Royal Caribbean made 2 quiet changes passengers will love

Royal Caribbean hears from its loyal passengers when the cruise line makes a move they don't like.

Many "Loyal to Royal" cruisers, for example, have expressed their displeasure with the cruise line's recent decision to move most of its Oasis-Class ships to shorter 3- and 4-day sailings. Royal Caribbean designed that move to enable it to put its best foot forward with new passengers.

Related: Royal Caribbean passengers angry over major change

It's an attempt to grow the market, but it annoys longtime cruisers who prefer 7-day and longer sailings on those ships. Royal Caribbean has been using its newest ship, Icon of the Seas, on 7-night cruises out of Miami, and it plans similar 7-day itineraries when her sister ship, Star of the Seas, begins sailing out of Port Canaveral this summer.

Those ships, however, the largest cruise ships in the world, are designed for families. That leaves smaller ships sailing longer itineraries, which has angered some passengers, even if they understand why Royal Caribbean has made those changes.

Passengers rarely get this vocal about changes they like. Royal Caribbean deserves praise, however, for two seemingly small but actually gigantic changes it has made on its new ships. The changes likely will come to other ships in the fleet during their dry docks.

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Royal Caribbean fixes an annoying problem  

Nearly every cruise passenger has experienced one of multiple problems that can occur with classic elevator technology.

First, you can wait for an elevator, and when it arrives at your floor it has no room for you or anyone else. In other cases you wait so long that it becomes unclear who should board using a first-come, first-served system.

Another example: Passengers can board an elevator only to find that it inexplicably stops at every floor. Maybe a kid hit every button or perhaps phantom guests called for an elevator, then opted for the stairs.

Elevators have been a cruise-ship pain point, and Royal Caribbean has fixed that issue on its latest ships. Both Icon of the Seas and Utopia of the Seas, the cruise line's two newest ships offer dynamic elevators.

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Passengers enter their floors on a tablet near the elevator bank and are given lettered elevators to wait for. The letters are clearly hung above each car so passengers know where to wait.

Once the elevator arrives, passengers learn that it has no buttons inside and it makes one, or maybe two stops, delivering you to your floor much faster.

The new elevators are expected to be installed on all upcoming Royal Caribbean ships and further expected to be added to older ships when they undergo extended periods in dry dock.

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Royal Caribbean solves a power problem

Older Royal Caribbean ships often have one American-style power outlet and one European-style outlet. Since the cruise line bans any device that gives you more outlets, that's a skimpy allotment. 

Passengers are allowed to bring plugs that add USB and USB-C ports, but even if you do, one outlet (or two if you have an adapter) can be challenging.

Over the past decade or so Royal Caribbean has been working to fix this problem. Newer ships, including Wonder of the Seas, Icon of the Seas, and Utopia of the Seas, offer an embarrassment of riches when it comes to outlets and USB ports.

On these newer ships, Royal Caribbean seems to understand that families have a lot of devices to charge.

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The cruise line, however, has also addressed this on older ships. When ships hit dry dock, the cruise line at least adds USB ports next to the beds. That enables cruisers to keep their phones close while they charge.

Royal Caribbean has also quietly added USB ports to venues like Playmakers sports bar and arcade, and newly updated slot machines all have USB ports as well. 

It's not easy to add more outlets, but adding USB ports largely solves the problem and Royal Caribbean has been aggressive in doing that.

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