Andrea Zelinski
Tweaking a family-focused neighborhood. Taking advice from teens. Getting another dog.
One of the top designers at Royal Caribbean International hinted about what the line has in store for the upcoming Star of the Seas, the second ship in the groundbreaking Icon class.
Having carried a half-million people on the Icon of the Seas since it launched a year ago, Royal Caribbean has gotten lots of feedback about the experience.
The Star is generally expected to be just like its big sister, with the same themed areas and gross tonnage (I couldn't get anyone from Royal to tell me whether the Star will edge out the Icon as the new biggest ship on Earth). But some small adjustments are coming, namely to the experiences for kids and families, according to Jennifer Goswami, Royal's senior director of product development. Goswami appeared in late January on the line's trade-focused Coffee Talk webinar series, and with host Vicki Freed, senior vice president of sales and trade support and service, she laid out some of the changes to advisor listeners.
Tweaks to the Surfside neighborhood
Take the Surfside neighborhood, for instance. With a small pool, Splash Away Bay splash pad and nearby food, the area was meant to entertain families with kids up to age 6. But the Royal team observed that this area was a sweet spot for kids up to 10 years old, she said.
On the Star, Royal will increase the complexity of the play in that neighborhood by including more features and completely redesigning the playscape of Splash Away Bay to make it taller and more challenging for the older kids while still entertaining the younger ones.
Reimagining the teen space
Arguably, the line's toughest critics are teenagers, and their feedback has led designers to completely rethink the teen space for the Star, Goswami said.
"One of the things that I think surprised us the most was they asked for less technology" and more games like pool tables and foosball like those at the Playmakers bar, she said. "These are social activities they can do where they don't feel like they have to introduce themselves to one another, let them naturally gravitate. The more we thought about it, it's very human."
Teens have also said they aren't looking for a large, dedicated space for themselves but a place to meet before roaming around the ship, she said.
The Star's family dog
While the line will tweak these areas, other elements will stay the same, like the inclusion of a chief dog officer.
When building the Icon, Royal wanted to humanize the ship beyond what the line could deliver from an infrastructure perspective, Goswami said, adding, "there's nothing more like a family vacation than a family dog."
A golden retriever named Rover lives on the Icon. She has been dubbed the Chief Dog Officer and is "the biggest hit on the Icon," Goswami said.
The Star will feature a pup named Sailor, who was born the day before Valentine's Day. She has a little more than six months to get her sea legs in time for the Star's late August debut.