Cruise passengers don't think a lot about corporate executives.
When you sip a drink you've never seen on a Royal Caribbean ship, you don't think about the work Ed Eiswirth, the cruise line's senior director of beverage operations, and his team put into creating it.
You're not supposed to think about how the sausage gets made, so to speak, but the work is still significant. Eiswirth talked about the effort that went into the new beverages on Icon of The Seas during a media preview of the menu.
Related: 3 things Royal Caribbean passengers should do before their cruise
During that event, he said that he worked with a team of three mixologists to create more than 100 new alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks for the first-of-its-class cruise ship. More than a year of work went into the bar menus, including multiple new bars, including the Lemon Post, a family-friendly venue, and Rye & Bean, a new take on a coffeehouse.
Ship entertainment, like beverage menus, takes an enormous amount of work. Shows have to be written, cast and rehearsed before passengers ever get to see them. That process can take years and the entertainment team works well ahead to plan the offerings on new ships.
The man in charge of that for the past decade, Nick Weir, has been an avid poster on the X social-media platform, where he shared behind-the-scenes views of just how much goes into those shows. Those posts included a May 11 look at the Vistarama system, which makes a video performance look as if it's happening live.
That appeared to be Weir's last act as senior vice president and "creator-in-chief" for the cruise line.
Image source: Royal Caribbean
Royal Caribbean has a new entertainment head
Effective immediately, Christine Coachman is vice president of entertainment for Royal Caribbean International, succeeding Nick Weir, who left the company after 10 years, Matt Hochberg of Royal Caribbean Blog first reported.
Whether Weir left on his own or was shown the door is unclear, but Hochberg used the word "leaves" to describe the move. Weir remains on the cruise company's website, where his job is described as follows:
"Nick oversees the cruise line’s onboard entertainment and guest activities programming, as well as Royal Caribbean Productions, the industry’s only in-house department that creates, produces, and manages the largest entertainment operation at sea."
Hochberg also called the change a "shakeup."
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Royal Caribbean promotes an experienced leader
While the circumstances of the change remain cloudy, Royal Caribbean did confirm Coachman's promotion in an internal document, which Hochberg obtained. The message came from Royal Caribbean's senior vice president of hotel operations, Sean Treacy.
"Drawing from nearly 35 years of experience at Royal Caribbean, Christi will now lead the team responsible for bringing to life the best entertainment at sea," he wrote.
"She will oversee the cruise line’s onboard entertainment and guest activities programming, as well as Royal Caribbean Productions, the industry’s only in-house department that creates, produces, and manages the largest entertainment operation at sea."
Weir had held the top position in the entertainment department since 2013.
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'We wish Nick well and we're grateful for his contributions,' a company spokesperson told Seatrade Cruise News.
Weir has not commented publicly and his X page still reflects his now former position.
Update 12:12 p.m.: Weir has taken his Royal Caribbean position off of his X page.
