Focusing on the highly successful travel advisor channel, Celebrity Cruises in February will launch a new—and gamified—version of its training program and add a position dedicated to serving the trade.

In an exclusive interview onboard Celebrity Ascent, Katina Athanasiou, Celebrity’s senior vice president of sales & services for The Americas, told TRO that the Celebrity Learning program is currently in drydock—but when it emerges in 2025 it “will offer amazing opportunities to learn much more about our ships and brand.” The site’s “facelift” will add content and functionality, gamification elements, and elevated awards when travel advisors finish the courses.

“We’re going to leverage it more to be a site for resources and webinars, where you can see all the previous trainings we’ve done, as well as learn about our systems and our new initiatives,” Athanasiou said. “I’m very excited – it’s a huge investment, but it will ultimately deliver better content and ability for our agents to engage more often with the brand.”

Over the past months, she noted, Celebrity has been “watching the growth in the home-based and IC communities, and we’re working to be very intentional in building a strategy and then a structure” to work with them. “Nearly two-thirds of advisors are either home-based or ICs, and many are new to the industry. How we partner with those advisors, how we engage, and how we train is a little different from pre-pandemic.”

Also on the agenda is more collaboration among the three Royal Caribbean sister brands—Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and Silversea—and “a big media push on national TV,” including new markets like professional and college sports.

Would your customers consider swapping their vacation in Europe for a ride on Celebrity Beyond, with a stop in the new luxury section of CocoCay, in 2024?

Royal Caribbean is betting they will—and announced it is repositioning its sparkling new Edge-class ship to the Caribbean for five months, covering the spring, summer and fall of next year. And the new itineraries will feature Royal’s number-one destination, CocoCay, which is adding a new upscale area and amenities to welcome both Royal Caribbean and Celebrity guests.

All Beyond‘s summer European sailings out of Rome and its transatlantic voyages, scheduled for April 22-May 6 and November 1-15, have been canceled. Instead, the ship remains in Fort Lauderdale and offers Caribbean itineraries year-round.

Passengers who are booked on the trips can rebook on a different Celebrity sailing and receive a $100 onboard credit per stateroom ($200 for Retreat rooms), or take a 100% refund. Those booked on the transatlantic cruises can rebook on Celebrity Apex, Celebrity Constellation, Celebrity Equinox, or Ascent, which will debut in November. All rebookings must be completed by July 11.

All the new 2024 itineraries will include visits to CocoCay, where construction on the new adults-only Hideaway Beach promises an exclusive added-fee, half-day, all-inclusive experience.

On a recent call with investors, Royal Caribbean Group president Michael Bayley said Hideaway Beach will accommodate approximately 2,500 guests, and noted “the pricing premiums [on CocoCay] continue to be really robust, and the spend on the island continues to be really robust as well.”

Also on tap is an expansion of the Royal Beach Club, on Nassau’s Paradise Island, aimed specifically at the short-cruise market. “We continue to increase our short product and put really great ships into that market,” Bayley said. “So, the combination of Perfect Day on one day and the Beach Club on the second day really is a winning combination.”

“I am truly excited for our sister brand, Celebrity Cruises, to visit Perfect Day at Coco Cay,” Royal Caribbean International SVP of Sales and Trade Support Vicki Freed told TRO. “Many of their guests will experience this special island as a couple and want to return with their children (and perhaps grandchildren) for the ultimate family vacation. Some of the guests will return to Celebrity and many will want to take the family on Royal Caribbean. A ‘win-win’ all the way around—especially for our valued travel partners who will get repeat business.”

And indeed, Christy Scannell of Dream Vacations San Diego said she is “thrilled to see celebrity will have one of their stellar edge class ships in the Caribbean for clients looking to enjoy an upscale summer vacation period; that it will visit CocoCay with dedicated celebrity style beach space is a cherry on top.”

But the travel advisors who had clients booked for Europe are disappointed. Said Michelle Douglas of Douglas World Travel, “I’m very disappointed in this change. They will open the adult-only area and it will end up being packed with guests from both ships. I am disappointed they pulled this ship from Europe—as are the clients who had booked European sailings next year.”

The information is not easy to find. But it’s worth the effort if you’re a travel advisor with a lot of customers over the age of 30.

That’s the demographic most likely to be interested in traveling solo—and so, interested in a new deal quietly rolled out at the end of June by Celebrity Cruises. The line is offering cruise fares with no single supplement on more than 275 sailings in the Caribbean, Alaska, Mexican Riviera, and Europe between now and the end of March 2023. Read the rest of this entry »

Seven-time Olympic medalist and 19-time World Champion gymnast Simone Biles has just landed another very special title to her decorated career – godmother for Celebrity BeyondSM, Celebrity Cruises announced yesterday. Read the rest of this entry »

Celebrity Cruises and goop have planned a “goop at Sea” event,  departing from Barcelona on September 24, 2022 and cruising the Italian Riviera and France on a nine-night journey on the Celebrity Beyond.

Goop is a “modern lifestyle brand” founded by actress Gweneth Paltrow. Originally established as a newsletter and growing into a significant e-commerce retailer of home and beauty products from clothing to cosmetics and household items. JetBlue’s Mint service includes Goop products in its amenity kit.

The Celebrity Cruise event will focus on Goop’s themes of wellness featuring wellness classes, veranda suites, and specialty nutrition. Plans include Paltrow hosting an interview with a top wellness expert and others conducting sessions centered on mental and physical wellness. Passengers will experience numerous “mind and body” sessions as well as goop gifts.

Tickets to the event are available for passengers booking suite accommodations in Celebrity’s The Retreat. Travel professionals can learn more about the cruise on Celebrity’s website.

In a statement sent to travel agents on Monday,  Celebrity Cruises canceled the 2022-2023 Asia season of the Celebrity Solstice with a total of 19 cruises affected.

“We have made the difficult decision to cancel our Asia season due to the ongoing uncertainty around when international operations might fully restart in this region,” the cruise line said in the statement. “We thank our guests for their patience and understanding as the world continues to reopen and we continue to work through unique circumstances.”

Celebrity is offering passengers booked on the cruises the option of applying their current booking to select Asia sailings in the 2023-2024 season or a full refund.

Celebrity is redeploying the Solstice to the Mexican Riviera,  replacing the seven-night sailings of the Celebrity Millennium. The Celebrity Millennium will be redeployed to the Caribbean.

“We are a little broken. Life is scary. The waters aren’t always calm and you may not know what to do,” says Drew Daly. “But just keep swimming.”

It’s all about having a plan, the World Travel Holdings (WTH) senior vice president told attendees at the Dream Vacations/Cruise One annual conference onboard Celebrity Apex in November. And clearly, the WTH team that manages the franchising brands has been working on theirs.

In their first live conference in two years, they gathered 800 franchisees and travel advisors aboard one of the first US sailings of the beautiful Celebrity Apex for a week of ship inspections, education and Read the rest of this entry »