Cruising has evolved from the days of shuffleboard and midnight buffets. Today's vessels are built business friendly. Cruises are used for meetings, incentive or recognition programs—even docked to serve as "floating hotels" when cities require more room space! Want to put your people into an entirely new environment, where even the most "predictable" business portion of the trip will be absorbed from a fresh new perspective? Then put your attendees at sea, aboard a floating resort where there are a number of opportunities for creativity and customization. This is especially true when you choose to charter a ship of your own. In much the same way a resort venue is used for meetings and incentives, a cruise generally includes all that a resort does—and then some! Overall, a cruise program is almost always more cost effective than a land program. All-inclusive pricing provides better budget control Today's cruise prices are lower than we've seen in years. And, now more than ever, planners are watching their bottom line and looking to get the best return on their corporate investment. Because the price of a cruise includes accommodations, virtually all food/beverage, nightly entertainment, meeting facilities, audio-visual equipment, plus activities, planners have the ability to forecast all their expenses up front—no last-minute surprises! Cruising combines the pleasures of a resort hotel with the adventure of foreign travel. A cruise program allows attendees to experience multiple destinations, cultures and climates with minimal travel hassle (unpack just once). In fact, West Coast ports are becoming increasingly popular for cruise departures. Ships leave from cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Seattle, to reach ports in Mexico, Alaska and British Columbia. Some longer voyages even sail to Hawaii. In addition to the ports-of-call, the ship is a destination in itself. Outfitted with discos, Internet cafes, full-service spas, basketball courts, golf simulators, movie theatres, and even rock-climbing walls, today's vessels offer something for everyone. Also, most ships provide multiple dining venues and some restaurants can accommodate up to 1,700 people at once. There are ample menu choices and unlimited servings (no limitations as with banquet meals in a hotel). Because there already is a built-in program of daily activities and entertainment onboard, a cruise program offers a wide variety of options for companions (at no additional cost or planning) while employees are in business sessions. A new, exciting travel experience Corporate executives often spend much of their time in hotels for meetings and business events, but only 11 percent of the population has ever cruised. Cruising is a great motivator because it offers a new and exciting travel experience and venue. Doesn't a hotel ballroom look the same whether you are in New Jersey or Hawaii? For this reason, attendance for business events at sea is almost always higher than on land. Participants perceive cruises as having a high value and the opportunity for a cruise gives people the feeling of importance. Their organization is doing something nice for them. Enhanced camaraderie from sharing a new experience Cruising creates a bond with your organization. By holding your event on a ship, you are sending the message that your organization is unique and thinks "out of the box." Planning a new product launch? Nothing stimulates creativity like a cruise ship atmosphere. Let the ideas flow! Also, highly personalized service is traditional aboard ship. Such attention nourishes the egos of participants more than other types of travel. Networking among the ranks often occurs on a cruise. Nothing is more relaxing than feeling the fresh, ocean breeze as you chitchat by the rail sailing to your next exotic destination. Self-contained environment A cruise provides organizations with a "captive audience," convenient for meetings, award presentations and maximum interaction. Unlike a land-based hotel or resort, while at sea attendees cannot break off on their own and miss the business session altogether. Conference and meeting facilities Today's ships can easily accommodate meetings and breakout sessions. While it's true that the ship's hierarchy is much different from that of a hotel, an experienced cruise professional can make the necessary recommendations to fit your group's needs. Meetings can be accommodated in smaller boardrooms; awards ceremonies can be staged in multi-level theatres holding more than 1,300 people at once. Some ships even feature purpose-built exhibition halls (that convert from full-size skating rinks!) to hold a tabletop trade show. All too often, we hear our clients say that they never would have imagined a cruise program could be so successful. Even after their program is over, our meeting planner clients continue to tell us about the positive feedback they received from attendees and from senior management. Business is as easily accomplished at sea as it is on land, and it's a sure way to top last year's program! Today's ships and the cruise pricing that is available right now are unprecedented. So what are you waiting for? Don't miss the boat!

