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

“The Best Job in the World,” A Day in the Life of an Adventure Ocean Manager

Hi everybody! I’m Paula Nicol, Adventure Ocean Manager on the Serenade of the Seas and my hometown is Sackville, NB, Canada. I’m proud to tell you that I have been working at sea and with Royal Caribbean International for 12 years now. What is an Adventure Ocean Manager you may ask? Well I oversee the Adventure Ocean program and it’s my job to keep all our junior cruisers, 17 years old and under entertained and to ensure they have a great vacation onboard! How do I do that? I’m lucky to say I work closely with highly qualified Youth Staff, and together we provide an exciting activities-based Adventure Ocean youth program to the kids and teens onboard all our Royal Caribbean International ships. As our company has grown and our ships have evolved, so has (I’m happy to say!) the Adventure Ocean program. This means my job is never boring and always changing. Onboard I oversee 7 different age group programs, starting with kids as young as 6 months, through the oldest, who are our 17 year olds. As an Adventure Ocean Manager it’s important we offer fun, creative, and engaging activities that are age appropriate for each group, thus we always have to keep our finger on the pulse of what the kids and teens love to do!

Guests often say to me “You have the best job, you get to play with kids all day”. My answer “You’re right…I do have the best job in the world”. Having said this, although I do get to play and host activities for the kids and teens, there is also a lot that goes on behind the scenes for an Adventure Ocean Manager, which often takes place before and after the doors to Adventure Ocean open (very early in the morning) and close (very late at night)! I’m responsible for planning the daily activities and organizing the kids & teens cruise compasses, creating and implementing innovative activities, facility inspections for safety and security, training and development of the Youth Staff, equipment inventory, customer service, budgets and supply management just to name a few.

Another question I get asked a lot is “how did you end up doing this job?” After I earned my Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Physical Education and a minor in French, I entered the world of teaching. After teaching for awhile I had the travel bug and while on a sailing trip with friends to the British Virgin Islands we saw a cruise ship (Nordic Empress) docked in Tortola. Three months later I was working as a Youth Staff onboard that same ship, the Nordic Empress. Fortunately I have been able to combine my passion for working with kids and traveling into a very rewarding career at sea!

What does a typical day look like for me? Well everyday is different, depending on whether we’re at sea or in port, high or low kid counts, however a typical, first seaday of the cruise would be something like this:

7:15 am - Rise n’ Shine

7:45 am - Breakfast

8:15 am - AO/Fuel walk through and office time to make sure everything is set for the day.

9:00 am - Noon - Registration in Adventure Ocean.

Noon - Check on Fuel and the Adventure Beach Waterslide area.

12:15 pm - Lunch

1:00 pm - Office time.

2:00 pm - Float through Adventure Ocean to support the teams running the afternoon sessions and check in on our afternoon Fisher-Price® programs.

5:00 pm - Off to the gym for me!

7:30 pm - Back to AO to either support the teams where necessary.

10:30 pm - Wrap up in the office to ensure things are set for the following day.

11:30 pm - Check in on the Late Night sessions and on the Fuel teen programs.

Midnight - Done for the night.

Although our days can be long and we do typically work 4 months straight without a day off, there is so much to smile about at the end of the day that you want to get up and do it all over again tomorrow. There is nothing better than seeing the big smiles on the kid’s faces during activities and hearing the laughter & shrieks of excitement as I pass through the Adventure Ocean facilities. The best compliment we get is when we hear the kids tell their parents “We don’t want to leave!”

BY:Paula Nicol|25th April, 2011 12 Comments

Royal Caribbean Is Celebrating Our Amazing Planet! Are You Celebrating Earth Day?

Hi, my name is Jamie Sweeting and I’m a recovering conservationist. At least that’s what some people seem to think. Actually, I’m the Vice President for Environmental Stewardship and Global Chief Environmental Officer for Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd., which essentially means that if it has anything to do with the environment or sustainability then it’s my responsibility to take care of it. Think of me as the Green Cruise Guy!

