Royal Caribbean exploring options to introduce smaller ships

He highlighted sister brands Celebrity Cruises and Silversea had smaller ships and the group’s goal was “ultimately to deliver the absolute classification experience in each one of those segments”.

 

He added the experiences on board and in destinations “will inform” the size and design of future ships, acknowledging smaller vessels were necessary to access certain ports.

 

Discussing resistance to bigger cruise ships in some European destinations, Liberty conceded there were locations where there was “a lot of concentration of vacation activity”, but said it was “easy to point to cruise”.

 

He said: “A lot of vacation experiences like the Airbnbs of the world and so forth are creating a lot of that concentration.

 

“What we have to do in the ports, which we are doing, is continuing to diversify where the ships go and also enhance the experience of what happens there.”

 

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He added the line could “not get away with” putting passengers on a bus and driving them around a city and needed to work with destinations to spread passengers farther afield.

 

When asked if he thought there were some destinations where it was becoming “a non-business case” to cruise, he said: “I do not think so. I think that whether it’s us as a company or us as an industry, we’re working really well with communities.

 

“We’re trying to be good listeners and create solutions, not just for ourselves, but for travel overall, and at the same time we’re frantically trying to reduce our environmental footprint.”

Royal Caribbean Group  Chairman Richard Fain stressed that at the same time as Royal Caribbean was building the Icon Class series, sister brands Celebrity Cruises and Silversea Cruises were building smaller ships with capacity for between 50 and 600 passengers, so the management team are "not fixated on large or small ships, but on bringing magic". 

 

He added the "flexibility" of a fleet with differently sized ships was important, even if larger ships tend to "get publicity". 

 

Speaking in a separate session, Royal Caribbean International President and CEO Michael Bayley said: “We’re already deep into design of the new class [after Icon].

 

“We’re constantly looking at designing for the future, and in fact, a whole group of us probably spend 50% of our work day designing for the future for Royal Caribbean destinations or ships.”

 

He said Royal Caribbean had made “a couple of thousand small tweaks and changes” between Icon of the Seas and Star of the Seas, describing the new vessel as “the culmination of 50 years of development, design, creativity and innovation”.

 

“Icon is the most amazing next level vacation experience, which has been specifically designed for our key target market of family, which is a very broadly defined group,” he said.

 

“What we’ve managed to do [with Icon Class] is to create really unique spaces and experiences that work for every generation and every group.”

 

Bayley added 7.5 million passengers had sailed with the line this year, and that shorter itineraries of three-to-five nights including its private destination of Perfect Day at Coco Cay had had a “phenomenal response” from new-to-cruise customers.

 

To partner with Royal Caribbean Arabia call UAE +971 4 331 4299, KSA 800 897 1419, or email book@rccl.ae. For more information, visit www.royalcaribbean.ae