CARNIVAL Cruise Line is this
year celebrating five years of
sailing out of Australia, with
the line’s vp and gm Australia
Jennifer Vandekreeke promising
“all sorts of little things over
the course of the year”.
“We’re kind of having a
birthday year,” the executive
told Cruise Weekly.
“I’m just so overwhelmed and
grateful for the support that
we’ve seen from our guests
and our travel agent partners,”
she said.
Vandekreeke was the first
person Carnival sent down
under to look at the market
and she said her initial feeling
was “CCL and Australia are the
perfect fit, I can’t believe we
weren’t here before”.
Before Spirit first arrived
in 2012, the line made a
number of changes to the ship,
including adding the Green
Thunder waterslide and the
Serenity Adults Only Retreat.
It then took around six
months to bring its pax
satisfaction scores up to the
same level as the US.
One of the key challenges
the line encountered was that
“Australians won’t whine” and
would only later reveal if they
weren’t completely satisfied
with something if they were
asked, she said.
CCL also soon discovered
“Australians won’t lay out in
the sun” and responded by
removing a number of lounge
chairs off the top deck.
“The flip side to that is you
need twice as many activities
because if they’re not laying
out in the sun then the Aussies
will participate,” she said.
Trade partners are pictured
celebrating Carnival’s milestone
on Spirit earlier this month.
