What a week we picked to do our Anchored in Excellence (AIE) visit to see how Legend of the Seas was doing in her home in Asia. We flew into Tokyo to join the ship. What we didn’t realize was that is was the Japanese holiday of Golden Week, so it was a special time to be in Japan.
We actually sailed from Yokohama. This is a very impressive cruise terminal and we had a great sail away with a band in full costume playing “Anchors Away” and the entire check-in staff came out to bow and wave to us. It was our first embarkation in this port and it was historic for a number of other reasons as well. For Royal, it was a record number of Japanese guests onboard at a count of over 1,500. It also was a record for Yokohama to have so many Japanese guests embark and sail on a passenger cruise ship.
We were very focused on ensuring our Japanese guests had a great experience and we flew Travis, our chef from Izumi on Oasis, to consult with our executive chef onboard Legend. Travis created an amazing Sushi and traditional Japanese menu and also did a demonstration in the Centrum, it was a huge hit with all our guests, including some Diamond Crown & Anchored guests from Tennessee! It also happened to be my birthday during our AIE visit, so I was very spoiled by Travis and he made me some amazing tempura. The onboard team also ensured that there was plenty of birthday cake too!
We did our regular AIE program, but in addition to our usual series of meetings, we had the opportunity to present the entire Legend crew with the award for “2009 Ship of the Year,” which included a Plaque, a flag they can fly proudly and $10,000 for the crew welfare fund. Legend also won our contest for the best ratings in our “Best December Ever,” as well as had the highest crew morale of the entire fleet. We gave them a lot of very well deserved awards. I am very proud of this team and the amazing product they are delivering to our guests.
Once we arrived in Shanghai, China, the significance of the week continued, as the World Expo opened this week. Our guests were really in for a treat as it is estimated that 72 million guests will visit the Expo during its 180 day duration. We had the opportunity to see the grounds and the various pavilions and there are really no words to describe it. We also were all amazed at how unbelievably clean the city was. There was the most amazing landscaping everywhere – medians on the roads, on overpasses, unique flower displays in front of buildings. They were simply everywhere and I’ve never seen anything like it. I can’t even keep one flower box alive, yet, and somehow they are managing to have an entire city in perfect bloom.
In addition to our ship visit, we also had the opportunity to visit our Shanghai office and meet with our Country Manager, Dr. Lui, and his entire team. It was great that we could have our Hotel Director, Colin Clarke, join us as well, so we had a really good session that had the perspectives of the ship, the local office and our corporate insight to discuss additional ways we could ensure we “Deliver the Wow” to our guests from all over the world. What a week!!!!
I’m a diamond plus member and traveled all the way from the states to sail on the Legend for 7 nights out of Shanghai in March. Talk about delivering the “Wow”!
Out of all my cruises — this one was the most incredible! Amazing ship, superb crew and fascinating ports of call. The staff onboard the Legend of the Seas certainly deserves the “Ship of the Year” award!
Once the itineraries are released, I’m looking forward to planning my 2011 Asian Adventure!
Seth, we’re glad to hear that you had a wonderful cruise departing from Shanghai and that our crew and ship left you with an unforgettable impression. Thank you for your comment and we hope to see you onboard one of our ships again very soon.
Hi there.
As Diamond members, my wife and I are wondering why only US members can access the online Crown & Anchor website fully?
We are in the UK, and have no access to the Members Forum and other sections of the site.
Please let us in!
Dave, we’re sorry to hear that you are having difficulties accessing our UK Crown & Anchor website. You can enter the Members Forum by visiting http://www.royalcaribbean.co.uk/cas/shareAndTellLoggedout.do and logging into the site with your username and password. Hope that helps and let us know if you are still experiencing difficulties on our site.
dear adam we are diamond members love rccl and think they are the best in the industry but would love to see more ships out of n.j. flying is so much trouble these days we have been on the exployer 3 times we are going on the oasis in dec but it would be so much easier to go out of nj and cheaper too that way we could sail more often thank you carol & sal persico
Carol, thank you for your feedback and for your continued loyalty. We appreciate your suggestion and we will keep it in mind for the future.
DEAR ADAM MY HUSBAND AND I RETURNED FROM THE OASIS—WOW! WHAT BEAUTIFUL SHIP THERE IS SO MUCH TO DO AND SO LITTLE TIME TO DO IT HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT ABOUT A 10 OR 12 DAY CRUISE ON THE OASIS OR THE ALLURE? AND SAILING ONE OF THAM OUT OF CAPE LIBERTY NJ JUST A THOUGHT THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME CAROL PERSICO
Hello, Carol. We are glad you and your husband had such a marvelous time onboard Oasis! You can stay up to date on all of the Allure and Oasis’s itineraries through here: http://bit.ly/dSV675 and http://bit.ly/i1Bssk. Thank you very much for your feedback and we will be sure to pass it along to the proper department.
Hi – I’m currently in the military stationed in Japan. I was looking forward to taking on of Royal Caribbean cruises from Yokohama(Tokyo) port. Unfortunately I don’t speak Japanese, so I was wondering if my trip would be more painful then if I took a cruise from the US? Is there other food besides Japanese food onboard as well? Thanks
Hello, Chris. We are honored to hear that someone in the military would choose to include us as part of their valuable time off. Onboard our ships there are a variety of different sorts of food you will be able to enjoy. Also, we have quite a diverse staff onboard all of our ships, so we can’t imagine you would face a large language barrier that would prevent you from having a great time onboard. We hope this helps, and we can’t wait to have you onboard.
DEAR ADAM I AM WONDERING WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SOVEREIGN OF THE SEAS THAT WAS OUR FIRST CRUISE ON ROYAL CARIBBEAN.
Hi Carol, in October 2007, Royal Caribbean International’s Sovereign of the Seas was reassigned to the company’s Pullmantur fleet. However, we still have her sister ships, Monarch of the Seas and Majesty of the Seas, that you can sail on.