Just over a year ago, Ambassador merged with French cruise line Compagnie Française de Croisieres to form the Ambassador Group. A third ship – called Renaissance – joined the fleet following the agreement.
The fully-refurbished 1,200-passenger ship launched under its new Ambassador branding last autumn with a programme of fly-cruise Caribbean sailings.
Speaking at a trade event in Portsmouth on Wednesday (22 April), chief marketing officer Gordon Nardini insisted the line would not stop at three medium-sized vessels.
He said: “I said last July we would announce a fourth ship this year. I stand by that. I can't say any more than that. We will never build a new ship.”
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Nick Hughes, the line’s chief operating officer, confirmed Ambassador would generally always look to “refurbish” ships. “We stop them going to be destroyed. We stop them going to waste. People love them,” he said.
Head of distribution Nicola Harper added: “Our chief executive Christian Verhounig has never been shy about talking about our growth plans. Ultimately, we’re here to grow.”
The trio, though, remained tight-lipped about when exactly a new vessel would be announced this year. However, they did reveal the line’s fuel costs are fully hedged until “the end of 2027”, thanks to a deal secured “four months ago”, which reduces its exposure to rising operational costs caused by the Iran war.
This week, TravCorp group chief executive Andy Freeth told delegates at the Barclays Travel Forum the Middle East crisis had caused operational issues that have been as bad as during the pandemic.
Hughes explained: “We typically book ahead for the whole season. We want to make sure that costs are as fixed as possible.
“Obviously, you can never say never. We do have a very good relationship with our fuel broker. I’m actually meeting them on Thursday. We work with a very well-known industry broker.”
He added: “We’re a very unusual industry in the sense that we sell our product up two years before. It’s a weird way of selling but that’s the holiday business.”
'Cruise is definitely going to grow'
Nardini confirmed Ambassador is currently 87% sold for 2026 before adding he hoped to see the cruise’s share of the overall holiday market grow this year.
“If we can nudge it up by a couple of percentage points that would be great,” he said. “The big cruise lines are not stopping either. The cruise industry is definitely going to grow.”
Harper added: “Demand for our 2027 and 2028 sailings is absolutely there. We will naturally see a spike in bookings once this [ex-Portsmouth] season ends.”
The line has offered four departures from Portsmouth this year and will operate another four in 2027. Harper said the line tended to attract “more experienced cruisers” who may have been put off cruising with other cruise lines that chased “innovation”.
“At Ambassador, we see more experienced passengers. Innovation in the industry is great but some of the more renowned cruise lines are forgetting the more traditional cruise element,” she said.
“We see a lot of growth from traditional cruisers who want those core cruise values. We do see new-to-cruise passengers but we also see sailors who have cruised before.”
Ambassador’s guerrilla marketing campaign in Southampton – a UK port which the line doesn’t currently offer departures from – looks set to continue.
Ambassador-branded purple flags first appeared on West Quay and Town Quay Road first appeared in summer 2024, including outside Carnival House, the offices for five Carnival Corporation brands.
Nardini said: “Let’s be honest here, we’re a challenger brand and Southampton is the UK’s biggest cruise port. This is a bit of guerrilla market. The flags are not coming down any time soon.”
