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Bayley puts his foot in his mouth


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Royal Carribbean CEO Michael Bayley just did an interview with Business Insider and dropped this gem:

Quote

"We're multi-generational, and contrary to what millennials think, there's other people in the world,"

Contrary to what clueless CEOs think, it's a stupid idea to insult people you'd like to be your customers.

There are few things that irritate me more than watching middle-aged entitled people who are typically waited on hand-and-foot through their entire daily lives whine and moan about those selfish entitled millennials.

He goes on to talk about not specifically chasing millennial cruisers and once they start families, their preferences tend to align with other families regardless of generation.  That's fine, I don't think Royal should chase fads and make assumptions based on opinions not backed up by the data of actual spending habits--all the more ironic, since he starts out doing that very thing by throwing a barb at millennials at the top of the article . . .

My advice to Mr. Bayley is to remove his foot from his mouth and avoid insulting large swaths of your guests, check his own entitlement at the door when he comes in to work, and redirect that energy to thinking about how he can improve his cruise line for all guests.  A good place to start might be on the apps and websites which are an absolute horror show right now.  And if that's too millenial-focused (us and our silly obsession with technology and smartphones and all), take a look at the main dining room food quality which has been taking a nosedive for the best 15 years.

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Having heard Michael Bayley speak on numerous occasions, I'm pretty sure this was said in a joking manner.  

You may not find it funny and/or in poor taste, which is obviously something you can absolutely do.  

The one thing I do like about Michael Bayley is he does not regurgitate PR prepared pieces.  He's fairly open about strategies, and doesn't shy away from a joke here or there. I prefer his take to what Disney often does, which is to tote nothing but playful PR lines about what they do.  

I think ultimately, the jist of what he's saying is RC caters to many age groups, and not just one.  I don't think the comment was intended to say "we don't like millenials" or "millenials are silly" or really any slight on them.  Simply, RC attracts cruisers of all ages.

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3 hours ago, monctonguy said:

I am very surprised he said that....as Millenials are DEFN the target market for Royal.

 

 

That's exactly what I was thinking.  The tech they have been previewing (VR dessert bar?!), the rush to add water slides and the entire Perfect Day upgrade do not make me think they are targeting the 40+ market.

But then again, given that the youngest M's are already adults (and half of us are in our 30's) maybe he is alluding to them marketing towards the next generation.  It is about time to start blaming them for ruining everything after all.

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18 hours ago, monctonguy said:

I am very surprised he said that....as Millenials are DEFN the target market for Royal.

 

 

I believe millenials are a target market, but not the only target market for RC.  They obviously offer certain things that should be appealing to millenials, but they also offer plenty towards baby boomers, Gen X'ers and whatever @Big Dawg Ron is.

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I don’t know which “middle aged entitled people” you know but this middle aged entitled person and her husband worked for 40 years, raised & educated 2 millenials and aid in the care of 4 grandchildren.  I assure you no one waits hand and foot on me!  So yes,  I deserve a little entitlement.  Maybe when you are my age, you’ll understand how “entitled” your comments sound.

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30 minutes ago, Pooch said:

I don’t know which “middle aged entitled people” you know but this middle aged entitled person and her husband worked for 40 years, raised & educated 2 millenials and aid in the care of 4 grandchildren.  I assure you no one waits hand and foot on me!  So yes,  I deserve a little entitlement.  Maybe when you are my age, you’ll understand how “entitled” your comments sound.

Was thinking how I was going to respond to the initial post, but now I don't have too. You said it all, and I agree with you 100%. 

Great rebuttal 

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1 hour ago, Pooch said:

I don’t know which “middle aged entitled people” you know but this middle aged entitled person and her husband worked for 40 years, raised & educated 2 millenials and aid in the care of 4 grandchildren.  I assure you no one waits hand and foot on me!  So yes,  I deserve a little entitlement.  Maybe when you are my age, you’ll understand how “entitled” your comments sound.

Woosh

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While I don't know the intention behind Mr Bayley's comments, two things seem clear.

1) Anything he says which is, rightly or not, interpreted in away that hurts business is less than ideal for him as well as the company, and not his goal.  In this way, no matter his intended interpretation of the statements, for those unhappy with his remarks, I'd bet he wished he phrased it differently.  The reality is that anyone who is so frequently in the public eye, no matter how eloquent, is likely to say things they come to regret (for any number of reasons) - I can't imagine that pressure.  We are all flawed individuals.

