Corporate Travel Destinations

Meeting planning is an undertaking that requires attention to detail. A meeting planner has to be intimately involved in all aspects of meeting planning. Detailed involvement helps to ensure the corporation gets the most for its money and that participants of the cruise event feel their time was well spent. When planning a group cruise, many of the details of typical meeting planning is already determined. However, determining which ship will be right for the group cruise event is not.

The type of ship chosen will be closely related to the type of cruise event being planned. For meetings at sea, it is ideal to choose a ship that offers the best group rate. Since there will be a large group of people for whom the cruise is being planned, choosing a ship that can accommodate large groups at reasonable rates will be essential. Some cruise ships are more adult oriented while others are more kid friendly. Cruise ships that are not designed for children will be more tailored to adult interests. The expectations of cruise event participants, the preferences of the organization, and the group rates available will help meeting planners determine which type of ship will be best.

Executive retreats are a mainstay in mid- and large-size companies, as well as many smaller businesses, and provide an environment that is dedicated to establishing new goals, revising policies and procedures that are no longer effective, determining how best to guide and grow the company, and choosing the best tack for moving forward into a strong, successful future. Whether or not your company is in need of a significant change in course, an executive retreat at sea is sure to provide the setting and motivation needed to deliver the results your firm needs.

Executive retreat cruises can be easily arranged for small or large groups and can allow for up to a 40% savings over planning your event at a land-based venue. Additionally, all-inclusive cruises are ideal for establishing and staying within your company’s budget with meals, accommodations, entertainment, drinks, onboard activities and meeting facilities included in one upfront price. At the same time, cruise ships offer many additional luxuries that your participants can choose to partake in, such as spa treatments, boutique shopping and land excursions, which increases the appeal this option will have to your attendees.

Executive retreats at sea have the dual benefits of providing well-equipped meeting facilities that will assist participants in staying motivated and meeting goals, while also allowing your participants to enjoy a memorable, relaxing vacation experience when not in meetings. This allows your executives to accomplish the necessary tasks and return to the office at the end of the retreat refreshed, revitalized and ready to implement the policies or changes agreed upon during the retreat.

Visit Seasite.com to find group cruise planning tools that will make planning your next executive retreat a breeze.

Ship Charter Specialists Will Handle Sales in U.S. & Latin America; Two Premium Cruise Ships Will Visit Three Ports on World Cup Circuit

MIAMI, FL (March 16, 2010) One Ocean Club has appointed Landry & Kling, Inc. as their exclusive representative in the U.S. and Latin America to market and sell floating hotel packages for the prestigious World Cup 2010 in South Africa. Landry & Kling was chosen because the firm originated the dockside housing phenomenon and has decades of experience utilizing cruise ships as floating hotels. 

As the official sales agent for the U.S. and Latin American regions, Landry & Kling will offer a variety of secure and luxurious housing packages on board two premium Holland America Line ocean liners, MS Westerdam and MS Noordam. The two vessels will provide a total of 1,900 sleeping rooms. During the month-long event beginning June 10, 2010, the ships will be dockside at Cape Town, Elizabeth, and Durban for key matches. The 3,800 on-board guests will have the opportunity to attend games in World Cup stadiums in all three locations with transport available to other matches.

Packages will rival similar four- and five-star hotels with added benefits such as top level security, included entertainment on board, and all meals in a choice of restaurants. Shipboard guests have the advantage of only one check-in and transport from venue to venue, as well as the option to experience South Africa with concierge-assisted land excursions.

“The value for attendees staying on board is unmatched, given a cruise ship’s all-inclusive offerings, comfortable surroundings and highest levels of security and service, as well as transport between venue cities and stadiums”, states Joyce Landry, CEO of Landry & Kling. “While individual bookings have been selling rapidly, we are delighted to partner with One Ocean Club to secure blocks of cabins that would be attractive for soccer clubs, sports marketing companies and corporate groups.”

To promote the floating hotel World Cup packages, Landry & Kling has launched www.WorldCupCruise.com. The web site offers information on packages, cruise ship accommodations, match schedules, venues and booking details. Package pricing starts from $645 per person, based on double occupancy. For group planning assistance, contact Landry & Kling at 800-448-9002 or +1-305-661-1880. 

