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Carnival enhances design for Carnival Passport learning management system based on agent feedback

Details: Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä; Category: More News More News; Published: 22 January 2015 22 January 2015

Carnival today unveiled several design enhancements to its popular Carnival Passport travel agent learning management system. Based on extensive travel agent feedback through quarterly online surveys and Carnival Conversations events, the new design now showcases the most-often used features on the site’s home page, requiring less navigation for agents and decreasing time spent searching for items within the site.

Key features now presented on the home page include:

– Total Credits Earned: Allows agents to quickly verify that they have received credit for completed activities and event attendance.

– Current Passport Level: The site now displays a “passport stamp” in the upper left-hand corner of the home page, along with the number of credits remaining in order for travel agents to proceed to the next level.

– Activities To Complete: Only activities that need be completed are now displayed under Carnival Passport Categories. Previously, agents had to “view” an activity to determine whether it was completed or not.

“We told travel agents at our Carnival Conversations events that we were committed to continually investing in the resources that were most important to them, and Carnival Passport routinely came up as one of the most popular,” said Carnival’s Joni Rein, vice president of worldwide sales. “This new design greatly improves the user functionality of Carnival Passport and, most importantly, gives the tens of thousands of travel agents who use the program on a regular basis more time to do what they do best – to market vacations to their clients.”

In addition, all design features now consolidated on the home page of Carnival Passport include “click and expand” navigation options that increase ease of functionality. A full tutorial of the new features is available to travel agents within Carnival Passport.

Carnival Passport is the line’s comprehensive learning management system that houses all of Carnival’s training and education activities in one easy-to-access area within GoCCL.com, the line’s travel agent Internet portal. With Carnival Passport, agents may select learning activities that best suit their particular educational needs while earning credits along the way. Travel professionals can earn credits within Carnival Passport by participating in tutorials, webinars, trade shows, seminars at sea and more.

In addition, Carnival Passport also features its award-winning Carnival Adventures, the line’s social learning games for travel agents. These games are unique in the cruise industry and designed to provide a fun and engaging platform for learning more about the company and all of its helpful tools. After completing various levels within Carnival Passport, agents will be issued credits, which they can convert into points applicable to the line’s Travel Agent Rewards Program. Additional features and benefits of Carnival Passport include a convenient layout, allowing agents to easily view a menu highlighting live events, a calendar of upcoming events, a video library and an educational catalog that references all of the offerings within the site.

Fincantieri and RSSC celebrates keel laying for Seven Seas Explorer

Details: Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä; Category: More News More News; Published: 21 January 2015 21 January 2015

The first building block for Seven Seas Explorer was placed this morning during a special keel laying ceremony at the Fincantieri shipyard in Genoa, Italy. The keel laying signals a significant milestone in the construction for what will be the most luxurious ship ever built, and brings the vessel one step closer to its July 20, 2016 maiden voyage.

In a ceremony befitting of the world’s most luxurious ship, a sleek black Rolls Royce Phantom transported the three symbolic coins to the keel laying event. Upon arrival, a dapper butler emerged with a red velvet pillow carrying the coins to be welded into the keel, including a rare 1921 U.S. silver coin known as the Peace Dollar symbolizing the safe passage of Seven Seas Explorer; a 1959 silver Italian Lire representing the year the Fincantieri shipyard was established; and a commemorative coin specially minted for this occasion.

Jason Montague, president and chief operating officer for Regent Seven Seas Cruise, Robin Lindsay, executive vice president of vessel operations and Franco Semeraro, senior vice president of hotel operations welded the coins into the ship’s keel before the building block was lowered into place in the dry dock.

“With construction beginning in earnest today, we took a major step closer to realizing our vision, to provide our guests with a vessel that will be hailed as the most luxurious ship ever built,” said Montague. “Every inch of the Seven Seas Explorer will exude elegance and grandeur, and that extends to all aspects of the ship from the lavish suites to the gourmet restaurants and stylish public spaces. We even ensured that the keel coins convey a sense of luxury.”

At 56,000 gross-registered tons and carrying only 750 guests, Seven Seas Explorer will boast one of the highest space ratios in the cruise industry and among the highest staff-to-guest ratio, further strengthening Regent Seven Seas Cruises' widely recognized position as the leader in the luxury cruise segment. World-renowned architectural interior design firms Tillberg Design AB, RTKL Associates and ICRAVE are designing the vessel. Seven Seas Explorer will join the award-winning Regent Seven Seas Cruises fleet in the summer of 2016.

Celebrity Cruises introduces Luminae restaurant for Suite Class passengers

Details: Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä; Category: More News More News; Published: 20 January 2015 20 January 2015

Inspired by the essence of light, exceptional food, wine and luxury – Celebrity Cruises has revealed the first look into newly named Suite Class restaurant, Luminae. Vacationers who indulge in the premium brand’s Suite Class now can discover more details about the exclusive dining experience. Luminae will be introduced onboard Celebrity’s ships beginning in April.

Guests dining at the brand's first suite restaurant will enjoy warm hospitality, impeccable Celebrity service, and eclectic, one-of-a-kind menus that are only available in Luminae.