2) Traditionally, across multiple societies, generations of people speak ill about broad swaths of those who come after them.  Every generation is different, and not everyone in every generation is representative of the finer or lesser qualities of their generation.  Certainly some observations are more true than others, and each generation of people on this earth has excelled at some things more than generations past, and failed to rise to comparable levels of success or grace in other ways.  Regardless of our ages, if we judged each other solely on what our grandparent's generation said of our parent's generation it'd be an unpleasant place.  True too is the idea that if we failed to learn from the triumphs and strengths of generations that came before us, we'd fail to advance as a society.

With that out of the way, let's cruise :2_grimacing:

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Not to worry, I don't think too many of the millennials are reading the Business Insider, last I checked the ones I work with were playing chip n putt, ping pong, darts, kickball, updating the business casual policy to include dirty ripped jeans, scheduling March Madness watch parties... during the workday while the rest of us are trying to keep the company profitable (to support their chip n putt, ping pong, darts...).  Entitlement is "earned" not given away like a trophy for participating or just being you, sorry!  

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18 minutes ago, Jjohnb said:

Not to worry, I don't think too many of the millennials are reading the Business Insider, last I checked the ones I work with were playing chip n putt, ping pong, darts, kickball, updating the business casual policy to include dirty ripped jeans, scheduling March Madness watch parties... during the workday while the rest of us are trying to keep the company profitable (to support their chip n putt, ping pong, darts...).  Entitlement is "earned" not given away like a trophy for participating or just being you, sorry!  

You get a Gold Star... for participation.

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20 hours ago, Pooch said:

I don’t know which “middle aged entitled people” you know but this middle aged entitled person and her husband worked for 40 years, raised & educated 2 millenials and aid in the care of 4 grandchildren.  I assure you no one waits hand and foot on me!  So yes,  I deserve a little entitlement.  Maybe when you are my age, you’ll understand how “entitled” your comments sound.

Well written. I very much appreciate this response. I bit my lip hard on it and chose not to express what I was thinking which was best left unshared.

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On ‎4‎/‎18‎/‎2018 at 1:57 PM, Jjohnb said:

Not to worry, I don't think too many of the millennials are reading the Business Insider, last I checked the ones I work with were playing chip n putt, ping pong, darts, kickball, updating the business casual policy to include dirty ripped jeans, scheduling March Madness watch parties... during the workday while the rest of us are trying to keep the company profitable (to support their chip n putt, ping pong, darts...).  Entitlement is "earned" not given away like a trophy for participating or just being you, sorry!  

Sums it up perfectly....couldn't think of a better way to describe it...although there many more things we could add to that list!

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To the OP, the quote you made was entirely out of context. Read more: "We're multi-generational, and contrary to what millennials think, there's other people in the world," he said. "Once a millennial gets married and has kids, you become just another dad, like every other dad."

Perhaps we can hope that the Boomers,  Gen X and Y will instill a love of cruising into their children or grandchildren to " keep this whole thing going."  Perhaps Bayley is reflecting on the fact that yes, we need the millennials, but we are not going to forget who put us on the map, the Boomers etc. . The large majority of wealth is concentrated in the 60 and above age grouping. Thus, a business, which RC Intl. is, can not ignore that fact. You learn in business school to " go where the money is." Not always where you think it's going to be. 

Its  pretty obvious , even to the oblivious, that RC has and is spending a tremendous amount of time and money focusing on multi generations of cruisers. As was alluded to  above, look at the Voyager Class forward and you'll see slides and malls( promenades) bionic bars , Zoom and video by the pools, all an attempt to appeal to a new, younger generation. Still, you have to " dance with who brung ya" and recognize that older cruisers also represent your future because they put you there and are very brand loyal, something of which can not typically be attributed to the " younger" generation . Don't think that other businesses are not struggling with this issue because looking at GM and Ford for example, you can see they too have been gearing up for the " technology" generation with Connected cars. .its just takes time and a lot of resources to get there. It's a paradigm shift and Rome was not built in a day. RC is cognizant of that fact. 

 

Perhaps the the best way to sum this are the immortal words of Mike and the Mechanics: " Every generation, blames the one before, for all of its frustrations , come beating on the door."  

 

 

*** For those who have not, follow the OPs link above to Business Insider" and get the whole ghist of the story. ***

 

 

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On 4/17/2018 at 7:56 PM, Pooch said:

I don’t know which “middle aged entitled people” you know but this middle aged entitled person and her husband worked for 40 years, raised & educated 2 millenials and aid in the care of 4 grandchildren.  I assure you no one waits hand and foot on me!  So yes,  I deserve a little entitlement.  Maybe when you are my age, you’ll understand how “entitled” your comments sound.

Thank Your reading my mind ...... I wanted to respond but my "filter" was firmly in place so I couldn't ......

