Norwegian Cruise Line Working Toward Air Inclusion

Norwegian Cruise Line is working with Amadeus and other GDS partners to provide an air product to its guests, senior vice president of sales Camille Olivere told attendees at TMR’s Travel MarketPlace in Toronto yesterday.

Olivere said travel agents should look for the option by September; if it is not ready by then,  it will have to wait until after Wave season, and likely will launch in the second quarter of 2018.

“We’ll definitely be shouting about it very loudly when it happens,” she said.

While Norwegian already offers some packaging through its Air and Sea program (https://www.ncl.com/freestyle-cruise/airsea), the addition would let agents bundle air and Norwegian Cruise packages in their GDS to sell to clients.

Meanwhile, Norwegian now is preparing for the launch of its new super ship, Norwegian Bliss, which will start sailing Alaska itineraries out of Seattle next spring.

“We are super-excited about Bliss,” Olivere said.

After its Alaska sailing, Bliss will move to Los Angeles, where it will sail two Mexican Riviera sailings and then a 14-day Panama Canal itinerary. Olivere said those sailings will mark a first for Norwegian and the cruise industry as a whole – “there really has never been a big, beautiful brand new ship like this in the Mexican Riviera.”

Olivere also spoke about the return of Pride of America from a three-and-a-half-week drydock last year. The ship’s pricing has increased by double digits year over year for four years straight and Norwegian expects that to continue, but even with the increase “it’s still a much better value than staying in a hotel.”

And with the drydock renovations, which include new venues and new bedding, new furniture, new flat screen televisions and updated flooring in all staterooms, “it’s like a brand new hotel on the water,” she said.

Norwegian also will continue to offer its popular Free at Sea promotion to empower agents to reach out to “people who are really price sensitive. It’s been a great way to have a competitive product in the marketplace.”

For Canadian agents, the Canada at Par program, which allows agents to book with Canadian dollars at par with the U.S.-dollar prices, will continue for select 2017 and 2018 cruises.

“We know you did not get a 35% raise when the exchange rates changed and neither did your guests,” she said.