Just a little over a week since our last construction update, Meyer Werft shipyard has released a new photo of Odyssey of the Seas.
Royal Caribbean's next new cruise ship is under construction in Hall 6, and this week's photo is from the opposite end of the ship compared to last week.
September 9 photo
September 1 photo
The photo was released by the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany.
Once complete, Odyssey of the Seas will be Royal Caribbean's second Quantum Ultra Class cruise ship, sailing from Rome in Summer 2021.
After her inaugural season in Europe, Odyssey will then continue its inaugural year in Fort Lauderdale, FL with 8- and 6-night Caribbean itineraries.
Royal Caribbean has introduced an updated look to its deck plans in its app on at least one Royal Caribbean ship.
RoyalCaribbeanBlog reader Daniela T. shared screenshots of the updated deck plan designs that include a lot more color and depth to the look.
Old deck plan design from Mariner of the Seas
New deck plan design on Navigator of the Seas
Royal Caribbean's deck plans have traditionally been more utilitarian than eye-catching, but this new design seems to indicate a new direction for the deck plans that combines form and functionality.
As of right now, it looks like just Navigator of the Seas' deck plans have been updated in the app, but other ships could be updated later on with the new look as well.
The new maps should automatically appear for anyone with an upcoming Navigator of the Seas sailing. Keep in mind that if your cruise is not scheduled in the next few months, you may not be able to access it yet via the app.
Royal Caribbean Group announced on Wednesday it has hired a new government relations expert to join the company.
Donna Hrinak will be the new Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs, and will be responsible for leading the Group's government relations, communications and public relations functions.
In a press release, Royal Caribbean Group stated she, "brings a stellar curriculum vitae in global regulatory policy, multicultural negotiations, coalition leadership and international business transformation to augment the Group's industry leading government affairs team."
In her new role, Ms. Hrinak will provide informed counsel and facilitate productive communication among a broad array of stakeholders, including port authorities, coastal community leadership, government representatives, environmental advocates, scientific and marine leaders and more.
Ms. Hrinak joins Royal Caribbean after working at The Boeing Company as the former Corporate Vice President, The Boeing Company and President, Boeing Canada, Latin America & Caribbean.
"As a global company touching every continent," said Richard D. Fain, Royal Caribbean Group chairman and CEO, "we are used to making our way in a complicated world. But these last few months have reminded us, more than ever, just how challenging that world is. Donna will provide her decades of experience in navigating the complexities of regulatory and cultural ecosystems to enable us to continue to build and maintain strong, collaborative relationships with countries and organizations everywhere we operate."
Hrinak has designed and led strategies to confront an increasingly complicated global regulatory environment and guided executives in evaluating the business, political and economic risks involved in global operations. She has worked closely and collaboratively with a broad range of international coalitions and agencies, including the World Health Organization.
Hrinak began working with Royal Caribbean Group on August 24.
When cruises restart, Royal Caribbean's app will play its largest role yet in becoming the focal point for a healthy return to cruising.
Royal Caribbean Group announced on Tuesday it intends to leverage its mobile app for paving a way for a safe return to cruising.
Royal Caribbean's app already offered a variety of features and capabilities, but will grow to include more functionality including:
Muster 2.0 – one of the least-loved, but most important, parts of a cruise vacation – the safety drill – is transformed from a process designed for large groups of people into a faster, more personal “one-to-few” approach that guests can complete at their own time.
Scheduled arrival time – staggered arrival times for guests help eliminate crowds by managing the ebb-and-flow in parking lots, drop-off areas and terminals to allow for physical distancing from car to stateroom.
Expedited boarding – by completing check-in with the app, scanning passport information and uploading a ‘selfie’ security photo, guests can generate a mobile boarding pass and qualify for an expedited boarding process. Debuted in 2018, the innovative, digital experience minimizes check-in and security lines at ports, allowing guests to get on board seamlessly and safely in minutes.
Digital key– guests can unlock staterooms with their smartphones by downloading a digital key, available in just a few taps for select ships and staterooms.
Stateroom automation – using their smartphone, guests have the ability to control elements inside their stateroom, such as the TV, lighting, window shades and temperature, limiting touchpoints while achieving higher levels of stateroom customization.
Onboard account – guests can view onboard charges and credits in real time from anywhere on the ship without waiting in line or on hold.
Daily planning – onboard activities, entertainment shows, dining and shore excursions are viewable and open for reservations all through the guest mobile app.
Royal Caribbean expects more advancements to be added to the app, including some changes that will take place "behind the scenes".
The mobile app is leveraged by ships across many Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises and Azamara ships.
In a statement to the press, Royal Caribbean Group believes the app is one piece of the overall strategy in keeping guests healthy and safe, "These innovations will further demonstrate the Group’s commitment to exceeding guests’ expectations as well as their standards for health and safety on a cruise."
Royal Caribbean Group Chairman and CEO Richard Fain spoke to travel partners in a new video, offering optimism and insight during the continued cruise shutdown.
Sporting a new haircut, Mr. Fain started out by saying he feels "more positive" that the end of this period of no cruises may finally be coming to an end.
"Today, I'm beginning to feel more positive that we may be within sight of the end," Mr. Fain stated. "We're certainly not at the end, and we certainly have quite a ways to go...ut the pace of change has accelerated. Many positive developments are really beginning to bear fruit."
