Cruise Saudi welcomed its first guests to Saba Beach on Jabal AlSabaya, the destination’s newly developed private island, on December 21, according to a company statement.
Located approximately 220 nautical miles from Jeddah, Jabal AlSabaya will be exclusively accessible to cruise passengers, offering a Red Sea experience that highlights local culture and the natural beauty of the coastline.
Lars Clasen, CEO of Cruise Saudi, said: “Since the inception of Cruise Saudi, our vision has been to create unique and exceptional cruise experiences for passengers from around the world. The launch of Saba Beach represents not only a world-class destination but also our commitment to enhancing Saudi’s tourism industry. We are opening up a truly unique area of the region and look forward to welcoming cruise passengers from around the world.”
The destination will include a floating park, a full-service restaurant, retail shops, a VIP beach and VVIP beachfront villas. Guests can also enjoy a spa experience and a shisha lounge, as well as a variety of land and water activities.
Barbara Buczek, chief destination experiences officer of Cruise Saudi, said: “The soft launch of Saba Beach on Jabal AlSabaya is another pioneering and innovative development in the creation of Saudi Arabia’s cruise sector. At the heart of what we offer is the guest experience, showcasing Saudi’s incredible and diverse natural assets, culture and history to our passengers and the launch of Saba Beach represents a milestone in bringing a previously unseen Saudi to the local, regional and international markets.”
What sets Disney Cruise Line apart is the fact that it is an entertainment company first and then an experienced business that is also in the cruise business, according to Sharon Siskie, senior vice president and general manager.
“Entertainment is a big component,” she told CruiseIndustry News aboard the Disney Treasure. “We have a big commitment to bringing stories to life.
“When it relates to the individual ships, we have a little bit of a different story to tell aboard all of them,” she added.
The bottom line, according to Siskie, is that guests will have a Disney-quality cruise experience.
“While we focus on some level of differentiation between each ship with new shows and new spaces, we also focus on the elements that are consistent and constant across the fleet.”
With Marvel, Star Wars and Pixar stories and characters onboard, thinking about Disney over time, people still love the traditional classics, Siskie added, referring to the “Fab Five” that includes Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.
“For the younger audiences, the new characters may be more relevant and we have diversity within the ranks of the characters. All of our characters have a special place and role to play in the mosaic of the character interactions and experiences that we have.”
The ships are designed with families in mind with staterooms that have split bathrooms and plenty of storage space. But everyone in a family should feel it is designed just for them, Siskie said.
“When you think about it, we are designed with kids in mind, but if I am a mom, I should feel it is designed for me too.”
She explained how the family market can be geographically dispersed, it can be within the U.S. and out of Florida ports, or on a global scale, and the very definition of families can be different. There can be multigenerational families, with grandparents bringing kids and grandkids. Or there can be couples without kids who are also families just defined a little bit differently.
“It goes back to the point of spaces that they feel are designed just for them,” she added.
“It is more a mindset than a demographic. If you have a passion for creativity and fun and enjoy fantasies getting away from the real world, you may just want a touch of that. It is like when you step into the Grand Hall (atrium aboard the Disney Treasure), you feel like you have stepped into a very unique kind of immersive space and experience.
“When you overlay the service and the details with the design and the approach to how we deliver it with our crew, it is a combination of all these factors that sets us apart.
“And how we can contribute to the greater Disney company in terms of the experiences we deliver and really be what we call a brand deposit, that’s what we try to do,” she said.
“We know how to run this business and we know how to run it very well, and the economics are very strong.”
Growing the cruise line makes a lot of sense for Disney, Siskie said.
“First of all, we have more demand than we have supply today, and by a pretty wide margin. We know there is a lot of interest in Disney’s cruises. So that allows us to think about expanding the footprint for Disney experiences globally.”
With seven more ships coming, she admitted there are many decisions to be made about future deployment.
MSC’s fleet godmother, Italian actress Sophia Loren, named the vessel during the event, which took place on Nov. 10, 2019.
After offering a repositioning cruise to Southern Europe, the MSC Grandiosa kicked off its maiden season in the Western Mediterranean in late November 2019.
The deployment included a series of seven-night winter cruises to Italy, Malta, Spain and France that featured visits to Genoa, Civitavecchia, Palermo, Valletta, Barcelona and Marseille.
During its five-year sailing career, the vessel has also cruised in Northern Europe, the Atlantic and South America.
Debuting in the U.S., the vessel will offer a series of seven- to 14-night cruises to the Caribbean departing from the Central Florida homeport.
The year-round deployment also features short cruises to the Bahamas that sail to Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve, the company’s private island destination near Bimini.
Following the MSC Meraviglia and the MSC Bellissima, the MSC Grandiosa entered service as the third ship in MSC’s Meraviglia series.
Slightly larger than its predecessors, the 4,888-guest vessel is considered part of a sub-class known as Meraviglia Plus.
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