Celebrity Cruises: Gaining an Edge in the market

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The sister ships are also likely to be identical, “as long as we don't make any big blunders with the first,” she laughs.

The new vessels might not be set to be homeported in the UK, but agents here are at least likely to be able to check them out. Lutoff-Perlo is unable to confirm much at this early stage, but she insists that the “intention” is to showcase Project Edge to UK agents around the time of the first ship’s launch, scheduled to be around October.

The ships are also not expected to be positioned to solely serve the Chinese market, unlike a number of other lines which have announced plans to target this sector, including sister line Royal Caribbean, which is actively targeting Chinese travellers.

“At this point in time we are not considering doing China like Royal,” Lutoff-Perlo says. “We do have ships in Asia, but our goal is to develop the Chinese outbound market to other regions, not just those that want to holiday in the area.

“We are looking to raise our prices. That’s our mission.”

Lisa lutoff-Perlo

“We will continue to look at that market and the best opportunity for us, [but] we are about a longer cruise offering. As we read about more and more of our competitors going in there, I think it’s a better opportunity for us as a brand to continue to develop our international crowd – we have a lot of British, Canadian, American, Australian and a good percentage of Asian people. That’s our strategy – to develop that.”

For now though, the line’s focus is on wave – both here and the US, where the peak season begins slightly later, around January 4. Rzymowska says the UK team are “cautiously optimistic” about sales – “the signs are that it is good so far”,” she says.

There have been murmurs in the trade that cruise is performing notably better than other sectors, as the public seek “safer” holidays following the devastating number of terror attacks across the world in recent months. “We’re getting anecdotal reports that cruise is punching above its weight compared with land holidays,” says Rzymowska.

Agents not seeing such positivity however, might be tempted down the controversial path of discounting.

I ask Rzymowska what her advice would be to agents that do decide to slash prices. “Don’t,” she replies simply. “That would be my advice.”

Instead, Rzymowska and Lutoff-Perlo want to do the opposite. “We’re looking to raise our prices,” Lutoff-Perlo says. “That’s our mission.”

Elsewhere, the line is also busy with the refurbishment of its Millennium class, and looking at where it can “remove barriers to cruising”. This was the reasoning behind last month’s decision to scrap formal night onboard Celebrity sailings.

These have now been replaced with “elegant chic” nights, meaning passengers no longer have to wear bow ties and long dresses, and can interpret the label however they wish.

“It’s been predominantly well-received,” says Lutoff-Perlo. “Some people say they are put off cruising by the formality of it; we have to break down barriers to cruise – we have to get more people cruising.

“I thought we would have more people that were critical of this decision,” she admits. “But most have said ‘it’s about time’.

“You’re always going to get some criticism though. You’re not really doing your job properly if you don’t,” she adds with a grin.­