A Meeting Planner’s Love Affair With Cruises by Sandie Turcotte, Business & Incentives It started somewhat like a blind date, back in 1985. The time and place had been chosen by people I knew and trusted. They’d told me, very enthusiastically, that is seemed like an ideal match. But they said it was totally up to me how it all would turn out. Although I was senior corporate meeting planner for a leading technology company, I was initially apprehensive. The "blind date" I had been fixed up with was a cruise ship, Cunard’s 5-star Vistafjord, sailing under charter to my company in October 1996 from Venice to the Adriatic Sea. I was to be responsible for a deluxe recognition program for 600 participants, although I had never set foot on a cruise ship and knew virtually nothing about managing incentive programs at sea. My reputation was at stake. Top management had committed to the full-ship charter, and though I was a pro, with years of successful hotel/resort incentive trips behind me, I felt lost. It was to be a six-day trip in lieu of our normal five-day agenda, and there were four ports of call, so everything was going to have to be changed from the traditional way we were accustomed to pacing our program. Because of the international flights, I worried about contingency plans for late arrivals, which had never before been an issue because, unlike a ship, "a hotel wouldn’t leave without them. I worried if there would be adequate audio/visual equipment, if anyone would get seasick, how cabins would be assigned, and whether the entertainment would be suitable. Most of all, I was apprehensive about losing control of my program. I wouldn’t be working with the incentive travel company I knew. My company had been introduced to cruises by Landry & Kling, who had been awarded the opportunity to coordinate this first cruise for us. Cruise lines claim that their ships are "floating hotels" and, from a passenger’s point of view, they are. However, my ship experiences convinced me that contract negotiations and operational planning for a hotel or resort-based incentive differ significantly from a shipboard program. After my first inspection trip with Landry & Kling aboard Vistafjord, I started thinking of them as a destination management company for ships. I drew on their expertise with corporate cruises (what works and what doesn’t), their analysis of competitive ship features, their firsthand know-how in dealing with "departmentalized" cruise lines, contract issues, and overall operations of a cruise on a daily basis. After five years and seven charters with Landry & Kling, here are a few of the notable differences I consider when planning a cruise:    1. A lobby registration desk isn’t feasible on board, so badges, program materials and T-shirts can be delivered to the winners’ cabins on arrival.    2. The typical awards dinner often isn’t practical aboard ship. Instead, awards were presented at gala champagne receptions staged simultaneously by individual regions in public rooms all over the ship.    3. While land-based program agendas typically had to be set in stone weeks in advance, I found it much easier to adapt the ship’s Daily Program to serve as my "Agenda," (custom-printed at no extra cost on a charter). This allowed me to make last minute revisions with ease, and saved printing and shipping costs as well.    4. Dinner seating is almost a non-issue in a hotel. However, aboard ship, the nightly five-course dinner service offered us an opportunity to seat people by regions so they could get to know each other.    5. Lead time for any sizable group at a deluxe hotel is at least 8 to 12 months. But we were able to deliver a shipboard incentive for 600 in the peak Caribbean season, with only 3 months’ lead.    6. Initially, cruise pricing always sounds higher than a hotel or resort, but a cruise program will be comparable or less expensive after everything is factored in. On hotel contracts you can negotiate room rates, and deposit schedule and perhaps a few other things. But food is not mentioned until later and very little can be done in that area to reduce costs, and rarely can you get a cocktail function or other amenities at no charge, as we have done aboard ships. With coffee breaks, baggage handling, transfers, and a terrific entertainment program all included, plus a print shop to produce invitations, duty-free wine and liquor, superb menus plus snacks and complimentary room service, customized logos on menus, napkins and ice sculptures; I believe the participants feel much more pampered, and more "rewarded" than in any other venue. Most important, when the ship pulls away from the dock flying the company banner from the mast, they feel as if the ship is owned by their company. After 14 years as a corporate meeting planner, I’ve now started my own business as an independent planner, based in Marlboro, Mass., and my favorite program recommendation is a cruise.

