Tag Archives: Thomson Cruises

Norwegian Cruise Line and Avis Budget sign marketing deal

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Norwegian Cruise Line and Avis Budget sign marketing deal

By Tom Stieghorst
Avis Budget Group and Norwegian Cruise Line said they’ve signed a multiyear marketing agreement that will make Avis Budget part of pre-cruise tour packages for Norwegian Getaway, the line’s newest ship.

The packages will be available to guests and travel agents through Norwegian’s call center.

Information about the Avis and Budget car rental brands will be featured in Norwegian’s electronic marketing channels, while Norwegian Cruise Line will be featured in communications to Avis and Budget customers.

Norwegian Getaway is scheduled to begin cruises from Miami in February.

Technology and the shipboard library

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Technology and the shipboard library

By Tom Stieghorst

 

The ship’s library has always been a small but special part of the cruise experience. But for how much longer?

The library at sea, like libraries everywhere, is under siege by changing technology. And whether ships need to set aside space for libraries in the future is very much being debated as new ships are designed.

Carnival cruise director and blogger extraordinaire John Heald said in a recent posting that the library on the recent transatlantic crossing of the Carnival Legend was full of books.  *TomStieghorst

“One thing all those transatlantic crossings had in common was that the library, by the end of the first sea day, sat entirely empty,” Heald wrote. “Here on the Carnival Legend, the bookcases are full.

“Yep, the book is dead, long live the Kindle. Every deck I walk on, I see young and old reading their Kindles.”

Even on an ocean crossing with presumably few younger, tech-savvy passengers on the manifest, the library remains fully stocked, Heald said: “Wherever I am, I see older people and their parents absorbed in their Kindles.”

Perhaps that’s just Carnival. Maybe the magnificent libraries on the Cunard Line fleet have emptier shelves on their Atlantic trips. But on most ships where space is at a premium, the library is an endangered species.

At the next major drydock nothing prevents a ship’s library from being converted to some other use. Heald suggested perhaps a cigar bar (a suggestion likely made for for comic effect, but maybe not.)

The trend is on display on Carnival Sunshine, the ship Carnival renovated from stem to stern earlier this year. While the library wasn’t eliminated or converted to another use, it now shares space with a bar.
Carnival is in the process of designing the next ship to set sail under its red and blue banner, the Carnival Vista. With Kindles in the hands of passengers young and old, it may well be the first Carnival ship without a library.

In his post Heald referred to a bookstore in Miami that he said was possibly a Borders, which he liked to visit when he comes to Miami. “It would not surprise me that, when I return there in November, it’s become a Walgreens or worse, a gym,” he wrote.

If in fact it was a Borders, it closed two years ago, along with the rest of the chain’s stores.  The Borders on South Dixie Highway in Miami reopened last week as a Trader Joe’s specialty market.

At least it’s not a gym.

Carnival Corp.’s Arison praises agents in new ‘open letter’ ad

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Carnival Corp.’s Arison praises agents in new ‘open letter’ ad

By Tom Stieghorst
Carnival Corp. is making it personal.

In a new advertisement scheduled to appear this week in several publications, including Travel Weekly, Carnival Corp. Chairman Micky Arison spells out his appreciation for travel agents, citing their crucial role in making Carnival’s brands successful over the years.

The ad takes the form of an open letter and bears a photo of Arison and his signature at the bottom.

Micky Arison, CEOIt is an unusually direct communication from Arison, who recently stepped down as CEO of Carnival Corp. while retaining the title of chairman. In the letter, Arison also introduces his chosen successor as CEO, Arnold Donald, as someone travel agents can trust.

“Together, we will continue to work hard to exceed guests’ expectations and to position Carnival brands as your customers’ cruise lines of choice,” Arison writes.

Roger Frizell, vice president for corporate communications at Carnival Corp., said of Arison, “This is something he wanted to do as a way to reach out to the travel agent community to personally thank them for their support over the years, while also using the opportunity to introduce Arnold as our new CEO.”

The letter carries the logos of all 10 Carnival Corp. brands, clearly differentiating it from initiatives announced recently by Carnival Cruise Lines under the Carnival Conversations banner.

“The fact that it comes from the chairman says a great deal,” said Stewart Chiron, a Miami-based travel agent and a regular commentator on broadcast and cable networks.

Chiron said the letter sends a message of stability, direction and continuity at the top during a period of corporate transition.

It also reflects Arison’s genuine sympathy for agents, he said, adding, “I know his support for travel agents has been unwavering over the years.”

Meanwhile, the Carnival Cruise Lines brand continues to roll out changes built on the feedback it received in Carnival Conversations.

The latest volley is the reinstatement of a printed brochure, which was announced by Mike Julius, Carnival Cruise Lines’ senior managing director of U.S. trade sales, at the end of September.

“Travel agents have told us loud and clear that they want a printed brochure,” Julius said when making the announcement. “We’re thrilled to introduce one that is customized with the information that matters most to them.”

Although the number of pages is still being decided, the brochure will be printed in an 8½-by-11-inch format and will contain enough content to be more like a catalog than a brochure.

It will include deck plans, which agents complain are hard to share with clients in an online format, and detailed itineraries by destination as well as cabin photos, a Frequently Asked Questions page and an At-a-Glance ship-deployment grid.

Travel agents can pre-order the free brochures beginning Nov. 15 through GoCCL.com. Carnival Cruise Lines said it expects to begin shipping them late in the year, in time for the start of Wave season on Jan. 1.