Major changes at Carnival Corp!

[eroller]

Several key changes and appointments were announced by Carnival Corp today.

 

1. The "Holland America Group" is created, and in addition to HAL and Seabourn, Princess Cruises, Princess/HAL Alaska Land Tours, P&O Australia, and Carnival Australia will fall under this group. Stein Kruse will lead the Holland America Group under the title of CEO and report to Carnival Corp. President & CEO Arnold Donald.

 

2. Alan Buckelew, the current current President and CEO of Princess Cruises will take on the new role of COO Carnival Corp., reporting to Carnival Corp. President & CEO Arnold Donald.

 

3. Jan Swartz, currently EVP Sales & Marketing of Princess Cruises is promoted to President of Princess Cruises, reporting to Stein Kruse the CEO of The Holland America Group.

 

4. Howard Frank, currently Vice Chairman and COO of Carnival Corp., and Micky Arisons right hand man the past 25 years, will step down from the position. He will stay on in a consulting role as special advisor to the CEO and Chairman of Carnival Corp.

 

So what is my personal take on all this? In the past Carnival Corp. was well known and regarded for keeping the brands quite separate and pretty much letting them run themselves as individual business units. With this announcement and others in the past, this arrangement seems to be fading out. More and more brands are now combined into a group reporting structure. What the implications are I can't say, but hopefully it's not a further dilution of brand identity.

 

Ernie

[Loonbeam]

Interesting. I wonder if this pre-sages a combination of P&O and Carnival Australia - always thought it made sense to merge Carnival AU into P&O.

[Coral]

I just saw this in my email.

 

IMO - the lines have been blending together quite a bit the past several years. They have not been operating as separate companies as they want us to believe. For example, all of Carnival Corp ships have been using the same ship yard, several ship's hulls cross over lines, Cunard and Princess being pretty tied together, Princess and P&O still pretty close, I am sure most of the purchasing is all done Carnival Corp fleet wide, etc.. The same awful balcony furniture that is now on Princess ships is also on Carnival ships, etc...

 

I expect it to continue to be diluted down IMO.

[Keith1010]

Thanks for sharing this.

 

Keith

[antsp]

Maybe they can sack the team who designrd the Royal whilst there at it.

[Coral]

Maybe they can sack the team who designrd the Royal whilst there at it.

 

That or transfer the ship to another line :)

[bdjam]

The team that designed Royal Princess have been designing Princess ships since the Sun Class. I have a feeling the design of Royal and Regal Princesses were more dictated by management and bottom lines than by thoughtful ship design.

 

Princess changed its identity when the management changes were made after Kleweno left...and not for the better. Jan Swartz has been with Princess for years, so it will be interesting to see if she's looking to take the line in a different direction. However her ability to do that is dictated now by the "group" structure.

[Pushka]

I hope this means the brand moves up to the highest (Seabourne? Princess? HAL?) and not the lowest (P&O, Carnival?) denominator.

 

I wonder what is happening with Cunard?

[northernsw]

Maybe our Captain's Circle benefits will migrate to HAL?

[runnerodb83]

It sounds like this is an effort to consolidate back-end operations (call centers, port ops, etc) and eliminate redundancy. This has already been the case in alaska where the same company runs the princess and HAL landside operations in alaska. Both of theses cruise lines aren't doing so well financially compared to RCI and Carnival so this may shore up some of those financial holes.

[Loonbeam]

Thinking more on it, could this be an attempt to dissociate the other brands from Carnival (the line)? It's pretty much the only one left in the main grouping.

[Astro Flyer]

USA Today article about the changes including the statement: "This will be relatively invisible to the consumer since each brand will continue to operate under their respective brand names".

 

http://usat.ly/1he5p1n

[eroller]

USA Today article about the changes including the statement: "This will be relatively invisible to the consumer since each brand will continue to operate under their respective brand names".

 

http://usat.ly/1he5p1n

 

 

Famous last words!

[Cruise Junky]

Thinking more on it, could this be an attempt to dissociate the other brands from Carnival (the line)? It's pretty much the only one left in the main grouping.

 

I thought that too but then why not add in Cunard too.

Edited November 5, 2013 by Cruise Junky

[Astro Flyer]

Famous last words!

Yep but hope it's true that each cruise line will continue to be geared towards their core passengers. None of us know for sure what will happen so it's just speculation & only time will tell.

[eroller]

I thought that too but then why not add in Cunard too.