Today is Earth Day. For some it’s a day to reflect on the world around us and how it seems nature is hanging in the balance - to be honest, this can get a bit depressing when we hear about the seemingly ever-increasing ways that our lifestyles impact and alter the environment on which we depend. How, despite all the talk of the advancement of the “green movement,” climate change will have profound affects on the planet and it seems we aren’t doing enough to stop it. How our ocean resources are being ever more depleted and impacted by our collective irresponsible actions that one wonders whether there will actually be any coral reefs left to show our grandchildren. Despite the pervasive doom and gloom, for me, Earth Day is a day of celebration. It’s a day to think of how much is being done to address these challenges, to be proud of the part we are playing to make the Planet a more hospitable place for us to inhabit, not just in the distant future but also today. It’s a day to think of all the remarkable places, ecosystems and species that our Royal Caribbean guests are able to experience and enjoy when they cruise to over 400 destinations with our company.

At Royal Caribbean, we believe that we have both the immense fortune to take our guests to so many incredible destinations, but also the inherent responsibility to protect those environments and ensure that peoples’ lives are improved by cruise tourism. I’ve spent nearly twenty years trying to demonstrate how travel can be an overwhelming force for good around the World. I started work as a “Dive Master” and the environmental connection was so clear - protect the reefs and you are nurturing the goose that lays the golden eggs. I then started working in the emerging area of “ecotourism” - promoting travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and sustains the well-being of local people. I spent nearly 15 years working for a leading conservation organization (Conservation International) and in 2001, I started researching the cruise industry. Why the cruise industry you might ask? Well, back then, some seventy percent of cruises operated in areas defined as “biodiversity hotspots” - those places on Earth that have the greatest concentration of plant and animal species and also serious levels of habitat loss. Again, the environmental connection was pretty clear.

Today, Earth Day, marks three years to the day that I started working at Royal Caribbean. I’m glad to say that I remain convinced that I am doing more for conservation working at Royal Caribbean than I was before working at Conservation International. Surprised by that? Well, here are a few facts about our company’s environmental work that might also surprise you:

  • We have a dedicated Environmental Officer on each of our ships to oversee our environmental stewardship policies and practices.
  • We consume about 20 to 50 gallons less of fresh water per person per day on our ships, compared to the average person living in the United States
  • We are committed to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by one-third per person per day by 2015, from a 2005 baseline. In fact in 2010, these efforts translated into a 4.7-percent reduction in fuel consumption per average passenger cruise day over 2009 levels. Our goal for 2011 is to reduce our fuel consumption by another 5.4 percent.
  • In 2010, we reduced the amount of waste landed ashore from our ships to just 1.15 pounds per person per day, a reduction of 19 percent from the previous year and 47 percent from 2007 levels. As a point of comparison, the average solid waste footprint per person in the United States is approximately 4.3 pounds per day.
  • In 1996, we launched the Ocean Fund, which supports marine conservation organizations in safeguarding the health of the world’s oceans. Since the fund’s establishment, we have contributed more than $11 million to 66 organizations around the world.

These are just some of the reasons I am so proud to work here at Royal Caribbean and I am confident that we are doing the right thing when it comes to taking care of the environment. I hope you will all join me today in celebrating this amazing Planet and all the things each of us does on a daily basis, both big and small, to protect the environment for future generations. HAPPY EARTH DAY!

BY:Jamie Sweeting|22nd April, 2011 No Comments

Freedom of the Seas Reaches New Heights with the Royal Advantage

Captain Bill and I just completed our Anchored in Excellence (AIE) visit to Freedom of the Seas. Freedom just came out of dry dock on Sunday, March 27th, so we wanted to see the result of how everything looked and was operating. One of the other objectives on our AIE visit was to see what else we could be doing to support the ship with any key operational challenges they were facing.

