late 1990s, Royal Caribbean combined its
marine operations and quality assurance
functions.
Kulovaara was appointed Executive
Vice President (Maritime) in 2005.
GOING FOR BIGGER
AND BETTER SHIPS
At present, Mr. Kulovaara is responsible for
Royal Caribbean’s fleet design and newbuild operations.
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCCL)
has a long common history with the Finnish maritime industries. As early as in 1969,
the company negotiated with the Finnish Wärtsilä shipyard for the building of
RCCL’s first cruise ship. This resulted in a
contract for building the ’Song of Norway’,
the world’s first Caribbean cruiser.
After 1995 – when Mr. Kulovaara has
been responsible for the construction program for RCCL’s new cruise ships – the
signed for over 3 000 passengers. At the
er than any cruise ship that shipyards or
Finnish shipyards in Helsinki and Turku
time, those ships were the largest of their
Royal Caribbean had ever built. After this,
have built numerous giant cruise ships for
kind in the world.
the step from Voyager-class to Freedom-
Royal Caribbean Cruises. Amongst them
In fact, the first of the Voyager-class
were the five Voyager-class cruise ships de-
vessels was 60 percent to 70 percent larg-
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class ships meant an increase of 15 percent in ship sizes.