Radiance of The Seas cruisers..help!

[Brede]

Hello everybody! I am a college student from Norway and right now I am writing about RCCL, and at the moment I am concentrating on the financial operation of a 7 day cruise with Radiance of The Seas, and therefore I was wonderring if anybody who have sailed with this ship could tell me a little bit about what is included in the price, and what you have to pay for onboard and so on...I would really appreciate if you could help me...please add me on msn: honsemor@hotmail.com or send me an email if you are willing to help...thanks a lot!:) (I will give you a personal thanks in the presentation;))

[Murphy]

Food Included: all room service food, all meals in the main dining room, Windjammer, and Seaview cafe.

Food not included: A small tip for all room service deliveries; the Specialty dining rooms (Portofino's and Chops) charge $20 per person. Specialty coffees (cappuchino type) at Lattitudes and Ice Cream from Ben & Jerry's

 

Drinks included: Water, coffee, tea is available at the Windjammer and Solarium pretty much 24/7. Juices are included with Breakfast. Lemonade and some other sort of punch is available in the Windjammer for all meals. Milk is also included. The Captain's cocktail party will offer an assortment of alcoholic and none alcoholic beverages passed around by waiters.

 

Drinks not included: Soft drinks, Alcoholic beverages.

 

Entertainment included: All shows, movies, participation activities like Quest, Trivia contests, cooking demonstrations, art auctions (auctions are free to watch, purchase cost of course), towel folding demos, pool games etc.

 

Entertainment not included: Gambling, Bingo, Horse racing, spa and salon treatments, excursions, internet usage

 

Other onboard things not included: Any purchases in the liquor, gift, souvenier stores, medical treatments, Video arcade usage, gratuities for cabin steward, waiter, asst waiter, head waiter, concierge if applicable.

 

Other onboard things included: sea sickness meds available at no additional charge from the purser's desk, chocolates on your pillow every night, photograph purchases, Cruiseinreview video, kid's Adventure Ocean program.

 

Good luck with your project

[CruisinDawn]

Other onboard things included: sea sickness meds available at no additional charge from the purser's desk, chocolates on your pillow every night, photograph purchases, Cruiseinreview video, kid's Adventure Ocean program.

 

Well said except last line.

Photograph purchases are not included but the taking of photographs are. They take you picture constantly but it's up to you if you want to purchase them for $19.95 each. Cruise in Review video isn't included and seems it was about $24.50 last one I purchased. Adventure Ocean is free except after hours on the little kids and then it's $5 an hour from 10pm-1am.

 

Goodluck

Dawna

[DHADEN]

Both of these previous answers are very thorough, but get info on the "Financial Operations" of the ship, you might want to do research on RCI's Stockholders Report. (not sure what they call it).

 

I figured it up a while ago and "guess-timated" an average of abut $1000 per person to sail and about 2300 persons on board. That's $2.3 mill. per week.

 

And then add the ships income from Bars, sodas, casino, bingo, shops, pictures, etc. (they also get percentages from Art Auctions, Shops on their "guaranteed list" from the ports, etc.)

 

Guessing what that could add up to is the hard part. On these boards, I read somewhere that the average bill per cabin was around $400-500. Don't know how accurate that is, though. Figure that times the 1150 cabins = about $1/2 mill + per week)

 

Now you have to guess at what it cost to operate for a week. that's where you need RCI's income report.

 

Hope this helps.

[CruznTom]

Recommended tips are about $ 10 @day @ person. This goes to the employees - not RCCL.

[Murphy]

Well said except last line.

Photograph purchases are not included but the taking of photographs are. They take you picture constantly but it's up to you if you want to purchase them for $19.95 each. Cruise in Review video isn't included and seems it was about $24.50 last one I purchased. Adventure Ocean is free except after hours on the little kids and then it's $5 an hour from 10pm-1am.

 

Goodluck

Dawna

 

Thanks Dawna! I was flipping back and forth between the ship's deck plan and trying to remember all the costs, and inadvertantly posted those items to the wrong "included" vs. "not included" line! YIKES! Guess that teaches me what happens when I don't reread my post!!!

