Ever heard of a luxury hotel that moves every half hour?

You guessed it: it’s a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, a mass of one hundred thousand tons, that glides on the ocean between Florida and the islands of the Caribbean on a regular basis.

Royal Caribbean International is the second largest cruise ship operator in the world with revenues in excess of $4 billion. It owns 28 ships with more than 65,000 berths on them and is growing. Here’s their story.

Flash back to 1969. An idea suddenly struck Arne Wilhelmsen and Edwin Stephan (Arne was a Harvard-educated investor and Edwin a famous Floridian businessman). The idea was that there was a large community of extremely wealthy Americans in Florida, and that this community would put down top dollar for a short, relaxing luxury cruise to the nearby Caribbean.

Arne and Edwin marketed this brainwave to some of the shipping magnates in Norway who readily bought it and came up with large investments. After a short gestation period, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines (and an entire new industry) was born.

By the next year (1970), the infant company could speak of it’s first possession: The SONG OF NORWAY, a splendid cruise ship, weighing 18,500 tons and equipped for 700 passengers, custom-built in Finland. The most stunning feature of it was a cocktail lounge cantilevered around the smokestack (Edwin Stephen got the idea from the Seattle Space Needle). This lounge was built into many of the Line’s later ships and became the hallmark of the Company’s fleet.

* Growth, Growth and More Growth *

The founders of the Company pursued their vision of achieving market dominance through a continual program of adding ships and services. A consolidated record of this, which is very difficult to find elsewhere in the media, is presented below:

1971 Cruise ships NORDIC PRINCE and SUN VIKING arrive

1978 SONG OF NORWAY cut in half, 75-foot piece with 164 cabins introduced in between

1980 NORDIC PRINCE augmented the same way

1982 SONG OF AMERICA arrives with a larger, more luxurious lounge around the smokestack

1988 SOVEREIGN OF THE SEAS, the largest cruise ship ever built at 73,162 tons for 2,276 passengers, arrives at a cost of $150 million

1990 - NORDIC EMPRESS arrives - The Company expands beyond the Caribbean: Mexico, Alaska, and Europe are added as destinations; - Industry’s first computerized booking system introduced

1991 - MONARCH OF THE SEAS arrives, ready for 2,354 passengers

1992 - MAJESTY OF THE SEAS delivered, equipped for 2,354 passengers

1993 - The Company goes public

1995 - LEGEND OF THE SEAS arrives, built for 1,804 passengers

1996 - GRANDEUR OF THE SEAS arrives at 74,000 tons and for 2,440 passengers - SPLENDOUR OF THE SEAS, in the same class as GRANDEUR, delivered

1997 - Name changed to Royal Caribbean Cruises Limited (RCCL) - RCCL buys Celebrity Cruises and its four working ships from Chandris Lines at a cost of $1.3 billion - RHAPSODY OF THE SEAS, at 79,000 tons and for 2,435 passengers, is delivered - ENCHANTMENT OF THE SEAS, at 74,000 tons and for 2,440 passengers, arrives

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