Letter From The Editor: Royal Caribbean’s Public Relations Team

Good morning cruisers,

Early yesterday morning, guests aboard the Grandeur of the Seas awoke to 7 short and 1 long and were ordered to proceed to their muster stations. While roughly 2,500 guests stood side by side as flames were being battled by trained onboard firefighters, Royal Caribbean’s media relations team was already suiting up for the mission that lie ahead.

As soon as Royal Caribbean learned of the developing incident aboard the Grandeur of the Seas, Royal Caribbean’s public relations team was already tweeting out up to date, informative information from their Twitter feed and their Facebook page. The first tweet was posted at 5:48 am, reading: “Grandeur of the Seas experienced a fire this morning. Captain mustered all guests. No injuries of guests or crew reported.” This was the first of many informative tweets posted by Royal Caribbean throughout the day – a day that would have normally been a day off to commemorate our nation’s soldiers.

While this incident is considered by some “another black eye for the cruise industry,” I say this incident is not. I believe this incident won’t be a “black eye,” because of the way it was handled by Royal Caribbean, but specifically their public relations team. While still a challenge, the public relations team at Royal Caribbean seemed dedicated and determined to keep the press and cruisers informed and up to date on the latest developments in regards to Granduer of the Seas. Royal Caribbean got ahead of the sometimes over exuberant press and presented them with the facts and constant updates on the situation. At one point, Royal Caribbean tweeted the first photo of the damage aboard the Grandeur. Not only did this help side rampant speculation on the extent of damages, but it showed that Royal Caribbean was determined to provide the cruise industry with informative, up to date information. It is for this reason alone that I believe that this incident won’t be a “black eye” on our industry, but it will instead be a shining example of how coordinated and helpful a public relations team can be in a disaster type situation. So kudos to the Royal Caribbean public relations team, you’ve created a fine example for our industry.

Your Editor,

Mike Faust

P.S. I also wanted to give compliments to Captain Espen Beem, Adam Goldstein, the Grandeur’s crew, and everybody else at Royal Caribbean who helped to resolve this potentially devastating situation and bringing all guests and crew safely into port.

[divider]

Photo: Mike Faust

Comments

comments