All right. Well, hello again everyone and welcome to our latest webcast that we're bringing you from Travel Weekly and this one is very special. I'm on location. I'm very lucky to be on Legend of the Seas. I'm here with the president of Royal Caribbean, Michael Bayley. How are you?
I'm fine, Lucy. How are you?
Thank you. Well, I'm great. I mean, it's your fault because I've been out for three nights already on this.
As I said, you know, every night we get a security report of misbehaving guests and this morning you were at the top of the list.
Yeah. Apparently you were screaming your head off in the dueling piano.
Yes, it was amazing. It was absolutely brilliant. I think the entire, certainly the UK contingent, because you got a lot of people on this week. Tell us a little bit about the shakedown.
Yeah, that's right. We have all kinds of people. It's, we had shakedown because we really do shake down the ship. We want everybody to use the ship and you know, you find a few things that are working and stuff like that. So we have about four and a half thousand people on board and it's mainly our trade partners, travel partners from really all of the international markets. UK of course being one of those. We've got people from China, from Singapore, Asia, Australia, all the way through Latin America and Europe and we've also got obviously a lot of media from again the same countries, China, Singapore, Asia, all around the world.
Yeah. And it's just, you know, it's a remarkable time because the crew, everybody's done a huge amount of work to build and create the ship and we've got it operating. So we're delighted to welcome everybody to the ship and to experience what Legend of the Seas is all about.
And we should explain where we are because we're in Europe and that's very significant, isn't it?
Europe is the first deployment of an Icon class ship into Europe. And I think what we've heard, I mean, we obviously love Icon Class and our guests adore Icon Class and what we've, it's been great walking around the ship the last couple of days because so many people have come up to me personally and just said, 'Wow, I wouldn't believe it.' They've seen the images, they've seen the video, they just really don't believe what a stunning, unbelievable experience that this is.
Yeah. And she's sold out yesterday, that she's actually done very well in Europe for this.
Done fantastically well in Europe. We're really pleased with it. And interestingly, normally when we put a new product into the Mediterranean, it sways more American customers than European and international. But with Legend of the Seas, it's gone the other way. So, we've seen significantly more Europeans. We've seen a lot more from Asia who are coming from Australia, coming to you to go on Legend.
Okay. And what do you think that is?
I honestly, I wish I could be clever and think of some really easy, think I'm smart answer, but I have no clue. But I honestly, I really don't know. I just think that the product captures people's imagination and when they start to engage with the imagery and the marketing and promotional stuff, it just captures people and then, you know, people want to experience it.
Okay. Well, we'll come on to talk about, you know, trading and how things are going, but I want to just carry on with Legend for a second because you were saying yesterday about the design. You're always trying to have an element of tradition, evolution and then revolution. So, just explain to me what you mean by that and perhaps give us some examples of what we've got on board.
I mean, it's exactly our philosophy. We know that we have a huge base of very loyal customers who love Royal Caribbean. They love so many things about Royal Caribbean and they have high expectations that when we introduce a new class, a new product, that they will be delighted. So, they expect us to innovate. They expect the new class to be different, exciting, unusual and have elements that are really quite brand new, right? But they are very critical if we remove things that they love. And we have to be very careful that we don't mess with really the formula that they have working to.
So what's something that you can never leave out?
Well, the one thing, well, I mean, obviously the Windjammer is one of those areas. You know, people love the Windjammer, but a classic would be the Schooner Bar. So, the Schooner Bar is not a big venue. It's a small venue, but it's a venue that's been with Royal Caribbean almost since the beginning. And so there's this huge affection for the Schooner Bar and some years ago we did have a kind of a new design team for the space and they kind of, you know, changed it a little bit and we immediately regretted it. Yeah. We had him immediately go back and put the whole thing back, put the dirty ropes there, you know, because it's got that vibe of schooner. So that's a classic example of something that's traditional and you know, there's a big sign on it, don't mess with it. Fine. And then other things are simple like Chops for example, the steakhouse. Yeah, people love that. People like steak. All right. I mean, classics, pizza with Sorrento's. Everybody loves it.
Tell me about evolution then.
So evolution would be elements. The classic would be the water slides. So we started with adding a water slide on our big ship. Probably seems weird now. And at the time it was like, oh, adding the water slides, you know, it's like, oh my god, what's going on? And of course it was popular. So then we added two water slides and then we went to four and still not enough. Exactly. And Icon, six water slides and it's a water park. And the whole experience now has become fundamentally a neighborhood. So that's a classic example of evolution, right? But you've developed it. Yeah. And people are delighted with the fact that they like what we had, but now we made it, you know, a gazillion times better.
And then revolution is a complete radical change of something. So a good couple of examples of that would be the Aqua Theater. It's a phenomenal venue. We've always had it in the aft of an Oasis class ship and people liked it a lot. It's a major entertainment venue and our entertainment as you know is the best. It's fantastic. So through our journey we moved it and we created the AquaDome. Which I'm sure you would agree.
