What's new at Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL)

NCL announced today its Freestyle 2.0 fleet wide initiative featuring significant enhancements in its onboard product that will further improve the guest experience. The enhancements include a major investment in the total dining experience; upgrading the stateroom experience across the ship; new wide ranging onboard activities for guests all of ages; additional recognition, service and amenities for balcony, suite and villa guests; and a re-launch of a tiered Latitudes past guest recognition program.

"Our innovative Freestyle Cruising and exciting, dynamic fleet of new ships have combined to make NCL a truly unique and exciting cruise vacation," said Colin Veitch, NCL's president and CEO. "We have achieved the milestone of offering the youngest fleet in the cruise industry, and will now focus our attention on delivering the next generation of freestyle cruising - Freestyle 2.0 - a significant enhancement to the guest experience fleet wide."

NCL will immediately begin to roll out Freestyle 2.0 fleet wide. Highlights of the different onboard initiatives include:

Freestyle Dining:

An increased investment in food of $50 million before we deliver our first F3, equating to a 20 percent increased investment in food per passenger per day plus major fleet-wide capital investments;

• Lobster Galore - Lobster in the main restaurant on multiple days and in one restaurant every night of the cruise;
• A signature specialty dish in every restaurant (i.e. 48oz Porterhouse in the steak house, chocolate fondue tower in the action station restaurant);
• An enhanced nighttime dining/ambience in the action station restaurant with table cloths, muted lighting and enhanced service;
• One or two alternative restaurants open for lunch on sea days;
• A new and expanded room service menu;
• A "bubbly welcome" - a welcome aboard glass of bubbly for everyone;
• A Taste of Freestyle on embarkation day - samplings from all of the specialty restaurants;
• A major hardware investment to bring all buffets to Norwegian Gem/Norwegian Pearl "action station restaurant";
• An investment in back of house to refine the reservations process and system.

Stateroom Experience:

• An upgrade in bedding and sheets, pillows, duvets;
• An upgrade in towels and bathrobes;
• An upgrade in in-room amenities including coffee maker and expanded TV offerings;
• Addition of sofa beds to suite categories.
  Balcony and mini suites:
• A distinctive colored key card for ship wide recognition;
• An "at your service" hotline;
• A separate check-in for balcony and mini suite guests;
• A personal escort to stateroom;
• Priority disembarkation.
  Suites and Villas:
• All suites and villas to have concierge and butler service;
• Welcome champagne in suite/villa;
• Upgraded canapés every day;
• Private breakfast/lunch in Cagney's Restaurant;
• An exclusive concierge lounge;
• Priority disembarkation;
• Priority restaurant reservations;
• Dedicated Butler presence in the Courtyard*;
• Private breakfast/lunch in the Courtyard*.

Onboard activities:

• An enhanced educational, entertainment and lifestyle program - NCL "U":
• A range of new classes such as Improv, organic cooking, bartending, sommelier, etc.;
• An enhanced Health and Wellness program;
• An enhanced Pool Deck experience;
• Entertainment taken upscale;
• Drink flags on all deck chairs;
• Pool of indulgence - Evian spritz, cold towels, etc.;
• Quiet zones and times.

Past Guest Latitudes program:

• A new program with various tiers rewarding both spend and frequency;
• A new range of tangible, meaningful and deliverable benefits;
• A staffed concierge lounge for Latitudes members.

Freestyle 2.0 enhancements will begin rolling out immediately and will be largely implemented by summer of 2008.

*Available to Villa and Owner's Suite guests.

Happy Holidays!!

I just wanted to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy Holiday!

See you after Christmas!

Mike

Snow Flurries Delight Passengers on Princess Ships

Princess passengers find themselves in a winter wonderland as snow magically falls in the ship's atrium. A new holiday feature on Princess ships, the daily snow flurries are adding to the holiday atmosphere on December sailings. The innovative snow-making process creates falling flakes that vanish on contact, letting passengers enjoy the romance of a winter snowfall without the need to bundle up. Princess' daily snowfall is delighting passengers on all ships with multi-story atriums, adding to the merry atmosphere across the Princess fleet. Trimmed from stem to stern in holiday décor - even including a Christmas tree on the vessels' masts - the ships reflect the season with a variety of festive onboard activities.

