As I’ve said many times in my writings and on my podcast, I love the Cruise Industry. A specific highpoint for me was when Oasis of the Seas was announced. It was 2006, I was new to the cruising lifestyle and had already started our cruise oriented travel agency. Being a cruise ship fanboy, I was constantly waiting for each piece of news to come out. Waiting was an understatement. I was fixated. It was that kind of excitement where you find yourself checking for news every few days and reading the same updates over and over just to get your fix. At the time the ship was known by its code name: “Project Genesis”. I thought the name “Oasis” was stupid, but the rest of Project Genesis was utterly fascinating. The Oasis-class ships, including the Oasis and Allure and eventually Harmony, Symphony, Wonder and Utopia – all with “of the Seas” appended – were part of a historically significant expansion and innovation effort by Royal Caribbean. The Oasis class was 33% bigger than the previous record holder cruise ships by Royal Caribbean which were already about 50% bigger than anything else on the ocean. Everything about them was groundbreaking. The split superstructure allowed ‘neighborhoods’, i.e. distinct areas on the ship including a small Central Park, an Aquatheater, a Boardwalk area with a carousel, a zip line, and a variety of other enhancements not seen anywhere else in the industry. Now they are at it again with a new class of potentially industry changing ships, the Icon class, only this time, I seem to be the only person in the world who’s going “meh” and I think there are some lessons about my own decision making when I take a close look at what Royal Caribbean did with their big new ship and what they could have done with it.
So before we get into why I’m “meh” let’s look at why the world is so fascinated by Icon. The truth, I think, has more to do with the Covid pandemic than it does the ship. For a couple of years the Cruise Industry was shut down and it only opened up to full bookings last year (as I write this). There wasn’t any news as everything, including new-builds, was paused. Then you got a new ship that’s coming out, and it included all the Oasis class uniqueness including the split superstructure and all that provided, but it also incorporated many of the marque amenities of Royal Caribbean’s hit private island “Perfect Day at CoCo Cay” including a crazy amount of water slides and a swim up pool bar. It also includes other popular elements from other cruise lines. So a new product coupled with pent up demand equaled unparalleled consumer interest. It’s easy for anyone to see how real the fervor is. The prices to just get on the ship, not inclusive of any of the very expensive upcharge options, are more than triple what they are for comparable cruises.
I shouldn’t undersell how Icon adopted the Oasis Class elements because they aren’t identical. Oasis wasn’t perfect, but you didn’t see its flaws until people were on the ship and giving feedback. All of the issues that people felt were lacking with Oasis, for example, lack of public space close to the ocean, were corrected in Icon. I can personally attest to this. I was on an Oasis Class ship and it didn’t feel like I was on a cruise ship at all because most of the ocean facing areas of the ship were balcony cabins, and a budget cruiser such as myself doesn’t usually book balconies.
I liken Icon to the second iteration of a video game in a popular franchise where the first version had great ideas, and they were revised and polished for the second and third sequels which fix all the warts of the first game. An example of this is that the Aqua Theater, which sat on the back of the ship in the Oasis Class, was moved to the top front of the ship with Icon. This allowed much more Oceanfront space for guests to lounge and play in at the back of the ship. It gives guests more of a feeling of being on a Cruise. Since the front of the ship required a roof over the theater, the move also allowed advancements in the aqua shows including robots and ceiling mounted water features. The list of these types of quality of life improvements between the two classes of ships is pretty long. But to me, that’s what caused much of the “meh” feeling. There was nothing that wow’d me.
Royal Caribbean built its entire business on what they called, “creating the Wow” for guests. Simply stated, they always had something on board the ships that nobody had done before. It’s part of the reason why their ships got bigger and bigger. The Monarch Class had huge atriums. The Voyager Class had the Grand Promenade and ice skating shows. Even though it was mostly just the Voyager Class plus, Freedom Class had the surf simulator. The Quantum Class had bumper cars, the North Star Observation Arm and onboard SkyDiving, etc..
It’s been nearly 15 years since Oasis Class came out and in some ways other lines have innovated around it with their own version of “Wow” including race car tracks, outdoor prominades and creative ship designs allowing for pools much closer to the ocean. This last piece is the thing that probably resonated with me the most. To me the obvious next step was to do everything they did with Icon, i.e. improve every single thing about Oasis that could be improved, and then extend it, quite literally with a boardwalk promenade that’s not just at the back of the ship, but that wraps around the entire ship. I.e. a true boardwalk. It could have included things like a Ferris wheel, a roller coaster, and/or boardwalk games. All physically light which is important as weight is a big consideration for cruise ship amenities. Alos, these ideas are inexpensive relative to the cost of the Ship. In addition, there needed to be a single marque feature. This could have been the Ferris Wheel or something else. Think of the castle at Walt Disney World. It doesn’t do much but it’s physically iconic. And maybe that’s what’s bothering me. There is nothing Iconic about Icon of the Seas. It’s just a ton of really good quality of life improvements.