When you walk in you're like wow, it's fantastic. And I think that is an example somewhat of revolution where we've taken certain things. I guess you could say it's evolution revolution. Then we have the Pearl which I would say is pure revolution. The Pearl's interesting because it's first of all, it's, you know, people often ask well what is it?
I have no clue. I tell you it costs a lot of money. But it's great. Exactly. And it's great for, it's, you would say people love to come and get a picture taken there. That's great. It's a structure. That's right. Actually holds the ship. So if it's, it's stunning and often when people say, 'Well, what is this?' I, you know, I really don't know. You have to tell me. But it is a very mesmerizing space and people love it. And they do all of the Instagram and stuff like that. And it is the, you know, world's largest kinetic piece of art.
Oh, you do know what it is.
Yeah. That just actually came back to me. Under pressure. Under pressure. Suddenly just popped right in. I really don't even know if it's true. Sounds great, but it is the world's, I'm going to repeat it. The world's largest modern kinetic piece of art.
Okay. Loved it. Yeah. Great. Thank you, Michael. And can we just talk about Royal Railway because I got there last night. Yeah. I think that is because I remember interviewing you when you were just, it was just a, you know, yeah, when I remember your imagination and you were like this is going to come in years to come. Here it is.
It's amazing. It's crazy stuff. Maybe until I've done these interviews. We should just replay the first ones. Well, maybe then that's, but at least you had an idea and it's coming. I know it's been another show. You brought it here to your first one, aren't we? And that is a really great, and actually tell a little story if you want one, but I'm going to do it anyway.
Well, during the horrible time, you know, the pandemic. At some point I took my family on an RV trip. And we drove from Utah all the way through the west. And we ended up in, I don't know where we ended up. In some town, some small western town near the Grand Canyon. Forgot the name of it. Anyway, to get from this town to the canyon, there was a train. And it was an old real steam train and it only went like four miles an hour, you know. It was like, it took us like two hours to basically, we could have drifted. And I don't know why we ended up on this train but we did because somebody thought it was a good idea and it was really just terrible actually. It took forever to get there. But the people who ran the train obviously realized they had a problem because, you know, four miles an hour, so they put some entertainment on the train which was, you know, equally terrible.
Because you're stuck on it. But it was that experience. You thought they'd done that so badly, like we can do this better. This is a terrible story. But it's that experience that when we were talking about a new experience, it came out and I thought that was not a good experience. But if you made it a great experience, if you changed the way it's presented, then it could be good and we've done it.
Okay. We may add that whole story. Let's take... I'm joking. It's great.
No, no, it's good. Well, I ate there last night. I thought it was really brilliant. Really, you know, the theater, the food was fantastic. I thought it was amazing. All right. Yeah. Good. Can I just ask you what's your favorite bit on the whole ship? Favorite place?
Well, I've been asked this so many times and I guess my answer is not very good, but... Oh, sorry. That's such a unique question. They're really going hard about it. It's brilliant. But my answer is actually really boring because I thoroughly enjoy the whole ship. I don't mean it, I'm not trying to mean I can't pick a child, but I pick a... for all the everything that everybody went through to create this class is a lot. It's many, many years, it's thousands of meetings, it's endless arguments, it's all kinds of stuff and then when you see it become a reality and when you've participated in the journey, there's this incredible sense of satisfaction, you know, you just... So, I like walking around the ship and I just, every space I go to, I can have a memory of how and what we went through to create this space. And it's just fantastic to see happy guests engaging with all of these experiences that we've created on this ship. And you think, wow, we really got it right. And the net promoter score on the Icon class is in the 80s.
I know. But for the group it's in mid-70s.
For the whole company, yeah. But for this class, it's in the 80s and that is nuts.
You must be really proud of that.
Yeah. That's fantastic. You were asked yesterday about Legend. We obviously know she's in Europe this year, next year, and you were asked about '28. I know you haven't announced those ideas yet, but you did say she's doing so well here. We hope to have some good news for you soon, which I would say is the strongest hint I've heard.
Yeah, she's on. Yes, that's right. Yeah, it's doing great and it's coming back and it's pretty logical. Even though I'm not saying that we are going to do... No, I'm not saying outright, but you know, if I had to, if it was like a percentage, like a meter, like it would be way up there in terms of... yeah, we're past 95%.
All right. Well, it's not a definite, but we're pretty sure. I should get a round of applause because it is making sense because she's selling well and really interesting that. Can we just talk about the UK market? Obviously, that's our audience watching today. So, tell us how that's been for you. I mean, not maybe not just the Legend, but generally, how is the UK market performing across all of the fleet?
I mean, the UK market was, is and will always continue to be a major component of all of our consumers. It's a great market and you know, the brand fits very well with the UK customer. And you know, we love the relationships that we have there. We've got, as you know, really long-term relationships and we have a very loyal customer base in the UK, you know, in fact we have many Pinnacle members, top tier in loyalty.
Good at getting new to cruise for you as well because obviously that's always... new is slightly underperforming I would say in comparison with other markets but that's somewhat connection with the itineraries, you know, these UK-based itineraries, the 7, 10 or the 14-day, they just skew more towards older customers.
Okay. The ideal product for new to cruise in a western market is a three and four day.
