From Adam Goldstein, President and CEO of Royal Caribbean's Blog

From Oasis’ Inaugural Events to Answering the Question, “How Do You Do This?”

Yes I am still alive. This blog is good for a lot of things including creating profound feelings of guilt for not keeping up with the entries in the midst of the maelstrom.
It is Tuesday, November 24th. A big day. All the days have been big and we have completed three successful inaugural events for media, distributors, suppliers, industry partners, financial analysts, bankers, architect/designers, etc. Rihanna, Good Morning America, USAToday, ABC World News Tonight, Entertainment Tonight and so on. But today we have a confluence of two remarkable groups.
One group is the cream of the crop of U.S. travel agents. They are here for our three night Thanksgiving inaugural cruise. Even for a ship as compelling as Oasis of the Seas we didn’t expect they would leave their family Thanksgiving celebrations. So we offered them 5 staterooms apiece to transplant their family Thanksgiving celebrations to the ship. A few minutes ago I said hello to two of these family groups. What a beautiful thing.
The second group is a phenomenal array of the premier media, travel agents and tour operators from around the world. I just came up the elevator with several people from Indonesia and several people from Guatemala. Another beautiful thing.

I find it is very difficult to get tired of hearing compliments about the ship. And when I say compliments, I mean people literally visibly struggling with how to find words that express how much they think of Oasis of the Seas, the incredible crew that served them and how privileged they feel to have been onboard.
Many people ask me how I do this. Possibly they haven’t considered the cumulative impact of receiving hundreds or thousands of compliments, which obviously has nutritional value because otherwise I’m not finding enough time to eat. As long as I can work out every day in the gym or on the amazing 670 meter long jogging track I’m fine. I’m struggling with my backhand in table tennis but that doesn’t induce any sympathy since I have been winning over 90% of my Presidential Table Tennis matches.
The answer to how I do this is – it’s completely awesome. I enjoy seeing everybody from every part of the business. Richard and I just gave a ship tour to two U.S. Congressmen. In a little while I’m giving a tour to the Chairman & CEO of the Coca-Cola Company. I am painfully aware that my email in-box is breeding emails like rabbits. I haven’t had time to look at a draft of my speech for Monday’s naming event. Marta is asking me about meetings when I come back on December 1st and I actually would prefer to come back on January 4th since I haven’t had a proper vacation this whole year. But let’s face it – who would not like to be in a senior position of a fabulous brand that is introducing the most exciting vessel in 10,000+ years of maritime history [that last bit might qualify as hyperbolic but let’s see who challenges it]?
Not to mention that the Eagles finally won a close game for the first time since I was a child.
Happy Thanksgiving.