PHOTO: Pimentel: “Destination immersion for us has meant exposing our guests to culture by providing longer stays and overnight stays.”

Larry Pimentel has been president and CEO of Azamara Club Cruises since July 2009. Since then he has refashioned the brand, refocused the product on destination immersion and elevated service levels on his two-ship fleet, the twin 694-passenger Azamara Journey and Azamara Quest, both of which were formerly part of the Renaissance Cruises fleet. We spoke with Pimentel about where the Royal Caribbean-owned boutique line is today and where it’s heading in the future.

You’ve been focused on making Azamara a destination-focused cruise line. With that in mind what do you offer in terms of land programs today?

Destination immersion for us has meant exposing our guests to culture by providing longer stays and overnight stays, so we’re adding to the portfolio in 2015 in some really amazing ways. We started out having an AzAmazing Evening, a complimentary cultural land event for the entire ship, included as part of the tariff. We’ve been doing that for a year-and-a-half now, but we’ve now added two other land programs and will offer a third in 2015. We now feature Nights in Cool Places, a fee-based, curated evening event for small groups where we pick things that are really very special. For example, we go to Rembrandt’s house in Amsterdam at night when there are no lines and we do a tour of the house and give guests the chance to use Rembrandt’s etching machine. We also have another program called Insider Access, which gives our guests the ability to access something that’s generally behind the scenes. Both of these can’t be purchased anywhere else except through Azamara.

Why have you concentrated so much on destination immersion and land programs? And are you going to offer any new land programs in 2015?

Our ships are nice ships, but they are 15 years old and frankly there is capacity in my own sister lines, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity, that is just nothing short of stunning. So I wanted to go back to the past to reflect on the future by concentrating on culture. And the newest thing that’s coming up in 2015 is called Cruise Global, Eat Local, starting for the summer season in Europe. We focused on finding out what are the coolest places where locals like to eat in the destinations we visit. We asked our crew and we called embassies of various countries to ask their staff. We found that the same names kept on popping up.

How has your focus on destination immersion helped attract guests?

We’re finding that the people going on these programs are those who have chosen the line for a destination immersion experience. In fact, one of the things that’s interesting for us is that our largest core group of travelers is not from the cruise industry; they are people who have never been on a ship before. We’re very pleased to be hitting and exceeding forecasted numbers. Advance bookings for 2015 have never been better and 2016 bookings are even superior to that. We have our 2015 and 2016 catalogues out. We come out with all of our 2017 itineraries in the first week of December. I am just pushing way out because what we are doing as a product is just so different from the norm in the industry.

What’s new in terms of itineraries and ports for 2015?

The biggest new ones for us are Australia, New Zealand and some of the Pacific islands. Again we have just two ships, and so it’s not a giant fleet by any stretch of the imagination, but we have guests who like to see us move around the world—and Asia and the Pacific Rim are very popular. Having stated that, I’m fascinated not only with what’s new but also with the places that people like to go back to. It’s fairly simple: Italy and the Amalfi Coast. Our guests don’t seem to tire of it, again and again and again. These are beautiful areas and we can show them in a new and interesting way.

What changes are you making in terms of onboard product for 2015?

Quite a few. By the first week of December our 10 top suites are being completely renovated. That’s a growth market for us with the transition coming from the other top lines to suites on our ships. Aqualina, which is one of our specialty restaurants, is becoming a fully executed Italian restaurant with a Sicilian orientation, on both Quest and Journey. We are planning a major renovation of Quest in December and a renovation of Journey in January where we’ll make major physical changes and upgrades.

Can you take your upmarket ships to the luxury level?

It’s an interesting notion, because I have specifically not allowed our staff to use the word “luxury,” yet I’m probably one of the most identifiable people in that space. I just felt I didn’t want to have to defend what luxury meant. I didn’t want to over-promise; I wanted to under-promise and over-deliver—and we are consistently doing that. There are some who put us in the luxury category. I would say we probably straddle it. Based on our unique destination product, I would say we’re luxury to ultra-luxury. On the other hand, the physical plant of the ship is good, but it’s not in the same way that some luxury products are.

Given that your business is strong for 2015 and 2016, what is the prospect for a third ship and what would you be looking for?

I never joined this company for just two ships. I believe we have enough solid financial metric growth patterns and advance bookings to get our board to seriously consider more growth. But there are a lot of different angles to it. There are other R class (Renaissance) ships out there that we could buy, but let’s face it, what Royal Caribbean does best is build new. My preference would be to build new and build it while Harri Kulovaara [Royal Caribbean’s executive vice president-maritime] and Richard Fain [Royal Caribbean’s chairman and CEO] are plugged squarely in. I think a new ship in luxury from Royal Caribbean would be spectacular. I don’t believe there’s any cruise line that I have seen that has done any amazing things with a luxury ship. I’ve not seen anything from a physical plant standpoint that I would look at as “wow.”