The 2016 World Leading Cruise Lines Annual Summit sailed out of Sydney Harbour on Thursday afternoon with a clear intent to ‘Seas the opportunity’ for the groups Cruise brands and the agents and partners who sell them.
This years three-day Partnership Summit held onboard the Carnival Spirit brought together 300 Australian and New Zealand delegates with most agent groups represented and leaders and staff from the company’s extensive portfolio of cruise brands.
Did someone say “Sail away?”
The Summit was like no conference I’ve ever been to and it certainly didn’t take people long to start living the Carnival values of ‘Free spirited fun’ onboard as the big red horn tooted our imminent departure from Circular Quay and the sail away party began.
For some, that free spirited fun meant a late first night discovering the ships numerous entertainment charms whilst for others it was more of a restful sleep and then an endorphin fuelled start on Friday morning at a bootcamp on deck hosted by Carnival VP Jennifer Vandekreeke who put everyone through their paces (Me included).
The Alchemy Bar where you can create your own cocktail
Once the Summit officially began with (Mr I get everywhere in travel) Larry Emdur as the master of ceremonies, delegates got to hear updates from Carnival, Princess Cruises, P&O Australia & World Cruising, Cunard, Seabourn and Holland America Line as well as panel discussions on key trends.
Jennifer Vandekreeke (VP Carnival Australia) and her uber fit sidekick got us all in a sweat
Ann Sherry, Executive Chairman, Carnival Australia appeared in a video alongside President and CEO Carnival Corporation, Arnold Donald as neither of them could be there with Ms. Sherry saying;
“This years theme of ‘Seas the opportunity’ is all about how we can build our businesses together to grow the market. We want to ensure we make our partnership tangible in every way so we can match the right customer for the right ship and itinerary. Because I can see 2m passengers just over the horizon”.
Ann Sherry, Executive Chairman, Carnival Australia
One of Carnival’s new interactive entertainment products is the ‘Lip Sync Battle’, an on stage game features a series of competitions for passengers to battle to a final where Carnival then provide the props, music, lighting, choreographers and even backup dancers to make their performance epic.
So what better way to showcase it at the Summit than with the brand teams battling against each other onstage? But of course!
First up was Holland America who energetically performed ‘Shake a tailfeather’ by the Blues Brothers in a battle against P&O Australia, who absolutely nailed Back Street Boys with their hilarious lip sync rendition of ‘I want it that way’.
THE BACKSTREET BOYS WERE BACK
The Summit fun continued with a dress up Halloween ‘Spooktacular’ dinner and another full day of speakers, sessions and ‘lip syncing’ with an Elegant dinner on Saturday night before the Carnival Spirit returned back to Sydney early on Sunday morning.
What happened? Read on for the complete wrap here
