It has been a long time since I have written here. I have been home and landlocked since Jan 2016, and working.
But today I had the pleasure of visiting Cruise 360. Specifcally, it is a week long conference in Fort Lauderdale where thousands of travel agent meet and listen to seminars, go on ship visits, and eat lots of food and drink mediocre coffee.
I haven't been here for the most part. I came on Thursday to pick up my badge, and I attended a seminar on new developments at Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, and Azamara cruises. I didn't learn much-but I did learn that Royal Caribbean and Celebrity scrub their passenger manifests against the FBI to ward of sex offenders, which was interesting. But it's also nice seeing travel videos which never fail to satisfy wanderlust. Then I went off to work for a normal day.
Today is Saturday. and I came early to attend a breakfast in the convention hall, which features a panel of executives from the major cruise lines. Before the panal, the main speaker was Richard D Fain, who is Chairman and CEO of Royal Caribbean Cruises, which is why I attended.
I don't really care about going to sporting events, watching comedians, or seeing concerts, but seeing corporate executives, CEO's and hearing them speak has always interested me-so I was happy to see Mr. Fain talk.
I have seen Mr Fain speak before-I watched him several times on TV, and heard him speak on NPR less then a month ago-so seeing him in person was something new. I learned that (A) He is slightly overweight (B) His speech on TV/Radio was carrefully modulated-in person he has a slight New York accent, and he comes across as a slightly bored bean counter rather than a polished speaker. (C) He made some interesting points-he talked about how the President of the United States's talk can have unintended consequences for the cruise industry. Back in 2009, President Obama's talk of the excesses of the finanical crises, and how big finanical companies spent customer money on conventions in Las Vegas. This talk affected all discretionary travel in a negative way, which of course-cruises are a big part of. Of course, Trump's talk of a travel ban could and may have started to have a negative affect.
After Mr Fain, I watched the panal of executives, really talk about what makes their cruise lines special, e.g Adolfo Perez, my former bosses boss at Carnival, talked about the Imax Theatre of the Carrnival Vista. Camille Oliviere from NCL spoke about a 20,000 seet observation deck on the Norweigian Bliss-their new ship. Vicki Freed from RCL talked about the FBI screening once again, and other execs from Holland America, MSC, and Princess spoke about their developments.
It was slighlty intersting-I met travel agents who flew in from Illinois, and one from Jamaica from my table. I ate an unaturally large convention-center breakfast with pastries, eggs, and potatoes, and a fruit cup, and as I was wont to do at events-had too much coffee.
After breakfast, I walked around downstairs. I ran into my former boss at Carnival who it was great seeing, and others I knew. Not knowing what else to do, and not being ready to go home, I am sitting in a seminar for travel agents on holding a successful cruise night. I am only half listening as I am writing.