The Low-down On Charters by Philis Fine, Travel Agent/Cruise Book What happens when a company charters the largest ship in the world? Tips from cruise specialists who think big: For cruise and incentive specialists Landry & Kling, based in Coral Gables, FL., "thinking big" often means a charter. And while the company has chartered some of the largest ships sailing today, vessel size has little to do with the difficulty of the job, according to Executive Director, Joyce Landry. "We’ve done some simple charters" aboard large ships, she notes. "What makes it harder is the level of detail the company (sponsoring the charter) needs from us." According to Landry, what was probably the company’s hardest job was its first, on a 200-cabin ship - "It was a three-star operation, but the company needed a four or five star operation. We brought our own chef on the ship" and devised new menus. Whatever the size of the ship, though, a charter is one of the best ways to think big, because it gives you a tremendous advantage. Chartering a ship is a private experience "that makes participants feel like billionaires -- and it’s absolutely something they couldn’t do on their own." Charter clients have the opportunity to customize everything. They can even alter the itinerary, taking the ship wherever they want to go." Landry & Kling’s charter on Royal Caribbean Cruise Line’s Sovereign of the Seas - currently the largest ship afloat - was a good case history of the way the company handles charters. Digital Equipment Corporation, the firm whose incentive winners Landry & Kling sent on the Sovereign, was not, at first, an easy sell. When Landry first approached Digital a number of years ago, she was told the company executives were not particularly interested in cruising -- and besides, they’d already been working with a large incentive company. But Landry persevered and "kept calling on them." What eventually won over Digital executives was sampling a ship experience-- first with an on board visit and then a three-day cruise. The company began working regularly with Landry & Kling, who handled a number of charters for the firm before tackling the Sovereign, for a division of the company called Software Service. Because the group was to be around 2,000, Landry figured the Sovereign would be a perfect match. Few hotels could accommodate such a large group with any kind of menu variety, for example, and RCCL is "more incentive-oriented that many other cruise lines," Landry says. So, once the ship was officially launched and available for inspections, she took executives on a tour and they were sold. Once Landry & Kling made the initial sell, they began the detail work in depth. During the planning stages - at least six months ahead of the actual date of the cruise - both Landry and Kling had operational meetings on the ship with corporation representatives and key ship personnel, such as the chief purser. They began hammering out the details of every aspect of their passengers’ experience, beginning with the routine of boarding the ship. Once everything was on paper, Landry & Kling had a working copy of their operational workplan, which they kept refining until the day they boarded the ship and distributed it to ship personnel and Digital representatives. The plan spelled out, day by day, "what is going on every moment, who’s in charge and who’s responsible for things if they go awry," Landry says. This detailed plan of "who’s going to be where, when and how things are to be done is essential," she stresses, "to the delivery of a flawless program." Tact and finesse in people-handling definitely play a part in events planning, too. "One of the roles we take on is to go onboard the ship representing the clients with special demands and requests," Landry says. For example, dinner seating on the Sovereign cruise was more flexible than on a regular cruise, because the company wanted to hold awards ceremonies during certain dinners. On several nights, "we had to flip-flop the seating," Landry says. "At first the idea was not popular with the maitre d’. Cruise lines have a particular routine, and sometimes when they hear something like this they think ‘Oh, no.’ But we had table cards made up for switching people around. The awards ceremonies also presented another challenge, since there were to be simultaneous ceremonies going on in different public rooms. Landry & Kling tapped their crew of outside contractors - they have up to 85 people available - to act as spotters directing passengers to the right public rooms. Landry & Kling also developed other events to further individualize the cruise to Digital’s needs. They planned a very large party while the ship was in port in St. Thomas. At first they looked for an off-ship site, but then they decided to hold a "sit-down, elegant, candle-lit party on the deck for 1800 people," says Landry. RCCL which "normally doesn’t have a great many tables outside, was extraordinarily cooperative," bringing in enough tables for outdoor seating for the entire group. To add to the festive atmosphere, everyone was invited to come in costumes provided by Landry & Kling -- pirate costumes by a local seamstress, which were laid out on everyone’s beds ready when they came back from their shore excursions on St. Thomas. The kicker to this story: This cruise ended up going out after Hurricane Hugo attacked the Caribbean, "and we were the only dockside event happening in St. Thomas that night," Landry adds.