[Brede]

hey thaanks a lot people!! I really appreciate this!! you are very good people:)

[Murphy]

You're welcome. Good luck with your project.

[gratefulguy]

Brede,

You might be able to get a hard-copy of RCI's annual report from a stockbroker in your town, and a cruise catalogue from a travel agent. Those could be a colorful addition to your report.

There are also places on the Web to get photos of all aspects of cruising.

Hope you get top marks for your report!

[Brede]

Thank Grateful, already downloaded the annual report from 2004, did you know they had a net incom of 474 million dollars in 2004? thats a lot of money damn! and anpother thing that surprised me was that the average salary in RCCL was about 15 000 dollars...hmmm

[wolfcathorse]

you could try to send a note to Capt Rune Loekling, currently assigned to the Radiance of the Seas (I don't know how to contact him), he's from Norway and may be inclined to help you or give you his point of view of things.

[DHADEN]

Brede;

Looks like your project is well on its way.

 

When you stated the average salary onboard is $15000, was that surprising to you? Was it because it seems low or seems high? Most people debate that the staff on board don't get a fair wage, and I would argue these points:

 

(1) Nobody held a gun to their heads and told them they had to work on a cruise ship. (and their is a loooooong waiting list of people who want to work there.)

 

(2) The $15k salary is about 5 times that of a lot of the staff members average income in their native country.

 

(3) Add tips - - do the math - average room stewart W/12 rooms - $50 ip at the end of the week.= $600 per week (lets say only 2/3 that average = $400 per week) times 50 weeks so there's another $20,000

 

(4) $35,000 per year and room and board are provided. - - most I talked to will bank about $30,000 of that each year. Work for 5 - 7 years and retire back to their country living like a king.

 

Hope this helps.

[gratefulguy]

Also, there may be a small number of crewmembers who do not report all of their tips, thus increasing their total take-home pay if they are subject to income taxes or tip pools.

There may be other factors, such as healthcare, Social Security, retirement plans, bonuses, etc. that you need to know about before you conclude what the "total" compensation is for the different types of employees of RCI. For example, what about sea-based vs. land-based employees? How does the citizenship of each employee change the total net pay? Are some categories more likely to have advancement opportunities? What effect does seniority have on pay-scales? Are any employees unionized? Does an increase in the U. S. minimum wage have a meaningful impact on RCI's net profit?

Will proposed anti-pollution laws cause significant capital investment? Will RCI be able to offset the inevitable increase in U.S. interest rates as it contracts for new ships by raising prices in a very competitive market? Will the bottom line be severly impacted by current or future litigation caused by accidents or passenger lawsuits? And worst of all, how would the entire industry cope with an Avian Flu pandemic or terrorist attack?

I don't know the scope of your report, but these may be points you could discuss to make for a more in-depth study.

It would be nice if you could do some "on-board" research, too--that would be more fun than just looking at Annual Reports!!

[thatpartyliteguy]

I have to add my two cents.

 

First, these ships are registered usually in the Bahamas somewhere.. Even tho there are RCCL offices here in the (some call centers in Oregon, and of course the port-side offices in Miami) does not mean the same benefits, and perks are extended to ship employees.

 

In fact, while sailing on EOS/Oct 04/... many employees told us its better that they get phone cards, and such instead of cash. That way they dont have to ask a fellow crew person to go landside and purchase a phone card for them to call home. Internet services are a fee for employees as well.

 

Benefits - as we know them, are not a perk to the job of those working on a cruise ship - or atleast were not as of 10/2004.

 

The crew is assigned 2 to a room, on one of 2 decks which are technically below the waterline, in the base of the ship.. so they are not living the high life of luxury..

 

Our understanding was the crew works long shifts, maybe 1 day off a week, and even tho their uniform was provided for them, they were very strict with rules and regs on how they should look when working.

 

I want to say that the crew rotates ships once every 6 weeks ?? Could be wrong, but that figure seems to stick out.

 

So comparitively speaking, $15k a year is not a lot for an American worker. However, we spoke to our waiter, whom happened to be from Jamaica and he said it was ALOT of money compared to where he is from. So I guess its all on where you are from and what the exchange rate is. He said that alot of the folks working as crew, were sending money home to support their families.