Become a Home Based Travel Agent

An Interview with

 Joni Rein
Vice President of Worldwide Sales
Carnival Cruise Line

By Joanie Ogg CTC, MCC

Joni, there is certainly a great deal of Carnival News hitting the trades this past 30 days. There is the new online Travel Partner Toolbox, the Fun Ship 2.0 program, as well as the launch this month of the Magic. I know how busy you must be and I want to thank you for taking the time to speak to our readers here.

And I want to thank you for taking the time to chat with me so I can share all of this important news with our travel partners. It’s been busy – but most of all, it’s been fun!

The majority of travel professionals will have been following the recent articles in the various trades about Carnival’s new programs, so I was hoping you could share an update with us about how each project is doing now that agents are in the know.

We’ve been hearing really positive feedback from our partners regarding the new tools in the Travel Partner Toolbox.  I just returned from the Cruise One, Cruises Inc. conference and so many partners shared with me how excited they are about the many different toolbox features and how it really speaks to their needs. In particular, they’re most excited about our revised group deposit policy, our new collateral materials (Fun-Damentals and Fun Decks) and the customized support of our new trade engagement team. We created this to be a very user-friendly and intuitive tool that resides on GoCCL.com and our usage of the toolbox on the site is very high. For my team, this is incredibly gratifying as the entire purpose of the toolbox was to ensure it really hit home for our partners.

I love the Cruise Party in a Box idea. Is this new or an improved version of something you have done in the past?

This is something completely new for us! We gave the Cruise Party in a Box a soft launch last spring to test run it with partners and it did very well, so we decided to make it a permanent fixture in our many travel partner tools. For those who don’t about it, the Cruise Party in a Box is available to our partners for a small donation of $25 to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. We then ship it out to you and it truly is everything you need to kick-start your own at-home cruise party.  It’s filled with streamers, maracas, a Carnival DVD, tropical-style drink cups and so much more. We recently conducted a breakout session at a conference with some partners and found that nearly 78% had never hosted a cruise party.  So, this is the perfect way for them to kick-start one and generate some bookings. We find that these parties have around a 10% conversion rate, which is pretty good given the small investment.  For partners who want to learn more, they can visit us at GoCCL.com and can of course contact their BDM or our trade engagement team for tips on best practices for hosting these kinds of parties.  

How has the pick up on this been from the agency community?

Once our partners know about the Cruise Party in a Box and that it’s free, save for the donation to St. Jude, they become very jazzed about it. And with good reason – this is an awesome resource you won’t find everywhere and is something that’s so easy to do in order to drum up bookings!

Can you give us more definition as to what the purpose of the Trade Engagement Team and how it will benefit the agents more than the inside sales team of the past?

Let’s start with the past first and work our way to the present. The former Inside Sales team was dedicated towards pushing specific promotions to our partners. They would call agents and let them know about these promotions and were incentivized based on this. In that regard, they were a true sales force. The trade engagement team is drastically different. Their role is to offer up customized solutions to partners who really need our support in the field. When a travel partner calls us, that partner does not have to wait for one particular person assigned to their account. There is an entire team here waiting for their calls and emails. The trade engagement team can help agents with a number of things from just answering general questions, assisting with ordering collateral materials, guiding agents through GoCCL.com or as I mentioned, brainstorming innovative ways to create a fantastic cruise night. A big part of all of this is sales coaching. Instead of just transferring a partner to another department that handles the specific issue at hand, the Trade Engagement Associates will take the time to explain policies, suggest alternatives and even offer ideas about how to deal with the situation. They are spending time with the partners and building the relationship. We’ve had fantastic feedback from our partners about the new team. So, for anyone reading this, feel free to give them a call or send them an email! Their number is 800-327-7276 and their email is CCLSales@carnival.com.

Of all of the Toolbox offerings, what is your personal favorite and why?

That’s a tough one since I really do love them all! If you’re going to make me choose one, though, I’ll go with our brand new Travel Partner Rewards Program. This is something we don’t think we’ve seen done anywhere else. In essence, our partners will earn points for making and servicing bookings online, for attending Carnival events, taking our CCLU courses and more. We’ll also be adding more point earners to this throughout the year. With the points earned, they can choose to save them up for a big-ticket item like an Ipad or a Flat Screen TV, or redeem them for smaller items such as Carnival logo wear.  We’ve heard from many of the partners we’ve chatted with that they plan on redeeming their points for some of the smaller items and using those as giveaways at cruise parties for clients or just for as gifts for their clients in general. However, there’s no prescribed way for anyone to use the program – it’s entirely up to the partner!

