Royal Caribbean International started the “Crew free flow pilot program” allowing independent shore leave for employees on five cruise ships sailing to U.S. ports. The pilot program started last week with 50 crewmembers, from each ship, being granted shore leave on the Anthem of the Seas in Cape Liberty - Bayonne, Liberty of the Seas in Galveston, Allure of the Seas in Fort Lauderdale, Independence of the Seas in Port Canaveral, and Oasis of the Seas in Miami.

A celebration of adventure and joy took place in Fort Lauderdale, Florida as Odyssey of the Seas was officially named by the first Bahamian Godmother and inspiring athlete, Erin Brown. The Caribbean-inspired event culminated in the moment Odyssey’s Godmother Erin Brown, the first Bahamian paratriathlete to compete in the Paralympic Games qualifiers, named the ship.

This week, Royal Caribbean’s Adventure of the Seas was welcomed to Galveston for the first time, where it is starting the series of cruises to the Western Caribbean. The vessel will join Liberty of the Seas, which has Galveston as a homeport, too.

In the period between July and the end of September 2021, Galveston has seen more than 168,000 visitors cruising out of the port.

Crew Center has been informed that Bravo Code was sounded on the Jewel of the Seas at this moment. The ship is now sailing across the Atlantic Ocean to Miami where it is scheduled to arrive on November 14. The vessel is in the middle of the Atlantic which is the worst place to have an emergency situation.

Royal Caribbean’s Spectrum of the Seas is getting ready to resume cruises once again from Hong Kong after the cruise ship was forced to cancel all sailings for 21 days. The ship is currently moored at the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal and will restart cruises to nowhere this Thursday.

Coping with the pandemic crisis and being the leading person of the world’s second-largest cruise company for 33 years, the 74-year old CEO Richard D. Fain is stepping down from this position at the very beginning of 2022. Fain said “it was the right time to step down” with most of the company’s ships operating and the group nearing a full return to cruising.

Wonder of the Seas the world’s largest cruise ship whose construction lasted two years left the French shipyard of Saint Nazaire on Friday night.

Anthem of the Seas completed the UK domestic cruises and is now sailing to the U.S. coast. The planned operations of the vessel are starting out of the Cape Liberty Cruise Port in Bayonne, New Jersey, in about a week. It will be the second Royal Caribbean’s ship sailing from New Jersey, but Anthem of the Seas was the first in the fleet to restart in the UK and the fifth overall in the fleet globally.

Since I have worked on land, I have attended so many focus groups related to large corporations and other government entities attempting to figure out how to maintain long term employees. Just as the cruise industry, I presently work in a high burnout profession where the turnaround is 5-10 years.

Besides the increasing number of companies which are following the trend of decarbonizing their business, Royal Caribbean, one of the biggest cruise brands shouldn’t miss the opportunity to take a place in establishing those ambitious goals. Destination Net Zero - is in fact the company’s slogan for its decarbonization plan, a long-term one that has the year 2050 as its deadline. But more immediate goals have also been made public.