Royal Caribbean International (Royal Caribbean) was founded in 1997. A Norwegian/American company with headquarters in Miami, Florida, Royal Caribbean is a subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Cruises Limited (RCCL). Royal Caribbean’s fleet totals 22 cruise ships, including the two largest cruise ships ever built, Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas. Launched in December 2009, Oasis of the Seas is the size of a small town, accommodating more than 6,300 passengers and 1,800 crew members. Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas, which launched in December 2010, is larger than Oasis by two inches, giving it the infamous distinction of being the largest cruise ship on the planet. Over half of Royal Caribbean’s cruise ships were built in the last decade, and 10 ships have a carrying capacity of more than 5,000 passengers and crew.

In 2004, Royal Caribbean, through its parent company RCCL, made a public commitment to install advanced sewage treatment systems on all of its cruise ships by 2008. Of Royal Caribbean’s 22 cruise ships, 19 have installed advanced sewage treatment systems, resulting in a grade of A- for the company’s 86 percent sewage treatment score. In determining the air pollution reduction grade for each cruise line, only ships that dock at a port that currently has shoreside power (thereby avoiding burning dirty fuel in port) were considered. In total, 0 percent of Royal Caribbean’s ships that dock at a port with shoreside power are plug-in capable, giving the company an F in this category. While Royal Caribbean operated two ships with advanced sewage treatment systems in Alaska in 2010, it chose to discharge sewage from those ships outside of Alaskan waters, thereby avoiding Alaska’s strong water quality standards, giving it an ‘N/A’ for water quality compliance in Alaska.