Royal Caribbean International: Difference between revisions

Cruise line brand founded in Norway and based in Miami, Florida, US

Royal Caribbean International (RCI), also formerly known as Royal Caribbean Cruise Line (RCCL), is a cruise line brand founded in 1968 in Norway and organised as a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Group since 1997. Based in Miami, Florida. It is the largest cruise line by revenue and second largest by passengers counts. In 2018, Royal Caribbean International controlled 19.2% of the worldwide cruise market by passengers and 14.0% by revenue.^[1] It operates the five largest passenger ships in the world. As of January 2022, the line operates twenty-six ships and has four additional ships on order.

History[edit]

Royal Caribbean’s first ship, Song of Norway

Royal Caribbean Cruise Line was founded in 1968 by three Norwegian shipping companies: Anders Wilhelmsen & Company, I.M. Skaugen & Company, and Gotaas Larsen. The newly created line put its first ship, Song of Norway, into service two years later. A year later, the line added Nordic Prince to the fleet and in 1972 it added Sun Viking. In 1978, Song of Norway became Royal Caribbean’s first passenger ship to be lengthened. This was accomplished via the insertion of an 85-foot (26 m) section to the vessel’s severed center. Following the success of this work, Nordic Prince was also stretched in 1980. During the stretching of both ships, their sterns were modified to create more open space, however Sun Viking was neither stretched nor modified. In 1982, Royal Caribbean launched Song of America, over twice the size of Sun Viking and at the time the third largest passenger vessel afloat (after Norway and Queen Elizabeth 2).^{[citation needed]}

Royal Caribbean’s third ship, Sun Viking

In 1986, Royal Caribbean leased a coastal property in Labadie, Haiti, to be used as a private destination for its guests, renamed as Labadee.^[2] After a corporate restructuring in 1988, the line launched Sovereign of the Seas, the largest passenger vessel afloat at the time.^[3] That same year, Royal Caribbean also merged with Admiral Cruises.^[4] Two years later in 1990, Nordic Empress and Viking Serenade entered service and Royal Caribbean purchased a second private destination, Little Stirrup Cay, an island in the Bahamas, which they branded as CocoCay.^[4]

Majesty of the Seas and Monarch of the Seas in Nassau, Bahamas

The second and third Sovereign-class cruise ships Monarch of the Seas and Majesty of the Seas were delivered in 1991 and 1992 respectively.

Royal Caribbean went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 1993. Over the next two years, the company experienced rapid growth, and it built a new corporate headquarters in Miami, Florida, and replaced the Nordic Prince with a new vessel, the Legend of the Seas.^{[citation needed]}

Following these events, two new Vision-class vessels entered service, Splendour of the Seas and Grandeur of the Seas. In 1996, the company contracted with Finland’s Aker Finnyards for the construction of 130,000-ton vessels and, in 1997, the line’s oldest ship, Song of Norway, was sold and two new Vision-class ships entered service, Rhapsody of the Seas and Enchantment of the Seas.^{[citation needed]}

Reorganisation and renaming[edit]

In 1997, it merged with the Greek cruise line Celebrity Cruises and changed its name from Royal Caribbean Cruise Line to Royal Caribbean International. At the same time, Royal Caribbean Group was formed as Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. to serve as a holding company that owned both Celebrity Cruises and Royal Caribbean International. The next year, the last of the company’s older vessels, Song of America and Sun Viking, were retired. In 1998, Vision of the Seas came into service, the last of the Vision-class ships.^{[citation needed]}

In 1999, Voyager of the Seas, the line’s newest and world’s largest cruise ship entered service with much attention from the news media. Two years later, the line took delivery of a second Voyager-class ship, Explorer of the Seas, and the first of a new Radiance class of more environmentally friendly^{[clarification needed]} cruise liners, Radiance of the Seas.^{[citation needed]}

In 2000, Royal Caribbean operated a series of land-and-sea-based “cruise tours” in Alaska, featuring glass-domed train cars to scenic destinations within the state and Canada. Over the next two years, they also introduced cruise tours to destinations throughout Europe.^[5]

The Voyager-class Navigator of the Seas and the Radiance-class Brilliance of the Seas were put into service in 2002. Mariner of the Seas and Serenade of the Seas, another pair of Voyager and Radiance-class ships, were introduced the next year, and rock-climbing walls were made a feature of every Royal Caribbean ship that year. A fourth Radiance-class ship, Jewel of the Seas, followed in 2004, and the line’s Nordic Empress was reconditioned and re-christened as Empress of the Seas, which was later sold to Pullmantur Cruises in 2008. In 2005, Enchantment of the…