Corporate Travel Destinations

Modern meetings at sea are a potentially high tech affair full of alternative meeting formats and interesting ideas. Furthermore, there are many concerns that people have that are no longer serious issues when planning meetings at sea, such as:

• Price – Some people associate meetings at sea with high prices but nothing could be further from the truth. The fact of the matter is that meetings at sea are incredibly affordable by nearly any standard one chooses to use considering the all-inclusive nature of most tickets. Negligible expenses for entertainment and food are just part of the package!
• Motion sickness – Today’s cruise liners are positively enormous and are very steady in all but the most dangerous of waters. While one can never predict Mother Nature, science has severely reduced the odds of a massive ocean liner winding up in unfriendly seas. Furthermore, most ships have their own mini-hospitals will full staffs on hand for anything from motion sickness to an unexpected delivery!
• Lack of choice – A few decades ago cruise liners were half the size that they are today, and that meant a limitation on meal selections and other options. Modern cruise ships have multiple restaurants, bars, and even dance clubs contained within their massive hulls to give patrons a variety of dining, shopping, leisure, exercise, and even meeting options!

There are many different companies offering cruise meetings and cruise events, which means that consumers actually have a choice. This might not be immediately obvious as many people still consider cruise meetings to be an alternative meeting format. Despite this common misconception, there are a few things that one needs to consider when evaluating different cruise lines: What is their focus? Some cruise lines handle cruise meetings but have a focus on specific aspects or target audiences.

• Where do the cruises go? Not all cruise liners travel to all parts of the world. If certain locations are important then there is going to be a limitation placed on the available cruise lines to meet business needs. Fewer choices tends to drive price up.
• Do they charter? Some cruise lines offer chartering of small, medium, and even full-sized cruise liners for the right amount of money. Chartering cruise liners can actually be surprisingly affordable for businesses with the means, especially compared to the alternatives.
• What are the meeting facilities like? Most cruise liners have meeting facilities, though space is always at a premium aboard a vessel at sea. This means that larger meetings need to be held in dining halls, theaters, and other rooms. Sometimes this can be the perfect invitation for unique meeting formats, so be willing to be flexibile.

Many companies and large corporations use cruise meetings effectively, but they closely guard some of their secrets. Here are three easy ways to get far more mileage out of a cruise:

1. Start by signing up for a corporate credit card with the cruise company if they have one. Most corporate credit cards in this class are surprisingly reasonable when it comes to fees and terms, and almost all of them yield useful travel-related rewards.
2. Plan ahead. Remember that a ship at sea is difficult and expensive to resupply so plan for banquets and other special events ahead of time and give the chef in charge of catering ample warning before leaving port. It may take a week or more to get good deals on vegetables or meats.
3. Note that it never hurts to ask, even when it comes to using public spaces. Want to host a meeting on the aft shuffleboard lobby? Ask! Want to book the spinning room or yoga center for a pre- or post-meeting event? Go for it! Want to host a meeting in the spinning room? That can almost certainly be arranged too if you ask in advance.

The sky really is the limit on a cruise ship when it comes to accommodating customers, especially corporate and business clients. Be sure to make requests in advance and you can be surprised how accommodating cruise liners and their staffs can be.

Large events, meetings, and seminars have traditionally be scheduled at conference centers and/or hotels, but that is all changing now. Cruise ships are the new ‘it’ place to host events of almost any size, for many good reasons. Here are a trio of very good reasons to consider:

• Go places, do things – One of the top reasons to opt for cruises over more traditional meeting environments is the fact that cruise liners take your places while you work instead of taking you to places to get work done. Add to this the limited distance between work and play, and cruises are nothing if not efficient and convenient.
• Amazing facilities – Hotels come in different quality levels, usually measured in stars. Cruise ships are an all-star affair, and every passenger is made to feel like an all-star. Putting a dollar value on having meeting participants felt like that are having their every whim met is nearly impossible.
• Affordable – Meetings and events held on cruise liners are surprisingly affordable. Why? Because one companies is providing everything. Instead of distributing the overhead of a catering company, a hotel, and a conference center over each participant, cruise liners have a single overhead to distribute. It is all about cost of customer acquisition, and that is what makes cruise meetings affordable.

One of the best aspects of cruise meeting planning is that most cruise liners have in-house planners and a complete staff to take care of virtually every possible need and/or want. The result is that anyone handling cruise meeting planning can be as thorough and detailed as they like, or they can go the other route and allow the in-house planners and staff to take over some of the burden. Here are a few examples to consider when determining how much effort to put into cruise meeting planning:

Most cruise ships have at least one chef, many now have upwards of five, and full catering staffs on call. This means that catering options are already available right out of the box, and amount of time and energy you spend planning meals and parties is up to you.

Virtually all cruise ships have activities directors, and many cruise ships reserve space upon request for group activities. If you need space for a meeting, or just a private social gathering, all you have to do is ask. The question is: where do you stop asking? The event/activity coordinator can probably handle a lot more than just setting aside a room if only they asked.

Save money and allocate resources more efficiently by determining which aspects of the meeting planning should be handled in-house and which can be well-executed by someone else.