Pros

if you want to be in a travel company, RCCL is one of the largest cruise companies in the world

Cons

low pay for the job function (but not for the sector), and if you work in the office, you will not be hanging around cruise ships drinking on the pool deck

Advice to Senior Management

more consistent communication, and offer higher pay pkgs to attract more professional people

Pros

The hospitality industry in general provides an exciting environment. Not to mention the location in South Florida which further enhances the reasons for wanting to work for a company such as Royal Caribbean. This is an international company that is a leader in the travel industry.

Cons

When you look for career advancement this company can be somewhat challenging. There tends to be evidence where upper management will work to get all they can from the talent they have and with no reciprocation of commitment. Thankless.

Advice to Senior Management

Reward devotion and provide more grooming for talent. Culture is lacking.

Pros

Very dynamic international growing company. Great for balancing career with family. Company is run by people that truly try to do the right thing. The cruise benefits are also a nice plus. There are lots of exciting projects that are always in progress and on deck. New ships, international expansion, and constant growth are things that always keep the work interesting. The employees are very diverse with people from many countries and backgrounds.

Cons

cost cutting has gone a little far. The business travel has become very uncomfortable because of cuts in the travel costs. Sometimes the promotions can be very political. Continuing education is limited. There can sometimes be a lack of communication across departments.

Advice to Senior Management

keep up the good work. I am very proud of our product and employees. I would like to see people's career advancement aligned with their actions that contribute to the bottom line.

Pros

The lower-level employees have a true passion for the brands and guests. They also maintain an attitude that is conducive to a company that sells fantastic vacations. Their bosses are also very positive and excited about their jobs. This company is a GREAT place to start your hospitality career!!!

Cons

RCCL pays at the 25th percentile so don't expect to earn enough money to live a robust life, especially in Miami. The executives and their direct reports have effectively avoided accountability for several years. For example, the former CFO helped the company iron out debt to equity concerns and the company's bond rating climbed to a respectable level. However, Richard Fain seems to be competing with Arison from Carnival and he is willing to take the entire company down with him in order to do it. They planned and ordered several new ships at a time when the US dollar is in serious decline and fuel prices are surging. This effectively killed the company's bond rating (junk bond status again). Also, the Directors and above are VERY political and seem to be unwilling to do two fundamental things: create a near-term strategy and plan that they could be held accountable for and deliver accurate and honest reports up the food chain where troubles exist, which hides incompetence. The information squelching-leaders also railroad senior analysts and mid-management that identify and start to resolve serious problems. I believe that it has as much to do with incompetence on the part of senior management that have relied exclusively on political savvy and coattails as it does on their desire to hide any warts in their operations. For the lower-level employees, the main downside is the employee cruise request process. The process is officially based on seniority, which new employees do not have, so outside of your FAM cruise after a year of service don't expect to cruise unless you pay for it under the table.

Advice to Senior Management

Create a company wiki and encourage open and honest dialogue about every opportunity to improve RCCL. Require every person that submits a challenge to also submit at least one idea for how to improve that issue before the posting goes live. Recognize and reward employees that contribute AND do not headhunt people that expose fundamental problems, especially concerns about leadership.
Build a real leadership development program that is open to all employees that want to climb the leadership ladder. The current BOT process is pure politics and is not respected by most mid-level leaders (mgr and director). If you want to have a strong group of leaders for your future, identify what you need and encourage employees to develop the skills required to meet those needs. You have a lot of hidden gems in the ranks who you could retain by providing such an opportunity. As it stands now, you are actually losing a lot of great leaders because they CAN go somewhere else and get a promotion. That leaves you with the people who cannot leave because they are not talented enough to work elsewhere. In some areas of the company the RIF was a failure because the lowest performers were not let go, the most threatening future leaders were... Kill those politics!!!
Create complete transparency in the benefits and rewards areas by putting employee cruise requests and award nominations online for all to see and read in real time. Also, base the rewards on actual performance results as measured against pre-defined objectives. There is no corporate strategy shared with the entire company to inspire us to action through the coming year. Therefore, there are no functional/departmental strategies or measurable objectives cascaded to my area. Therefore, my team does not have any measurable goals. Therefore, my annual review is always a surprise because I don't know what I will be measured on, even if I directly ask at the beginning of the year. So, how can I prove that I am exceptional and exceeding my performance objectives?
Get Internal Audit involved in the employee hotline. My peers have criticized things such as the employee cruise request process, but those complaints go straight to HR, which owns employee cruise requests. Clearly, you don't want the fox in charge of the henhouse...

