Sunday, July 24, 2011

Meeting, Training, and Conferences at Sea

Your boss has come to you and wants you to plan an event for your company. He gives the parameters for the meeting, the budget, who is to attend, what is needed, etc and asks you to find the right location. You start calling around different locations and getting prices and find that what the boss wants and some of the locations he suggested may not fit into his budget. What do you do?



Well one solution is to call your cruise specialist. What? Why would I call my cruise specialist? Very simple...many companies are moving off shore for their meetings, training sessions, conferences, team buildings, etc and onto cruise ships.

Why would corporations look at moving their events to a cruise ship? 
Simply because it is an affordable alternative to holding it on land and it is something completely different. Holding your corporate event onboard a cruise ship can, in most cases, save your company money! Not only do they save you money, but a lot of the hassle of organizing an event is removed. In most cases booking on a cruise ship is easier than booking a land based event.

How can corporate events be cheaper on a cruise ship?
Your cruise fare includes accommodation, food, entertainment, most onboard activities, meeting space (including LCD projector, screen, etc.). When you add up the cost of a hotel or convention center and work out what it would cost you to hold an event there and compare that with what it would cost on a cruise ship most times the cost is cheaper to cruise due to all the items that are included in your cruise fare.


Besides cost, what other advantages are there to holding a meeting on a cruise ship?
Think of a cruise ship as a floating resort. You have many amenities available to you that you would on land at a hotel resort. The added benefit to the cruise ship is that you get to wake up in a different location. At different locations you can let everyone do what they want or organize a group shore excursion that could be used for team building. Another advantage to being on a ship is you are out of cell phone range so you are not going to have people bobbing up and down and leaving the room to take a call. In other words you have a captive audience! You don't have to worry about meal planning or entertainment as that is already taken are of. Cruise ships have a wide range of activities available that you may not find at some resorts. There is something for everyone whether they want to be active or relax during the event down time.

What about accommodations onboard the ship?
All pricing for cruise are based on double occupancy. So there are a couple of ways that a corporation can work this. They can either say no spouses allowed and everyone going has a room mate. Or they can say spouses/partners can come and the corporation pays for the attendee and the attendee pays for the spouse. The corporation would also have to decide what type of accommodation they want for everyone. It could be that the corporation pays for everyone to stay in an inside cabin (no windows) and if the attendee wants to upgrade to an ocean view (window only that doesn't open) or a balcony, or a suite then they (the attendee) pays the difference.

What other incentives are there?
Based on the number of cabins you book will determine if you have onboard ship credits, gifts in the rooms (bottle of wine, or fruit bowl, or chocolate covered strawberries, etc), free cabins, etc you would be entitled to. Your cruise specialist will be able to go over the incentives with you as they depend on the cruise line, and the number of cabins you are booking.

I don't see any mention about beverages. What about beverages?
Beverages on most cruise ships are not included, but they do have beverage packages available. It is up to the corporation on how they want to handle this. It could be that everyone is responsible for their own beverages; with the exception of the corporation may have a welcome aboard or farewell reception where they pay for the beverages (see cruise specialist about receptions packages). It could be that the corporation provides the beer, wine and non-alcoholic beverages at dinner each evening. Any other drinks are the responsibility of the attendees. Your cruise specialist can provide you with options on how to handle beverages.

As you can see there are some great advantages to holding a corporate event onboard a cruise ship. For more information contact your cruise specialist or call us at 1-866-611-4474.

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