After shedding four of its oldest ships and with a brand-new Pinnacle-class ship (Rotterdam) about to debut, Holland America Line (HAL) is at a pivotal moment for its return to cruising.
Gus Antorcha, the former chief operating officer of Carnival Cruise Line, was named president of HAL in July 2020. Earlier this month, we spoke about HAL’s future while onboard Koningsdam as the ship was being readied for its first sailing out of San Diego, Calif.
Koningsdam is your third ship to relaunch coming out of the pandemic. Why was California chosen to be a sailing port so early in this process?
The logic was pretty straightforward. We were really focused on the Alaska restart, so we had the ship positioned to go to Alaska. Once you commit to Alaska, the counter season is Southern California.
Gus Antorcha (left) with a Port of San Diego representative and the captain of HAL Koningsdam during a plaque trading ceremony in mid-October
Credit: 2021 David Swanson
Are you exceeding mandates that the Port of San Diego requires regarding COVID-19 protocols?
How we’re operating meets or exceeds every port we sail from. The Port of San Diego and California don’t have the mask requirements that we’re currently operating with, so I think we exceed it. Sometimes it’s not even on a state level — we’re dealing with municipalities and cities. We try to keep it consistent for the guests. We’re cruising exclusively out of the U.S. through April, and [guidelines] will be consistent [across the fleet].
What kind of contact-tracing procedures are in place?
There’s no electronic wristband tracking — you don’t need it to do contact tracing. It facilitates things, potentially, but we know where people eat, where they run transactions. We interview people they travel with, we know who serves them at dinner, and we know who cleans their room.
If a positive case is debarked, who picks up the bill for a hotel?
If it happens when you’re onboard, we do. I’m not sure how much longer we’ll do it, but we’ve made that commitment. Every port we visit, we have agreements in place that we can debark if we have a COVID-19 case. I’ve actually found enormous support from our guests for masks, for vaccines, for testing. Wearing a mask all day is a pain, but they understand what’s at risk for us, and they feel safer.
I’ve actually found enormous support from our guests for masks, for vaccines, for testing.
The next ship in service will be Rotterdam. How many ships will be sailing at the end of this year?
We’ll have six, including Zuiderdam and Nieuw Statendam. Zuiderdam was meant to start (in San Diego) a couple weeks ago, but Hawaii is not really open, and that represented 30-plus days of voyages. It made no sense for us to staff up the ship and then shut her down. So we took that crew and moved them to different ships that are ramping up, and pushed Zuiderdam’s start to Dec. 23. We’ll pick up the Hawaii cruises then. The last five ships will mostly likely come back in when the summer season starts in Alaska and Europe.
Is the Holland America brand being positioned for a younger audience?
I’m totally not worried about making the brand younger. If we build the product that differentiates us, if we articulate the service level, if we add enrichment and interesting itineraries, the age will be what the age will be. When you look at (the age of our cruisers in) the Caribbean and Alaska, it’s surprisingly young — not too far away from Carnival [Cruise Line].
Who’s your competition?
I think land [touring] is our biggest competition. But within the cruise category, it’s Celebrity Cruises, although their product is very different. Our guests don’t have an interest in being young and hip, and their itineraries are not as interesting.
How we differentiate Holland America Line — the core elements, and how we create that clarity in the market — is muddled right now.
We’re a brand that travels the world — all the nooks and crannies and everything in between. How we differentiate Holland America Line — the core elements, and how we create that clarity in the market — is muddled right now. I don’t think we’ve done a good job articulating the uniqueness of this brand. It may lead to some tweaking where we add more experiential or enrichment onboard.
Is there overlap between the Princess and Holland America brands?
I don’t think so. There’s overlap with every cruise brand, because [cruising] is very occasion-based. If someone is going [on a cruise] with a bunch of their kids, personally I’d go on Carnival. If I was looking for something with the grandparents, children and grandkids, and they want to explore and have that more intimate experience in the Baltic Sea, let’s say, I’d choose Holland America Line.
But where there is overlap is Alaska. Princess and Holland America, together — we represent the vast majority of deployment in Alaska. You will be making a mistake if you put your client on another cruise line. I think we need to do a better job differentiating what the experience is. On Holland America, our service level is different, and how the crew interacts with the guests is different. It’s a bit more elegant, it’s warmer, in some ways it’s a little quieter and more refined. The ships are also smaller and more intimate.
Tell me about the Have It All package Holland America now offers.
Clearly, the industry was moving this way, so we felt it was important competitively, and the guests were clearly asking for it. The big difference is, it’s driven by guest feedback. We debated going all-inclusive, and part of the team wanted that, but it didn’t make sense. The shore excursion is included, versus the gratuity — $100 per person, and it escalates as the voyage gets longer. It’s commissionable revenue, so the trade loves it.
What are the bundled elements?
All drinks, a tour credit, Wi-Fi access, and one credit toward specialty dining. Because we’re bundling, we can give a pretty meaningful discount. If you take the retail value of those pieces versus what the guest pays, it’s about a 50% discount. We need to work on the communications, because I think the value is lost in our current marketing, but it’s quite a good value.
Is there any other news coming out of Holland America Line over the next year?
I actually want us to go longer in deployment. If you look at our mix in the Caribbean, we’re still doing a lot of seven-day (itineraries). I want to go to the southern part of the Caribbean. Everyone’s been to Grand Cayman and Jamaica — I don’t want to be battling it out with Carnival, Royal [Caribbean] and Norwegian Cruise Line on the same seven-day Caribbean itineraries.
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