Change At Norwegian and Regal Princess Part Two

In my experience, it does not usually make much difference who is the CEO of a large corporation. Most of the time, the corporation just proceeds along much as it did in the past despite changes in the CEO. Perhaps there is some change in the corporate slogans or some acquisitions or spin offs but no meaningful changes.

This general rule, however, has not been true in the cruise industry. The three major lines have all had leaders who not only made a visible mark but who became synonymous with their companies. This has certainly been true at Norwegian Cruise Line.

Since coming to Norwegian Cruise Line seven years ago, Kevin Sheehan has turned things around. Prior to his arrival, the line had some quite creative ideas but you only had to go on its ships to see that there were execution problems and poor morale. When Sheehan arrived, he gave the line new direction and released the talent of its executives and employees.

Just about a year ago, I was on a press cruise on Norwegian Getaway. Mr. Sheehan made a short presentation to the assembled journalists. The charts and Powerpoint slides that he presented told a good story of growth and profitability. But what was interesting was the charismatic style of leadership. Sheehan was not the stereotypical MBA executive but rather delighted in playing the street-wise New Yorker, energetic, fun to listen to and likable.

He told us to talk to the crew about how they felt about the company, confident that we would find them solidly behind him. At that time, Getaway had just come into service and the cruise lines usually use their best people to bring a ship into service. Naturally, they were going to support the boss. But the next week, I was sailing on Norwegian Sky, one of the line's older ships. How did its crew feel about Norwegian? I found that not only did those people enthusiastically support Norwegian but that they loved the CEO. To hear them talk, you'd think that Sheehan was a popular athlete or television personality.

As a result, it was disappointing to learn that Mr. Sheehan has now left Norwegian. When a person has done so much to change a company (or any organization for that matter), you have to wonder how it will fare without him. Hopefully, the corporate culture he created will endure but without his dynamic leadership, the future is clouded in mystery.

Mr. Sheehan's successor is Frank Del Rio from Prestige Holdings, the luxury cruise company (Oceania and Regent Seven Seas) that was recently acquired by Norwegian. We wish Mr. Del Rio success in his new job.

This week on Beyondships, we have part two of our profile of Princess Cruises' latest ship, Regal Princess. This includes interviews with the captain, http://www.beyondships2.com/regal-princess-captain.html the hotel general manager http://www.beyondships2.com/regal-princess-hotel-general-manager.html and the cruise director http://www.beyondships2.com/regal-princess-cruise-director.html. We also have a review of the Crown Grill specialty restaurant. http://www.beyondships2.com/regal-princess-crown-grill.html Finally, we present a collection of menus from the main dining rooms and specialty restaurants on Regal Princess. http://www.beyondships2.com/regal-princess-menus.html

Cruise review Regal Princess

Cruise 184

When I was in high school, I had a teacher who would give higher grades on book reviews if you savaged the book. He equated negative comments with critical thinking.

Alas, I am about to disppoint my old school master because I do not have anything negative to say about my recent cruise on Regal Princess. Quite to the contrary, it was an extremely well done cruise.

The cruise was a seven day voyage out of Fort Lauderdale to Princess Cays, St. Thomas and St. Maarten. Thus, it included Princess Cruises' private island and two of the most popular Caribbean cruise ports. I've been to these ports many times now so the itinerary did not have the virtue of novelty. But, at the same time, these places are familiar to me and so I know how to structure my days there so as to have a good time.

Therefore, the focus of this cruise was on the ship. Regal Princess is the second ship to be built in her class. Royal Princess was the first. A third one is on order for Princess. P&O Cruises' forthcoming Britannia is being built to the same design.

Regal Princess is a large ship and I find her quite spacious. She has a better passenger space ratio than the mainstays of the Princess fleet, the Grand and Super Grand class ships. Thus, I did not find her at all crowded.

On Royal Princess, one problem with the people flow has been long waits for elevators particularly at the midship elevator bank. This is primarily due to the fact that the stairs by these elevators do not run all the way up through the ship and so more people have to use the elevators. While Regal also lacks a midship passenger staircase, adjustments have been made to the elevators programming and I did not experience much in the way of delays.

Another adjustment that has been made is in the theater. On Royal, each row of seats extends all the way to the wall so that people have to go up or down via the central aisles. On Regal, space has been allowed between the seats and the walls so that guests can go up or down that way as well. This seems to have created a better passenger flow.

The larger size of this class of ship allowed Princess to add several new venues. Of these, Princess Live is the most memorable. It is a television studio which serves as the venue for lectures, game shows, and various other activities. Such activities are common on cruise ships but having them in a studio with cameras and monitors lends them a sense of excitement. Also, the sight lines in this intimate room are quite good.

The size also allowed Princess to expand the size of some venues. This is nowhere more apparent than in the Piazza, the ship's central atrium. It has now become a grand room. In addition, whereas some entertainment was presented in the Piazza on earlier Princess ships, this larger Piazza lets the concept blossom so that this truly can be called an entertainment venue.

As far as décor, it would be difficult to tell the Piazza on Regal Princess from the one of Royal Princess. It is Princess' philosophy to make ships of the same class nearly identical in décor so that passengers returning to the line will have a sense of familiarity regardless of which ship they book. Whatever the merits of that philosophy, the décor of the Piazza on Royal is so spectacular, it demanded that it be used again on Regal Princess.

Of course, the hardware only contributes so much to making a great cruise. In my experience, Princess consistently provides good service. Of course, you can always run into someone who is a jerk or who is having a bad day but as a general finding the people serving on the Princess ships seem genuinely interested in ensuring that the passengers have a good time. In addition, the cruise lines usually assign their top people to bring out a ship. By the time of my cruise, the ship had also been in service long enough to have gotten any kinks out. Consequently, the service was very good with no negative incidents.

How was the food? It is of course my personal taste but I always like the food on Princess and Regal Princess did not let the side down. A favorite venue for me is Alfredo's Pizzeria. This is a restaurant specializing in gourmet individual pizzas. They are made and cooked as ordered. At the beginning of a cruise, people walk by but do not enter. They either assume that there will be an additional charge because it looks like a specialty restaurant or that they can get pizza up by the pool. There is no additional charge and while you can get pizza by the pool, you can't get this pizza by the pool. As word gets around the ship about what Alfredo's is really about, it gets busier and busier. By the end of the cruise, it is tough to get a table at lunctime. So let's keep this between ourselves.

Entertainment was very good. High points were the shows by the Beatles tribute group Beatlemaniacs and the Sixties deck party in which the production cast performed along with the fountains on the pool deck. I also enjoyed the enrichment program. This included two authors, Sarah Jio and Claire Bidwell Smith, who spoke about their work and writing. Princess executive Chis Joly packed Princess Live with a talk on how cruise ships are built. On a cruise that involved three sea days, a good enrichment program is essential.

This week on Beyondships we present part one of our profile of Regal Princess. http://beyondships.com/Princess-RE-Profile.html This includes a photo tour of the interior of the ship. http://beyondships.com/Princess-RE-Tour-1.html as well as a daily programs page with Princess Patters and other inormational leaflets distributed aboard Regal Princess. http://www.beyondships2.com/regal-princess-daily-programs.html