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Royal Caribbean International

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U.S. headquarters in Miami, Florida.
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U.S. headquarters in Miami, Florida.

Royal Caribbean International is a Norwegian-American cruise ship company based in Miami, Florida and Wichita, Kansas. It is a brand of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., with 20 ships in service and one more under construction. All the ships have names ending in "of the Seas." Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. also operates Celebrity Cruises

Contents

Company/Brand History

Royal Caribbean Cruise Line was founded in 1968 by Anders Wilhelmsen & Company, I.M. Skauge & Company, and Gotaas Larsen- all Norwegian shipping companies. The newly created line put its first ship into service, the Song of Norway two years later. The next year, the line's capacity was doubled with the addition of the Nordic Prince to the fleet.Continuing to expand, the line added the Sun Viking in 1972.After four years of successful operation, Royal Caribbean's Song of Norway became the first passenger ship to be lengthened. This was accomplished via the insertion of an 85 foot section to the vessels severed center. Following the success of this procedure, Nordic Prince was stretched just in 1980. Royal Caribbean finally recieved wide-spread global recogntion when in 1982 it launched the Song of America over twice the size of Sun Viking and at the time the largest passenger vessel afloat. Royal Caribbean once again went inovative with its 1986 purchase of a costal property on Hispaniola for use as a private destination for its guests. This destination is now called Labadee. After a corporate restructuring in 1988, the line lauched Sovereign of the Seas, again the largest passenger vessel afloat at the time. Two years later Empress of the Seas, and Viking Serenade entered service for the line, continuing a fastly upward growth trend within the company.Within that year Royal Caribbean purchased its second private destination, CocoCay, an island in the Bahamas.Monarch of the Seas, the second ship of the Sovereign class entered service the next year.The thirdship of the Sovereign class, Monarch of the seas was delevered the next year, and the lines vessels Song of Norway and Viking Serenade were sold.With a large passenger capacity and a growing market share, Royal Caribbean finally went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 1993. Over the next two years the company experienced extreme growth. A new corporate headquarters in Miami, Florida was completed, and the Nordic Prince replaced by a new (and once again largest at the time) vessel, the (Legend of the Seas).The next year brought more of the incline in growth. Two more vessels entered as Legend class cruise ships, the Splendour of the Seas and Grandeur of the Seas.Also in 1996 the company finalized its contracts for 130,000 ton vessels with Aker Finnyards in Finland.The trend of growth and change continued into 1997.The line's oldest ship, Song of Norway was sold, and two new Legend-class ships entered service as Rhapsody of the Seas and Enchantment of the Seas.The company also merged with the Greek cruise line Celebrity Cruises and changed it's name from Royal Caribbean Cruie Line to Royal Caribbean International. The next year marked a transition to a more "strictly moderm line", when the last of the companies older vessels, Song of America and Sun Viking were retired.In 1999 the Voyager of the Seas, the lines newest and world's largest cruise ship entered service with much attention from the news media.The next two years saw the deliverence of Voyager's sister ship, Explorer of the Seas, and the first of a new class of environmentally friendly cruise liners, Radiance of the Seas; as well as the introduction of Royal Caribbean's "cruise tours Alaska" featuring glass-domed train cars to senic destinations within the state and Canada. 2002 saw the debut of Navigator of the Seas and Brilliance of the Seas.Serenade of the Seas and Mariner of the Seas were introduced the next year, and rock-climbing walls were standardized fleet-wide.Jewel of the Seas followed in 2004, and the lines ship Nordic Prince was refurbished and re-introduced as Empress of the Seas.Freedom of the Seas the lines newest class of ship started construction at Aker Finnyards in 2005 and launched the next year as the largest and arguable the most innovative passenger vessel in the world, pushing Royal Caribbean into well the future of the cruise industry.

The main base of operations is in Miami, Florida. Royal Caribbean's other large facility is located in Wichita, Kansas (http://www.royalcaribbean.com/ourCompany/ourHistory.do)

Royal Caribbean cruise ships

Each Royal Caribbean ship includes the signature top-of-ship lounge called the Viking Crown Lounge offering sweeping panoramic views. The line has a special kids and youth program known as Adventure Ocean. The line's first ship was the Song of Norway, now Caspi Cruises's Dream Princess. The current fleet consists of:

These ships are slated to surpass the Freedom Class as the world's largest passenger ship in autumn 2009. It will be able to accommodate up to 6,400 passengers and will have a gross tonnage of about 220,000 tons and cost around US$1.24 billion.

Freedom of the Seas floatout
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Freedom of the Seas floatout

Freedom of the Seas left Aker Finnyards shipyard in Turku, Finland on April 24, 2006. The second ship of this class is currently under construction at Aker Finnyards in Turku, Finland, with a scheduled delivery of May 2007. With gross tonnage of 158 000 tons, they dethrone Queen Mary 2 as the largest passenger ships in the world.
Voyager class ship
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Voyager class ship

The largest ships at sea only behind the Freedom Class and Cunard's Queen Mary 2. The ships were built at Kvaerner Masa-Yard’s (now Aker Finnyards) facility in Turku.
Radiance class ship
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Radiance class ship

Radiance class are the ships in RCI's fleet with the greatest ocean liner feel to them. They still have all the signetures of RCI but have grand public rooms like on the Queen Mary 2. All ships have environmentally-friendly gas turbine engines.
Vision class ship
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Vision class ship

These are the most well-traveled. The Legend and Splendour are slightly different, as they are the only ones which have a golf course but are also 5000 tons less gross tonnage.

Sovereign class ship
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Sovereign class ship

These were the first "mega-ships" in the industry. Built at the Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyards in Saint-Nazaire, France.

Empress of the Seas
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Empress of the Seas

Smaller than the other ships, previously named "Nordic Empress". Is the only ship of its class in the RCI fleet.

Retired Ships

Former RCI ships no longer in the fleet.

Private resorts

Royal Caribbean operates two privately-owned resorts that are used as stops by some Caribbean and Bahamas itineraries. They are Labadee, a resort on the northern coast of Haiti, and Coco Cay, a private island in the Berry Islands region of The Bahamas.

George Allen Smith case

On July 5, 2005, passengers on board the Brilliance of the Seas reported what appeared to be blood on a part of the ship below passenger balconies. After a search, George Allen Smith was discovered to be missing and thought to have fallen overboard. A criminal investigation into possible foul play is was conducted, and a brief press release on the company's investor relations website announced the settlement of the case on June 29th.[link]

Corporate crimes during the 1990s

In the late 1990s, Royal Caribbean was twice fined for violating U.S. environmental cruising regulations. They pleaded guilty on June 8, 1998, to charges of dumping fuel oil on the high seas, using falsified records to cover it up, and even destroying a bypass pipe on the Sovereign of the Seas to further cover it up. It additionally pleaded guilty on July 26, 1999, to 21 felony charges in connection to dumping fuel oil in U.S. territorial waters and the accompanying coverups. Royal Caribbean was forced to pay a total of US$27 million (€25 million, 211 million NOK) in fines. [link]

External links

 

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