Later in the video, he added, "We are in sight of the downward slope. Like everything about this disease, it's a rocky slope. But we're getting closer to the other side of this crisis every day, and I'm excited about that."
Mr. Fain emphasized that while the virus cannot be eliminated, the goal now is to "control the spread to a manageable limit". He sees three tools for achieving this: better treatments, better testing and a vaccine.
"It's important to remember that the vaccine won't be an instantaneous fix. However, when we look at all these things, all these developments holistically, they combine to give us a very good hope for a normal future relatively soon."
Healthy Sail Panel update
Mr. Fain touched on the work the Healthy Sail Panel is doing, which is a combined effort between the Royal Caribbean Group and Norwegian Cruise Holdings.
Chaired by Governor Mike Leavitt and Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the panel is working on coming up with policies and procedures for both cruise companies to employ to keep guests safe.
Mr. Fain characterized the work being done thus far as being "pleased", especially with the work being done by the panel members.
"They have been thorough, they have been focused, and they have been engaged. They've devoted an amazing amount of time and effort to the project, and I've been blown away by their commitment."
In an example of the work, Mr. Fain explained how the panel tackled how ventilation systems work on a cruise ship.
The panel engaged experts in conducting testing. where they developed testing protocols, set up the equipment and evaluated the results over a few weeks.
In the end, the panel was able to provide a scientific answer to Royal Caribbean's HVAC system.
Guests with Royal Caribbean cruises scheduled for later this year are seeing check-in times that are later than usually offered by the cruise line.
A number of sailings for November and December 2020 are showing cruise check-in times that go as late as 5:30pm.
Check-in times for Adventure of the Seas December 4, 2020 sailing
Check-in times for Mariner of the Seas November 20, 2020 sailing
Check-in times for Oasis of the Seas November 29, 2020 sailing
Prior to Royal Caribbean suspending its sailings in March, the latest check-in time for most sailings was early afternoon. Typically, Royal Caribbean ships would depart in the mid to late afternoon.
There has been speculation that one of the new procedures Royal Caribbean may adopt in order to foster social distancing during the check-in process is to spread guests out with more check-in times.
The extra cleaning takes time, which may require cruise ships to push back their departure times in order to accommodate all of these (and other possible) changes.
Over the weekend, Royal Caribbean's Wonder of the Seas reached an important milestone when she was floated out at the Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard.
Josselin Chevessier took the opportunity to send up his drone to grab some great photos of the next world's largest cruise ship right before she transfered to the outfitting dock in Saint-Nazaire, France.
The term "floated out" refers to the transition a cruise ship under construction makes when she starts off being built in a dry area, and then is transitioned to the ocean for the first time.
Using tug boats, Wonder of the Seas was moved into position from one area of the shipyard to another.
Now that Wonder of the Seas is floated out, much of the work to be done will focus on the ship's interior spaces.
Wonder of the Seas will not join Royal Caribbean's fleet until sometime in 2022 and will sail from Shanghai and offer sailings around Asia.
Royal Caribbean has not released itineraries for Wonder of the Seas to book, nor indicated when exactly in 2022 Wonder will start sailing yet.
Royal Caribbean's next Oasis Class cruise ship was successfully floated out at 7am on Saturday morning in just about one hour.
Wonder of the Seas is under construction at the Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, France. The fifth Oasis Class ship will debut in 2022.
Now that the floating out process is complete, Wonder of the Seas will remain in Basin C until her delivery to Royal Caribbean.
Wonder of the Seas was initially scheduled for completion in Spring 2021, but due to the global health crisis, that has been postponed until 2022. When she sails, she will set sail from Shanghai, China.
It was another positive week for Royal Caribbean (NYSE: RCL) stockholders, as shares of the stock finished the week 4% higher.
Photo by Volnei M.
Royal Caribbean's stock closed at $71.95 at the conclusion of trading on Friday, and followed other cruise line stocks upward trend for the week.
Optimism about cruises restarting
The primary reason why Royal Caribbean, and other cruise line, stocks went up this week was based mostly in Carnival's announcement that two of its brands would restart cruises in Europe soon.
Costa and its Carnival Corporation sibling AIDA Cruises plan to resume sailing in phases – Costa starting Sept. 6 and the German AIDA Cruises on Nov. 1.
Both lines will implement a number of new health policies to get going, following the success of other cruise lines in Europe, including MSC.
Carnival Corporation's announcement on Thursday sent all cruise line stocks higher on optimism that the cruise industry might be on its way to recovery after months of zero cruises at all.
The cruise industry has been decimated by the industry-wide shutdown caused by the current health crisis that have resulted in billions of dollars in losses for Royal Caribbean.
The success of any cruise line restarting operations has a wide impact on the industry, as it will open the doors for others to resume cruises.
Royal Caribbean International has not announced any plans of its own to resume operations in Europe (or anywhere), but Royal Caribbean Group partial-subsidary TUI Cruises has been sailing for a few weeks in Germany.
Royal Caribbean Blog is an unofficial fan blog written for other fans of Royal Caribbean International. The Royal Caribbean Blog is not affiliated with Royal Caribbean International
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