On Friday, May 4, employees at Celebrity
Cruises' call center in Wichita, Kan., began calling the 700 or so
guests booked the next day on what was to have been the first
Celebrity Expeditions cruise leaving Bayonne, N.J.
When they arrived
at the dock, the guests were told, they would instead board an
Azamara Cruises vessel, a ship formerly called the Celebrity
Journey that was now to be known as the Azamara Journey. It would
sail to Bermuda as the first cruise on Royal Caribbean Cruises' new
deluxe, Celebrity-operated cruise line.
Richard Fain,
RCCL's chairman and CEO, had just revealed the news to a small
group of travel agents and press onboard the Journey in Bayonne,
while workers scrambled to unload furniture and lay carpet, the
culmination of a $19 million refurbishment the ship had undergone
after moving to Celebrity from its Spanish sister brand, Pullmantur
Cruises.
Fain and
Celebrity President Dan Hanrahan, now also Azamara Cruises'
president, told the group that they originally intended to add the
Journey and the Celebrity Quest, which will be transferred to
Azamara from Pullmantur in October, to the recently formed
Celebrity Expeditions brand as an
upscale Celebrity product.
"But as we
developed and redesigned the onboard experience, we realized we had
the opportunity to do something special and satisfy a void we see
in the market in a new and different way," Fain said.
That void is the
space between premium and luxury, which Fain said Azamara would
help fill with a "deluxe" cruise brand. That space is currently
occupied by only one major cruise line, Oceania Cruises, which
bills itself as "upper premium," resisting the luxury
label.
Oceania, which
placed an order for two 1,000-passenger ships with Fincantieri in
March, has long said it was capacity constrained. RCCL is not
hiding the fact that it has now positioned itself to take on that
capacity.
"We are competing
with Oceania," said Hanrahan. "They have a great
product."
Hanrahan said
that Azamara cruises would be priced similarly to Oceania, at about
40% more than the cost of a Celebrity cruise. Oceania and Azamara
also position themselves similarly in terms of their product, with
a focus on exotic destinations, fine dining and high-end
service.
The two Azamara
vessels are former Renaissance R-class ships, sister vessels to the
three Oceania ships. Celebrity even hired David Kelly, Oceania's
former director of brand quality, to be associate vice president of
Azamara Cruises. Kelly, who Hanrahan said was hired to help
position the brand, is currently sailing on the Journey, where he
will spend several months as the ship's hotel director.
Celebrity coined
the name Azamara on its own. Rooted in the Romance languages, "Aza"
refers to blue and "mar" to the sea. Fain said that it was almost
impossible to find a name, as most have been taken by some company,
somewhere. He also said that the made-up name gives the line more
proprietary right to use it.
"We also wanted a
multinational name," he said.
The upscale and
luxury market has showed increased strength over the last year,
with the upmarket lines ordering new ships and reporting their
highest occupancies and yields in years.
RCCL has been
left out of this boom, and industry insiders have speculated that
it was looking to acquire an upscale product. Such speculation was
buoyed by rumors last year that it was courting Oceania, which was
recently acquired by a private investment firm for $850
million.
When RCCL bought
Pullmantur Cruises last November, it was further rumored that
Pullmantur's two R-ships would be sent to the Oceania fleet in the
event of a sale.
"They didn't get
Oceania, but they went ahead and created their own version of
Oceania," said one cruise seller. "It's good because there is no
one else in that category, and competition makes companies perform
better."
Oceania declined
to comment on the emergence of Azamara Cruises, but travel agents
who lamented Oceania's lack of capacity were pleased to see
additional product in that category.
"It's a brilliant
move," said Jerry Davis, president of Alice Travel in Fairfield,
N.J, who was onboard the Journey. "Oceania is completely sold out,
and clients love that cruise experience."
Davis said that
Celebrity was smart to put the brand in its own category and that
he hoped RCCL would give the brand the resources it needed to
deliver the higher-end product they were promising.
"The key is how
they perform and to get the service to the standards they will be
expected to be," he said. "They have to have the support from Miami
to spend the money and train the staff."
"I have faith in
Celebrity," said Susan Reder, president of Altour/Classic Cruise
and Travel in Woodland Hills, Calif. "They're smart enough to pull
this off. This is a really good move as long as they can keep their
itineraries unique.
"The high end is
the wave of the future," she added. "This is not the Silversea
level or the Regent level but the level that is a perfect match for
the generation that's cruising now."
To contact reporter Johanna Jainchill, send e-mail to [email protected].
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For more details on this article, see "Wave First Call: Azamara Cruises positions itself to
compete with luxury lines."