 

 

Cunard actually falls under Carnival UK, headed by David Dingle. They are based in Southampton England at Carnival's 2nd major headquarters, called "Carnival House". The same is true of P&O. Princess Cruises in California is only responsible for North American sales, marketing, and reservations for Cunard. They have no say in the day to day operation of the brand or how it's managed. Think of Princess as a general sales agent (GSA) for Cunard in the US.

 

Both Cunard and P&O recently had their own shake ups. The President of Cunard (Peter Shanks) and Managing Director of P&O (Carol Marlow) were both let go after years of service for Carnival. Their positions will not be filled, and instead the highest ranking executive at both brands will be a Marketing Director. In addition, there will be something called an "Insight Director" who will cover both brands.

 

What all this means I don't know. But there sure has been a lot of shaking up at Carnival Corp. as of late.

 

Ernie

[Cruise Junky]

Cunard actually falls under Carnival UK, headed by David Dingle. They are based in Southampton England at Carnival's 2nd major headquarters, called "Carnival House". The same is true of P&O. Princess Cruises in California is only responsible for North American sales, marketing, and reservations for Cunard. They have no say in the day to day operation of the brand or how it's managed. Think of Princess as a general sales agent (GSA) for Cunard in the US.

 

Both Cunard and P&O recently had their own shake ups. The President of Cunard (Peter Shanks) and Managing Director of P&O (Carol Marlow) were both let go after years of service for Carnival. Their positions will not be filled, and instead the highest ranking executive at both brands will be a Marketing Director. In addition, there will be something called an "Insight Director" who will cover both brands.

 

What all this means I don't know. But there sure has been a lot of shaking up at Carnival Corp. as of late.

 

Ernie

 

Interesting, I didn't realize they fell under carnival UK.. Thanks

[Shogun]

Hi All

 

Been a lot of changes in the way Princess operates in the UK in the past year,

 

has got its own staff/cost centre

 

where before it was just part of a group service,

 

have met Jan, would think Princess may well go volume over quality.

 

 

yours Shogun

[runnerodb83]

I would imagine that HAL HQ will absorb the Seattle Princess office since they are only a few miles apart and that Princess office seems to do mostly Alaska related things. This may lead to some more cross brand coordination in Alaska meaning less competition between 2 out of the 3 biggest names in Alaska.

[DrivesLikeMario]

Great...let's hope HAL's SEA resv. agents don't take over Princess' resv.! HAL's are some of the grouchiest, angry people I have ever dealt with in the industry.

 

I guess the best way to increase your bottom line is to get rid of those high paying jobs at the top and call it "reorganization". In this same email that was sent out, they said very specifically that they will continue to keep all of the Carnival brands separate. Let's hope so. :cool:

Edited November 5, 2013 by DrivesLikeMario

[bdjam]

have met Jan, would think Princess may well go volume over quality.

 

 

yours Shogun

 

Not the best of news.

[ariel4g1000]

Maybe they will stop charging different areas of the world different prices and treat us all equally, like in Australia.

[Coral]

I would imagine that HAL HQ will absorb the Seattle Princess office since they are only a few miles apart and that Princess office seems to do mostly Alaska related things. This may lead to some more cross brand coordination in Alaska meaning less competition between 2 out of the 3 biggest names in Alaska.

 

I thought the Princess office was a call center also. I know when I have called Princess, a few times I get the Seattle office. I also seem to get people in Seattle who work from home.

 

I think it is good to have call centers in more than 1 location due to natural disasters. For example, RCCL has a call center in Kansas which has helped quite a bit in hurricane times.

Edited November 5, 2013 by Coral

[eroller]

I thought the Princess office was a call center also. I know when I have called Princess, a few times I get the Seattle office. I also seem to get people in Seattle who work from home.

 

I think it is good to have call centers in more than 1 location due to natural disasters. For example, RCCL has a call center in Kansas which has helped quite a bit in hurricane times.

 

The Princess office in Santa Clarita, CA is the main call center for Princess. It also handles North American reservation functions for Cunard.

 

Princess has a smaller office in Seattle that used to be dedicated to Princess Tours, but I believe the duties were expanded to be a secondary call center for regular Princess and Cunard as well. You are correct that some of the agents out of the Seattle call center work from home. I think this is the case in CA as well.

 

I also would not be surprised if the Princess office in Seattle is closed and any duties absorbed by the HAL Seattle head office. The main Princess headquarters and call center will remain in California though.

 

Ernie

[Coral]

 

have met Jan, would think Princess may well go volume over quality.

 

 

yours Shogun

 

Not the best of news.

 

This could very well be a turning point for Princess. Let's hope that this change is a positive change. Maybe Jan will surprise us :)