When Royal Caribbean designed Utopia of the Seas, they had a primary goal of loading it up with the absolute best food and drinks you could find at sea.
Rather than build a cruise ship with the same exact options as previous vessels, the team at Royal Caribbean had the goal of packing Utopia of the Seas with just about every plussed up idea they had.
Read more: Utopia of the Seas guide
If you look back at ships over time, you can find different ideas, initiatives, and upgrades on each. Sometimes they are added in a refurbishment, sometimes they are a new idea at the time when the ship was built, and in other cases, they are one-off enhancements.
The Product Development team at Royal Caribbean wanted to come up the ultimate dine and drink evolution, according to Jay Schneider.
Schneider leads the Product Development team, and it's his job to dream up ideas for cruise ships that will position Royal Caribbean ahead of any vacation option out there.
'Our ultimate dine and drink evolution'
Mr. Schneider said Royal Caribbean's research indicates people choose to cruise for two primary reasons: destinations and food.
While entertainment and retail do factor into that decision, where the person goes and what they eat always rank highest.
"We really wanted to focus on that tradition, evolution, revolution from a food and beverage perspective," Mr. Schneider explained in an exclusive interview with Royal Caribbean Blog.
He's referring to an internal directive for new cruise ship building that relies on embracing aspects that have worked in the past (traditional), improving upon others (evolution), and coming up with completely new ideas (revolution).
Mr. Schneider sees everywhere you look on Utopia of the Seas the very best food and beverage options you'll find on any Royal Caribbean ship.
From a massive overhaul of Izumi and Giovanni's Italian Kitchen with expanded new locations, to something as simple as adding sprinkles to the complimentary soft-serve ice cream on the pool deck, "we leaned into kind of that ultimate dine and drink, which got us to really re-examine every venue, every offering."
Royal Caribbean nicknamed the initiative, "Project Feast", and it's goal was to deconstruct what their guests were looking for in how they dine, drink, and eat onboard.
The team felt good about many of the existing restaurant properties, but wanted more out of them, "Great steak house in Chops, excellent Italian in Giovanni's Italian Kitchen and Wine Bar, great seafood in Hooked, great Japanese in Izumi. But even in those, where do they evolve to?"
He says that evolution is present on Utopia of the Seas.
A similar effort was already underway for sister ship, Icon of the Seas, but there was more time to re-evaluate what was working well.
"In the case of Izumi, we really thought we were on to something with Izumi in the Park. Let's take a look at that, deconstruct it and say, where else would we go with it?"
Read more: How Izumi went from concept to success
The result is the biggest Izumi yet, with double the teppanyaki tables, new al fresco dining, a to-go window, and even an omakase experience.
The team saw a different goal with Giovanni's, because they wanted to enhance the restaurant, "We really wanted to lean into great Italian, gorgeous, uplifting the experience."
It's in a new location on deck 12 and spans two stories, and even has an outdoor terrace that overlooks the Boardwalk.
Read more: How Royal Caribbean reimagined its signature Italian restaurant
Chops Grille got the upgraded menu options first introduced on Icon of the Seas, along with brand new decor. Schneider believes it's the best in the fleet now.
While all of those venues got upgrades, Mr. Schneider felt it was time to redevelop completely the Bionic Bar concept.
"Our research said it was tired, it was underutilized, and so it gave us a great opportunity to lean into consumer testing and say, an awesome tiki bar is going to be a really great place if we do it right."
The result is the Pesky Parrot, which he believes is a home run for guests.
Over on the pool deck, there's a new complimentary food truck that gives passengers great complimentary food close to the pools.
The Spare Tire serves up snacks on Utopia, and it's part of the evolution of an idea to offer more great complimentary options that was first conceived with the Aquadome Market on Icon of the Seas.
Read more: What the Food Was Like on Royal Caribbean's Icon of the Seas
"Our research has said they want the unapologetic resort day when they're at sea. And that is amazing access to water, great views and then great food, so they don't have to go very far."
Read more: Utopia of the Seas restaurant and dining guide
Weekends now, but a ship for everywhere
Royal Caribbean turned a few heads when it announced Utopia of the Seas would begin with just 3- and 4-night cruises instead of 7-night voyages. It flew in the face of what traditionally a new ship would do, but Royal Caribbean wanted to offer the very best weekend ship to attract new cruisers.
Read more: 5 moves Royal Caribbean is making to overhaul its weekend cruise business
That's the plan for now, but Utopia of the Seas is ready to longer cruises, should the need arise.
"If you think of kind of the evolution of all of our ships, none of them stay in the perfect itinerary, in the perfect location," Mr. Schneider explained.
"We really honed in on designing a global ship that matches what our brand ambition, our brand DNA, and then all rooted in what our guests are looking for us to deliver."
"I would argue Icon unapologetically has been the best of that so far, and I would also argue Utopia builds on that."
