Fantastic Voyage

When Royal Caribbean builds a new ship, nothing is left to chance. The contract with the shipyard specifies not only the ship's top speed but also its gas mileage. The enormous chandelier in the main dining room is custom-made of crystal prisms that are hand wired into place and separated by clear rubber grommets so that the fixture never rattles at dinner. When a Royal Caribbean ship sets sail on its first trial run, 10 technicians are aboard for the express purpose of measuring sound and vibration -- in cabins, in stairwells, on the pool deck, and across the floor of the disco.

Almost nothing that is ready-made is quite good enough for a Royal Caribbean ship. The leather-covered banquettes in the 24-hour café are handmade, as are the light fixtures; the chairs in the library are designed for comfort, and the stools in the disco are custom-made for style. The mattresses in every passenger cabin are designed and manufactured to Royal Caribbean specifications.

When the big boss -- the CEO of Royal Caribbean -- asks for the third time if the ship's dining room will be quiet enough, Royal Caribbean's shipbuilding office in Oslo, Norway recommends an acoustician to the dining-room expert in Viken, Sweden. Actually, that's the second consulting acoustician. He's checking the work of the first consulting acoustician, who was hired to check the work of a company that has been designing ship interiors for 50 years.

So the surprise that crept up on Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. in the construction of its newest ship was all the more amazing, given the company's meticulous approach. Without deliberate intention, RCCL created the largest, most extravagant passenger ship in history. It's not just a nose bigger than other ships. It's 75% bigger than any ship that Royal Caribbean now operates -- three times the size of the Titanic.

The leap in scale is dramatic. For a half century, Cunard's original Queen Elizabeth, at nearly 84,000 gross tons, was the largest and (after the Titanic) the most famous passenger ship in history. In 1996, that title passed to Carnival's Destiny, and two years later, to Grand Princess from Princess Cruises. But Voyager of the Seas -- at 137,276 gross tons -- is 25% bigger than Grand Princess.

The superlatives for Voyager, which made its maiden voyage last November, are almost as expansive as the ship itself. It's not just the largest; it's also the most expensive ($700 million) and has the largest art budget (about $12 million), the largest floating casino, and the only ice-skating rink afloat. Except for a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, Royal Caribbean's new ship may be the most complicated vessel ever assembled.

But Voyager's abundance is not simply the result of Royal Caribbean's efforts to top its cruise-company rivals. This big boat represents a huge strategic bet -- a $700 million answer to questions that occupy growth-oriented companies in every industry: How do we expand our markets beyond our existing customers? How do we not only grow our business but also expand our vision of who our customers are? In this case, Voyager is a cruise ship designed in part by people who are not Royal Caribbean customers. Voyager is designed to appeal specifically to people who identify themselves as "not cruise-ship people." Says Royal Caribbean chairman and CEO Richard Fain, 50: "If you have something -- the cruise-ship experience -- whose success rate exceeds that of chocolate but that the vast majority of the American public has never tried, then you're on to something that's potentially really big."

Of course, identifying a strategic opportunity is one thing, and delivering on it is quite another. The creation of a ship this big, this complex, this different required that Royal Caribbean manage the design and construction of Voyager with as much improvisation as the careful choreography of the cruise line's routine operations. RCCL executives encouraged the most outrageous ideas from the widest range of sources. For example, Voyager is the first RCCL ship to have a topless sunbathing area -- an idea suggested by one of the company's British managers. Royal Caribbean's CEO personally designed one of the men's bathrooms, which provides a spectacular ocean view -- from 11 stories high -- beyond the granite-wall urinal. And Voyager's 40-by-60-foot ice-skating rink? Even after the first two attempts at making ice didn't work, Royal Caribbean persisted. The ship's performers now include 10 full-time skaters.