Recent developments in onboard entertainment illustrate very clearly the uber-competitive nature of the cruise industry. Where ships, in the past, were essentially a stylish and luxurious way for travellers to visit a range of destinations, now they are viewed as destinations in themselves, and this switch has led to a revolution in the entertainment services provided onboard. No longer are bored lounge singers and lazy days on deck sufficient; now, every cruise company needs an inventive roster of activities that matches up with its particular brand’s positioning.
In recent decades, growing management emphasis has tracked a rising feedback from travel agents and guests – yielding somewhat more calculated, but no less enjoyable, onboard entertainment options. These options – on the larger, more formidable vessels – have made cruises quite exceptional. No line would attempt to present entertainment designed to please everyone, but Carnival’s ‘Everyman’ is a different matter.
Carnival has established an identity which means it is able to target a broad range of customers, on very specific criteria. Its clear, strong identity and reputation attract its typical customer, “a middle-class, middle American of either gender, with a lively, fun-seeking mentality,” according to president and CEO Gerry Cahill. Once the client’s aboard, Carnival’s obligation, in turn, is to fulfil its branding via the ship’s amenities and onboard entertainment. “We count Carnival’s middle-of-the-road reputation as a blessing, a profitable one at that, and we go about reinforcing it,” says Cahill.
So far, under its ongoing ‘Evolutions of Fun’ refurbishment programme (meant to port amenities and features of the Dream-class to its older Fantasy-Class vessels), Carnival has added WaterWorks aqua parks to its Fantasy ships, as well as new lobby bars, miniature golf courses and renovated common areas. Commendably, Cahill has not geared all new items to Carnival’s ‘middle-of-the-road’ customers. As part of Evolutions of Fun, the line has also added adult-oriented ‘Serenity sections’ to the ships. These are quiet areas catering to certain adult guests who, unlike more typical clients, seek a respite from, more than immersion in, a planned, often frenetic menu of onboard activities.
Cahill mentions in particular three venues the Carnival Magic has lately introduced, with their own range of widely palatable entertainment: the Caribbean-inspired RedFrog Pub; the authentic Cucina del Capitano Italian restaurant; and the on-deck SportSquare, which includes a challenging rope course and an outdoor fitness area. “These fit in with our brand and the type of customer we serve. I think you’ll see a lot of these show up on our other ships as we get the chance to fully retrofit them,” he adds.
It pleases Cahill that the Evolutions of Fun programme extends and fortifies Carnival’s onboard identity across the fleet. “The ultimate benefit of Evolutions of Fun is that guests on any one of our ships will find that we adhere to the Carnival standard that they have come to expect,” he says. “That’s one of the ways we expect to maintain our successful business.”
An extension of the formula is that if Carnival’s clients are fun loving, with a rollicking spirit, they might as well be active onstage at a number of onboard entertainment venues. This explains Carnival’s continuing rollout of its audience-participation karaoke and comedy clubs.
The karaoke clubs were launched about a year ago as ‘Superstar Live’ on a dozen ships. They allow guests to sing karaoke onstage fronting a live four-piece band with backup singers. “It’s for passengers who want to channel their secret longing to sing,” says Cahill. “In this case, with real musicians playing real songs with real instruments.” In late 2010, Carnival also announced its Punchliner comedy clubs – now in place on every ship in the fleet – which offer guests similar chances for participation in the realm of standup comedy.
Diners will also be entertained by singing and dancing waiters who glide across restaurants, where roaming table magicians also compete with the cuisine for guests’ awe and wonder; and high-energy, ‘Fun Force’ acrobatic teams, on half of the ships, perform both as part of main shows and ad hoc in the ships’ atriums. On other cruise lines, the emphasis follows the same lines but along different tangents. Onboard entertainment still reinforces branding, but perhaps less pointedly. Royal Caribbean’s highly evolved Solstice and gargantuan Oasis-class ships, have onboard programmes and activities somewhat more evolved around the new ships than the brand specifically, but, like its Carnival counterpart, executives see that it’s as important for the onboard product to reinforce the brand as to impress and impeccably serve passengers.
Accordingly, RCL has designed its onboard product to be regarded as contemporary but chic, and generally to exude the feel of an uncrowded five-star hotel. The ships’ ability to impart that feeling is quite intentional and has mainly to do with the standard format of amenities (entertainment forward, restaurants aft) on the Solstice-class, as well as with deliberate decor and colour palette changes. The later Solstice ships have naturally followed in the wake of their predecessors, sporting many of the same features: for example, the Lawn Club, the top deck’s exclusive area featuring real turf, where guests can engage in croquet and golf; and, elsewhere on the deck, the Hot Glass Show, the world’s first and only fully equipped seagoing glass-blowing studio.
RCL’s Celebrity Cruise arm, known for its collections of contemporary art, this year also introduced self-guided art tours, with their audio and video based on the iPad. The line also offered guests the chance to create their own original art within the Silhouette’s Lawn Club ‘Art Studio’ – one of the new venues aboard the brand-new ship. The sessions comprise guest lecture, demonstrations and interactive classes – over a range of subjects from painting to jewellery fabrication – led by two master artists sourced through Celebrity’s new partnership with ArtCenter South Florida: Leslie LaCombe and Armando Droulers.
With the bigger ships, the 5,200-passenger Oasis and Allure are good examples of the innovative and credibly replicated shoreside venues, referred to in newbuilding parlance as ‘themed neighbourhoods’. Oasis and Allure, huge and stately, comprise such neighbourhoods among their 16 decks and 2,700 staterooms (including their scores of two-level Crown Loft suites). From Central Park, with open skies, grass and trees via the Boardwalk, with seaside entertainment and the Pool & Sports area, with a deep oceangoing pool that is one of RCL’s proudest engineering feats to the Royal Promenade, with mezzanine levels overlooking a street full of restaurants, shops and bars. It is entertainment on a mass and varied scale.
This is an abridged version of an article that appeared in the Autumn/ Winter 2011 edition of International Cruise & Ferry Review. You can subscribe to the magazine in printed or digital formats.