About Landry & Kling
Landry & Kling Inc., specialists in cruise event services, are credited with being the first distribution channel between the cruise industry and corporate America. Visionaries who led the way in seagoing corporate meetings and incentives, founders Joyce Landry and Josephine Kling ignited the corporate market for cruises by spearheading the meetings-at-sea concept back in 1982.  With their exclusive focus on cruise events and meetings-at-sea, they have played a crucial role in advancing the cruise ship as a viable meeting venue and creating a whole new focus for the industry. Landry & Kling leads the field in cruise ship charters for global events and “floating hotels” (e.g. for the Jacksonville Super Bowl and Summit of the Americas in Trinidad) in addition to incentive cruises and all kinds of meetings at sea. Now, 28 years since their startup, they have responded to changing times in the meetings industry by creating Seasite.com, the first online cruise portal designed for meeting/event planners and group travel buyers. Partners Landry & Kling were inducted into the Cruise Lines International Hall of Fame in 2009. To learn more about Landry & Kling, visit http://www.landrykling.com.

If you are looking for an exciting, innovative venue for an upcoming convention, conference or trade show that will ensure great attendance with its wide-ranging appeal, you may want to consider hosting your next event on a cruise ship. Whether you opt for a dockside charter or an event at sea, cruise ships – which can accommodate up to 5,000 people – will significantly increase the appeal of your event.

Attending a conference or convention on a cruise ship will be something new and exciting for most people, and will be enticing enough to convince indecisive folks that they should definitely attend.

Cruise ships offer a self-contained venue with all of the services and amenities you need for a successful event or meeting at sea and can be organized in a way that will support a variety of event budgets. They also provide the opportunity to have a willingly captive audience for your event, particularly if you opt for a full-ship charter, which allows you to customize the entire venue and schedule, including liberal logo placement to increase awareness and recognition of your brand.

When you opt to host your next conference, trade show or convention on a cruise ship, it is sure to be a memorable event that will have the attendees talking about you and your planning services long after they are back on shore, ensuring that they will remember your company name the next time they are in need of event planning services.

As Cruising Slashes the Cost of Land Based Venues by 25-40%,

Planners Can Persevere with Today’s Shrinking Budgets

MIAMI, FL (Sept. 29, 2009) – Cutting costs without compromising quality or creativity is top of mind with meeting planners these days.  With that in mind, the fact remains that meetings and incentives held at sea, verses traditional land-based programs, can reduce costs by 25-40%.  But for those unfamiliar with staging events on board cruise ships, the process can be intimidating.  With the debut of Seasite.com, the first and only web portal dedicated solely to serving the cruise meeting market, planners will find what was once labor intensive, is now quick, simple and accessible all in one place.

The first and only comprehensive online marketplace for planning cruise meetings and events, Seasite is a revolutionary approach to ship selection and onboard event planning.  “It is the new frontier of cruise meetings and incentives, allowing you to do more with less,” says Josephine Kling, Seasite CEO.  “And beyond the affordability factor is the ability to design and customize and implement a program that is unique, client focused and unforgettable,” she adds.

Seasite demystifies the process and puts users in control so that meetings at sea can now be planned as easily as land based meetings.  Driven by sophisticated technology, super rich content and robust ship-search capabilities, Seasite puts incentive and meeting management companies, corporate or independent meeting planners and other group event organizers in total “cruise” control.  For those needing assistance, Cruise Advisors are on hand by chat, phone or email.  And for those already comfortable with organizing events at sea, Seasite’s sophisticated search and content rich data, coupled with its unique eRFP process, saves time and simplifies the process.  There is no cost or membership fee to use Seasite. Continue reading »

If you positioned 41 double-decker London buses back to back, you’d have an idea of just how long the Queen Mary 2 luxury liner is. Impressive as this is, size isn’t all the Queen Mary 2 has going for her. Three fourths of her rooms include private balconies and suites come in a wide range of comfort and price. The cozy Princess suites may be ideal for your clients; or they may prefer the ultimate luxury of the ship’s deluxe apartments.

Chilled champagne and sugar iced strawberries set the stage in the sumptuous quarters known as the Queens Grill Suites. Your client will have his every need met and catered to by the personal butler service. Travelers can make use of one of five swimming pools, a casino, a ballroom, and fifteen restaurants. The planetarium onboard doubles as a movie theater, offering guests their choice of stars – ones created in the heavens or ones created in Hollywood.

The Queen Mary 2 is a tribute to a more genteel golden age of ocean travel. Her ports of call include New York, Cherbourg, and Barbados. This beautiful ocean liner is the perfect setting for high-powered meetings, luxury vacations, or incentive travel.

