Interview with Gerard Nolan – Royal Caribbean Golf Day K Club Friday 22 May 2026

What’s the big news in Royal Caribbean at the moment?

We’re in a good place and looking forward to launching and showcasing Legend of the Seas – that’s our big news for Europe this year. So it is all on track. It is an exciting time because if you take the last two Icon class ships that we’ve launched they’ve gone pretty much straight to the Caribbean so it’s a brilliant opportunity for us to get something local in Europe for the European market and very good for the Irish market.

We are just coming up to under thirty days before we get on so me and my team will be on just before she sails on the 4^th of July so we’ve got a little preview and we’ll be getting ourselves ready to welcome our big audience that we’ve got coming. We’ve got a preview event on the 29^th of June.  We’ll have the best part of 4,500 people, our biggest ship launch in Europe yet. Very excited about what’s coming but it’s great that it’s local. We’ve seen with Oasis class in Europe, the quality, and when people go on and experience it, it is a game-changer so bringing an Icon class to Europe is even more exciting. It is very much on track and the ship is looking good. The preview event is a four night cruise from Malaga to Rome and from the 4^th of July a couple of sailings from Rome before moving to Barcelona for the rest of the season. The really good thing is that she’s there again next season so our wonderful local guests don’t need to go too far and not all the way out to the Caribbean.

Thinking about what’s coming, it’s an exciting time for the brand, not just in terms of ships.  We’re fortunate that we have got Icon class, we’ve got Hero coming next year, we have Star that we’ve launched last year, Legend this year and we have orders up to 5, 6 and 7 and you’d think we’d stick with Icon class but no, we’ve got Oasis 7 coming so our jigsaw of where we put the ships is very much in flux at the minute and we are working our way through that but we have a very good portfolio of ships coming. We also then have Destinations which is another area into which we have expanded. In Europe for the first time we have launched our newest Beach Club in Santorini. This is a super way to really experience an island like that, one so rich and deep in culture and doing it in a really responsible way. We know it’s a busy island, we know that the way people experience it elevates their holiday experience when they come ashore. The endeavour here is to showcase the best of what Santorini has to offer, leveraging a couple of hours at the Beach Club with very authentic, very local culture, local dance, local music, local food. And, after a a really nice three to four hours at the Beach Club moving to the two key destinations Oia and Fira and moving seamlessly through the island, seeing the donkeys, seeing everything that people have in their minds, real picture moments. I think we have an amazing offering that we haven’t had in Europe before so it’s exciting to bring guests to experience that.  That was our big news about three or four weeks ago and in another three to four weeks we have Legend coming, so we don’t stop.

Cruising and the Irish market

Cruising has come along way.  Even if I just take the Irish market (where I have a big affinity, being Irish, as you can imagine!). I’m fortunate that I have a really good vantage point from which I can see all the European markets which I look after. The Irish consumer is what we would definitely call ‘best in class’. If I take last year, as a business we benchmark in terms of what we call the quality, the satisfaction, how much they enjoy the product and, equally, how good they are in terms of what they spend and the Irish customer is our best globally so a really good guest who resonates with our product. The Irish market is big and we have a real appetite to continue to develop it. If you take CLIA last year I think the growth in the Irish market was, give or take, 12% so 72,000 Irish people on cruises so the affinity to travel with the Irish is really an opportunity for us. When I think about people getting on a plane going out to Orlando and doing the likes of a Disney or a Universal we really think we are an even better alternative to products like that. There’s about half a million who go every year from the Irish market to Orlando and that’s where we think we really have an opportunity to tap into, to showcase how cruise can be deemed to be a better option that what you get in theme parks because what we have on board for families, multi gen families, we really have probably the perfect offering. If you take the essence of travel – going to multiple destinations, experiencing different cultures – all whilst having amazing service, amazing food, culinary options and the excitement of what you can do on our ships, it really is a very good option for the Irish guest.

I was on the Celebrity brand for 8 years before moving to Royal Caribbean and we’ve always had a really strong relationship with the Irish market and I think for me, as I think about where we are in the world today, the Irish market loves to travel, loves culinary, food and beverage – it’s a real core part – and loves the social element that a cruise can offer. We’re seeing a lot of really good momentum in terms of growing our presence here and we do an awful lot to grow with our partners. The trade distribution is hugely important for us in the Irish market so I only see more opportunity for us looking into the future  Take simple things like airlift and how people travel – you have to get off the island. Clearing immigration in Dublin is a real advantage and we try to tap into that a little in terms of conveying the ease and one of the key growth products for us is down to the Caribbean and things like that really aids it.

We do love and we know the Irish audience does travel so we are not afraid of supporting the partners with airlift. We will buy airlift and we will partner with our distribution network to ensure we can get people to ships.

Main destinations and best sellers

If you take the split, you broadly look at the split for the demographic that we get today and it’s Europe and Caribbean what resonates and what is resonating so far this year and into next year is Legend.  Legend is selling exceptionally well in the Irish market, definitely resonating and one of the amazing things we have coming obviously we are launching Legend of the Seas and will have a large contingent from the Irish meeting with us to showcase what it does and that gives you an understanding and you will then have that knowledge coming back into the market to hopefully convince people that this is the best holiday in Europe.

