Tomorrow's event, interview outtakes

[editor@cruisecritic]

As you already know, Azamara's making what it's calling a major announcement tomorrow about a new direction for the cruise line. We've written a short piece, based on what we learned when visiting Larry Pimentel at Azamara HQ a few weeks ago and you can find it here: http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=3580. We'll of course follow it up tomorrow with a more substantive story.

 

We've also linked off to a poll that asks you which destination-oriented activities should cruise lines offer on ships -- drop by and cast your vote (votes) here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1101591

 

When I interviewed Larry (along with Edie Bornstein, Azamara's sales and marketing veep who recently joined the company from Cunard) he said a couple of interesting things that didn't fit into the story so I thought I'd share the outtakes with you here. We were talking about comment cards that people fill out on the last day or so onboard and how those comments often differ from reviews and posts that passengers post on Cruise Critic after they've gone home.

 

And he said, "People onboard are evaluating the experience" in the moment of the trip. "People on Cruise Critic love cruises and have a lot of experience. The individual experience (on Cruise Critic reviews as opposed to comment cards) is really rather detailed. Because it is Cruise Critic, passengers tend to look at things that should be improved."

 

Larry also said something interesting about attitudes to cruising that are more dependent on cultural differences than individual personalities. "Different cultures bring different tones to evaluations," he said. "Americans are pendulum-swingers -- it's either the best trip ever or it's a disaster. U.K. and European travelers are more conservative with praise" (he cited as an example a review that's written in the most glowing of terms but then is giving only an 8 in a 10 point scale; of course CC reviews are best of five but you get the point). More: "Canadians and Australians are the most balanced".

 

Food for thought, would be interested to hear your opinions!

 

Carolyn

 

 

Carolyn Spencer Brown

Editor in Chief

Cruise Critic

[Andy]

Hi Carolyn !

 

I'm very eager to hear what Azamara has to say. I will share my thoughts, once we know the details. It should be an interesting day !

[meow!]

Very interesting. A different question, what is the difference between an editor, an administrator and a moderator? Who is in charge of what? Just trying to understand the cruise critic organization better. Thank you.

[California Native]

Meow....

Editor...Carolyn is the big cheese, but still hands on.

Asst. Editors ..quite a few ..they report to Carolyn

Community Manager is LauraS she overseas all hosts and will step in and ground you and send you to your room

for a time out if you've been a really bad poster

Host..Host Andy..he makes sure we all play nice and also contributes his 2 cents whenever he feels like it..just like we do.

I have also seen Hosts contact the cruise line for additional info on questions we might have on the boards

Hope that helps

at least that's the family tree as I understand/experienced it.

[editor@cruisecritic]

Wow! Great reply. Let me clarify further. I oversee anything that has anything to do with the editorial aspects of the site (ship reviews, port profiles, news stories, and features, such as Trendwatch, Hurricane Zone, Virtuals, Come Aboards and Shipyard Snaps). There is a staff of 7 editors (varying levels) who work in this arena and all have specialties, from Melissa Paloti, our managing editor (and day-to-day guru) to Dan Askin, an associate editor, who specializes in ships, to Erica Silverstein, a senior editor, who focuses on cruise features, to Kelly Ranson, our UK editor, who is responsible for, yeah you guessed it, UK-specific stories. Mind you, we all cover everything, but we each do have our own specialties.

 

Laura Sterling oversees everything related to Cruise Critic's ultra-important community, from boards to member reviews. She has the biggest job in this company. She also supervises our hosts, who are equally an integral part of Cruise Critic.

 

Carolyn

 

PS Staffers will love where2next's observation that I'm "still hands on". Absolutely. And I occasionally drive 'em crazy :)

 

 

Meow....

 

Editor...Carolyn is the big cheese, but still hands on.

 

Asst. Editors ..quite a few ..they report to Carolyn

 

Community Manager is LauraS she overseas all hosts and will step in and ground you and send you to your room

for a time out if you've been a really bad poster

 

 

Host..Host Andy..he makes sure we all play nice and also contributes his 2 cents whenever he feels like it..just like we do.

I have also seen Hosts contact the cruise line for additional info on questions we might have on the boards

 

Hope that helps

 

at least that's the family tree as I understand/experienced it.

[editor@cruisecritic]

Andy, I've been told (tonight) that the details of tomorrow's Azamara reveal will be HUGE. Ok, I've heard hype before so prefer to hold expectations in check. But have to say -- Larry Pimentel's a brilliant cruise line honcho and I do hope, and expect, that he'll be coloring outside the lines. And frankly, if this smart guy should prosper at any of the big (er) two cruise lines, he's got to be better off at Royal Caribbean Ltd then Carnival as the former places a much higher priority on innovation than the latter.

 

Carolyn

 

Hi Carolyn !

 

I'm very eager to hear what Azamara has to say. I will share my thoughts, once we know the details. It should be an interesting day !

