By Michael Milligan
GLASGOW, Scotland -- Amtrak teamed with Carnival Cruise Lines to
create a series of rail-cruise vacation packages designed for
independent travelers. Announcing the product at ASTA's annual
congress here, Susan Gawriluk, director of leisure marketing and
sales development for Amtrak Intercity, said the packages expand on
Amtrak's air/rail programs, which allow clients to travel one way
by rail and other by air on United Airlines. "We decided that
because Amtrak air-rail has been so successful in combining modes
of transportation, the next logical way of expanding would be
Amtrak cruise-rail," Gawriluk said.
Clients will have a choice of 13 different three-, four- or
seven-day cruises to Baja, Mexico; Alaska's Inside Passage and the
Glacier Bay Route; the Bahamas, Eastern or Western Caribbean
islands and the Mexican Riviera of Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and
Cabo San Lucas. Cruises will embark from ports in Los Angeles, New
Orleans, Miami, Tampa, Port Canaveral (Orlando) or Vancouver. "Our
demographics are very similar to Carnival's," she said. "They have
three-, four- and seven-day cruises which appealed to us because
with either roundtrip rail or air/rail you can have short- or
long-term vacations."
For example, an Amtrak rail and three-day Ecstasy cruise package
includes roundtrip travel aboard Amtrak's Silver Star between New
York City and Miami, one night's accommodations in an economy-class
hotel and a three-day cruise with a stop at Nassau in the Bahamas.
Clients may substitute the roundtrip rail portion with an air-rail
combination. Based on inside cabin cruise accommodations, the
package price, including roundtrip rail, is $705 per person. The
rail and coach air combination is $869 per person.
"They can mix and match anyway they want to," Gawriluk said.
"They can do post-night stays. They can do sightseeing. They can
rent a car and do four-day destination hopping. Or they can make
stops along the train depending on what train route they are doing.
This is totally intermodal."
MTI Vacations operates Amtrak Vacations, which integrates the
"inventory of Carnival with the United inventory and ours,"
Gawriluk said, "as well as all of the sightseeing, hotels. An agent
can get a package quote in five minutes or less," depending on what
the client is looking for.
All packages are commissionable at 10%. Amtrak Vacations offers
volume overrides of up to 12% commission. Additionally, Carnival
will pass through volume overrides at the end of the calendar year
to eligible agencies. Clients with United Mileage Plus membership
who opt for an air-rail package earn 1,000 bonus miles for the rail
portion.
"What is really terrific about our product is there are no
commission caps," Gawriluk said. "This can be extremely lucrative
for travel agents."