We boarded the ship in Port Canaveral, there we found some definite challenges with the check in process and the security screening. I was very concerned by the security processes and lack of customer service. When something like this happens that is part of another division, we reach out the department head and raise the issue, then we get together to discuss the situation or challenge. In this case, I immediately raised the issue to Gary Bald, our SVP of Safety, Security, Medical and Public Health, and we will be jointly reviewing our fleet wide security screening standards and expectations. We have a Shoreside Executive Committee that is comprised of all the department heads that support the operation and it is great to be able to reach out and receive the support to address whatever issues we have cross functionally.

Once onboard, we did a full ship tour to see the new venues. Our guests were already enjoying the new outdoor screens. They were watching the NCAA Tournament and having a great time. Because our guests have been enjoying the outdoor screens so much, we’ve decided to add them to Radiance and Splendour later in the year as well.

I was doing my full walk around and ran into two guests that were looking for the screening room. I walked them over and showed them where it was, and they asked me how I knew where it was since it wasn’t on our signage or the new digital signage. I laughed and said I should know where it is because I work here, and thanked them profusely for the feedback that we had indeed neglected to list the screening room in our signage and our new digital screens. Guest feedback is always appreciated and it helps us become our best!

While onboard, we also had the opportunity to try the new Chops Grille menu. I heard lots of great commentary from the guests on the new menu additions, and I personally loved the new goat cheese soufflé and the red velvet cake. I didn’t think it would have been possible to find a better dessert than the Mississippi Mud Pie in Chops, but somehow Chef Josef came up with the Red Velvet Cake and it is amazing. I actually think he was inspired by the Cupcake Cupboard because the Red Velvet cupcakes continue to be the top seller, which is closely followed by the Turtle Cupcake. By the way, the new Cupcake Cupboard on Freedom was greatly received by the guests and we sold out of cupcakes the first day!

We met with the division heads, and updated everyone on our key areas of focus for 2011 and then they brought areas to light where we can provide more support. An area that surfaced was our new pervasive Wi-Fi. While the entire ship now has pervasive Wi-Fi, we are still limited by the number of users that can be on the system at one time. When we encounter an issue like this, we bring it back to Miami and meet with our IT team to address and then solve the issue. We get great support from Bill Martin and his team who have already begun working on a solution so the ship will be able to take full advantage of the enhanced Wi-Fi coverage.

On Freedom, we are adding a Britto Gallery like we have on Allure of the Seas. It is right on the Royal Promenade and I believe it will be very popular with our guests.

Overall it was a great visit. The crew is very proud of what they have accomplished in dry dock, and are also very excited about the new areas and programming. Freedom was already an amazing ship, and with these new additions under the Royal Advantage program, she offers even more now than ever.

BY:Lisa Bauer|15th April, 2011 34 Comments

Royal Gives Back: Why we put Community on High Priority

My name is Helen O’Connell and I have been the Manager of Community Relations for Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. for over 7 years. I oversee our employee volunteer programming and corporate giving as well as work with our many charity partners. Readers have asked about our “company giving” strategy. Indeed, as a large global cruise brand, our giving back to the community is a huge priority. Our Community Relations department receives thousands of requests each year, and it is a painstaking process to filter through them to find the right ones to fund. Instead of donating small amounts to a large number of organizations, we really try to make a difference with our giving and have focused our energy on children and families with an emphasis on foster care, education, and marine conservation. While those three issue areas sound broad, we rely on a very detailed application and guideline process to help us narrow down these fields.

The request letters continually pour in, we read them and it is sometimes very hard to say “No” to so many worthwhile charities. Our small Community Relations team is very animal friendly, so the letters from all the Humane Societies and animal shelters are especially hard to refuse. But, we are determined to make a difference in the communities with which we live and work, encouraging volunteerism and donating what we can.

