Fain sweeps into Cleopatra's Needle, a dance lounge adjacent to the promenade. The theme here is, of course, Egyptian -- the walls and columns are clad in hieroglyph-embossed stone. Fat, gold tassels hang from the backs of the sofas that are scattered around the lounge. Fain reaches to tug on one without breaking stride. "Will that last?" he asks. Passengers take tassels as souvenirs. The shipyard has already been asked to reinforce the stitching. "It will last," assures Kulovaara.
The group now heads farther aft, into the soaring three-level dining room. Scaffolding blocks the way. As Fain ducks and high-steps over the metal piping, he calls to Kulovaara: "Planters! Harri, I thought we agreed we were getting rid of those planters."
Kulovaara's memory is at least as acute as Fain's. "We agreed to leave them until we can clear out the scaffolding and see how they look. If they don't work, then there's another spot for them."
"And do you have marble to fill in the floor underneath if they're moved?" asks Fain.
"It's taken care of," says Kulovaara.
The world seems to be divided between two equally partisan camps: those who like cruise ships and those who wouldn't be caught dead on one of them.
Cruise-company executives know better. The world is divided, but between two different groups: those who have been on a cruise ship and have loved it, and those who haven't yet been on one.
Only 11% of Americans have ever taken a cruise. Of those, 94% say that a cruise vacation is as good as, or better than, a vacation on land. "That's amazing," says Fain. "Toys don't get that kind of approval rating. Even chocolate doesn't get that kind of approval rating."
Despite the fast-growing popularity of cruise ships -- nearly 6 million North American passengers boarded U.S.-based ships in 1999, up from about 1.5 million in 1980 -- cruises still get only a tiny slice of Americans' vacation time. Just 5% of people who take vacations longer than five days, and who are willing to spend $1,000 per person, take cruises.
Numbers like those can inspire an entire industry. About 120 cruise ships are now afloat; the industry has plans for 60 more through 2004. Royal Caribbean, which operates 17 ships under two different lines, carried 1.8 million passengers in 1998 -- almost as many as it carried during its first 20 years of operation. RCCL ships run at 105% capacity, on average. People are so eager for a berth that they'll accommodate a third or a fourth family member in one cabin.
Even without aggressively courting the uninitiated, RCCL sometimes has to turn away enough customers to fill five or six additional ships. Cruise-ship popularity is increasing so reliably that doing something that's different seems as if it would be wasted effort. So why not just keeping building what's already bringing in customers?
Because Royal Caribbean keeps thinking about the future. Demographics and preferences about leisure time are changing quickly. The useful commercial life of a cruise ship is 25 years. All told, Voyager and its two sister ships will cost more than the company's total net profits for the past 10 years. For the company to keep its fleet profitable, it must anticipate what will constitute a good vacation 10 years from now and continue to broaden the market for cruise ships. RCCL has to be as interested in noncruisers as it is in cruisers.
Thus Voyager of the Seas was born. Back in 1996, before Voyager had a name, a shipyard to be built in, or even a basic floor plan, it had a mission: Find a way to woo those people who wouldn't be caught dead on a cruise ship. The classic objections that people raise to vacationing on a cruise ship have remained the same for nearly 20 years: People worry about feeling trapped; they'd rather participate in activities than sit in a pool lounge all day long; they don't like having to eat in an elegant dining room, seven nights in a row, with strangers seated at their table; and they don't like having to eat at a set time.
Voyager tackled those objections. That's how it ended up with an in-line skating track, a kids-only pool, a rock-climbing wall, an English pub, a Johnny Rockets restaurant, and a roulette wheel so big that gamblers can ride around its rim as if it were a carousel.
Email
Digg
StumbleUpon
Facebook
Buzz Up!
LinkedIn
