In a snappy presentation at one of the historic rooms of the Explorer’s Club on New York City’s Upper East Side, Holland America President Orlando Ashford gathered many of the people who sell and write about cruising to hear about the future of the 142-year-old cruise ship company.
Holland America Line acronym (HAL) offered a trio of new strategic partnerships and will also spend $40 million on re-doing suites on most ships. Suites obviously are the new money pot for cruise lines as many are renovating or expanding the suite component on ships. The re-do will be spread over a couple of years.
Right now, Holland America’s focus has to be on the arrival of the first new ship in six years, the Koningsdam.
The new partnership trio starts with BBC Earth and will solidify HAL’s “edutainment” offerings, such as a
concert based on the Frozen Planet program with footage from the BBC shows paired with the live music.
The other partnerships are designed to help passengers plan their cruise and excursions. Afar Media will supply write-ups of about 400 ports visited by Holland America ships — you’ll find them on the cruise line’s website. Seattle-based Utrip will provide a personalized, interactive itinerary planning tool which will be integrated into HAL’s website. More and more cruisers want to do their own planning and Utrip is designed to serve that need.
Ashford expects the partnership with Afar will deliver shore excursion information in a way never before tried. UTrip adds to that in “a fun and engaging way” for guests to personalize their voyage plans before leaving.
The BBC Earth partnership, in addition to the Frozen Planet show, will supply enrichment activities, including a game show based on “the weird, wonderful and obscure in our natural world” plus BBC Earth theatre screenings with special introductions by the film crew behind the programs.
Kids’ programming will include an on-board explorer trail, BBC Earth animal and dinosaur fact shows and “fun workshops.”
The BBC partnership doesn’t stop with the shows. Theme cruises will feature creators of these wildly popular shows and kids will be able to attend workshops put on by the production team.
HAL said the Afar partnership will yield exclusive Destination Guides that include an overview of up to 20 top picks of things to see and do in all of the ports including restaurant, shopping and market suggestions. The planning tool Utrip is designed to work hand in hand with the Destination Guides. Guests can create profiles with interactive slides covering history, art/culture, food/drink, nature, outdoors and contemporary life. They can use the profiles to narrow their searches for the Holland America cruise best suited to their interests.
Work on suite renovations will start in December for the Eurodam and in April for the Oosterdam, and continue over the next few years for all the line’s Signature, Vista and R-class ships.
Since Ashford became president, this venerable line has moved swiftly to make changes.
The new Blending Room where you select and blend your own wines with professional help was the first and, with this announcement, Ashford has improved the customer experience with creative ways and the tools that help passengers make their itineraries and port visits more enjoyable.
It is a welcome step forward.
All for now.
For a weekly newsletter from Ports and Bows with lots of cruise information and the best deals that we can find, click here to sign up: www.canada.com/newsletter.
