleDermatology program - both of which provide the availability of remote consultation by experts ashore when necessary.

We are currently exploring options for implementing a fully electronic medical records system for the benefit of our guests and crew. We recently deployed upgraded First Responder bags, which I am proud to say proved instrumental in saving the lives of at least six patients in recent months. We have trained our staff to have the ability to perform life saving blood transfusions at sea when necessary, as well as air evacuations, which is good since we have had several recently. Although the vast majority of our guests never need to visit the ship’s medical facility, it is very reassuring to know that a team of trained medical professionals is sailing right along with you - only a phone call away.

BY:Adam|27th September, 2010 14 Comments

Some of Our Partnerships and Upcoming Promotions

By Betsy O’Rourke

As the head of global marketing for the Royal Caribbean brand, I have the opportunity to work with some terrific partners. Those of you who have sailed with us have enjoyed many of their products onboard, including Crayola and Fisher-Price, who add great value to our complimentary Adventure Ocean youth program, or Johnny Rockets delighting guests every day onboard our ships with burgers and tunes, or CocaCola - whose soft drinks are so popular - and now DreamWorks Animation, among others.

You may wonder how we choose our partners. The answer, as the saying goes, is “very carefully.” Our number one criterion is adding value to the guest experience. We want our guest experience to be the greatest in the industry, so we partner with some of the world’s best brands to bring together our experience and theirs in a way that adds maximum value and enjoyment to our guests.

We are currently working closely with DreamWorks Animation to bring “The DreamWorks Experience” to life on four of our ships, starting with our newest ship, Allure of the Seas, this December. The DreamWorks experience will include a “How To Train Your Dragon” ice show, a “Madagascar” aqua show, character breakfasts, activities for the kids in Adventure Ocean, character meet-and-greets, parades and sail away parties, and of course, 3D films in our new 3D theatre. After introducing this very exciting guest experience onboard Allure of the Seas, we will be adding The DreamWorks experience early next year on Oasis of the Seas, Liberty of the Seas, and Freedom of the Seas. We’re also making our first-ever fully animated television commercial with DreamWorks, which has been a really fun experience. Look for it on air in November.

In addition to working with partners on the onboard experience, we look for opportunities to work together in joint promotions for both brands. Right now we are participating with Johnny Rockets in their “Rockin’ Summer” promotion that encourages their customers to come back often and win prizes including cruises on Allure of the Seas. Johnny Rockets mailed a flyer describing the promotion to over 2 million people, posted it on their Facebook fan page, and have in-store signage in 147 stores giving us great brand exposure and visibility for Allure of the Seas, joining the Royal Caribbean family on December 1, 2010. This is a win/win for Johnny Rockets and for us as we get exposure for our new ship and they get a valuable incentive to their customers: be among the first to sail the newest ship in the Royal Caribbean fleet. Now who wouldn’t want to do that?

We have some other exciting promotions in the works with Coca-Cola, American Express, DreamWorks and more, all centered on bringing attention to Allure of the Seas, so keep an eye out as we will always post them on our Facebook page and try to convince Adam to blog about them…that is, when he’s not waxing on about his amazing feats in running! And yes, we are working on a really fun new partnership to offer a competitive run in one of our most popular destinations, but I know he’ll want to talk about that so stay tuned.

BY:Adam|27th August, 2010 6 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

New Programs Worth Noting

I have a few items from our management progress report to pass along. They may not be as big of a deal as the impending arrival of Allure of the Seas but they are all a part of the continuous improvement of the Royal Caribbean International experience. In no particular order:

Now that the ability to book your next cruise while still onboard is an exclusive benefit for Crown & Anchor Society members, we want to make joining the Society as easy as possible. So we are rolling out complimentary Internet access for the purpose of allowing our guests to enroll in the Society via iCafe while they are onboard. Once they have joined, they are eligible to book onboard and take advantage of the onboard booking discount. This opportunity is available to first time cruisers as well as our repeat guests.

For our guests on European sailings who wish to remain onboard longer on departure day, you may sign up in advance of the cruise for our Late Departure Program. Sign up online under Shore and Land Excursions for the port of call where the cruise terminates.

In another variant of “I don’t want the vacation to end yet,” for guests on Oasis of the Seas who have time before their flight leaves, we are testing an Extended Stay program that allows the Oasis guests to store their luggage and enjoy a day in Hollywood, FL in and around the boardwalk. This opportunity encompasses shopping, dining, going to the beach, riding the trolley and/or relaxing at our hospitality center. This opportunity is also available as a shore excursion under the port of call, Ft. Lauderdale, for all guests sailing onboard Oasis of the Seas.

Returning to life onboard, we now accept bookings at our specialty restaurants for parties of 10 or fewer guests. Previously we only accepted bookings for parties of 6 or fewer. Of course this is based on availability at the time of booking.

If you should take us up on any of these new features, feel free to let us know what you think.

BY:Adam|16th August, 2010 27 Comments

Guest Post - We’ve Chosen the Winner of Our Chef Search for 150 Central Park on Allure!

