Travel Blackboard interviewed Royal Caribbean's senior vice president for global sales and marketing, Lisa Bauer, to talk about her new role with Royal Caribbean and her experience at Royal Caribbean.  

When asked about what she'd like to see improved in the cruise industry, Bauer responded, "It would be nice to get a global voice for cruising. I think that they all do a great job, but that would be the one thing, if we could all figure out how to come together and make a global cruise industry, versus all the regional associations."

Bauer also commented on Royal Caribbean's recent revitalization program that has been upgrading it's entire fleet of ships in an effort to make them all more relevant in a time when new ships get a lot of attention.

"Well the guests’ reaction has really been unbelievable because the ships right now and the ratings from all our customers are quite high. "

"They’re amazed that we took something that was already so great and made it even better. "

We’ve done this thing and now every ship is our best ship and that’s really caught on!

"You go on Rhapsody of the Seas and it’s like a brand new ship! The people that loved the ship before because they loved the crew and they love that type of ship and they love where it goes now have a ship that’s got an incredible entertainment experience etc... "

"So the fact is that the guests have already loved it and then it’s like “wow”. "

"Our ratings are up double digits, which is unbelievable, because they were already so high. "

"This was a big deal; it was a lot of money. But it was really to make sure that our guests had a consistent brand experience. The ability to have these key brand elements, no matter what ship you get on in the world, is very important to us and it is resonating amazingly with the guests. " 

Last week Royal Caribbean announced it would scale back the amount of stops in Bermuda and now we know why.  Royal Caribbean is citing guest demand for the change.  The company has recieved feedback that its passengers want to visit other destinations, especially from the cruises that depart Baltimore, Maryland.

A Royal Caribbean spokesman elaborated on the issue, "While Bermuda continues to be a great destination for our guests, we also have received feedback that they want more variety of destinations from Baltimore."

"As a result for 2013, we will alternate Bermuda and Bahamas sailings with Grandeur of the Seas."

Royal Caribbean is scaling back Grandeur of the Seas' calls to Bermuda to just 26 in 2013.  Explorer of the Seas will continue to make some stops in Bermuda but the total between the two ships will amount to 41 trips total in 2013, which is a drop of 14 compared to 2012.

Royal Caribbean added: “Bermuda is a spectacular destination and very popular with our passengers."

“While we would have liked to visit more often, the difference in the number of port calls is largely due to a change of itinerary patterns from Baltimore, which limited our ability to call in Bermuda.”

Royal Caribbean CEO Adam Goldstein was interviewed by Travel Weekly about the new found importance social media has both for Royal Caribbean and its passengers.

"Social media has become an overwhelming force in our society today. It is perfect for us. We are in an environment that overhwhelmingly satisfies guests. They want to share their experience with others who are not on the ship with them. They want to do that with video, pictures and postcards, things that take bandwidth that is hard for us to provide now. "

Goldstein indicated that Royal Caribbean is putting more emphasis on advertising its cruises in the social media realms. Specifically, Royal Caribbean is investing in Facebook, banner ads, paid search and other ways of getting into the online environment.

The importance in using social media by travel companies to spread the word while on vacation is an emerging trend.  Recently Walt Disney World announced it will roll out free WiFi internet access in its theme parks, which will help facilitate the use of social media in its parks.  Perhaps Royal Caribbean is in a similar grouping.

Royal Caribbean's Legend of the Seas will return to Singapore for her final season in Asia this October.  Legend of the Seas will offer a mix of popular and new Southeast Asian cruises out of Singapore including stops in Kota Kinabulu, Malaysia and Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei.

This will be Legend of the Seas' sixth consecutive season in Singapore and will run from October 31, 2012 through April 1, 2013.  Itineraries offered range from two to seven night cruises and include stops in Penang, Phuket, Malacca, Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi.

Included in her last season will be 4 and 5 night itineraries over Christmas, New Years and Chinese New Years.

Before Legend of the Seas arrives in Singapore, she will offer cruises to North Asia with 4 to 9 night itineraries out of Yokohama and Shanghai from September to October.

Royal Caribbean is offering itineraries such as a 9-night Russia & Hokkaido cruise to Russia’s Vladivostok and for the first time, Japan’s Muroran and Kushiro, and the Mid Autumn Cruise which offers moon cakes for guests.

