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Royal Caribbean providing children with life vests for use in the pool

In:
16 Oct 2015

It appears Royal Caribbean is providing life jackets for children to use in the pools on Oasis of the Seas.

Leigh Cormack from the Oasis of the Seas Cruisers...Past, Present, Future Facebook group took these photos of the new life jackets.

The sign reads, "Children's Swimming Pool Life Jackets are available for the safety all children.  They are to be used on the Oasis Pool Deck."

We have not spotted life jackets for pool use like this previously.

The life jackets for children could be a response to recent pool accidents involving drownings.

Do you think Royal Caribbean offering life jackets for kids in the pool is a good idea? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Inside look at Royal Caribbean's cruise ship simulator

In:
07 Oct 2015

Royal Caribbean has provided a look at its Simulation Training Center at Resolve Maritime Academy in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

The 7,000 square foot training center launched in 2012 and cost $6.5 million, where the bridge facilities have been replicated for a safe place to train Royal Caribbean junior officers on how the real thing works.

The computer simulations displayed on high-definition screens include some 200 ports visited by Royal Caribbean ships, with all their landmarks, buildings and seaside facilities. As various conditions and perils are brought to bear, trainees respond using controls just as they exist on their actual ship’s bridge.

Officers here can practice and refine their skills onshore to handle any situation that may occur at sea.

“Most simulators in the world are generic,” says Captain Patrik Dahlgren, Royal Caribbean vice president for marine operations. “This simulator is made up to look and feel and work the same as a real bridge on board our specific vessels. You actually have the physical consoles and all the equipment looks exactly the same as it does on board the vessel.”

Royal Caribbean's Quantum of the Seas becomes first cruise ship to receive Maritime Safety Award

In:
11 Sep 2015

Royal Caribbean's Quantum of the Seas was chosen by the Royal Institution of Naval Architects (RINA) to be the recipient of the Maritime Safety Award.

Quantum of the Seas is the first cruise ship to ever win the award in the 155-year history of the RINA.

The annual award, recognizing “an individual, company or organization which has made a significant technological contribution to improving maritime safety,” was presented to Royal Caribbean for the design and implementation of an integrated Safety Command Centre (SCC) onboard Quantum of the Seas

The Safety Command Centre breaks down incident response, physically and functionally, into a collection of “pods,” each with its own specialty, which can act separately or as part of an integrated response as each incident requires.

Professors Dracos Vassalos and Tom Allan, who are RINA fellows and sit on Royal Caribbean's Maritime Safety Advisory Board, say Quantum of the Seas' Safety Command Centre addresses a need for cruise ship safety.

British boy drowns on Independence of the Seas cruise ship pool

In:
27 May 2014

A six-year-old boy from the United Kingdom was found unconscious in the pool onboard Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas earlier Tuesday.

The boy was was air lifted in serious condition to a hospital in Brest, France after he was found in cardiac arrest at the bottom of the pool, according to officials in Brest.

"The child was found in a state of cardio-respiratory arrest at the bottom of the ship's pool," said Yann Bouvard, a spokesman for the maritime prefecture in the port of Brest.

Shortly before 2:00pm (12:00 GMT), sea rescue services were requested and a helicopter was sent to the ship that was in the Atlantic.

Two hours later, the child was transferred to the Morvan hospital in Brest where his condition was described as "grave".

Royal Caribbean CEO on cruise ship safety: Last two or three years an anomaly

In:
10 Jan 2014

Royal Caribbean CEO Adam Goldstein spoke with CNBC about safety in the cruise industry as part of an effort to set the record straight.  

Royal Caribbean has had some negative attention lately after two cruise passengers went overboard from their cruises.

