Today, we're stepping into the secret life of crew members. Royal Caribbean's president and CEO, Michael Bayley, gave us rare behind-the-scenes access to life on board the biggest cruise ship ever built, Star of the Seas.
Hi, I'm Michael Bayley. I'm the president and CEO of Royal Caribbean, and I've just bumped into Trev and Chelse and we were just talking about some of the favorite places on the Star of the Seas that I really like. So, I thought I'd take them on a little quick tour and see where I start my day. I start at 6:30 in the morning.
Yeah, I know. It's killer. It starts with a lot of people. We end up in a few days with just me basically lonely with spin class. So, I'll show you where we do our spin class.
Let's do it. We've never done spin class.
Are you serious?
Never done it.
Well, you can come tomorrow morning at 6:30.
Yeah. I mean, it's 30 minutes. It's a lot of fun. Plus, it helps with the schedules we all have on the ship. It's kind of good to have that bit of exercise in the morning.
Of course. Wake your mind and body up a little bit.
Yeah. And then we usually go to the 14th floor and we get some freshly made juices, carrot juice, apple juice.
Oh, from the Vitality Cafe. Yeah.
That's one of my favorites. Have you had the granola bites? The little granola bites. Oh, they're incredible.
Hey, how you doing? Oh, is this another spin class?
And I was excluded.
This is unbelievable.
Oh, there's an MB up there.
Yeah. Okay, that's so funny. These guys are some of the guys I do the swing class with every morning.
Yeah. And obviously now they're getting into training cuz tomorrow I'm going to have to kick their ass. You're more than welcome to come tomorrow. Now I'm going to take you through this door. There's a lot of these doors all around the ship. And these doors are literally the portal to the entire crew neighborhood. There's 2,300 crew members on board this ship from about 110 different countries. It's a massive society. It's an ecosystem. It's a community of people and through these crew only doors is where all of the crew members live. They sleep here. Dining is here. Their bar is here. Their entertainment is here. So, it's like a unique neighborhood. I started as a crew member. I worked on ships for over a decade. So, to me, when I think about the crew areas, I've got some great memories. I'm going to take you to the crew bar.
Oh, I've heard so much about the crew bar.
Nobody can really remember what happens in the crew bar, but you got to be very careful when you go down the stairs.
Okay. So, the stairs are steeper. Just make sure you're mindful of where you're putting your feet.
That in the crew bar sounds like a dangerous mix.
Doesn't this feel like a portal to a magical land?
It really does.
Yeah. And actually, these are not very steep. There's some that are really steep. Hi, guys.
Hi, Michael.
How you doing?
We're just sneaking around in the crew areas. Don't tell anybody. Here it is.
I cannot believe how much this looks like the rest of the ship.
This looks like a guest area.
Hey guys, sorry to interrupt. So, it's a little bit like a pub. It's an area for the crew to come and have drinks and socialize.
This is amazing.
This is great.
During the day, it's like a relaxation place. People just come and sit, mellow out. And then in the evening,
It becomes a lot more social. So, there's often parties in here, teams, departments. It could be parties, a birthday party. So, you can see this area here.
She wanted to retake us stepping out.
Do you want to step out, too? That would be great.
Okay. Yeah. Okay. You're going to show them the hell
Love my love. Oh my gosh.
So, Michael, we have a fact for you.
We met Sailor when she was a week old.
And again, when she was 4 weeks old. All the footage that you were getting.
Yeah.
You're so beautiful. Yes, you are.
All right, guys. I know it's a little weird.
Just humor me. Okay.
So, Michael, how did the idea for Rover and Sailor come into fruition?
When we were building the ultimate family townhouse and we were trying to think of
How would you make that really like a totally family experience. So, we were talking about putting a mailbox there and having a little picket fence outside and the idea came, well, you should have a family dog. Then we took a golden retriever from one of the employees and put her on one of the Oasis class ships with a GoPro and let the dog run around for a few hours with the crew. And the response was fantastic. Very emotional. Better if the family dog was part of the ship's family. Yeah. And that's how we ended up with Rover and Sailor. Okay. So, that was the crew bar. I mean, most of the time we spent looking at Sailor, but now we're going to go the karaoke.
You are the dancing queen.
All right, guys. Thank you.
Do the best. So, here's the crew mess crew area.
Oh, this is cool.
And you can see there's a whole kind of it it's like a recreational space, but more importantly, it's where you can get your breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We did hear that especially for Star and Icon class that the crew had something to do with designing these spaces.
Yes, I mean they're involved. We review everything with the crew. We create crew focus groups. We have a warehouse in Miami. We often build spaces in the warehouse and then we bring crew from different ships to the space on a turnaround day so they can look at the space and give us feedback. We really adjusted to all that feedback and now those rooms are pretty popular. We survey our crew on a consistent regular basis. We have phenomenally high employee satisfaction. It is way beyond a typical corporation not only in our corporate offices but on our shipboard employees. Of course, it's massively important because the only, you know, the crew
And if the crew are happy,
It comes across to the customer. Right, gentlemen?