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On 4/17/2018 at 10:21 PM, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Going to go out on a limb here but after re-reading the original post several times, I think @Orange Crush might be referring to Michael Bayley as the "middle age entitled person" not middle age people as a whole.

Yes, to be abundantly clear, the middle aged entitled person I'm referring to is Michael Bayley.

Everyone, regardless of their age or generation, deserves to be treated with respect and not insulted.  Period.  We are each responsible for our own behaviors and anybody, of any age, acting up only represents themselves and not their entire age bracket.

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20 hours ago, Orange Crush said:

Yes, to be abundantly clear, the middle aged entitled person I'm referring to is Michael Bayley.

Everyone, regardless of their age or generation, deserves to be treated with respect and not insulted.  Period.  We are each responsible for our own behaviors and anybody, of any age, acting up only represents themselves and not their entire age bracket.

However, the selected sentence in the OP was entirely taken out of context. MR. Bayley essentially states that we ( collectively) often turn into our parents once we start having kids.  Being a parent and having seen my own kids grow, I can absolutely agree.  They are turning into me and my wife.  I got no sense of entitlement on Mr. Bayleys part from the article whatsoever. 

 

Stating that  we can not "cot" to just one generation is absolutely correct. Surely, you can tell from his actions that he is cross or multigenerational thinking and the success of the brand, despite some misgivings about food etc. shows. 

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I recognize the context of what Bayley is saying, I said as much in my original post.

He said: " "We're multi-generational, and contrary to what millennials think, there's other people in the world."

Had he kept it to a discussion of the facts about cross-generational cruising habits, I've got no problem with what he's saying.  He should've left out the joking or opining suggesting millennials think they're the only people in the world. 

 

 

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1 minute ago, Orange Crush said:

I recognize the context of what Bayley is saying, I said as much in my original post.

He said: " "We're multi-generational, and contrary to what millennials think, there's other people in the world."

Had he kept it to a discussion of the facts about cross-generational cruising habits, I've got no problem with what he's saying.  He should've left out the joking or opining suggesting millennials think they're the only people in the world. 

 

 

Is he not entitled to his opinion? Even CEO have personal views and I agree, as the dad of millennials, that he's correct. I must have missed the " joke."  The fact that his "boats" are now  catering to the kids and grandkids of cruisers shows that the RC board is cognizant of the fact that the old cruisers are getting " older" and we need to cater to the millennials.  Connectivity and amenities for the millennials are great examples of that. 

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7 hours ago, NS8VN said:

That has to be one of the weakest rebuttals in history, I have no idea why it is so popular of a phrase.  It boils down to saying someone is entitled to their opinion as a way to tell someone else that they are NOT entitled to their own opinion.

 

We are all entitled,  you as much as I ,  BUT CEOs have a tendency to tamp it down a bit because of their position.  I  continue to maintain that the OP placed the initial comment out of context and that Bayley knew exactly what he was saying and why.   In fact, reading the whole article, there's really not much more to see than what was written.  RC is catering to a cross generational crowd and should be commended for it,  BUT has not forgotten to "dance with who brung ya"  and that's their veteran cruisers. 

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Not to keep this going...but I was right......lol

 

Here is a quote from his mouth direct;y...as reported on this blog

 

http://We're very excited about Mariner as a product coming into the shorts market, and that's very much focused on new to cruise, and Millennial, and that really is the on ramp for that market.

 

Pretty sure I had stated that these changes were geared towards this group...whether you like it or not, or agree with it or not, or like to call them that or not....the CEO confirmed he calls them that and has these ships and CocoCay being changed to appeal to them.......

 

Case closed!

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On April 26, 2018 at 1:48 PM, monctonguy said:

Not to keep this going...but I was right......lol

 

Here is a quote from his mouth direct;y...as reported on this blog

 

http://We're very excited about Mariner as a product coming into the shorts market, and that's very much focused on new to cruise, and Millennial, and that really is the on ramp for that market.

 

Pretty sure I had stated that these changes were geared towards this group...whether you like it or not, or agree with it or not, or like to call them that or not....the CEO confirmed he calls them that and has these ships and CocoCay being changed to appeal to them.......

 

Case closed!

You were correct, as was I.  He did not put foot in mouth in the context of what's going on with RC. Bayley and crew are indeed appealing to a cross Section ( generational) and also those who want a short hop versus an extended vacation. The Mariner 3&4 day cruises are a perfect example of that.   The key to the Millennial market is social  media ( particularly reviews and the wisdom of the crowd) and getting their first foot on the boat in the first place. The rest will fall in line. 

 

*** Sorry Capt Kate on X ,  but a ship is still a boat ;). Until it gets masts, it'll always be a big boat ***

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