Dan Hanrahan, president and CEO of Celebrity and Azamara Cruises, will launch the first of Celebrity's five Solstice-class ships in November and just wished Azamara a happy first birthday. Cruise editor Johanna Jainchill sat down with Hanrahan in Papenburg, Germany, to talk about the new ship, the new line and recent itinerary changes.
Q: Why did you pull out of Australia?
A: It was partly the price of fuel. And the airfare to get there is very expensive. But the third piece is that we had great success the first year, and success the second year. We thought three years wasn't the way to go. We'll create more demand by going back in a few years.
Q: Did the economy have anything to do with it, expecting more demand for closer ports?
A: We think that could happen. We made the decision when fuel was $140. If fuel continued to go up and air gets more expensive, it will be nice to have the ships closer to give out guests the ability to drive to a ship.
Q: Has there been much Mid-Atlantic demand since your exit from Bermuda?
A: We were getting a lot of requests from the trade. ... There are two ways we'd go back to Bermuda. We could go to Dockyards [the West End pier], but we believe it would be better if they'd agree to dredge [for our ship to be able to go to] Hamilton.
Q: How does the much-larger Solstice retain its premium-ship feeling?
A: It's what we offer in terms of public space, guest services and choice. This ship is as interesting as any ship out there. But you don't feel overwhelmed by it.
Q: How are Solstice bookings so far?
A: Bookings are very, very good, into the third quarter of 2009. We are excited ... that we have this demand without any guests having ever been onboard.
Q: Do you have concerns about bringing so much tonnage into the market?
A: We built Solstice and the rest of [the Solstice fleet] to ensure that Celebrity's place as the leader in the premium cruising category is solidified for years to come. And while the economy may be going through a rough period right now, we know it won't last forever. Because we are so well positioned in the vacation market, we believe our [ships] ... will help us perform better, in all market conditions.
Q: What led to the new features on the Solstice, like a real grass lawn?
A: When we were thinking about what our guests wanted, we thought about who they are: baby boomers with high income who enjoy the finer things in life. We thought, wouldn't it be great to have a putting green? Then Richard [Fain, CEO of Celebrity's parent company, RCCL] said, "Can we do it with real grass?" We will have concerts on the park, picnics; it will be a featured part of the ship.
Q: Azamara is more than a year old. How has the line improved since its start?
A: The guest satisfaction rate is absolutely terrific. The product experience is highly rated: nines and 10s, the highest satisfaction of any of our products. So the product is where we need it to be, but we need to do a better job of making it more well known.
Q: Why is it not more well known?
A: We relied heavily on travel agents to get the word out. We are still going to rely on travel agents, but the product needs to be talked about more. We are going to start consumer advertising more than we had. ... We have a trade and consumer print ad campaign in development, which will begin entering the marketplace in just over a month.