cruise3sixty Wrap-up: Day Two

Today was the first official day of the 2015 cruise3sixty conference — and it kicked off with a full day of seminars. Here’s a recap.

Most of today was devoted to CLIA training — classes and seminars aimed at helping travel agents better serve their clients. There were also some “specialty showcases” where the cruise lines get a few minutes each to talk about their products, new ships, new itineraries, etc. Some of the lines who spoke today included AmaWaterways, CroisiEurope, Crystal Cruises, Windstar, American Cruise Line, Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection, Azamara Club Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, Royal Caribbean International, Avalon Waterways, Paul Gauguin Cruises, SeaDream Yacht Club, Silversea, Tauck River Cruising and Ponant.

We also took part in a fascinating discussion regarding safety and health concerns aboard cruise ships. There have been quite a few stories in the media recently about the cruise industry — but are you getting the full story? We filmed two videos that are available on our PCT-TV page talking about this subject in more depth, but in summary let’s just say that things aren’t nearly as grim as the media would have you believe and you are much more likely to get sick on land than at sea. The numbers themselves are staggering and we’ll break them down in a future blog post.

The big event of the day was General Session #1, the first of three lunchtime sessions featuring all attendees (over 2000). General Session #1 began with a welcome to the conference by CLIA executives and the Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitor’s Bureau.

Then, CLIA Chairman and Royal Caribbean President & COO Adam Goldstein addressed the “State of the Cruise Industry.” The cruise industry continues to see growth, specifically in the Caribbean and also in the booming Asian markets.

The first panel discussion was entitled “A View from the Bridge — A Presidential Viewpoint” and featured four cruise line heads:

Christine Duffy – President of Carnival Cruise Line
Lisa Lutoff-Perlo – President & CEO of Celebrity Cruises
Andy Stewart – President & COO of Norwegian Cruise Line
Jan Swartz – President of Princess Cruises

This panel discussed cruising in 2015, when 23 million guests will sail on over 400 ships worldwide, including 22 new ocean vessels and river cruise ships joining the CLIA fleet. These executives provided their insights on cruise vacation opportunities now and in the future. One theme that kept coming up during their discussions was the likely opening of Cuba in the future to cruise vessels. All the executives were very excited about the potential to sail to this once-banned island nation in the near future.

After the panel, we traveled virtually to Denmark with a presentation from Cruise Copenhagen.

Next, it was “The Geek Squad Story.” What do you get when you combine $200, a crazy idea and a love for all things technical? You get Robert Stephens, who took the boring world of computer support and made it famous. Starring 25,000 double agents, 10,000 Geekmobiles, The Rolling Stones, The CIA, The Oscar Meyer Weinermobile and over 50 million messed up computers, this was a not-to-be-missed feature. Robert told us how he turned $200 into a major brand – Best Buy’s Geek Squad.

The first of three general sessions concluded with a cruise3sixty favorite – Kathleen Passanisi. This Hall-of-Fame speaker has been a regular at the conference and known for her eye-opening programs and life-enriching motivational speeches. Today she focused on rules. “Face reality.” “Be yourself.” “Stick to your guns.” “You have to learn the hard way.” Oh yeah? Says who? We were taught to live by the rules – but whose rules and where did they come from? Her message was simple: we need to break free from the false assumptions, stupid expressions and robotic behaviors that limit our happiness and keep us from realizing success on our own terms. Here’s the best quote from her speech (and there were many):

After lunch, we spent the remainder of the day focusing on one topic: Meetings & Events at Sea. It’s becoming more and more popular for companies to host seminars and meetings at sea, not to mention the private event market with weddings, vow renewals and more. Today’s afternoon session was full of ideas for these types of meetings and events.

That does it for the first full day of cruise3sixty 2015. Tomorrow, the schedule is just as busy. The learning continues with more seminars and classrooms. We will focus on Alaska, two new cruise lines joining the CLIA fleet, General Session #2 and the first day of the trade show. Tomorrow evening, it’s one of our favorite events at the conference – the Hall of Fame Dinner. This festive black-tie event features the induction of the new class of Hall of Famers, plus cruise-style entertainment from several lines. In past years, we’ve seen Blue Man Group, Broadway’s Megan Hilty, American Idol finalist Kimberly Caldwell and many, many more great entertainers. Who will be there this year? We’ll let you know tomorrow!

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