Celebrity's dedicated team of chefs has created the new elegant menus for the venue’s complimentary breakfast, lunch and dinner - each menu item will only be featured once during a two-week cruise vacation. With handcrafted dishes that are made from scratch, the unique menus will also feature locally sourced regional and seasonal ingredients inspired by the destinations Celebrity sails to among the world’s seven continents.

"Everything about Luminae embodies an inspirational culinary journey for our guests. We want them to savor soulful, technique-driven cuisine, while enjoying warm and personalized service in a relaxed, stylish setting," said John Suley, James Beard-featured Executive Chef, Celebrity Cruises. "The menus will be exquisite and guests can choose from dishes such as caviar and crème fraîche, a creamy black truffle risotto with fricassee of wild mushrooms and Parmigiano-Reggiano and a côte de bœuf with roasted root vegetables and béarnaise sauce. The handcrafted desserts will provide the sweetest ending, and a favorite of mine is the mascarpone cheesecake and pistachio nougatine with yuzu brown butter and apricot sorbet. Every menu has been precisely designed with our guests’ varied palates in mind, and we hope they will love our informal, luxury dining experience."

With special touches like tableside preparation of signature dishes and the daily presentation of a new delectable gourmet chocolates and desserts cart, the menus are complete with pairings made by the restaurant’s dedicated head sommelier. The wine list, specially designed for Luminae guests, will feature more than 400 selections, each from the most notable wine-producing countries in the world.

Realizing Celebrity's Suite Class experience – the culmination of warm intuitive service, award-winning dining and upscale benefits – Luminae is a culinary experience of modern, diverse cuisine that will scintillate the tastebuds.

For full details about new Suite Class restaurant Luminae, visit celebritycruises.com/luminae.

Norwegian team cruising into cities across North America

Details: Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä; Category: More News More News; Published: 17 January 2015 17 January 2015

Norwegian Cruise Line continues its commitment to its Partners First initiative with a series of events that will bring the Norwegian Cruise Line leadership team face-to-face with travel partners and individual agents in 21 cities across the US and Canada, including Atlanta, Boston, New York, Montreal, Dallas, Los Angeles and more, in January, February and March 2015.

“With the upcoming launch of Norwegian Escape and our attractive promotional offers like Norwegian’s Freestyle Choice, there’s never been a more exciting time for our travel partners to join the community of Norwegians,” said Andy Stuart, Executive Vice President of Sales for Norwegian Cruise Line. “We want every travel partner to leave one of these events with a clear view of today’s Norwegian Cruise Line, excited about Norwegian Escape and ready to take their partnership with us to the next level. They are a critical part of our business and we look forward to making a personal connection with them at these events to ensure mutually beneficial success.”

Each of the exclusive Norwegian hosted events will provide travel partners with a detailed insider look at Norwegian Escape, the line’s largest and most innovative ship to-date, over dinner and cocktails, naturally in a casual intimate setting typical of Norwegian’s Freestyle cruising. As an added incentive for attendees, Norwegian will give away a complimentary seven-day sailing in a balcony stateroom at every event.

Events will be hosted in 21 key market cities across the US and Canada, with cocktail receptions followed by dinner and a presentation featuring Norwegian’s next new ship, Norwegian Escape. Travel partners who cannot attend one of Norwegian’s exclusive partner events, many of which are already sold out, can stay up-to-date on the latest happenings and travel partner incentives and tools by tuning into one of the line’s monthly Partners First webinars. The next webinar is scheduled for Monday, January 19 at 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time and partners can register at NCL U on Norwegian Central at www.norwegiancentral.com.

Celebrity Cruises launches Celebrity City Stay vacation packages

Details: Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä; Category: More News More News; Published: 16 January 2015 16 January 2015

Guests can now begin their modern luxury vacation earlier with Celebrity Cruises’ new Celebrity City Stay vacation packages. Combining destination expertise with unbeatable value, the newly curated pre-cruise experiences will be available in 16 of the most intriguing and dynamic cities.

Celebrity City Stay packages bring vacationers even closer to the world’s must-see cities, including Athens, Abu Dhabi, Barcelona, Hong Kong, London, Singapore and Sydney. The one-of-a-kind packages are available in nearly every port city the cruise vacation company sails from.

Enhancing guests’ Celebrity vacations, City Stay vacation packages include:

– Three nights in four-star, luxury hotel accommodations, with complimentary breakfast
– Transfers to and from the airport, hotel and the booked Celebrity cruise
– Full day of an in-depth fully guided City Highlights Tour and lunch
– Half day with an in-depth fully guided tour and a farewell dinner
– Dedicated Celebrity Cruises Hospitality Desk at the luxury hotel, to provide personalized, premium service
– Classic Beverage Package for two, including wine and spirits, while sailing with Celebrity
– Families and friends in a stateroom as additional guests can receive a Classic non-alcoholic beverage package and a 40-minute internet package

“Our destination experts have specially curated each Celebrity City Stay so that vacationers can get even more up close and personal with the destination before departing on their cruise. Our guests can enjoy upscale and immersive three-night experiences in some of the world’s most beautiful and captivating cities,” said Bernardo Carrillo, Managing Director, Celebrity Vacations, Celebrity Cruises. “From authentic dining, in-depth tours hosted by local experts, free time to go off the beaten path, and four-star accommodations to come back to, there’s no better start to a modern luxury vacation than an early one.”