Azamara Cruises has plenty of new things to talk about.
To hear more about the brand’s bright future — including the appointment of a new CEO — we spoke with Michelle Lardizabal, chief sales officer for North America for the brand.
What can you tell us about Azamara’s changing leadership team, including new chair Dan Hanrahan and new CEO Dondra Ritzenthaler?
We're excited about Dondra joining us, and it's wonderful to have Dan as our chair. They are two well-known, experienced industry executives, and they bring a wealth of knowledge and excitement to the brand.
Dan has come in to help us strive [toward] growth. If you remember, Azamara Onward joined us midway through 2022 as the fourth ship in our fleet; that growth is really important to us. We want to evolve and create new experiences, new itineraries, touch different parts of the world to really engage our loyal guests and also target new-to-Azamara travelers.
Our business is built in partnership with the trade — it's what we continue to focus on in terms of driving growth.
Then, Dondra’s experience and reputation with the trade is phenomenal. Our business is built in partnership with the trade — it's what we continue to focus on in terms of driving growth. [We aim to] be the best partner to our travel partners and to grow our business collectively.
How has this year’s wave season been for Azamara sales?
We started very strong, and just yesterday we had another top day — our second-best booking day of all wave seasons.
We've gotten an incredibly positive response from not only our guests, but also our travel partners. And we're seeing the demand continue, with incredible bookings for both 2024 and 2025.We expect the momentum to continue.
What is trending in the world of Azamara, in terms of itineraries?
Our Asia and Japan destination-intensives have sold out for 2024, and we're seeing really strong bookings into 2025. We also put into the marketplace for 2025 Canada and New England itineraries; we haven’t been in Canada in almost a decade. We’ve just opened itineraries in the latter part of 2024 for Canada/New England coming down to the Caribbean and Panama, and those are getting tremendous lift, too.
Our world cruise is selling fast, and, of course, Europe is a mainstay for us. Our destination-intensive itineraries in Greece, Italy, Croatia and more continue to get a lot of interest. It's something that Azamara pioneered.We hear from agents time and time again that we have the best itineraries, and it's simply because we [spend] the most time in the destination, with our late-night stay [and] extended destination days, where we have 10 hours or more in port.
Can we expect any updates to the ships? Maybe the Atlas Bar going fleet-wide?
I can't confirm anything at this time, but it’s interesting that you say Atlas Bar, because when we brought out Onward, transforming the library into that space was so well-received. That takes some construction, [but] we haven't let the opportunity pass us by. We really listened to our customers, who are saying they love the drinks. We brought some of the Atlas Bar drinks over, so that you can order them in our Den, which is on all four of our ships.
Why should agents be selling Azamara now and into the future?
We wouldn't be where we are without our travel partners, so we're always looking at how we educate, engage, listen [and] take in their feedback. What we hear is really resonating is the destination immersion — the fact that we are in more time in port. Helping our travel partners share that message [is important], so we created a new travel partner portal, Azamara Connect, which has all of the latest offers, the tools that they need to market and sell, as well as the training to help educate them on our itineraries.
We offer exceptional experiences and service, and our travel partners are confident in selling us.
What we offer [is] such an incredible value, whether you're in a suite or a balcony, our inclusions of gratuities and of beverages — whether it's a drink before dinner, a glass of wine during dinner and that specialty coffee in the morning when you wake up. Having those included just makes sailing with us so easy.
The most important thing for us is to hear from our travel partners. We want to engage. It's one of the wonderful things about a company like ours; we offer exceptional experiences and service, and our travel partners are confident in selling us. That is something that will not change as we go forward.