I usually write about the collision points between work and life. I sometimes write about the cruise industry simply because I’m interested in it and I can write about anything I want. I think this particular cruise industry commentary is where the two topics merge. Why did Royal Caribbean abandon their focus on the “Wow?” When company VIP’s talked about their goals for designing Icon, they talked about having a design philosophy that included “tradition, evolution and revolution”. I see tradition and evolution, but nowhere in the design do I see revolution. I actually laughed out loud in one of their promo videos when an executive made a comment about how the new aqua theater isn’t just another water show, that it’s revolutionary. I think I actually said to my television “Nice try. It’s the same old show with robots and a few more fountains.” The executives comment was spin, pure and simple. I also found it a bit insulting.
I can answer the question that I posited. Why was there no “Wow”, why was the ship just Oasis 2.0. It’s because large corporations have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders. Simply stated, there wasn’t a big enough benefit to change the industry again like they did with Oasis Class. Remember, to really build outside of the box there has to be huge changes in engineering, design, and perhaps most importantly logistics. I wouldn’t be surprised if an industry changing design required a whole new shipyard. The ships made in current facilities are limited by the shipyard’s location. The designs they have produced have already maxed out height and width because they are limited by things like bridges they have to go under on the way to the ocean after they are built. There are also limitations in the actual construction areas within the yards. I’m sure money was also a factor. With inflation and a high interest rate environment, the company was already in for an estimated two billion to build Icon, almost twice the cost of an Oasis class ship.
Could it have been done? Could Royal Caribbean have done what they did before where the ship was so new and different it necessitated changes to the shipyards and even the creation of ports of call specifically designed to be able to host the ship? Of course they could have pulled it off. They did it before. They could have kept the split superstructure and still built a boardwalk on the exterior circumference of the ship versus the promenade windows they designed in. They could have come up with something that’s available on land but hasn’t been put on a Cruise Ship before as they have many times in the past.
This all seems petty reading it. I’m not an industry executive. I’m not a ship engineer. I’m just a fan of the industry. The way I see it, you only get a new class of ship about every decade and a half. So I feel like if your going to try to build the next big thing, then do it. Do something nobody has ever seen before. Changing the size and amenities of the pool on the top deck isn’t that interesting to me. The real key to innovation in the cruise industry is to expand and enhance the actual structure of the ship. That makes new things possible. Something like putting that full carnival with a small Ferris wheel, carousel, roller coaster, and other rides and games on a wrap-around broadwalk would be feasible and next level. If my carnival idea is bad, then make it a wrap-around beach club. I’m sure there are others out there with much better design ideas than I have.
All of this got me thinking about my own process of decision making. Where am I allowing myself to be constrained when I make the big decisions in my own life? When I think about it, it’s pretty much everywhere. I’m as bad as Royal Caribbean. I don’t have shareholders but I do have a wife. I make my decisions with her desires in mind. I do have big ideas but I also have financial limitations which restrict my ideas.
I’ve had my own life events similar to the launch of Oasis in that they were seismic and influenced those in my circle. I moved to North Carolina. I built a Car Stereo like you would see in magazines. I built a house on a river on a government employee’s salary and there were many others. These days I’m much more moderate and I don’t know if that’s such a good thing. I don’t want to have a life filled with “meh.” I want to build my own “next big thing” in all the big things that I do in my life. I think that’s the whole point of the story. It’s hard to do but I have to remember to ask myself, in what ways can I do something so different and amazing that it is the life equivalent of an industry changing event? How can I get around the limitations that I have? When it comes to the big things, like careers, transportation, health or housing, it’s very hard to do. I don’t have the answers, at least not yet. I do know that “meh” doesn’t work for me although I find myself moving in that direction more and more as I get older. Moving forward, I fully intend to do what I can to recapture the “Wow” in my own decision making. I do think this is something everyone should do. It shouldn’t just be bigger and better, whatever the effort is, it needs to be new and different. I think striving for big audacious new and different goals is part of what gives our lives meaning. Meaning is important. After all, who would want a life filled with “meh”?
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