In an exclusive intereview with CNBC, Goldstein spoke about the work Royal Caribbean's crew does every day to provide a safe cruise experience for its guests, "I having been in this cruise business for over 25 years now, my frame of reference is two and a half decades of an, extraordinarily safe of track record of great duration. Tremendous attention to detail and training that prepares the crew and the officers to do everything that they need to do from to delivering satisfaction to the guests to being extremely safe and environmentally responsible. "

"And so there's no question in our minds, in my mind, that the last two or three years have been an anomaly, and that given the foundation of discipline and attention to detail, the cruise industry will resume its long-term very safe track record. "

Goldstein's reaction to the negative news forced Royal Caribbean and the whole cruise industry to change how it looks at the guest experience, "It was very off base and we don't want to see it anymore. The cruise industry, as a whole, has stepped forward as worked together in a different and better way than before the sequence of incidents. We are much more proactive as an industry on the safety front. 

"The second thing though that we took from the sequence of incidents that occured in the industry is to do even more to ensure guest comfort while we were keeping them safe. We looked for redundancy of comfort systems, making sure the air conditioning, the heating, the toilet systems, the food provision, everything could continue even under very difficult circumstances. "

"And we've made progress in that regard, and i think the whole industry has."

Royal Caribbean posts crime data to its website

In:
01 Aug 2013

As part of Royal Caribbean's agreement with a congressional hearing last week, crime data aboard its cruise ships, broken down by quarter, has been posted to the official Royal Caribbean website.

The data, which goes back to October 2010, is posted following a promise by Royal Caribbean CEO Adam Goldstein that he and his colleagues at Carnival Corp and Norwegian Cruise Line, will post their crime data voluntarily.

Royal Caribbean is posted the total number of incidents that were reported by passengers or crew in each category that is specified in the 2010 Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act. Those include sexual assault, theft greater than $10,000, tampering with the vessel, assault with serious injuries, kidnapping, missing U.S. nationals, suspicious death or homicide. The cruise lines are reporting rapes and other sexual assaults in two separate categories, though the government uses only a single category.

As an example, between April 1 and June 30, 2013, there 6 total crimes reported on Royal Caribbean ships.

  • Theft of more than $10,000 (3 by crew, 1 unidentified)
  • Rape (1 by crew, 1 by passenger)

“With the growing criticism about how effectively the government website is communicating our onboard rates, it just made good sense to try and take the argument out of the realm of ‘Gee, we wish we knew’ and really share very openly what the incident rates are,” said Gary Bald, a senior vice president at Royal Caribbean Cruises who oversees safety and security.

It is important to note that the statistics provided by Royal Caribbean are only allegations, not proven crimes.  Allegations alone are not proof that the incident actually occurred.

Royal Caribbean to voluntarily provide more shipboad crime data

In:
24 Jul 2013

Speaking at a hearing today on cruise safety by the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation in Washington, Royal Caribbean CEO Adam Goldstein promised Royal Caribbean will voluntarily publish more data about crimes on their cruises.

Royal Caribbean is one of three of the largest cruise ship operators appearing before the committee today after U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller introduced legislation yesterday that would require disclosure of the crime data and make the Department of Transportation responsible for consumer protection on cruises.

“We are proud of this initiative and believe that it addresses many of the concerns raised with the limited public reporting required,” by current law, Goldstein said in prepared remarks.

Goldstein said Royal Caribbean will begin posting the expanded data for all of its cruise divisions starting August 1, 2013 and the information will date back to the fourth quarter of 2010.

Royal Caribbean cruise ship passengers die on excursion in Mexico

In:
19 Nov 2012

An Orlando, Florida couple on a Royal Caribbean cruise died in Mexico on Saturday while enjoying a third-party excursion.

The passengers, from Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas, were in Cozumel, Mexico and died while in a sand buggy accident.  Royal Caribbean did not identify the two victims, but did say they were a 43-year-old man and a 31-year-old woman.  News media report the two as Jim Melillo and his girlfriend Susan Borges.

Royal Caribbean issued a statement about the incident, "We extend our most sincere and heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of the 43-year-old male guest and 31-year-old female guest from the United States who died on November 17, 2012. ... Our care team is providing support and assistance to guests, family and friends. Our thoughts are with their family and friends, and we will continue to do our very best to assist them."

According to a local newspaper, the sand buggy's driver lost control of the vehicle and hit a metal bar and Melillo and Borges died on impact.

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