Let’s move on to Fun Ship 2.0. It certainly is a catchy name. How did you come up with that name for this initiative?

Well, I can’t take credit for coming up with it – that credit goes to our product development and marketing teams who were really behind all of this!   It’s an evolution of what Carnival is all about and that’s how the name came to be.   This is a new program that will dramatically transform the guest experience to deliver even more memorable vacations. That’s our core guiding principle – to deliver fun, memorable vacations at a great value Fun Ship 2.0 is a reflection of our ongoing commitment to innovation and our desire to provide our guests with exciting on-board choices. 

George Lopez is one funny guy and certainly his role as Carnival’s creative director for comedy will be terrific for the comic talent on your ships moving forward. Was the decision to do this and the enhancement of dining experiences a result of passenger’s feedback?

It was a combination of listening to our guests, which we always do, and of our team trying to find new ways of innovating our product. Our Punchliner Comedy Clubs are consistently rated highly by our guests – as are our dining experiences. However, our team wanted to give these areas a boost with more branded experiences that would resonate with both cruise rookies and experienced cruisers. Partnering with recognizable brands and celebrities is especially important for our partners to consider when selling to cruise rookies. Perhaps that client hasn’t cruised before, but they know who George Lopez is, have perhaps watched Guy Fieri on television and have played a Hasbro game. This is a great way for our partners to create a familiarization between the client and the cruise.

It is a bold move and certainly trendsetting making Carnival stand out with a new way to bring more sizzle to the entertainment aspect of cruising. I for one am looking forward to experiencing it firsthand someday.

And we’re looking forward to showing you! The first ship to receive the updates will be the Carnival Liberty this month. The next will be the Carnival Breeze in June.

Is there anything else about Fun Ship 2.0 in the works that you can share with our readers?

Just to keep your eyes and ears open as we update our ships to include Fun Ship 2.0.  This is a wide-ranging  program that will be on 16 ships by 2015, so it’s important to keep current on which ships are undergoing these enhancements so you can use that to your advantage during the selling process.  And remember, this is just the first phase of Fun Ship 2.0 – there are more exciting developments down the road!

Galveston is going to be one lucky port of call to have the Magic calling it home.  I read that this is Carnival's 23rd ship (and the 100th vessel overall for a corporation that owns multiple lines). That fact alone is staggering. November will be a busy time for the port of Galveston.

It sure will – and we’re celebrating this milestone with an event during the Carnival Magic’s first weekend in Galveston with a travel partner overnight. This will really give our partners the opportunity to get to know the ship while chatting with our entire sales force, which will all be onboard that night as well. We’re going to throw a few fun surprises into the mix as well!

Great things are being said about the ship from those who have had the opportunity to sail on her maiden voyage. There are so many “New” things to experience on her. One in particular caught my eye and that is the Cucina del Capitano. Can you tell us more about it? I understand it offers a terrific pasta bar for lunch that is complimentary to guests and then it has a minimal fee for the evening. Have you tried this and how yummy is it?

I had the opportunity to sail on the Carnival Magic during her inaugural voyage last spring and while I was onboard, Cucina del Capitano was one of my favorite places to dine. It’s comfortable and cozy and has a real memorable charm to it. Throughout the restaurant, there are photos of Carnival captains from the past as well as other familiar faces from the Carnival family that I know many of our partners will recognize. It’s definitely worth a stroll around before or after eating! As for the food…well, where do I begin? The pasta bar at lunch is delicious – and a nice departure from traditional lunchtime lido dining.  It’s so nice to have that alternative option. I really love dinner though – the menu items are authentic Italian and served family style so you can try a bit of everything. My favorite are the meatballs. It’s kind of hard to want to share those!

If you had to pick three features of the ship that you think our travel professional reader should know about, what would they be and why?

Definitely the new features as these are going to appear on the Carnival Breeze as well. So, for dining, Cucina del Capitano as it’s Carnival's first-of-its-kind onboard Italian family-style dining experience; RedFrog Pub,  which even features our own ThirstyFrog Red brew as well as Caribbean-inspired appetizers and Cherry on Top, which is  a sweet “candy-and-more” store with some retro-inspired favorites and just all-around delicious treats!  I would also tell them not to miss SportSquare, the fitness-and-fun area on the top deck featuring the first ropes course at sea. Also, our Ocean Plaza, the indoor/outdoor space where guests can step outside for ocean breezes and wander back inside with ease. It’s a light and breezy place for fantastic views, a light snack and live music.

Joni, thank you so much for making the time during you busy fall-schedule to fill us in on all the news and FUN new features and happening at Carnival.