The main pillars of a cruiser's experience are food, beverages, internet access and excursions, according to David Herrera, Norwegian Cruise Line's (NCL) president. After conducting research with guests, travel advisors and employees, the line decided to enhance several of those components by replacing its Free at Sea program with More at Sea beginning on Jan. 1. Herrera spoke with cruise editor Andrea Zelinski about the changes and how the brand is using them to refine its brand positioning.
David Herrera
Q: Why make this change? And why now?
A: More at Sea is an enhancement to our Free at Sea product, but "more" is, no pun intended, so much more here at NCL. I can tell you that for the first time in a long time, the NCL brand has an overarching strategy. It's an ethos. It's not just changing from Free at Sea to More at Sea. It's about giving our guests what they want.
We've been listening to our guests and our partners now more than ever. We've relied on consumer research now more than ever. And "more" encapsulates what it is that our brand stands for. "More" doesn't mean a little extra of anything. "More" means more variety. "More" means more optionality. "More" means giving our guests and our partners the tools and the resources to build their best cruise vacation. For us, More at Sea is not just an evolution of Free at Sea, it's an enhancement to what we've had at NCL.
Q: You've emphasized the word "more." In your consumer research, is that the key word consumers want to hear?
A: It's an embodiment of what consumers want. They want more value. They want more variety. Everybody wants more. When they're on vacation, everyone's trying to have the best time that they can. And what our research has shown us is that there is no typical cruise customer. A family of four has four unique individuals, and each one has their own component they want to emphasize. What do we mean by more? Not only do we mean more optionality, which is a given, but literally more value by providing more.
Q: What are the components of this package?
A: We made it a point to collapse the premium beverage into the regular beverage package. We [exempted] some of the higher-end brands, like Johnny Walker Blue, but almost all of the brands that were in the Premium Plus package are now in the base More at Sea package. We actually have 45% more brands in the base package than we had before. We increased the number of dining nights in our standard seven-night package: A balcony cabin used to get two, now you get three.
Q: Your complimentary WiFi is also changing. Has NCL always used a minute structure with WiFi?
A: We're different than other cruise lines; we provide free minutes. If someone chooses not to purchase any WiFi, fine, it's great. You still get free minutes. Before it used to be 75 minutes; it's now 150. So the idea is to provide people free minutes and then giving them the option if they want to upgrade, if they want to continue to use WiFi, they can.
Q: Is the strategy that people will pay more for this package?
A: This goes back to the idea of price vs. deal, right? You could be the low-cost provider, or you could provide the most value. You really can't do both, right? I'm comfortable with the changes we've made and the way that we're explaining the different components within the More at Sea package, the value is going to jump off the page. I'm very confident that this is exactly the package that our guests have been wanting. They want more optionality.