[Andy]

Andy, I've been told (tonight) that the details of tomorrow's Azamara reveal will be HUGE. Ok, I've heard hype before so prefer to hold expectations in check. But have to say -- Larry Pimentel's a brilliant cruise line honcho and I do hope, and expect, that he'll be coloring outside the lines. And frankly, if this smart guy should prosper at any of the big (er) two cruise lines, he's got to be better off at Royal Caribbean Ltd then Carnival as the former places a much higher priority on innovation than the latter.

 

Carolyn

 

Hi Carolyn !

 

Thank You for the update. I agree that Mr Pimentel is a highly respected veteran in the industry, so it should be exciting. We will see what happens. Only a few more hours to go !

[Cocktail Queenie]

Darn it....I forgot you guys were behind and now I will have to wait for the 9th for you to all catch up!! :D

[hondorner]

Interesting -- Cruise Critic's article about Az becoming more destination-oriented will likely be welcome to most, but will be ho-hum to us. We generally return to the ship after a half-day in port and would be bored out of our skulls with two days in St. Barts. We cruise because the ship itself is our destination; the ports are just somewhat interesting. We rarely eat ashore and our idea of night life is a lingering dinner, a brief show on the ship and bed. If we want to spend more time ashore, we would fly to the location and spend some serious time exploring and touring.

 

Oh, well, Az will still be doing repositioning cruises, and there isn't much they can do about the lack of ports on a crossing. Those will likely be our first choice.

[meow!]

Wow! Great reply. Let me clarify further. I oversee anything that has anything to do with the editorial aspects of the site (ship reviews, port profiles, news stories, and features, such as Trendwatch, Hurricane Zone, Virtuals, Come Aboards and Shipyard Snaps). There is a staff of 7 editors (varying levels) who work in this arena and all have specialties, from Melissa Paloti, our managing editor (and day-to-day guru) to Dan Askin, an associate editor, who specializes in ships, to Erica Silverstein, a senior editor, who focuses on cruise features, to Kelly Ranson, our UK editor, who is responsible for, yeah you guessed it, UK-specific stories. Mind you, we all cover everything, but we each do have our own specialties.

 

Laura Sterling oversees everything related to Cruise Critic's ultra-important community, from boards to member reviews. She has the biggest job in this company. She also supervises our hosts, who are equally an integral part of Cruise Critic.

 

Carolyn

 

PS Staffers will love where2next's observation that I'm "still hands on". Absolutely. And I occasionally drive 'em crazy :)

Thank you and where2next for your informative replies. This clarifies the positions and functions .. meow!

[fPetrarca]

There are "cruisers" and there are "travelers." I'm the latter and eagerly look forward to the "announcement."

[new salt]

I´m with Hondorner on this one. We live on the Med and all the major cities are within a few hours. I am hoping that the announcement will be about the establishment of a dedicated Underway Replenishment Group (URG) so that we just stay at sea enjoying the cruise without the distraction of port visits! Roll on our first transatlantic in April.

[DebsUK]

The Azamara website seems to be down right now.....in preparation for the "big" announcement?????

[Marie-Claude]

So much excitement and build-up... !!!

All I can say is that the staff on the Quest (Oct. 31-Nov 14) were really excited about the changes coming... of course they told us a little bit, what everyone is whipering about, but all agreed that the changes would really enhance the destination experience.

 

We chose Azamara exactly for that reason - they offered itineraries that were unique and different... so I can't wait to hear about the BIG announcement!!

 

MC

[uktog]

I am really looking forward to this announcement. It is a year before I return to Azamara , I am sure there will benew things I really like and some parts that will work less well for me but that is how it will be for most folks.

For me the biggest negative impact is likely to be that azamara might creep beyond my budget some of the time but time will tell

A

[cabo de hornos]

Kudos to all the CC honchos and staff for what they do. Hats off to Carolyn for her input to this week's Time magazine article on the "Behemoth of the Seas".

 

Now let's see what Az has in store for us.

 

Cabo

[scubasteve00]

Something I noticed when trying to azamaracruises.com this morning (besides it being down for mainitenance) is that it directs your to azamaraclubcruises.com - don't know what this really means but interesting.

 

Excited and waiting for more details :)

 

Dustin

[cabo de hornos]

No alternate site referral here, just "Site Under Maintenance".

 

Cabo

[MVPinBoynton]

I am also getting the redirect to azamaraclubcruises.com. I wonder what a club cruise is. I guess we will find out real soon.

[uktog]

My pc is freezing and does not even go there but I see elsewhere that is a registered domain name to RCCL

Exciting!!

[Andy]

Hi Everyone !

 

As of 10:15 AM Eastern time, the Azamara Website appears to be down. They sure are making a big production out of this :)

[meow!]

The Azamara websit is now back on. We haven't noticed monumental changes!