TravelPulse had the chance to chat with Leslie Peden, the new North American President of Celestyal Cruises about the brand's latest and future endeavors.
TravelPulse: For those not familiar with Celestyal, what would you say makes its cruises standout from mainstream lines?
Leslie Peden: There are three key factors. The first one would be that we are authentically Greek, and by that I mean we're the only cruise line that actually homeports in Greece itself. We obviously enjoy taking guests around the Greek islands as well as Turkey in a very authentic and Greek way.
So, what does that mean? In terms of the onboard product, we carry the destination. We bleed the DNA of the destination through our product both on and off the ship. For example, we have local artisans onboard the ships, and they are selling beautiful handmade Greek jewelry, olive oil [and] leather goods.
Also, all the entertainment and the food are Greek in terms of the history and the storytelling, and the freshness and the quality of the Greek food served with an international flair in our restaurants onboard.
The other thing that makes us uniquely different-for which we've actually been recognized by Cruise Critic with five Choice Awards in 2017-is the fact that we deliver consistently tremendous value for money. We have a very simplified embarkation process which we've also been recognized [for]. In true Celestyal Cruises passion, we wanted to [exceed] guest expectation[s] in every area that they touch.
We deliver this through an all-inclusive experience. We offer a drink package that's included [for] both complimentary alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages with a really good choice of premium brands as well. And we do offer the guests an upgrade option to just a broader selection of premium brands.
The beauty for our travel agents as well is that if they presell the upgrade option for the drink package, they will also earn additional commission on it as they do on the entire package when they sell the initial cruise with us, which is again very unusual. We are tremendously trade-friendly.
The other component is our shore excursions. We do include shore excursions in the price of the cruise. On our 3- and 4-day cruise, we have two shore excursions included there. And on our seven-day, we have three excursions included. Once again, if agents want to presell additional shore excursion options, that's possible, for which they'll earn their full commission on those components as well.
Things like port charges and gratuities are once again part of our all-inclusive proposition. The beauty of this is that guests know that really everything is accounted for and they're not going to be nickled and dimed once they're onboard the ship. And it's really all about the experience.
TP: How does Celestyal deliver guests to the Greek destination differently?
LP: A key differentiator for us from the mainstream cruise lines is that our ships are of the small to medium size nature, so that allows our vessels to get into smaller ports in the Greek islands that would otherwise not be accessible by the larger ships-the mega ships.
It allows us to introduce our guests and our agency partners to islands that are less well known but offer great differentiation from perhaps another Greek island they just visited. Then it also allows us to overnight the ships in these very destinations as well in order for our guests to truly experience the authentic Greece.
TP: Has the current climate in Turkey affected your sailings to that destination at all?
LP: Absolutely not. In fact, we've seen a triple-digit growth in business in the Aegean, which includes our visitation to Kusadasi for Ephesus in Turkey. It's a tremendously popular choice for our guests, and in fact, 99.9 percent of our guests want to go to Turkey.
[Regarding] issues around visas, our guests could actually still visit Turkey because they were covered by a general visa that all of us cruise guests are included on. So whilst others were not able to travel to Turkey, we continued to service this region and make it accessible to our agency and consumer partners.
We're actually going to be starting the season a month earlier, at the end of March now instead of the end of April. And we're also going to extend the season in the fall through the first couple of weeks of November, with the future actually going year-round.
The Cuba operation has served us really well in the last five years, and the response from the trade has been very very good. However, in order for us to really satisfy the demand in our home market, we really need to redeploy the ship into the Aegean right now.
That's not to say that we will not return to Cuba. We are very much leaving that door open, but for now, we are going to be taking the ship back to the Aegean.
For the latest travel news, updates and deals, subscribe to the daily TravelPulse newsletter.
Topics From This Article to Explore