What's New at Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines

New Smoking Policy

In January 2008, Royal Caribbean will implement a new smoking policy that will include the following key changes:

• No smoking within the staterooms, not including the balconies.
• No smoking in any dining area of any ship, both indoors and outdoors.
• Champagne Bar will be added as a nonsmoking bar on every Freedom, Voyager and Vision-class ship.
• Viking Crown will be added as a nonsmoking bar on every Sovereign-class ship.

This policy will go into effect for the entire fleet with the exception of Legend, Rhapsody and Splendour on the first full sailing of January 2008. The policy will go into effect for the remaining ships on the transition sailing to their Summer 2008 itinerary.


Project Genesis Keel Laying

Royal Caribbean International's Project Genesis had its first block laid in dry dock at Aker Yards in Turku, Finland on Tuesday, December 11, 2007. The ship, due to be completed in late 2009, will be the world's largest cruise ship carrying 5,400 guests double occupancy and measuring 220,000 gross registered tons.
We look forward to sharing exciting news with you about this AMAZING ship in 2008!


New Diamond Club Amenities

On all Freedom class vessels there is a beautiful Diamond club located adjacent to the Viking Crown. It has concierge type services and complimentary afternoon cocktails. In addition, there is an outside Diamond Club deck with tables and chairs overlooking the sports deck. This is EXCLUSIVELY for the use of Diamond members.
This is another great perk for our most loyal guests in the Crown and Anchor Society.


Kid's Program Update - Fisher Price Photography 101

A new program titled, “Photography 101” has been developed for our youngest cruisers. This program gives 3-5 year olds their own Kid-Tough™ Digital Camera to get creative by taking, viewing and even printing their own digital pictures. During their time in Adventure Ocean, kids can take photos of all their favorite activities, youth staff and new friends. This great new activity can be found in Aquanaut facilities across the fleet.


70s & 80s Theme Nights

Now our guests can enjoy 70s and 80s theme nights, available on both the Freedom and Voyager class ships. Everyone is invited to join in the fun with costumes and dance moves from the era. Dance lessons will be offered as well.


New Itineraries

The Rhapsody of the Seas is headed to Australia and New Zealand in 2008-2009. Book your clients today on one of these AMAZING cruises. Add a Cruisetour to make it extra special!

5-Night Sydney, Ayers Rock & Port Douglas (Numerous sail dates available)
10-Night New Caledonia & South Pacific Cruise (November 1, 22 & December 13, 2008)
11-Night New Caledonia & South Pacific Cruise (April 2, 2009)
18-Night Circumnavigation of Australia Cruise (March 13, 2009)
6-Night Highlights of New Zealand (Numerous sail dates available)
11-Night Australia & Great Barrier Reef Cruise (November 11 & December 2, 2008)
17-Night Circumnavigation of Australia (February 24, 2009)

Royal Caribbean 2007 President's Award Presented

Jasper, GA – 12/17/07 – Mike Ziegenbalg of CruiseOne, is proud to announce that his parent company World Travel Holdings (WTH) has recently been recognized by Royal Caribbean International with their prestigious 2007 President’s Award. WTH is a global leader in the travel industry and the top seller of cruises in North America.

Royal Caribbean singled out the company as exemplifying the term “go-to account,” for their ability to quickly market “need” products at a moment’s notice, their hybrid business model, vast array of effective marketing vehicles to reach consumers, and undisputed presence in the travel community.

With more than 500 locations coast to coast, CruiseOne prides itself on providing attention to detail and expert advice to every customer. Each independently owned and operated business ensures that its customers receive the best deals and superior service by combining the tremendous industry buying strength of WTH with the ability to plan and purchase their cruise vacations online via dynamic packaging technologies or offline utilizing the personalized touch of highly experienced local cruise consultants.

NCL Dawn Review Coming Soon...

