History of RCL

Royal Caribbean was one of the founder members of the Miami cruise boom of the early 1970's. The company was the brainchild of American born Edwin Stephan. His idea was to create a brand new cruise line with 3 brand new ships, a sensible ideas which paid off. Stephan travelled to Norway to convince shipping magnates to come in with him and Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines was born.

In 1969 the ships were ordered from Wartsila, Finland and on 7th November the following year the lead ship SONG OF NORWAY left Miami on her maiden voyage. Her sisters NORDIC PRINCE and SUN VIKING followed in 1971. Business boomed and in 1978 the SONG OF NORWAY was stretched to increase capacity by cutting her half and adding 26 metres to their length passenger capacity was increased by 164 cabins. The second ship NORDIC PRINCE was similarly treated 2 years later.

In 1982 the company took delivery of a 37,500 tonne purpose built cruise ship named SONG OF AMERICA. Built by the same yard that constructed the original three ships, the ship had a more substantial Viking Crown lounge which went all the way around the funnel and even had its own lift.

 It was several years before new tonnage was to built for the company and when it came it came big. The lead of a three ship series, the SOVEREIGN OF THE SEAS has a gross tonnage of 73,162 making her the largest in the world. In 1988 that was a major new build. Two ships followed named MAJESTY OF THE SEAS and MONARCH OF THE SEAS.

These big three ships continue in Caribbean service. In Summer 1990 the company took delivery of the NORDIC EMPRESS, the first ship ever specifically designed for 3/4 day cruises. Further new tonnage came in the late 1990's with 6 cruise ships entering service expanding the companies cruise network outside of the Caribbean. With this in mind the company changed its name to Royal Caribbean International. The new ships were built by 2 builders, Wartsila and for the first time the French Chantiers de l'Atlantique. They were built as follows

With 9 super ships in service the original 3 were phased out. The second ship NORDIC PRINCE was sold in 1997 to Airtours followed by SONG OF NORWAY the following year and SUN VIKING in 1999/2000. Also to go was the SONG OF AMERICA which was sold again to Airtours for $100,000,000.

By the time the last new build was delivered Royal Caribbean the company had ordered two more series of ships in Germany and Finland. Project Eagle is the code name given to the bigger of the two series, these 140,000 tonne ships will number 5 in total when they are all delivered. The lead ships VOYAGER OF THE SEAS was delivered in November 1999 for Caribbean Cruising.

The other program of new builds will see 4 ships of 90,000 tonnes. Code named Project Vantage the lead ship of this series was the RADIANCE OF THE SEAS delivered in May 2001. By the time all the current new buildings are delivered the fleet will consist of 18 vessels.

It was not just new buildings which Royal Caribbean have used to grow their empire. Their one and only second hand ship VIKING SERENADE was delivered to Los Angeles for 3/4 day cruises in 1990 after a $75,000,000 refit to totally transform the one time cruise ferry. VIKING SERENADE will transfer to the new company Island in 2002 as ISLAND ESCAPE. Island is a joint venture with the British tour operator Fist Choice in which RCI have a financial interest.

In Mid 1997 RCI bought Celebrity Cruises from the Greek Chandris lines and have built the company up by adding 4 new buildings to the 5 strong 5* fleet they acquired. Celebrity is considered RCI's permium brand and it show in the quality of the tonnage deployed.