Michael Bayley, President and CEO of Royal Caribbean International, updated the company’s travel partners earlier this week on the repairs being made to and investigations surrounding Anthem of the Seas following its run-in with some pretty bad weather earlier this month. The executive wrote that the Coast Guard and “other investigators” have concluded that the ship’s captain “followed proper procedure in managing the ship in the storm.”
Bayley added that the investigating parties praised the captain for “making decisions that kept our guests and crew safe, kept the ship seaworthy and led to only four minor injuries in a ship with more than 6,000 people on board.”
The update also made it clear that Royal Caribbean was taking the incident seriously, saying that while the storm “far exceeded forecasts,” it was still ultimately their “responsibility to avoid these possibilities” at all times.
“We can do better,” Bayley said, “and we will.” He then went on to spell out the ways in which Royal Caribbean would be adjusting their policies moving forward, focusing on adding “additional resources at our headquarters to provide more data and guidance to support our captains. Senior marine executives and, when necessary, meteorologists will be involved in decisions about when, where and whether to sail when storms are forecast.”
Repair wise, Bayley reported that there were a “handful of issues” remaining to be addressed, including a few balcony partitions and some broken furniture.