Our Royal Caribbean International brand has a wonderful partnership with the Make-A-Wish Foundation (MAW). Over the past 11 years, we have sent thousands of Wish families on cruises and have executive officers that sit on their local MAW chapter board. Each June, we run a program named Destination Joy and let our ships be creative in fundraising with our guests onboard and enjoy a little competition between the ships. When we get the results of their hard work in July, we are always blown away by the results!
Last year in January, all of the normal work in our office came to a screeching halt when the earthquake hit Haiti, our corporate partner for more than 30 years. We immediately launched a massive effort to transport relief supplies on all our Labadee, Haiti- bound ships and donated the profits for two months from our private destination there to the Solano Foundation in Haiti, collected funds onboard our ships around the globe for Food for the Poor and contributed to Pan American Development Foundation (PADF) to provide relief aid to our employees and their families who live in Haiti. This past fall, we completed the construction of our first school in Haiti L’Ecole Nouvelle. Royal Caribbean International is fortunate to be able to help the people in the Labadee community, but there is much more work to do.

Right now, our office is full steam ahead with planning for G.I.V.E. Day, our corporate volunteer day. We plan local projects in cities where we have offices in the US and our employees come with their families to assist with cleaning, painting and landscaping; Wichita and South Florida offices are having their days in April then the other cities will have their projects in the late Spring & Summer. G.I.V.E. stands for Get Involved Volunteer Everywhere and this year, we will be celebrating our 13th year. Check out some of our projects on our G.I.V.E. Day website.

Since our neighbors in Japan experienced multiple earthquakes, a tsunami followed by snow with freezing temperatures, and a nuclear threat, the number of inquiries from our ships, guests and offices has grown - all wanting to help collect funds for relief efforts in Japan. We have partnered with World Vision and they are currently on the ground in Japan providing emergency supplies. Our ships are collecting funds from guests through auctions, special events onboard and donations on their SeaPass. World Vision created a page on their website for any guests, employee’s, vendors, family and friends who want to contribute to World Vision’s Japan Quake and Tsunami Relief Fund.
Our company also sponsors mentor programs as well as a partnership with our local United Way. These are just the highlights of the many ways we give back to our community.
BY:Helen O'Connell|13th April, 2011 4 Comments

In Memory of Congressman John Adler; Husband, Father and Friend

Last week I attended the funeral of one of my best friends, John Adler. Most people knew John as a U.S. Congressman from 2008 - 10 and prior to that a New Jersey State Senator for 17 years. He appeared to be on a first name basis with everyone in New Jersey. He was everything we could wish for in a public servant. Intelligent, caring, honest, dedicated, and humble.

People from all walks of life attended the funeral. Coincidentally, my wife and I walked out of the memorial service next to Olympic hero Carl Lewis, who grew up in the same part of New Jersey, and came to admire John.

I interact with Senators and Members of Congress on a regular basis. I don’t understand how they derive enjoyment from what they do. Yet John visibly loved representing his constituents and performing his duties. He was an articulate, polished, hilarious public speaking machine. John lived in his office to save money and traveled home to his wife and four sons as soon as he could every week. He was a loyal Democrat who could work across the aisle, as well as differ with his party on principle on occasion.

I am proud of John for all of the above, but none of that has anything to do with why his death has had such an impact on his circle of close friends. He was an even better husband, father and friend than he was a politician.

We and the Adlers are two of six families of law school friends who go on vacation together every other year bringing many, if not all, of our collective 18 children along with us. It is a recurring, happy Big Chill that dates back to the mid-1990’s. There is nothing we prize more highly.

As a long time friend, I’ve come to believe that John was genetically incapable of speaking five consecutive sentences without being funny. He was funny about everything. In a group of strong personalities (surprise!), John was a constant source of amusement. I looked forward to every interaction with him for 30 years (after the very first one while we were at rival colleges, which degenerated into a mild verbal altercation, two years before we found ourselves in the same law school class). One vivid memory from the first year of law school is of John walking around our classroom on top of the desks parodying one of our professors by giving a spontaneous and hilarious lecture on entrapment.

Add to the mix between the Adlers and the Goldsteins that both of our families are full of Philadelphia sports fanatics and the four parents are members of the (unofficial) 1000+ hour club of people who frequent the sidelines of youth soccer fields, and there was no shortage of conversation or levity.

We will miss John enormously. The Vacation Gang will never be quite the same again. Our thoughts and prayers are with Shelley and the boys during this very difficult time.

BY:Adam|11th April, 2011 12 Comments
 

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