Propelled by People Our Stories

Calen Settles

Lead, Employee Experience

For Calen Settles, Royal Caribbean Group was able to turn his dream of working with children into a reality. Starting with the Company in 2015, Calen worked in Adventure Ocean, helping to care for and entertain little cruisers sailing onboard with their families. “After graduating from college, I wanted to be a music teacher and work with kids. I saw an ad for Royal Caribbean, and I saw that you could be someone who cared for kids onboard,” Calen shared. “I applied and they took a chance on me. From the beginning, I understood how important Royal Caribbean Group is. I worked with different families, celebrating special occasions. It was really special.”  

He worked his way up the ranks to assistant manager for Adventure Ocean before finally taking the jump to shoreside, where in 2019 he worked with the Entertainment team before moving to Employee Experience, where he is today. 

“A major benefit that RCG encompasses is the idea of allowing fathers to take paternity leave. It drastically changed my life and my family’s life,” Calen said. “When my son was born, the policy at the time was two-weeks paternity leave. A wonderful thing about RCG is that they listen to their employees, so at the time my son was born, I took my two-weeks paternity leave and then was notified that the policy had been updated to 12-weeks paternity leave. I got to stay home with my wife and child.” For Calen, he believes that this company truly does care for its people. “I was super thankful.” 

During his time onboard, Calen met his now-wife, who was also working onboard at the time. “If it wasn’t for this company, I would have never met my wife who has believed in me from the beginning,” he gushed, “Imagine being able to travel and work with your significant other. Without RCG, I wouldn’t have been able to grow my family.”  

Working at Royal Caribbean Group means that opportunities are plentiful, and the Company is always looking for ways to help employees advance in their careers. For Calen, he embraced the opportunities and took advantage of the ways to advance in his own career. “After a long period of time, I gained experience onboard and looked up to the leaders around me.” Whether it was stepping up into leadership roles while onboard, or cultivating skills that translate to multiple roles offboard, Calen understands how important it is to strive to be the best version of himself.  He’s forever grateful for the opportunities and for those leaders who believed in him.