Some 30 advisors from the GTA gathered at the elegant Kimpton Saint George Hotel on 05MAR, each heading home armed with tremendous insights into sister cruise lines Scenic and Emerald. Our hosts provided a raft of insightful background info on the company, the ships, the itineraries – and how to sell them.
Speakers included Jo-Lee Shantz, Director of Marketing for Ocean Cruises; Claudius Docekal, Vice President of Ocean Deployment for The Scenic Group; and Lisa McCaskill, Vice President of Sales and Marketing/Canada for Scenic.
Founded in 2013 as European river cruise company Emerald Waterways, the Australian-headquartered company now has a loyal following of Aussies, New Zealanders, Brits, Canadians, and, to a lesser extent, Americans on both its river and ocean ships.
As of today, the fleets comprise:
Emerald Cruises with 9 river “star ships” (8 in Europe plus 1 in Southeast Asia) as well as 2 ocean-going yachts.
Scenic with 12 river “space ships” plus one river ship in Southeast Asia as well as 2 ocean-going yachts.
“Both Scenic and Emerald are luxury brands,” McCaskill told Open Jaw. “But Scenic is ‘ultra-luxury’ – including all beverages and all excursions. Emerald, which starting next month will also include all beverages, has more of an à la carte approach to excursions, so clients can choose what they want to do in port – including touring on their own, or even staying on board to enjoy the ship’s amenities.” It’s worth nothing that Scenic’s itineraries go some far corners of the world including the Asia/Pacific as well as the Arctic and Antarctic.
Some fascinating details about Emerald’s “discovery voyages” were provided by Claudius Docekal, the firm’s Vice President of Ocean Deployment – a role which must have a huge job description. “Emerald’s twin yachts may take only 100 passengers, but nothing feels small on board. There’s never crowding or line-ups.” He’s very involved in planning the itineraries and shore excursions, and says he strives to ensure that “today must be different from yesterday and from tomorrow. I purposely try to avoid the ports with lots of big ships.”
An exciting development next year is the there will be only 1 Emerald yacht in the Caribbean, as the other will be based in the Seychelles as of December. “The Seychelles are so different, each with its own geography and personality and none overwhelmed by tourism.” Though they may sound exotic and remote to Canadians, there’s actually very convenient air service via EK (Emirates) YYZ to DXB (Dubai), which is on the same time zone as the islands. Docekal suggests a layover of a couple of days in DXB – and told the group that the Seychelle itinerary can be combined with Emerald extensions to East Coast Africa or even a safari.
In the Caribbean, Emerald has 8 to 22 day itineraries and clients can actually have a 3 week vacation without seeing the same island twice. And there are some little gems that the “big ships” don’t go to, including Union Island, the Prickly Pear Cays and Jost Van Dyke. “But tell you clients that as we have now have only the one ship in the Caribbean, it will sell extremely well.”
The size of the ships make them perfect for a multi-gen group, and ship buyouts are relatively do-able, Lisa McCaskill told Open Jaw. Of special interest to Canadians is the October 21 departure this year on Scenic’s Cultures of Fiji and the South Pacific itinerary, where much-loved singer Jann Arden will be the celebrity escort. Find out more about each of the cruise lines at emeraldcruises.ca and scenic.ca.