Pros

RCCL is a good company with steady growth and a positive future outlook in the industry. This company is one of the leading innovators in the industry with their newest additions to the fleet. This employer provides good benefits, and competitive salaries, including cruises, health, dental and vision, a pension plan, a 401(k) plan, on-site day care, cafeteria, gym and incremental vacation time based on longevity. RCCL offers many activities for employees to contribute to the community and incentives for participating. RCCL is

Cons

As in most companies, politics is always a factor.

Advice to Senior Management

Value all of your employees

Pros

If you like to travel, you stand a good chance to do so - in the right department. Of course, not everyone enjoys this privilege, and with the company's current performance, expect reduced travel budgets. The benefits package is fair but not great, but you could do a lot worse. . .there aren't a lot of big companies to work for in Miami's service-oriented economy. Shoreside employees have access to on-site daycare and a corporate gym with classes and even massage therapists for a reasonable fee. Free parking is nice, considering that most people who work in downtown Miami have to pay for their own parking.

Cons

They do not match 401K contributions at all! Corporate strategy is kept very close to the vest on a need-to-know basis, which is kind of insulting. Top management is arrogant and elitist. Management training isn't seen as a priority, performance reviews aren't taken seriously, and no one uses behavior-based interviewing...so hiring can be sloppy.

Advice to Senior Management

Please learn from the mistakes of the past few years!

Pros

If you cruising, this is the place, though seniority takes precedent when assigning cabins and of course, employees get the "not so great cabins" -read inside cabins.
Very caring and "real" VP of HR - she truly cares for people and their well being, however, her hands are tied when it comes to approving higher salary increases.
People seem to like to work here. Employees stay for a very long time - 15, 20 years.
Level of satisfaction depends on the Department you are working for. Some are better than other, though I would say to anyone, stay away from Supply Chain (Purchasing)

Cons

Very political!! Some extremely rude and poor managers in top positions and company does nothing to correct their poor behavior or lack of people and management skills. There seem to be too many chiefs and it takes too long to make decisions. Salaries, from managers down, are very poor at best and raises even poorer! Salaries and raises do not stay at par with cost of living. This year's increase for 2007 was a mere 3%. Offices are at the Port of Miami and unless you live downtown or in the immediate surrounding areas, the commute is hellish due to traffic and street congestion

Advice to Senior Management

Remove so many layers of useless managers/AVPs/VPs. Do not reward bad behavior by looking the other way and ignoring it. Be more accessible to lower level employees

Pros

Very friendly people, support work-life balance. Very supportive, especially respective personal life. Management and co-workers go beyond their duty to support and help. Managers are very helpful and listen to you. It is up to an individual to contribute and make a change. This is not a company to play hardball at employees. They will try their best to keep (sometime not so good) people as well.

Cons

Growth for very talented people is limited. Can hit the wall very soon. They have weird benefits policies. Actually this is common in Florida firms. They will not hire directly, and let you go through contract to hire process. After you become an employee, wait for at least 3 months to start your benefits. No stock options and very limited ESPP.

Advice to Senior Management

Identify the stars and go beyond the standard stuff to promote and retain them. Keep IT get necessary recognition from the execs. Our CEO hardly ever communicated with employees, let alone skipping numerous occasions of promise to attend in all hands meetings.