“The shower curtains were an easy fix,” she tells TTG the day after she disembarked Azamara Quest in Italy. “We now have new bamboo cloth curtains in every cabin on each ship.”
No one can accuse Ritzenthaler of not throwing herself into her new job. In her first two weeks at the helm of Azamara, Ritzenthaler flew across the Atlantic, sailed on two Azamara ships in Europe, gave a keynote speech at Clia UK and Ireland’s conference, spoke to TTG – and signed off the new curtains. It’s the kind of unrelenting schedule UK and Irish agents will sit up and take notice of.
Fleet expansion
So how does Ritzenthaler plan to grow the four-ship line? Intriguingly, she has already discussed the fleet’s future with Azamara’s owners Sycamore Partners. “Our ships are beautifully appointed – and I love that they are small," she says. "But I want us to grow our fleet.
"During the interview process, I told Sycamore I want us to grow. Their answer was extremely clear. They said, ’Dondra, you have to make the brand so profitable that we have zero hesitation in giving you that new-build’."
She adds: "When I decide I want something, I will not stop until I get what I want. We really have to earn the new-build [ship].”
Ritzenthaler says any new-build would ideally be “a little bit bigger” than the line’s existing ships – the 702-passenger Azamara Journey, Azamara Pursuit and Azamara Quest and the 684-passenger Azamara Onward – which were originally bought and refurbished.
She promises to seek the views of senior leaders within Azamara, as well as from guests and travel agents, to make sure they have a say in the new-build’s design.
Ritzenthaler also believes there is work to be done in how the brand markets itself. “We’ve got to get our brand positioning right,” she explains. “I think it’s clear, but it could be clearer. We are the global leader in small-ship immersion cruising, with more late and overnight calls, and we do specially curated ’AzAmazing’ evenings. That is our message.”
Career path
Ritzenthaler brought the curtain down on her 20-year career with Celebrity Cruises in April last year announcing that she was “retiring” from her roles as senior vice-president of sales.
Reflecting on that period today, Ritzenthaler says: “When I ’retired’, I really didn’t know if I could handle retirement. I ended up climbing the walls. I missed being fulfilled and I missed travel advisors.
"I decided with my husband and my family that I was open to looking at other opportunities – I love the sports world so I thought there would be an opportunity there.”
Around that time, Azamara’s chair Dan Hanrahan, who was Celebrity Cruises’ chief executive until 2012, called his former colleague Ritzenthaler. He asked to talk to her about the chief executive role at Azamara.
"I couldn’t say ‘yes’ fast enough,” Ritzenthaler smiles. “Humbly, when I started in travel 40 years ago, I didn’t think I would have the opportunity to be chief executive, but I have that desire to create a winning culture and that environment where people are motivated to win.”
Who’s to say the pathway to profit and a new-build ship doesn’t start with replacing the shower curtains?
