The Suite Life……

If you book a suite in your future Cruises with Royal Caribbean International you will gain a taste of luxury not seen among mainstream cruise lines.  Coming next month, Royal Caribbean is adding expedited check-in, room-services, and personal attention to successive levels of suites.  On top of this, suites are receiving upgraded fittings, sofas, deck chairs, and more.

The highest levels of suites, Presidential Family, Royal Family, Royal, Owner’s, and Grand Suites will have their own security line, with the top two being escorted by a ships officer to their accomodations.

Grand Suites will receive an assortment of food and comfort items on arrival, a cheese tray prior to the first formal dinner.  The room service which now incur a fee to non-suite passengers will be waived to those in these cabins.  In addition, free pressing will be provided for passenger cloth prior to formal evening.

Other perks include reserved seating in the theater, a reception with the ships master, and priority for bookings in the spa and salon.  The Voyager family ships will add reserved poolside and Studio B seating as well, and use of the premium restaurants next to Windjammer for breakfast and lunch.

Not to be forgotten, Junior Suite passengers will get a silver colored pass-card for their own perks.

Big wall, great big wall…….

The massive terminal being built at Port Everglades is coming together.  A massive tilt-wall made the news recently, as it was hoisted into place.  Tilt walls are simply poured concrete walls, which are, as the name implies, tilted up on one edge into their final position.   In this case, a 45 foot by 57 foot section, the second biggest every attempted, was tipped into place.  It is appropriate given the terminal it will be the entrance to is for Oasis of the Seas, the largest passenger vessel ever built.

Funding Forthcoming…….

If you have been watching the SEC filings that come and go, you’ll have noticed two major filings revealing nearly 22,000,000 shares of Royal Caribbean International (RCL) have been issued.  The date of the actual event comes after the fourth quarter was over, and I’m not an expert on such things.  But it seems clear the private sector still has great faith in Richard Fain and Royal Caribbean.  Times like those we have tend to mask the fact that things do eventually recover and move forward.  Even at a depressed share price, the amount generated likely was considerable.

Other Notes……..

I’m putting the last touches on my questions to cruise director Kirk Detweiler and look forward to sharing his responses with you soon!

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Royal Caribbean International (RCL) is about to open two new offices in Asia, and it continues to push hard into the market.  The cities of Beijing and Guangzhou will host the new sales offices, which are aimed to boost sales for the growing list of itineraries in the Asian market.  A couple of years ago, the idea that Royal Caribbean would be pushing so deeply into not only the European markets, but the Asian and near eastern markets would have drawn skeptical looks.  However there is no question the early moves to disperse the companies fleet across a wider range of regions will prove wise. 

The diversity of markets provide places for the smaller and less recent additions to Royal Caribbean’s fleet to remain strong offerings.  In the Caribbean, and to a lesser extent, the European market, you have greater need for the newest ships with the greatest number of features.  However, even western travelers to Asia are going to already consider the trip exotic, seeing places almost unheard of among cruise itineraries.

Meanwhile, as Oasis of the Seas draws closer to her commissioning year, we have seen much revealed about her features.  Yet we await more word on several areas many are looking forward too.  The main dinning room is an obvious area most of us are eager to see more of.  It is especially interesting because of curiosity of how Royal Caribbean will handle the growth in passengers served, assuming they retain a standard two seating format.  The Casino Royale, a staple theme of Royal Caribbean ships, is another area we have not seen any detail of.  To which one wonders who might this differ from the past.  If you have been aboard a Freedom class ship, you will have noticed the enlarged entry area, featuring a significant number of table games.  Given the certainty of the casinos placement, it will have a massive quantity of traffic funneled through it.  I will be personally curious if it will have a connecting staircase to the Royal Promenade, as the previous Voyager family has.  Finally, Studio B, the massive skating rink of the previous two classes, is said to be much larger than early versions.  The shows I’ve seen could well use more raw ice surface.  Likewise, Studio B is a space that screams for greater use.

Of course, if Royal Caribbean told us everything at once, we wouldn’t enjoy the suspense during the next year!

