Cruise360 Day 6 Recap

The weekend may be here, but that doesn’t mean we’re slowing down any at Cruise360. In fact, today was one of the days we’ve been looking forward to for months. Here’s a recap.

This morning, we enjoyed breakfast and the final General Session. For General Session III, the keynote was delivered by Richard D. Fain, Chairman and CEO of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. Following his insightful address, it was time for another great leaders panel. “Sales and Marketing Leaders Take the ‘Hot Seat'” was the title of the presentation. This informative and lively session featured cruise line sales and marketing leaders on the “hot seat,” taking questions from the moderators in an engaging and fun format.

Featured executives were Adolfo Perez, Vice President, Sales and Trade Marketing, Carnival Cruise Line; Ron Gulaskey, Associate Vice President, National & Strategic Accounts, Celebrity Cruises; Eva Jenner, Vice President, North America Sales; Holland America Line and Seabourn; Wayne Peyreau, Regional Vice President, Sales (USA), MSC Cruises; Camille Olivere, Senior Vice President, Sales, Norwegian Cruise Line; John Chernesky, Vice President, North America Sales, Princess Cruises & Cunard Line; Randall Soy, Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Regent Seven Seas Cruises; and Vicki Freed, Senior Vice President, Sales, Trade Support and Service, Royal Caribbean International.

Following the third General Session, we boarded a luxury motorcoach for a trip to the Port of Miami for the first of our three ship inspections. Carnival Vista will call Galveston home next year, so this was a key visit for us. We’re also hosting a Thanksgiving Cruise next year on this ship, so we were keen to see her in person. You can find our photos from the tour here.

We returned to Fort Lauderdale in the late afternoon and had just enough time to change into our formal wear for the annual CLIA Hall of Fame Award Dinner & Entertainment.

Between awards and the induction of our latest Hall of Fame member, we enjoyed some amazing entertainment.

Up first from Royal Caribbean International’s Allure of the Seas was the entire cast of “Mamma Mia!” performing about 20 minutes of the show, including “I Have a Dream,” “Money! Money! Money!,” “Voulez-Vous,” “Does Your Mother Know,” “The Winner Takes It All,” “Mamma Mia!,” “Dancing Queen” and “Waterloo.”

Next it was the cast of Norwegian Cruise Line’s “Jersey Boys” – coming soon to Norwegian Bliss. They performed selections from the show, including “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Walk Like a Man,” “Beggin’,” “My Boyfriend’s Back,” “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,” “Who Loves You” and “Oh, What a Night.”

The evening entertainment concluded with an original show from Celebrity Cruises called “Topper.” This visual treat included lavish costumes, great singing and dancing, incredible acrobatics and modern songs like Pink’s “Raise a Glass.”

It’s been a great day and we’ve still got two more ship tours to enjoy. This will be our last daily blog as the final two days are ship tours only. We’ll post photo galleries from both ships on our Facebook page. Here’s the schedule:

Tomorrow (Sunday, April 23rd) – Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas
Monday, April 24th – Oceania Cruises’ Regatta

Good night from Fort Lauderdale and thanks for reading!