THE CRUISE EXAMINER at Cybercruises.com
by Kevin Griffin
The Cruise Examiner for 23rd April 2012

Royal Caribbean Cruises chairman and ceo Richard Fain was inducted into the British Travel & Hospitality Hall of Fame last week. As an executive, he spent thirteen years in London with the Norwegian shipping company Gotaas-Larsen, an early one-third shareholder in Royal Caribbean and owner of Eastern Cruise Lines. In Miami since 1988, Fain has been involved with Royal Caribbean for thirty-three years and at its head for almost twenty-five. His biggest regret must be having lost to Carnival a decade ago in his attempt to take over P&O and Princess Cruises. But his success in expanding Royal Caribbean worldwide into half a dozen brands and building the world’s largest cruise ships must far outweigh that set-back. Elsewhere, Viking Ocean Cruises have moved from France to Italy to build their two, option three, new oceangoing cruise ships, which will be slightly larger, at 998 berths and delivered slightly later. Finally, two Panamanian fishermen died in the Pacific last month because the master of the
Star Princess was not informed that their small fishing boat was in trouble after some of his passengers reported their plight to a crew member. One has to ask, does Princess Cruises listen to its passengers?