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Worldwide in
conjunction with our partners Host Global Alliance and Royal Caribbean recently
invite a group of industry meeting and incentive buyers on the Royal Caribbean
Liberty of the Seas. Most of the attendees had not cruised before or had
cruised a very long time ago.
It’s on a
cruise like this that I found out how much we at Worldwide as well as our cruise
line partners take for granite when discussing cruising in general. In this
brief article I would like to remind all of us what a great value cruising is
and why it can be a great solution for any incentive and most meetings.
No doubt
everyone thinks of a cruise going to exotic destinations and having to only pack
and unpack once during the course of the cruise. Today cruise lines can be
found all over the global offering a variety of 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and even longer
day cruises. As only a recent example of the changes happening in the industry
is the introduction of 3, 4, 5 and 7 night cruises in Asia which use to host
only longer cruises. New York City once again offers year round cruises to a
variety of destinations. Tahiti will once again offer two high end cruises to
those beautiful islands. Do you have to draw a picture when you are offered a
chance to earn a cruise to Bora Bora and Mooreau, I don’t think so.
Let me
remind you of a couple things that you DON’T HAVE TO DO when purchasing a
cruise:
Design a
host of menus for lunches, dinner and special events. It’s all done for you
with more than choice of chicken or pasta. Food on cruise ships is legendary
and today most ships offer great specialty restaurants that can be taken over
for a private event.
Designing
daily events to keep your guests entertained while on the ship. Today you can
find a whole host of daily events offered on most cruise ship appealing to all
age groups. Whether it is silly pool games to cooking classes there is
something for most everyone that has already been designed and proven for your
guests.
How do I get
my people to the ship? It couldn’t be easier the cruise industry is use to
moving people to and from their ships to airports and hotels on a continual
basis. They have the ground operators to offer meet and greet services from
motor coaches to limos for the VIPs.
So my group
is in Bora Bora, Venice or Juneau now what do I do. This is easy as well, as
the cruise lines offers a whole host of ground tours that have been proven,
tested and voted on by past passengers. They also can offer totally custom
tours for your group. You have the option of paying for group events for
everyone in your group, giving a cabin credit for them to select the specific
tours they want or just let them pick and choose on their own at their own
expense. When you use the cruise line tours you guests will never miss the
ship. If a port of call has to be missed due to weather or other issues you
never have to pay for a tour not used. All of the work is done for you with
only one vendor to deal with.
Trying to
find entertainment for groups can always be challenging. You have a mixed age
group, you’ll need transportation to and from the venue in many cases and then
there’s always the nervous feeling of last minute technical problems. On cruise
ships today you find a whole range of entertainment that can fit most any
group. Have you seen an ice show with former Olympic Stars entertaining you at
sea, how about real Broadway Shows, the Blue Man group, great jazz and R&B acts,
a nice piano bar, late night comedy clubs and of course the late night disco.
It’s all available to you and it’s included in the price of the cruise.
Many people
get confused what is included in the price of a cruise. This is easy to do as
the cruise industry has basically 3 levels of inclusions. The 5 star luxury
ships generally are all inclusive meaning all taxes, port charges, crew
gratuities, wines with meals, open bar and many other features are included. At
the premium level of cruising you might find wines with meals include and crew
gratuities and specialty restaurant charges all included in the rate. On the
mass market brands such as Royal Caribbean that offers over 20 different dining
options on some ship you’ll find many of these restaurants have up charges
(don’t be put off by this as these really are great dining experiences that
would cost a heck of a lot more ashore), most beverages are at additional charge
and some activities carry up charges. Of course you don’t have to do any of
these optional items if so desire but most people do want to take advantage of
some of these experiences.
While the 5
star ships generally offer open bar and wines with meals you can purchase
beverage packages of various levels for the entire group on the other ships that
don’t normally include them. A new option is that you can actually purchase a
similar package onboard the ship. You can elect to use this option for your
group on an individual basis as a cabin credit and let those who don’t drink or
feel they get the value from the package to enjoy the spa or spend the money as
they wish.
Many ships
today have dedicated meeting space just like a hotel. For those don’t or if you
need more space you can use the public lounges on an exclusive basis for
meetings and presentations. The space, set-up, use of the A/V equipment is all
at no charge to you. Even breakout refreshments are provided a very nominal
charge to you.
These are
but a few of the factors why cruises make your life easy as a planner. You find
additional cost savings when you factor in that generally you need only half of
the travel staff compared to a land program.
For those of
you who have never done a cruise before and are nervous about how all of this
works we at Worldwide are here to help you every step of the way. It starts
with the ship selection, contract details, and a dedicated staff member to help
you plan every aspect of the event down to the transfers from the ship to the
airport for their return flights. We are with you from start to finish offering
over 20 years of experience in designing and delivering some of the best
incentive and meeting programs on the planet.
Call me for
more details and ideas.
Steve Bloss
954 452 8800 or email sbloss@cruiseco.com |