The Royal Caribbean team all headed to Hyde Park, New York and the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) for the final phase of our contest for the selection of the new Chef de Cuisine for 150 Central Park on Allure of the Seas. I had never been to the CIA campus, and a word we are very familiar with at Royal came to mind – WOW. This is a very impressive and picturesque campus. I highly encourage a trip to visit the facility and enjoy the culinary treats. The smells alone were intoxicating. I would also like to thank the chefs from the CIA that worked with us on this search, as they were awesome. This included Master Chefs Ron, Rudy, Lou and Victor, all famous in their own right and we were very fortunate to get their expertise and input during this unique search process.

After the tour, we began the panel interview process with each of the six candidates. This was our opportunity to meet them and ask them questions about their history, motivations, and really get a sense of their passion and interests. We wanted to ensure they weren’t only skilled Chefs, but could manage a staff and have good leadership skills as well professional presence and personality to meet with our guests in 150 Central Park. The whole idea behind 150 Central Park is for the restaurant to take on the personality of the Chef, so that is why we were so careful to balance all these requirements. Each candidate received a score on how they interviewed. The candidates then had two hours of prep work to begin to get ready for the big day where they actually prepared their meals for us.

Day two started with all six candidates preparing a three course tasting meal for us – this included an appetizer, entrée and dessert. A crucial part of the selection process was also observing how the Chefs organized themselves, how they managed their assistant, their processes in the kitchen, how organized their workspace was, including their refrigerators! The CIA judges as well as our Royal judges kept close observation on their skill level and how they used their allotted time to prepare for the tasting.

The final aspect of the contest was actually judging the food they prepared. We evaluated each meal on taste, presentation, execution and how the Chef presented what they had created. Each of the six Chefs created 5 meals for sharing with the 10 judges, and we had one for display that we could refer to after they were all completed. If you do the math, that means we each tasted 18 different food selections between the appetizers, entrees and desserts!!! Yes 18!!!! (I also have to admit that I did try every dish, including the snapper and the halibut from two of the chefs. I will also admit that I actually really enjoyed it, so perhaps I will end up eating fish after all). Following this portion of the interview process we had an open discussion about each candidate and then tabulated the scores, which included the points from the “Fan Favorite”, as well as the interviews, the food preparation and, finally, the taste and presentation of the food. Later that evening, we had a cocktail party and dinner for all the contestants, and that is where we announced our winner.

Contest Details

Our winner, who also happens to be the fan favorite, is Maureen (Molly) Brandt. Molly not only has an impressive background that includes being a culinary intern at the Food Network but also being a teaching assistant at the CIA. The menu she prepared for the contest included an appetizer of chilled lobster with citrus, caviar and a tempura battered lobster mitt (my new favorite food item). Her entrée featured Provencal lamb loin, Dijon potato puree, ratatouille and Patty pan squash stuffed with an olive tapenade. Dessert was a unique creation of pistachio cake, whipped rosewater crème fraiche and carbonated raspberries. We are all thrilled that the partnership with the CIA resulted in 150 Central Park getting such a great young talent. Molly will be joining Oasis in a few weeks to begin her immersion into shipboard life and begin the menu creation for 150 Central Park on Allure. We can’t wait to see what she creates for Allure!

As we finalized and reviewed the whole process, we also capitalized on a unique opportunity that presented itself to us. We were going to begin a search for the next Chef for 150 Central Park on Oasis of the Seas for year two of the operation. The runner up on the CIA contest was Daniel Fein. We were very impressed with him and offered him the position on Oasis! Daniel’s background includes some great experience, including working for Cameron Mitchell. We all loved the very playful menu he prepared for us, which included “Southern Style Grilled Cheese and Tomatoes” for an appetizer that included heirloom tomatoes with blue grit cakes, blue cheese mousse as well as an argula and basil salad with lemon fennel oil. The entrée was “Not your Mom’s Pork and Applesauce” which was apple jalapeno glazed pork tenderloin with couscous, cauliflower sauce and an apple and jicama slaw. Dessert was “Breakfast to Bed” a vanilla honey waffle with homemade blackberry ice cream, with a blackberry reduction and lemon whipped cream. Daniel really did his homework on Royal Caribbean and we look forward to welcoming him to the Royal family as well.

I hope I have tantalized your taste buds enough, and I look forward to welcoming you onboard either of the ships to enjoy the dishes these great young chefs will prepare. We know that the overall culinary and dining experience onboard is very important to our guests, which is why we have been working hard to bring a creative new approach to various dining experiences onboard Royal Caribbean. I could share a lot more about this entire great experience, but I really have to go for a nice long run now after these two days!!!!!!

BY:Adam|9th August, 2010 6 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

New Enhancements for Our Crown & Anchor Society Members

This is an exciting week for Royal Caribbean International. And Why Not? After all, today is exactly six months since Oasis of the Seas departed on her four-night sailing to Labadee. And it’s exactly six months until Allure of the Seas does the same thing!