Want to plan a cruise meeting event?  Meetings at sea are a great motivational incentive for employees.  Meetings and incentives held at sea, verses traditional land-based programs, can reduce costs by 25-40%. But for those unfamiliar with staging events on board cruise ships, the process can be intimidating. With the debut of Seasite.com, the first and only web portal dedicated solely to serving the cruise meetings market, planners will find what was once labor intensive, is now quick, simple and accessible all in one place.

The first and only comprehensive online marketplace for planning cruise meetings and events, Seasite is a revolutionary approach to ship selection and onboard event planning.  Try it today!

To supplement housing for this prestigious meeting, where leaders of 53 Commonwealth countries will convene to discuss global, political and economic issues, Landry & Kling has secured two ships on behalf of the GORTT, Royal Caribbean’s Serenade of the Seas and Princess Cruises’ Caribbean Princess, which will be docked within walking distance of the Hyatt Regency, the host venue.  In addition to supplementing local accommodations with up to 2,500 more sleeping rooms, the ships will also function as adjunct convention facilities and dining venues to complement the Hyatt Hotel.  A host of meetings will be held on board the two cruise ships, and a casino will be transformed into a trade show with up to 20 table-top exhibits.

During the recent Fifth Summit of the Americas in Port of Spain, Princess Cruises’ “floating hotel” Caribbean Princess was the venue for 2 days of Plenary Sessions, luncheons, and Closing Ceremonies for the Private Sector Forum and for all Youth Forum Events on April 15-16. The ship was docked adjacent to the Hyatt Regency Trinidad.

“We are thrilled and honored to have been chosen to play a pivotal role in making this important gathering a success,” said Joyce Landry, CEO of Landry & Kling.  She added, “This project has been months in the making, and we look forward to putting our creativity and expertise to work on behalf of this prestigious event.”

As with any meeting of global governments, and particularly one as multifaceted as this is, there are a number of key aspects beyond the housing element that come into play for the Landry & Kling team, such as government protocol, security, multiple event logistics and the efficient flow of thousands of people from venue to venue to ensure a seamless operation.

While the actual CHOGM retreat will take place from November 27-29, the ships will arrive in Port of Spain on November 22nd and 23rd, as will participants for parallel events such as the Youth Forum and the Commonwealth Business Forum.  To accommodate the week-long activities, Landry & Kling will be staffed 30 strong in strategic locations – the airport, cruise terminal, accreditation centers, and on board the ships – to ensure the event is staged with exact precision and flow.

As the premier company organising cruise events around the globe for more than 27 years, providing additional housing where demand for accommodations outstrips supply, has been one of Landry & Kling’s hallmarks.
What the concept of floating hotels means is that port cities and destinations around the world who never dreamed of hosting world class events and meetings can now vie for their share of the pie.

Beverly Khan, Deputy National Coordinator for the National Secretariat said, “Landry & Kling was the invisible force that brought it all together” during the Fifth Summit of the Americas.  She noted that the cruise event specialists provided close to 3,000 rooms for attendees and a venue for pre-Summit events and planning sessions ranging from 400 to over 1,000 people for various parallel events including a live simulcast onboard the vessels for the opening ceremony followed by receptions onboard.

About Landry & Kling

Landry & Kling, cruise event specialists and pioneers of the meetings-at-sea concept, provide turnkey solutions for the planning and implementation of global meetings and events-at-sea.  Throughout its 27-year history of creating and delivering highly personalized, results-driven and unforgettable cruise events, Landry & Kling’s services and expertise has been in incentive travel, ship buy-outs, multiple dockside ship charters for global events and other on-board corporate functions, from site selection and ship sourcing, to contract negotiations and custom cruise planning.

In April 2009, Landry & Kling co-founders Jo Kling and Joyce Landry were inducted into the CLIA Hall of Fame, recognizing their significant contributions and innovations in the cruise industry.  The company, which is based in Miami, the Cruise Capital of the World, is certified as a diversity supplier by WBENC (Women’s Business Enterprise National Council) and was been named among the Top Small Businesses in the United States by DiversityBusiness.com.

In an unprecedented move that will revolutionize the cruise industry, this fall Landry & Kling will debut Seasite.com, the only online cruise platform for meeting and event planners.  (www.seasite.com)

For more information on Landry & Kling, visit www.landrykling.com or call 800-448-9002.