Royal Caribbean is ready for a $100 million-plus drydock for the Allure of the Seas this year that will see the ship in drydock for 42 days and out of service for 48, with 14,000 different tasks set to be completed in Cadiz, said Kevin Douglas, vice president, technical projects and new build, in an interview with Cruise Industry News.

“This is an opportunity to get back in the saddle. We haven’t been able to do our big revitalization projects due to Covid, and this is a pretty big one for us,” he said. “It’s a couple thousand people, and a big scope. It’s what we love, and what we do, going crazy with demolition, causing chaos and working very hard and long hours, and then we sprinkle fairy dust on at the end, and everything comes back.

“It’s the ability to get back to where we add value to the corporation,” he continued. “That is the ability to go into the fleet with a very systematic process and not just keeping the ships relevant and current but also improving the guest experience by adding the new venues.”

Highlights include a revamped pool deck, new waterslides, a new water park, new restaurants, the conversion of the ice rink into a laser tag arena and much more.

14,000 Items

Ahead of her spring drydock in Cadiz, the entire Royal Caribbean team responsible for the work was on-site in mid-November for final planning and preparation, said Douglas.

Of the 14,000 tasks, which are tracked via a custom tool, Douglas said each one has an input and an output. Twice-daily meetings during the drydock are held with the company, shipyard, contractors and shipboard leadership team and are there to provide updates and solve issues. There is also visible data into what parts of the project are ahead or behind.

“We have complete transparency in where we are in the project. It’s great someone is ahead. We want them to stay ahead, finish and leave, take their people with them and free up more space,” he said. “And there might be a reason someone is behind.”

Among the bigger technical items are a new accommodation block and a new water park, said Douglas.

He noted the complexity of the water park, which also includes a water treatment and filtration system.

“Not only do we install it, but we have to commission it,” Douglas said. “It has to operate.

“Another big item is a new forward accommodation block. That is a very large element, as it’s full of staterooms and sites. That is a humongous amount of work.”

Long Hours

Describing a military-level amount of logistics and planning to move the project along, Douglas said there could be upward of 100 containers coming on and off the ship every day, and someone would get the first and last one. Royal Caribbean’s project team then needs to figure out what gets done when, and what work scopes have contractors crossing over.

“Someone may just have two weeks of work, not 40 days. And not everyone starts and ends at the same time,” he said. “For example, artwork and signage installations happen toward the end of the project. We also look at how and when we inspect it.”

It comes down to communication, cooperation and collaboration between parties, said Douglas, adding that the company was good about looking after its subcontractors in terms of food offerings.

“We want to communicate what we are trying to do, what’s the big picture. We want to get acceptance from everyone and the role they need to play. Not everyone can get the first container every day. If you can get communication and acceptance on the message and plan, then you start to get coordinates. If you can get coordination, then you start getting alignment. What we are trying to get is alignment between everyone working in a single space or in a certain environment for collaboration. If we get that, it’s more likely each and every action will be successful.”

Speed

A decade ago, Royal Caribbean took its main subcontractors to visit a Porsche factory in Germany, with the goal to learn lean production methods and minimize the time of service.

That trip has paid dividends, Douglas said.

“If we go back to where we were in 2003 or 2004, the Allure would have been out of service for six months with this level of production.”

What’s next? Royal Caribbean Group has over 300 drydock days in 2025, according to Cruise Industry News data, with other big projects slated for the Freedom and Rhapsody.

Douglas said he was already working on 2026, 2027 and 2028.

Excerpt from the Cruise Industry News Quarterly Magazine Winter 2024-25