Royal Caribbean International

Royal Caribbean Cruise Line was formed in 1967 by two Norwegian shipowners, Sigurd Skaugen and Anders Wilhelmsen after the ideas of a well known Miami shipbroker named Edward Stephan. Two ships were ordered, and eventually, a thirth shipowning company, Gotaas-Larsen (also Norwegian) entered the business and a thirth ship was able to taken as an option. Sadly, the same year Anders Wilhelmsen died and his son Arne Wilhelmsen entered the company in his place. Where the money came from the three parties, the general ideas were those of Stephan. He wanted the ships to be easily recognizable and he suggested that something based on the Seattle Space Needle should be built on top of the ships. This proved to be too costly, and because the designers also found the funnel the most ugly part of a ship in general, the proposal was made to wrap a lounge around it. With Norwegian tradition in mind, it was called the Viking Crown Lounge.

The three ships that were built were all financially backed by one of the three shareholders, who also gave the ships names they liked so there was nothing like a general naming-plan. The Song of Norway (Skaugen) was delivered first in 1970, the Nordic Prince (Wilhelmsen) followed in 1971 and the last one became Sun Viking (Gotaas-Larsen). RCCL instantly became the premier cruise line sailing out of Miami, leaving competition far behind. But not all was well, because the first problems between the shareholders and Stephan arose about how to run the company. It was not untill the 1990's that these problems were solved and the company became a true cruiseline based on firm ideas.

New ships were added to the fleet of Royal Caribbean Cruise Line in the 1980's, still with the great problems between the shareholders, something that also often delayed the newbuilding process. In 1987, Carnival tried to take over the business and they were backed by this by Gotaas-Larsen, one of the shareholders of RCCL, who were eager to sell. After a lot of problems between the shareholders and Carnival, RCCL stayed an independent company and Carnival took over Holland America Line instead three weeks after the deal collapsed. Since that time, Carnival and RCCL are knowing to be real competitors and no friends what so ever. But at least RCCL understood they had to become a true company and with French financial backing for the luring company they started to become one finally.

Three new giant ships were ordered and they became known as the Sovereign-class. These were the first cruiseships in the world to exceed Norway in tonnage and thus they were the biggest ships in the world. They also started a naming-tradition still used now, with all ships names ending 'Of the Seas'. Also, Castles of the Seas is based on their namingtradition.

All early Royal Caribbean ships which names ended on 'Of The Seas' were built on the Chantiers de L' atlantique-wharf in St.-Nazaire, France. This was due to the French financial backing. This illustrious row started with the Sovereign-class in 1987 when Sovereign Of The Seas floated out. At that moment, she was the biggest passengerliner of the world with 73.192 tons. She surpassed Norway, then on cruiseservice for seven years, by more then 3.000 tons. Two more Sovereign-class ships were built, Monarch Of The Seas in 1990 and Majesty Of The Seas in 1991. These ships were meant for the growing Caribbean market, as stated in the name of the company also. Since their debut, they kept sailing in this region.