But that’s only one reason for the excitement. The main reason is the enhancements to the Crown & Anchor Society that we announced earlier today to our Crown & Anchor Society members. There are two things we know about our members. One, their loyalty to us is incredible. Two, they’re not shy about voicing their opinions about the Society and the benefits of membership. So, we have a lot of feedback to work with. We trust our members will be pleased by the enhancements taking effect today. And in our “super-secret, futuristic Society think tank,” we are already working on additional enhancements that will one day cause their own excitement. But let’s do the present now and the future later.

Our goal is simple – to better recognize and reward our loyal members. Not only during the time they are guests onboard but throughout the vacation cycle from cruise, to cruise, to cruise.

Our readers can refer to our Crown & Anchor Society page for all of the details on today’s announcement. I would like to highlight a few of them.

Crown & Anchor Society members will now have the exclusive privilege to reserve their next cruise while onboard a Royal Caribbean ship. The new and exclusive “Onboard Booking Bonus” offers members an onboard credit of up to $200 per stateroom for making a reservation on a future sailing. This Bonus can now be used with either a Crown & Anchor Savings Certificate or a Balcony & Suite Discount (the latter applicable for our Platinum, Diamond or Diamond Plus members), offering members great savings for their next cruise before their current cruise ends.

Previously, there had only been two Loyalty Staff members on our four largest ships. There are now two Crown & Anchor Society Loyalty Staff onboard each of our 21 (going on 22) ships. Our Loyalty Staff can help answer members’ questions and help them reserve future cruises to take advantage of the new and enhanced vacation savings, available only to members of the Crown & Anchor Society.

Members will continue to enjoy first-to-know priority notice and access to new developments, special events and exclusive offers that reward their loyalty. Onboard, members will be recognized every time they advance to a higher level of the Society. Members will also enjoy new enhanced benefits in their “Ultimate Value Booklet,” filled with new onboard savings for beverages, internet packages, photo and logo merchandise, supplementing classic favorites such as casino and spa discounts among others.

I probably don’t need to ask for your feedback on this blog entry. As for this week, please remember, it’s only Tuesday.

BY:Adam|1st June, 2010 39 Comments

With Our Guests in Mind, These are Some of Royal Caribbean’s 2010 Initiatives

When I saw people at the Cruise Shipping Miami show, they invariably asked about Oasis of the Seas first and possibly Haiti second. This is understandable but it does not give props to the endeavors that are coming to fruition throughout the year for the benefit of all of our guests. While many initiatives are not ready for public airing, I will mention a few that have recently become public.

Our website is a major reference source for travel agents, repeat guests and prospective guests. This phenomenon only grows and therefore we must be responsive to the hunger for better information. If we don’t do a great job of informing people about our brand through our website, they may very well take their next vacation with someone else. We have recently completed a facelift designed to reflect the look and feel of our Nation of Why Not global marketing platform. We have also simplified the steps of the booking process for those who are interested to book on the website. While the people coming to the site for information far outnumber those who book on the site, we are pleased to provide an improved experience for those who wish to book. A work in progress is our effort to bring oasisoftheseas.com and nationofwhynot.com directly under the umbrella of royalcaribbean.com.

After enduring episodes of three steps forward and two steps backwards, we have launched eDocs. We still provide guests the option to receive paper documents for a $35 fee, unlike some of our competitors who have eliminated the paper option altogether. But our focus will be to leverage the new eDocs technology to provide our guests with much richer pre-cruise communications. With eDocs, guests can order self adhesive luggage tags pre-printed & customized to their specific ship, sailing & stateroom location and we’ll mail them to guests free of charge. When you consider this initiative in the context of the website, SetSail (pre-cruise check-in) and the ability to purchase and/or reserve many elements of the cruise in advance of sailing, the quality of the pre-cruise interaction between us and our customers has elevated considerably. We believe there are yet more opportunities to advance the pre-cruise experience and plan to bring more enhancements to market.

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BY:Adam|25th March, 2010 25 Comments

From Marketing to Dining - Innovation is Key

I would like to highlight two of our innovations that are unfolding at the moment, one in our product and one in our communication about our product:

Until now, [a limited number of] bar servers have roamed the tables in the main dining room to offer beverage service. As some guests have pointed out, it’s challenging for this number of bar staff to provide timely service to guests before (or after) their meals arrive. On average our staff level for this undertaking has been one bar server for each 150 guests. We are changing this and by the end of August the waiters on all of our ships will have taken over the responsibility of offering drinks as their guests are seated and thereafter. The ratio will become one server for each 24 guests. We are confident from our testing of this change that our wait staff will greatly improve the flow and timeliness of beverage service during the dining experience. This program further increases guest satisfaction by enabling the waiter to place all cocktail and wine orders on one check.

As with many changes, this initiative requires support and training that takes time and there will be inevitable hiccups. We are implementing a core competency wine and sprits training program and ensuring it is available to all Restaurant crew via the internet. The training encompasses Gold Anchor Standards developed for this initiative. After we overcome the initial learning curve and culture change, we believe this new approach will boost guest satisfaction.

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BY:Adam|4th August, 2009 9 Comments
 

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