My name is Michael Bayley and I am the Executive Vice President, International at Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. Since joining Royal Caribbean in 1981 as Assistant Purser on the Nordic Prince I have worked with so many wonderful and talented people. Too many to count and too many to remember.
Over the years as I bumped into former shipboard and shoreside colleagues literally all over the world we would share our many memories and re-live some magical moments. Many times we would say good bye with the words “we really should get all the oldies together, it would be a blast”.
So about nine months ago I was on the phone with Michelle Wedig, a former shipboard colleague in the 80′s, and we were laughing about some of our escapades and Michelle said “you know we really should try to get all the old timers together”. Not sure why exactly, but perhaps as we had been talking about those characters that had recently passed on it seemed so right.
We decided “The Royal Oldies” needed to happen and off we went with a committee of two. We soon expanded the group to include my secretary, Eileen Szep another 30 year veteran, along with Linda Givens from Entertainment, Linda Thomas Smith, Pura Fritzius and Francisca Phillips from Human Resources, Casandra Guillen from our travel department and Sue Updike from Facilities and another veteran.
We had the idea! We had a team! How would we connect with so many people spread all over the world?
Facebook of course! We set up the “Royal Oldies Reunion” Facebook page and literally within a few weeks word had spread far and wide. It was amazing how many former colleagues from as far away as Australia, France, Norway, Ecuador, Thailand, Europe, throughout Latin America and all across the U.S.A. and Canada responded.
We found a great location for the event and set about working through the details. The team worked tirelessly to create a night to remember. Actually it was a weekend to remember. September 17th at the Hilton in Fort Lauderdale overlooking the port where Oasis and Allure call home, we had a party. The Royal Oldies Reunion.
From the 70′s, 80′s, 90′s, 00′s, current and former colleagues gathered. The list of attendees was like the who is who of Royal Caribbean history. The people who helped create and build such a wonderful company. 362 people attended, which is more than the entire crew of the Song of Norway in 1972.
Captain Stangeland, Cruise Director Tony Benade, EVP Sales and Marketing Rod McLeod, VP Hotel Operations Frank Basso, Karen Tritley Director of Revenue, Alan Sepe and Delvin Litchmore from Beverage operations, four hotel directors: Al Martin, Roderick Smith, David Armitage and Daibhidh Dent, Bill & Shelley Witiak from the Cruise Staff, Cruise Directors Jeff Martin and Paul Rutter to name just a few!
Our Master of Ceremonies for the evening was Mr. Ken Rush who is currently Allure of the Seas’ Cruise Director. He entertained us all throughout the evening making fun and bringing various personalities back to life. What memories.
Adam and Richard Fain (both eligible and fully paid up Oldies) spoke eloquently about our company, our success and how all of us had contributed to build such a company.
I read a letter from Peter G. Whelpton one of the first employees of the company who had sat with Mr. Stephan in his home as they made plans to start Royal Caribbean.
Our entertainment was first class with Kelly Monteith, Levent, the amazing Mr. Hal Frazier and Private Stock. Ken kept the evening alive with great stories and humour. We all laughed! Cheered! And the noise of people sharing the sheer excitement and surprise of seeing friends from so many years ago was joyful.
We had old photographs and displayed a montage of memories. Our menu covers at dinner were from the 70′s and 80′s. Russ Bogue who heads our facilities team and a collector of memorabilia brought multiple displays of old brochures, landing cards, souvenir passenger lists, marketing campaigns and new ship introductions! Do you remember what everyone said about the Song of America back in 1982? It’s too big!
As the night went on, the talking and excitement grew! We even had Eon Green one of the original shipboard photographers, set up for portraits! What a blast the night was. Full of happiness. So many people had grown families now it was a delight to see so many characters. Bret from the 80′s cruise staff wore his original blue jacket and white pants cruise staff uniform. It still fit him and looked great.
The evening was truly memorable. So many friends, so many memories, so many stories to tell and lives to catch up on. A wonderful event in Royal style!
Hi Michael, Everyone is still talking about the great evening. Of course the only bummer was it was too short. Thanks so much to you and the team for putting this together. My 7 years onboard RCCL were better than my college days and the friendships and memories I made will keep me smiling and a warmth in my heart forever. How about every 5 years?? Hugs!
We’re happy to hear you had such a great time at the reunion, Penny.
Great to see that Royal Caribbean head office appreciates past employees!
I was a guest at the hotel that night waiting to board the Allure the next day. It was great to see old co-workers having that reunion!
We hope you had as much of a great time onboard Allure as they had celebrating at the reunion.
Greetings to all,
Sounds like a great time was had by all; I’m sorry I missed it, Unfortunately, I had a prior engagement to visit the ports of Northern Norway (a region I had not explored previously). Hopefully, the success of the first reunion will be the catalist for a subsequent gathering in the future. If so, I’ll certainly be there to relive the early days of the best cruise line in the world!
Bon voyages!
Rick Strunck
(RCL’s first itinerary planner)
We’re sorry to hear you missed it, but certainly Northern Norway was something that could not be passed up. We hope to have you back for the next reunion.
Love the article and brought back great memories of our honeymoon cruise on Monach of the Seas in Sept of ‘93. This was our first cruise and had the chance to meet Capt Strangeland and take a pic w/ him which we still have in our scrapbook. He made such a lasting impression…and so glad to see his pic in the article. We have become loyal RCCL members since then and will be taking our 9th cruise this Dec. out of Galeston.
We are happy to hear you had such a great time onboard so many years ago and that you have continued to sail with us. We are lucky to have cruisers as dedicated as yourselves.
Señores Royal Caribbean cruises:
Me gustaria saber como me puedo incorporar laboralmente con ustedes, tengo experiencia en barcos de turismo pues trabaje un tiempo en costa cruseros, ahora resido en españa y me gustaria volver a trabajar en esta compañia.
gracias por la informacion que me puedan suministrar.
Royal Caribbean Cruises Gentlemen:
I wonder how I can incorporate occupationally me with you, I have experience working as tourist boats on the coast time Cruisers, now reside in Spain and would like to work at this company.
thanks for the information I can provide.
Thanks for your interest in working with our company, William. Please visit http://www.royalcareersatsea.com for all available positions. Good luck.
Great article! I wasn’t eligible to attend the party, but heard it was fantastic. The article brought back memories of Song of America as I took my Mother on Song of America…her very first and “only” cruise of her lifetime. Song of America was a magnificent beauty back then, but the ships only get bigger and better. WOW! And, Michael Bayley, what a guy! I will always remember him having served with him on the GO TEAM in Bermuda…hard work, but also great fun.
Thank you for sharing your fond memories of Song of America.