Carnival to Launch Four New Craft Beers on Horizon

Posted on 10 January, 2018 by Spacejunkie2

From left: Edward Allen, vice president of beverage operations and Colin Presby, brewmaster

Carnival Cruise Line announced that it will offer four new craft beers that will be brewed aboard the new Carnival Horizon which is set to debut this April.

The beers were developed by brewmaster Colin Presby and will be offered at Guy’s Pig & Anchor Bar-B-Que Smokehouse|Brewhouse, a new dining concept.

The announcement was made by Presby and Carnival Vice President of Beverage Operations Edward Allen at a traditional keg-tapping ceremony held aboard Carnival Vista last weekend.

The new beers are:

ParchedPig Smoked Porter – brewed with in-house smoked malt, this robust, full-bodied beer offers big and bold flavours and notes of molasses and hickory smoke, providing the perfect complement to Smokehouse|Brewhouse’s BBQ favourites.

ParchedPig Farmhouse Ale – this lightly hopped beer is distinguished by its blond colour, fruity and complex character with mild spice notes that balance the brew’s dry finish.

ParchedPig Toasted Amber Ale – highlighted by its rich amber colour and notes of toasted caramel and biscuit, this beer is well balanced, smooth and highly drinkable.

ParchedPig West Coast IPA – the embodiment of a traditional West Coast India Pale Ale, this hoppy, intense beer is loaded with bitterness with a bright flavour profile and distinctive aroma of citrus and pine.

“Smokehouse|Brewhouse is a unique culinary concept and we’ve created four fantastic brewed-on-board craft beers that not only showcase different tastes and brewing styles but also serve as the ideal accompaniment to the venue’s delicious array of barbecue offerings,” said Presby.

Smokehouse|Brewhouse will also offer up a rustic, down-home décor as well as a variety of Fieri-designed favourites, all smoked “low and slow” using the chef’s signature rubs and spices.

Carnival devotes more resources to travel agents

Posted on 30 October, 2017 by Spacejunkie2

Carnival Paradise

Carnival Cruise Line will carve out four new sales territories in fast-growing areas of the country, each to be headed by a business development manager.

At the same time, Carnival made other changes to its sales structure, including the formation of a program to focus management attention on independent agents.

The four new territories are Boston and Rhode Island; Jacksonville, Fla.; western Texas; and the four corners region that includes parts of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado.

Carnival also highlighted the formation of a new groups desk that was inaugurated earlier in October. The desk is designed to provide additional technical support for travel agent questions related to group bookings, Carnival said. It can be reached at (800) 327-5782.

“We created these new sales regions and the independent agent program to provide added business development support for travel partners,” said Carnival vice president of sales and trade marketing Adolfo Perez. “The growth in these geographies and the independent agent channel, combined with our recent preferred supplier agreements with Travelsavers/Nest, Signature, and Ensemble, make this the right time for us to expand our field team resources.”

Cruise CEOs say ship renovations key to maximizing revenue

Posted on 21 March, 2016 by Spacejunkie2

Cruise CEOs say ship renovations key to maximizing revenue

Enchantment of the Seas

FORT LAUDERDALE — The cruise industry will increasingly emphasize growth in revenue yields rather than the number of cabins and ships it is adding, according to the CEOs of its top companies.

Four chief executives spoke together on a panel at the annual Seatrade Cruise Global convention, held for the first time this year at the Broward County Convention Center.

“You’re going to see a more balanced approach to building new ships,” said Frank Del Rio, CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings. More dollars will flow toward maintaining the existing fleet at the highest level so that higher prices can be supported fleetwide, he said.

“We have no choice,” chimed in Arnold Donald, CEO of Carnival Corp. “The fastest we can grow is at about 6% a year, even with the largest ships. And there’s only so many shipyards.”

Donald said investors in any of the companies represented on the panel would not be satisfied with a 6% return on investment. So attention is turning to investing more in existing ships to bring up yields and to introduce innovations that customers will pay extra for.

In sheer numbers, Carnival’s fleet has already plateaued. Since mid-2011, Carnival Corp. has added only one net ship to its 101-ship fleet, according to a presentation by Giora Israel, Carnival’s senior vice president of global port and destination development. But in that timeframe, it has added 32,000 berths because bigger new ships are taking the place of smaller old ones.

Arnold pointed out that new ships on order are increasingly split between China and other markets, which means growth from North America could only be 2-3% a year if it had to depend solely on new capacity.

On another topic, the CEO panel agreed that cruises to Cuba, while of high interest, await approvals from the Cuban government. And they said the infrastructure to support cruise tourism is lacking for anything larger than mid-sized ships.

MSC Cruises, which is privately owned and headquartered in Geneva, is currently the only major cruise company sailing in Cuba. Pierfrancesco Vago, executive chairman of MSC Cruises, said that when its 2,150-passenger MSC Opera ship docks in Havana, the 275-meter ship (about 902 feet) overhangs the end of the pier by about 80 meters (about 262 feet).