Cruise360: A Preview of the Coming Week

Greetings from the Pinnacle Marriott Hotel in gorgeous downtown Vancouver, British Columbia. For the next week, this will be our home as we attend the annual Cruise360 conference.

This convention is the world’s largest gathering devoted strictly to cruise and we look forward to attending every year. The rotation works like this: For two years in a row, the event is held at the Broward County Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and every third year we head west to Canada and this beautiful city. Just like in southern Florida, the convention center and port are next door to each other, giving us easy access to the ships that will be in port over the next seven days.

Here’s a look ahead at our busy schedule.

We arrived late last night and checked into the hotel. Today, we enjoyed some down time in Vancouver and spent some time catching up with some of our friends from the dozens of cruise lines that will be in attendance. Tomorrow morning, the conference officially kicks off.

WEDNESDAY

We will spend a good part of the first day onboard Seven Seas Mariner, one of the ships in the Regent Seven Seas Cruises family.
We’ll enjoy lunch onboard and get to tour the entire ship. We’ll have a special album posted on our Facebook page with photos from that tour. After the tour, we will attend a class focusing on Social Media for Travel Agents.

THURSDAY

After a morning seminar on business writing for travel agents, we’ll spend the bulk of the day with various cruise lines. We’ll focus specifically on Carnival Cruise Line, Seabourn, Holland America Line and Crystal Cruises. Each will update us on their ships, itineraries and what’s on the horizon. We’ll also attend a “virtual” ship inspection, which is the only way the agents at the convention can tour a river cruise ship. That ought to be very interesting.

Thursday will also feature the first of three General Sessions. This one will include lunch and feature several panels and speakers. The keynote will be delivered by Adam Goldstein, President & COO of Royal Caribbean and the panel discussion will focus on the evolution of the cruise industry. We also hear rumors of a special guest speaker – we’ll post more about this person in our daily update on Thursday evening.

Thursday night is one of our favorite events – the Hall of Fame Awards Dinner & Gala. Each year, we honor the new inductees into the CLIA Cruise Hall of Fame and we also celebrate with some great entertainment directly from the cruise lines. In the past, we’ve seen Blue Man Group, MO5AIC, Megan Hilty, Nestor Torres, Kimberly Caldwell and Tenors of Rock to name a few. Who will perform for us this year? We cannot wait to find out.

FRIDAY

On Friday we’ll spend the first half of the day catching up with several cruise lines. On our agenda before lunch are meetings with Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, MSC Cruises, Carnival Cruise Line, Costa Cruises, Cunard, Holland American Line, Princess Cruises and Seabourn. Each will give us updates on all the happenings at their various cruise lines and what we can expect in the coming years. A couple of years ago we were able to break exclusive news about a third Carnival ship coming to Texas (that ship, the Breeze, arrived two weeks ago for the first time in Galveston). What exciting news will be announced this year? Stay tuned…
Lunch on Friday is courtesy of Norwegian Cruise Line, to be followed by General Session 2. That session will feature a keynote address from Edie Rodriguez, President & CEO of Crystal Cruises and a panel discussion entitled, “Inspiring the Next Generation of Cruisers.”

After the General Session, the Cruise360 Marketplace will open for the first of two days. That’s the new name for the trade show – a great place for us to interact with all the various suppliers we work with to bring you the very best in vacation options. The marketplace will be followed by a welcome reception hosted by Tourism Vancouver. Since many of the cruises to Alaska depart from this port, it is invaluable for us to know this area and to be able to visit at least every few years. We also try to stay at different hotels each time so we can compare and contrast the available options for our cruise customers.

SATURDAY

The morning begins with General Session 3, at which Carnival Corporation Plc President & CEO Arnold Donald will be the keynote speaker.
His speech will be followed by a panel focused on river cruising, one of the hottest trends right now in travel. After breakfast and the session, we’ll spend the bulk of the day visiting with the remaining cruise lines with which we have not yet met this year. Those lines will include Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises, Azamara Club Cruises, Avalon Waterways, Paul Gauguin Cruises, SeaDream Yacht Club, Silversea Cruises, Tauck River Cruises, AmaWaterways, Croisi Europe, Crystal Cruises, Windstar Cruises, American Cruise Lines, Ponant, and last but certainly not least, Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection.

Saturday will also bring us a luncheon hosted by the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau and day two of the Cruise360 Marketplace.

SUNDAY

First thing Sunday morning, we will attend our final classroom training with a session focusing on power selling techniques.
Then, it’s off to tour another ship as we board the beautiful Holland America ship ms Zaandam. We’ll tour the ship and enjoy lunch in the main dining room.

MONDAY

Sadly, the fun has to end…and it will end with a 6:30am flight back to Houston. Think of us when you’re going to bed on Sunday night because that will be the approximate time we’re leaving for the airport.

Be sure to follow all our updates in one place: www.premiercustomtravel.com/cruise360. This link will have all our blog posts, plus photos, Twitter updates, Instagram and more.