Like airlines and hotels, cruise bookings plunged during the Great Recession. A series of well-publicized mishaps, including fires, electrical failures and outbreaks of vomiting and diarrhea, also left vacationers wary. Fain tries to lure reluctant cruisers with onboard ice skating, rock climbing, a surfing machine and skydiving simulator. Fain became CEO in 1988 and over the past 26 years grew the company into the world's second-largest cruise operator. The passengers have returned but Fain says prices aren't yet back to pre-recession levels. "Historically, to the extent that Chinese took vacations, it was to visit family and maybe historical monuments," Fain says. Sixty percent of the U.S. population lives within a 300-mile drive of the company's 14 domestic ports. Royal Caribbean advertises in the U.S., and it relies on travel agents — who are paid hefty commissions — to steer people to cruises instead of tropical islands, Las Vegas or Walt Disney World. [...] there is the ice skating rink, surfing and other activities. [...] there are outbreaks of the highly-contagious norovirus, which gives passengers stomach pain, nausea and diarrhea.
Reported by SeattlePI.com 22 hours ago.
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