If you can bear to watch stocks these days, here are Monday’s stock numbers.

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Royal Caribbean International (RCL) announced at a SeaTrade convention that it will deploy 8 ships to the European market next year.  This comes as pricing in the Caribbean market is expected to soften greatly with the sluggish global economy.  One Freedom class, two Voyager class, two Radiance class, and three vision class ships will sail a reported 70 distinct itineraries, visiting 87 ports in 32 countries.  By name, the Independence of the Seas (Freedom class,) Navigator of the Seas, Voyager of the Seas (Voyager class,) Brilliance of the Seas, Jewel of the Seas (Radiance Class,) Legend of the Seas, Splendour of the Seas, and Vision of the Seas (Vision class.)

Oasis of the Seas will not visit the UK during her delivery cruise to Port Everglades.  Normally, if possible, ships visit various European ports, often New York City, and then proceed to their initial ports of operation.  During these early visits, promotional cruises are offered to select individuals.  I had the opportunity to cruise on Liberty of the Seas this past year on such a cruise.  The reason for the unusual change in early operation is the ship itself.  With the quantity of grass and trees to be installed, and the ship being finished in the winter months, Royal Caribbean will be completing that project once she makes it across the ocean.

Tuesday’s stock numbers:

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Completed to 65% of her final form, Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas was floated out to much hype and media attention.  USA Today’s cruise guru reported online of the event.  The photos were nice, but many more have long since leaked out of Turku.  They long ago gave rise to rumors of Royal Caribbean painting part of Oasis’ hull light blue.  The ship is being moved to the finishing dock, where she will remain until sea trials, the next major event.  Meanwhile, the dry dock will be prepped for the keel laying of Allure of the Seas, which is due in slight more than a year beyond her sister.  The STX yard in Turku has been building Voyager, Freedom, and now Oasis class ships non-stop since 1998.

Meanwhile, Travel Weekly has awarded Royal Caribbean International an aware as the best luxury cruise operator in the Asian market.  The aware caps a successful first year of full-time operations in Asia.  The line had a presence there before, but the deployment of Rhapsody of the Seas, to be followed by Legend of the Seas, is first long-term deployment in well over a decade.

Royal Caribbean’s stock performance for today:

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. End-of-Day Stock Quote for November 21, 2008

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Royal Caribbean International announced the arrival of Independence of the Seas at her new Port Everglades home.  The third unit in the Freedom class ships, a follow-on to the revolutionary Voyager class, has been ported in Europe during her initial months of operation.  She will take on an alternating schedule of 6 night eastern and 8 night western Caribbean “milk-runs.”  Eastern Caribbean ports include San Juan, Puerto Rico; Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas; Phillipsburg, St. Maarten and Labadee.  Western Caribbean ports will be Belize City, Belize; Costa Maya, Mexico and Cozumel, Mexico.

Rumors flew about that Indy might not be the last Freedom class built.  It was thought that maybe RCI would build a fourth unit between the first and second Oasis class, maybe to buy time to fully incorporate any changes needed to Allure of the Seas.  That obviously can not happen, with most steel having been cut for Allure.  With STX/Akers’ Turku yard having been building Voyager family ships since 1998, the logic of building a fourth Freedom may lay in ensuring no break in the relationship between it and Royal Caribbean.

The Freedom class, for those who are unaware, is a longer, upgraded design based on the Voyager class.  Having been on most of the ships in both class’, I can say it is a distinct refinement of the industry changing Voyager.  This in no way is intended to say there is anything wrong with Voyager class.  Indeed, where Royal Caribbean has always excelled is in making leaps from one class to the next smoothly.  The success of Freedom class, is that it expands the passenger base, yet feels more open and less crowded than.

A fourth unit might make Wall Street analysts freak out, yet it is clear from the new “Nation of Why Not” marketing campaign, that the post Vision class ships are going to be the focal point of Royal Caribbean’s branding.  It is a clear advantage an exclusive hold on ships which are changing the public’s idea of what a cruise should offer.  It is equally clear 2009 and beyond will be all about taking that fact and beating rivals over the head with it.

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