Seems it’s the week for secrets to be revealed. After NCL’s confirmation of their new ship order comes an announcement today that Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas will be the first cruise ship to have a Starbucks coffee shop on board.
It’s being trumpeted as a big step forward, but in fact the cruise line has had an agreement to serve Seattle’s Best Coffee – a Starbucks subsidiary – for the past 10 years.
But I suppose it is appropriate, given that Starbucks has a maritime connection, being named after Captain Ahab’s first mate in the novel Moby Dick.
I was tipped off about the partnership back in August, when I toured Allure in the shipyard at Turku, Finland, but I was asked to keep a lid on the story because the ink was still wet on the contract.
The Starbucks coffee shop will be in Allure’s Royal Promenade, a three-deck high shopping mall the length of a football pitch running down the centre of the ship. You would have thought the powers-that-be would have moved that workman’s coat and hat from in front of it before taking the picture (above).
About the Author: John Honeywell
John Honeywell is a travel writer specialising in cruise ships and cruise travel. Winner of CLIA UK's Contribution to Cruise award 2017.
There’s an extra charge. in the words of Royal Caribbean’s Adam Goldstein, pricing for coffees will be “directionally similar” to the prices at Starbucks on land.
What a sad day for the coffee consumer. To think with all the expertise that goes into making a world class ship, that RCCI would stoop so low as to put the world,s worst coffee on such a beauty. Know by the coffee industry as CHAR-Bucks what was RCCI NOT thinking? I can’t think of anything more depressing that to wake up on that wonderful ship and having your first sip of burned coffee to start your day. Sad, so sad.
DP