People graduate from our ship classes, they go on the likes of Liberty out of Southampton, they’ll then go on to something in the Med and then graduate on to the Caribbean so having Icon class and Legend specifically in the Med is a huge opportunity.

People have this perception that it’s a great holiday time to bring families together.  We see that the amount of people celebrating something with us is huge and I think we are right for it. We have a very good way to segregate the ship. We have neighbourhoods so you can have very different experiences.

One of the great things I love, bringing Legend to market, is the The Promenade which is the heart of the ship. The wow factor when you come on board, the scale, the openness, it’s the pearl that we have. It is a real statement and when you think of that experience and when that comes to life with evening parties and the balloon drops, that’s what makes it.

Travel agents and supporting them

We have a dedicated team of three, headed up by Jennifer Callister, in the Irish market and are adamant that that is something we definitely think is the right thing to do.

In terms of support we understand the value and we are very appreciative of the support that we get.  We know that the travel agent can sell any holiday type and that cruise is a growing sector that needs education, it needs people to understand the value. In terms of what we do we have Club Royal which is our trade platform and that’s everything from training to marketing tool kits, to really allow the partners to have everything at their fingertips and self serve. We have Training modules, incentivisation, we have a trade loyalty programme called Upper Deck. It launched about two years ago and is a really successful trade loyalty programme, the more you book the more you earn. You can earn up to €500 for a booking with Royal Caribbean so it’s really attractive and you get it straight away.  But it’s not just that. We do an awful lot of training so in the Irish market in November we will have three dedicated training set-ups so Kristy, our trainer, will come and she will have face to face training which I think is important nowadays. That’s some of the periphery stuff but this year outside of having over 4,500 join us on Legend there’s a large contingent of partner agents coming from the Irish market. We’ve been running a competition called  ‘Get me on Legend’ and it’s amazing, anything we run, inevitably, the Irish agents get behind it and I love it because I’m sitting there with my UK colleagues saying where are all our UK agents and look at the Irish at the top of our leaderboard!

We will have the opportunity in June into July for that big launch but outside of that we have a big training, what we all a Seminar at Sea. The good thing this year is it’s going to be on Legend. It will be in August for four nights, and that is four nights dedicated to agents to come and touch, feel and experience the product. We have a large contingent joining us, up to 500 overall from the European region and about 200 from the UK and Ireland so a big number coming to see it. So it is indepth training and free time on board the ship to really experience it.  For the trade agents, just really seeing is believing and the more opportunity we have to get people on board, that’s what makes the difference.

Ship visits

We are just about to start our ship visit programme for this year and for the first time ever we are actually doing it as an enterprise approach so we will have a ship visit for not just Royal but also for Celebrity and Silversea all on the same weekend, seeing the three ships all in the same place, so quite exciting. You will see more of that with the enterprise, there’s enough competition out there, you will be seeing a family of brands and sister ships together. There is a real desire to work collaboratively. Our brands bounce of each other and there is a natural synergy depending on your needs. Our visits kick off next month across the region, from Southampton and Barcelona for agents to come, dip their toes, see it for the day experience what Royal is about and hopefully then really experience it properly when we do the likes of the ship launches and seminars.

Sailings from Ireland

Nothing at the moment. In the past we had. It’s an opportunity for us with 31 ships and growing and we see it as an opportunity.  We know Dublin port has certain limitation on size. It’s an opportunity we would welcome in the future.  Across the enterprise we have called on Cobh and Belfast . We have for many years called on Ireland and we would love to see it grow as we look at our itineraries and where do the guests want to go and we see it as option for the future.

Commercial opportunities and challeges in the cruise sector particularly in the Irish market

Challenges – I don’t know if I see anything specific for the cruise sector. Jason who is our President/CEO talks about the opportunity to travel that sits outside of cruise and if you think that 72,000 people, recorded as part of CLIA data, travelled on cruises from Ireland last year, I don’t necessarily see a challenge because we know people are willing and want to travel. If you think about the type of holidays we are bringing to market there isn’t necessarily a limitation per se and with the growth of our organisation over the last 50 years we always navigate what is happening around the world. I don’t necessarily see a challenge, I see an opportunity more than anything else, with the innovations we are bringing and how we are allowing people to enjoy different types of holidays. Many people have been to a beach in Spain many times over and it showcases the ability to multi gen families together which is a big thing.

Have Royal any plans to enter the river cruise market?

The focus for Royal is very much centred on ocean. The beauty of our organisation having three different brands is it allows the different brands to play to their different strengths.  Very excited to see what Celebrity will be doing. Their order book jumping from 10 to 20 river ships is really exciting for the brand. I work really closely with that team in the UK. At the minute no, we are just focused on what we do best ocean and destination are key.

Many thanks to Gerard for sharing his thoughts with us at this very busy and exciting time for Royal Caribbean.