The Disney distinction

Posted on 12 May, 2015 by Spacejunkie2

The Christening of the Disney Dream

Walt Disney Co. and its cruise line are on a roll.

The entertainment and media giant reported earnings rose 10% for the second quarter of this year with the fastest growth at its Parks and Resorts unit (which includes Disney Cruise Line), where operating income grew 24%.

What is Disney doing right?

First and most directly, it is raising prices. Disney said its earnings growth at parks and resorts was “primarily due to increases in average ticket prices at our theme parks and cruise line,” along with more spending on food and merchandise and higher average hotel rates.

Single-day tickets at Walt Disney World in Orlando cracked the $100 barrier last year. And Disney Cruise Line prices are generally much higher than competitors on similar routes.

A random comparison shows a balcony cabin on a 7-day Eastern Caribbean cruise departing Port Canaveral on Dec. 5 listed at $1,814 per person on Disney’s website and $912.50 on Carnival Cruise Line’s site.

Several things that underlie Disney’s pricing power are qualities that other cruise lines are also trying to achieve.

One is brand strength. On a 2014 ranking compiled by Interbrand, a unit of ad giant Omnicom, Disney held the 13th strongest global brand, just behind Intel and just ahead of Cisco Systems. Interbrand said Disney’s power as a brand stems from its “use of technology and data to understand what customers want and personalize their experiences.”

A second pillar of pricing power is capacity control. Disney has resisted the temptation to expand its fleet of four ships, the last of which was delivered three years ago. Unlike many lines, Disney has no ships on order. That helps keep supply scarce and drives demand.

But that doesn’t mean Disney gets stale. It frequently upgrades the experience, especially with new entertainment including shows from hit movies like Frozen and Tangled.

And Disney has a pipeline to first-time cruisers through its theme parks, where much of the programming on a Disney ship can be experienced. Disney cruise customers know what they’re getting even if they’ve never been on a cruise ship before.Of course, we don’t know exactly how Disney’s higher pricing translates into profits, as those vital numbers are buried in the results of the overall parks and resorts division.
My guess is that Disney Cruise Line makes a solid contribution.

In Puerto Rico, a Cuba-like cruise experience

Posted on 5 May, 2015 by Spacejunkie2

This year, everyone is excited about visiting Cuba. With good reason: President Obama’s attempt to thaw relations revived dreams about the possibilities of the island nation 90 miles off Florida’s coast.

Yet except for the Celestyal Crystal operated by Cuba Cruises, and a few other small ships, cruising in Cuba is still not possible. Some cruise executives say it is at least three to five years off.

So what to tell clients about visiting the island? One answer is to suggest Cuba’s cousin, Puerto Rico. There’s a lot of what a client would experience in Cuba itself, with the bonus of being available today, not in the hazy future.

Cuba and Puerto Rico share a common heritage. Both were freed from Spain in the lopsided Spanish-American War of 1898. Cuba’s independence movement was more advanced, so it became a new nation. Puerto Rico became a territory of the U.S., which it remains today.

Much of what travelers would find in Cuba they can also find in Puerto Rico, including Caribbean-Latin cuisine, great music, fabulous beaches and intriguing Spanish colonial architecture. The mountains, the foliage, the urban energy and rural charms are the same.

An arrival at San Juan harbor with its picturesque 16th century forts is a real pleasure, with the ships docking conveniently at the foot of the Old San Juan historic district.

Some things are different, of course. Charming 1950s automobiles are harder to find, and McDonald’s and other signs of U.S. commerce are part of the landscape. Making up for that, perhaps, is widely prevalent bilingualism and the comforts of being in U.S. territory (with the simultaneous appeal of being someplace that feels foreign).

About 1.5 million cruise passengers arrived or departed a cruise in Puerto Rico last year. A Quantum of the Seas call in December marked the largest cruise ship ever to dock there.

San Juan is unusual in being both an active port of call and a homeport for Royal Caribbean International and Carnival Cruise Line, which offer southern Caribbean itineraries that are different and less traveled than those departing from mainland ports.

Next year, Carnival plans to station a larger ship in Puerto Rico, the 2,758-passenger Carnival Victory, which will visit Barbados and St. Lucia, among other stops. It is expected to carry 150,000 passengers annually.

For someone who really wants a Cuba-like cruise experience without waiting for the bureaucratic and diplomatic wheels to turn, Puerto Rico is a good bet.

Rein to leave Carnival Cruise Line

Posted on 29 April, 2015 by Spacejunkie2

Carnival Cruise Line announced that its vice president of worldwide sales, Joni Rein, will depart after seven years at Carnival. Rein will step down Aug. 15 but consult for Carnival for the balance of the year.

Rein joined Carnival in 2008 as vice president of field sales from the North American office of Costa Cruises, where she had been vice president of sales development. She was promoted to her current title in 2009.

As head of sales, it fell to Rein to rally travel agents, including some who were disenchanted with Carnival, following the Carnival Triumph engine room fire in 2012. Rein spearheaded the Carnival Conversations program, a series of steps to repair agent relations at Carnival and implement more agent-friendly policies.

“My decision to depart the company was a difficult one,” Rein said in a statement, “but I feel it’s the right time with brand and trade sentiment at their current levels and an incredible executive leadership team in place, all of whom I respect tremendously.”

Carnival said no replacement for Rein has yet been named.