Margaritaville at Sea is working to construct attraction with journey advisors

As Margaritaville at Sea approaches its first anniversary, the road is prioritizing making its area of interest product — two-night Bahamas cruises — extra engaging to journey advisors, mentioned CEO Kevin Sheehan Jr.

Sheehan is the son of former Norwegian Cruise Line CEO Kevin Sheehan, who was amongst a bunch of traders who bought the Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line in 2016. The corporate rebranded to Margaritaville at Sea in late 2021 and launched its first cruises on the refurbished Margaritaville Paradise final Could.

Sheehan Jr. mentioned there are plans to supply new itineraries and sail extra ships sooner or later, however his present precedence is to develop agent consciousness of the road’s cruise-and-stay program, which permits company to spend a number of days at a land resort in the midst of their cruise.

“Getting a journey agent to pitch a two-night cruise is a problem,” he mentioned, including that the value level is just too low to get brokers excited concerning the fee. “As an alternative of a two-night product, it is a four-, six-, eight-night product. And clearly, [guests are] prepared to journey from farther away for that sort of product.”

Bookings are rising, Sheehan mentioned, with the road recording its finest This autumn and strongest January since 2016. Reserving home windows have additionally stretched to 60 days, from 45, he mentioned, with weekend cruises typically close to capability and weekdays crusing at the least 80% full.

Whereas bookings are sturdy, company are “virtually fully” reserving direct, Sheehan mentioned. He attributes that to the road’s quick sailings and a lack of knowledge amongst journey advisors that Margaritaville now has a cruise line, he mentioned. 

Cruise and keep on the Grand Lucayan

Sheehan positions the cruise and keep package deal as the important thing to attracting brokers. The package deal permits company to sail from the Port of Palm Seashore in Florida to Grand Bahama Island and disembark there to remain for 2, 4 or six nights at a associate resort or resort. On the finish of their land keep, company board the cruise ship once more, now crammed with totally different company, to return to Florida. The package deal is all-inclusive onboard and on the land resort. As much as 15% of bookings are made with the cruise and keep package deal, Sheehan mentioned. 

Cruise and keep packages are at the moment made by means of the road’s name middle, though Sheehan is working to combine that course of into the corporate’s on-line reserving platform to make issues simpler for advisors.

Margaritaville at Sea’s cruise-and-stay program at the moment connects company to Grand Lucayan Resort and Viva Wyndham Fortuna Seashore. Neither is a Margaritaville property, a missed alternative to create a complete branded expertise, a problem that is been on Sheehan’s thoughts. Margaritaville has a resort in Nassau, which he referred to as “a really logical extension for us sooner or later.”

The model additionally has a number of resort properties in Mexico that might make for good alternatives for the model, he mentioned. Different Caribbean Margaritaville resorts are in Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. 

Sheehan mentioned he is nonetheless within the “child steps” of the planning phases of making ready new itineraries that would join with a Margaritaville resort, plans for which may very well be made as quickly as this 12 months. 

For pre- or post-cruise stays, the closest location is the Margaritaville Hollywood Seashore Resort, about 60 miles from the Port of Palm Seashore. Sheehan mentioned he’s within the strategy of creating a pre-cruise package deal and that these stays are at the moment put collectively on an advert hoc foundation. 

When the road launched, some journey advisors who bought Margaritaville mentioned the 30-year-old ship product was incongruent with the higher-end resort product. They famous that whereas the ship had the 5 o’Clock Someplace Bar and different areas refashioned with the brand new branding, brokers mentioned the resorts felt newer and extra luxurious than the ship.

However Melissa Vincent, an affiliate journey advisor at Nice White Travels and Associates, a Cruise Planners franchise in Louisiana, mentioned the company’s purchasers have come again joyful from their Margaritaville cruises. The product has been a straightforward promote for people who find themselves skittish about being on the water, she mentioned. 

She has a bunch of 18 company booked with the cruise and keep program and mentioned the choice provides landlubbers the possibility to discover one vacation spot for a number of days. 

“It provides my purchasers an opportunity to see one thing totally different with out having to fly right down to the Bahamas,” she mentioned.