Just to let everyone know....I will be on the NCL Dawn next week for some R&R. I hope to have some terrific reviews, photo's and video's when I return.

Stay tuned...

Update: Will be working on this review over the holidays.

Disney Cruise Line Adds Two Eastern Caribbean Itineraries

Disney Cruise Line (DCL) announced two new Eastern Caribbean itineraries for 2009 and special offerings for 2008. Beginning in 2009, St. Croix will be the port of call on one new seven-night itinerary, and Tortola will be featured on another seven-night itinerary. Both islands are new to DCL, increasing the seven-night Caribbean choices on the Disney Magic to four itineraries. Disney's traditional Eastern and Western Caribbean itineraries will continue. The Disney Magic will remain in the Caribbean during summer 2009 because of pent-up summer demand after it spent this past summer in Europe and will operate Mexican Riviera cruises from the Port of Los Angeles in summer 2008.

The new Eastern Caribbean itineraries will stop at St. Croix or Tortola, St. Thomas and Disney's private island, Castaway Cay. Also, for summer 2008, the four-night itinerary was changed to offer two stops at Castaway Cay, Disney's private island in the Bahamas, between May 11 and Aug. 24, 2008. These 16 sailings will also visit Nassau. In another announcement, beginning in 2008, Disney passengers can choose to add a meal plan to a seven-night land-sea vacation. The new vacation package, the "Land and Sea Package Plus Dining," includes a dining plan that provides guests one sit-down meal, one counter-service meal and one snack per person for each night of their Walt Disney World stay.

It's Good to Be Young

On November 3, NCL reached an exciting, industry-changing milestone — on that date, our fleet officially became the youngest and most modern on the planet (based on major North American cruise lines). The news took effect with the departure of Norwegian Crown and the addition of NCL's brand new Freestyle Cruising ship, Norwegian Gem.

We're very proud of this achievement, which is a key component of the master plan we developed in 2000 to reenergize our fleet. Over the past eight years, we've reached many other goals, like adding ten new ships to our fleet, including nine purpose-built Freestyle Cruising ships. We've also been transitioning our mid-size ships and adding modern new ships, like our state-of-the-art Jewel-class ships — including the "It" girl herself, Norwegian Gem. If you haven't been on NCL lately, you really need to. (More to come on that in the next few months as we announce new programs to get you onboard NCL!)

The youngest fleet...who would have thought it? As a travel agent, I've seen NCL grow and change so much over the years, creating a tremendous impact in the cruise industry over the past four decades.

Even from our beginnings with the MS Starward, we revolutionized cruising by offering regular sailings to the Caribbean — now the number one cruise destination. But that achievement was far from our only "first"— there have been so many other innovations during our now 41-year history.

For example, NCL was the first cruise line to offer year-round service out of New York and to deploy ships in Houston and Seattle. We were also the first cruise line to offer a private island, children's programs, alternative dining restaurants, cell phone service and Internet cafés. And in 2000, NCL turned the cruising industry on its ear with Freestyle Cruising, which did away with fixed dining times, table assignments and formal dress codes — all standard practices at the time.

But while it's always fun to take a nostalgic look back at where NCL has been, it's important to think about the future, to assure NCL is YOUR cruise line of choice. We've built the best "hardware" (our ships), and now we're going to build the best "software" (programs and procedures). This is the part I love ... developing easy programs and simplified procedures for you, our # 1 partner, so that you can be even more confident selling NCL.

You saw an example of this innovative approach with the recently announced fuel supplement. Although we considered making the supplement effective for both existing and new bookings, we decided not to follow that course specifically because of feedback and input from our travel partners. This is just an example of our commitment to you. But, we need your new bookings to financially support decisions like this!

As we close out 2007, it's never been a better time to be an NCL travel partner, cruise guest or team member — and it's only going to get better. As one of our President Club travel partners recently told me, "NCL is on the verge of greatness." Watch out — you ain't seen nothing yet.

Sincerely,

Terri Burke - NCL
Vice President, Business Development, MCC, CTC