Royal Caribbean is celebrating Mo Farah's Olympic gold medal win by announcing that it will waive the entry fee for the Royal 5K race for anyone that books the Royal 5K cruise before August 17.

The Royal 5K will be held in Phillipsburg, St. Maarten on December 4, 2012 and is the second year in a row the race is being held.  The race is open to all those cruising onboard Oasis of the Seas and the entry fee is normally $25 to participate.

The special race coincides with a cruise itinerary dedicated to running enthusiasts that includes running themed activities, such as:

• Social fun runs and beach workouts
• Private meet-and-greet sessions with high-profile racing athletes
• Seminars and lectures with high-profile athletes
• Personal training tips from experts
• Speed tests on the onboard running track

This new offer celebrates Mo Farah's gold medal performance in the men's 5K race that resulted in a time of 13 minutes and 41.66 seconds.  

Dominic Paul, Vice President and group managing director, Royal Caribbean Europe, commented, “Mo Farah’s electrifying performance has inspired the runner in all of us. With interest in our Royal Caribbean Runners groups really taking off and the fitness facilities onboard our ships busier than ever, we thought what better way to show our support for Team GB than by waiving the entry fee for this year’s Royal 5K race. From sports courts to surf simulators, making investments that get people active has always been a key part of Royal Caribbean International’s business and we’re thrilled to be paying tribute to one of our country’s finest athletes in hopes of encouraging experienced runners and novices alike to join us on a running themed holiday at sea.”

Photo by plusgreens

The island of Bermuda is seeing cutbacks of cruise ships stopping there across the board, including Royal Caribbean.  Royal Caribbean will cut back the number of calls they will be making to the island in 2013 by 11.

At the end of 2012, Explorer of the Seas and Enchantment of the Seas will have visited Bermuda a total of 55 times between the two ships.  Next year, however, Grandeur of the Seas will replace Enchantment of the Seas and make ten less stops to Bermuda, for a total of 15 calls.

A spokesman from the Bermuda government commented on the change, "We had early discussions with Royal Caribbean to include additional Grandeur of the Seas calls from Baltimore, with a weekend stop in Bermuda and continuing to Maine and other locations in New England."

“Royal Caribbean decided that these cruises were not selling well, and decided not to include them in their 2013 itinerary."

“However, we will still have 15 calls from the Grandeur of the Seas in 2013. We will also have 29 calls from the Explorer of the Seas in 2013, compared to 30 Explorer calls in 2012. "

Royal Caribbean is teaming up with Food and Wine Magazine to offer its passengers a new program called, “The Art of Preparation” which is a multi-platform program featuring Food & Wine and Royal Caribbean International “Masters” in a branded content experience. Food & Wine Marketing and Mindshare co-developed “The Art of Preparation” specifically for Royal Caribbean.

This new program is designed to invite "foodies" to learn more about the culinary experiences available aboard any Royal Caribbean ship.  The first installment of the “The Art of Preparation” will roll out with co-branded rich media units across www.foodandwine.com, www.travelandleisure.com as well as select Time Inc. websites, and will run through Dec. 2012.

Hosted by Sissy Biggers, television personality and lifestyle expert, the two minute videos feature a look into each “Masters” area of expertise. The Food & Wine Masters line-up includes:

•  Brewing: Garrett Oliver (Brooklyn Brewery, NYC)
• Baking: Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito (Baked, NYC)
• Pizza: Mark Bello (Pizza a Casa Cooking School, NYC)
• Cocktails: Jim Meehan (PDT, NYC)
• Spices: Lior Lev Sercarz (La Boîte a Epice, NYC)
• Chocolate: Jean-Francois Bonnet (Tumbador, NYC

The Royal Caribbean International masters include:

•  Josef Jungwirth – Director of culinary operations and Master Chef
• Marco Marrama – Corporate executive chef
• Frank Weber – VP, food and beverage operations
• Matthias Terskow – Pastry chef and supervisor
• Fritz Halbedl – Chef and culinary consultan
•  Maureen “Molly” Brandt – Chef de Cuisine, 150 Central Park
• Travis Kamiyama – Executive sushi chef, Izumi Asian Cuisine
• Chef Michael Schwartz – Chef and owner of Michael's Genuine Food & Drink and exclusive culinary partner of Royal Caribbean International

Royal Caribbean is also the presenting sponsor of the “Masters Series: Lessons from the Experts,” editorial section.