Carnival’s Aussie Spirit

CARNIVAL Cruise Line held an event in Sydney last night to celebrate the launch of its largest ever Australian program in 2020.

The brand’s continual growth in demand and capacity in Australia has been attributed by Carnival’s vice president Australia Jennifer Vandekreeke to “handpicking the right experiences for our Australian guests”.

However the journey to understand what Australians desire in a cruise hasn’t always been smooth sailing.

“One of the biggest things we learned is that Australians won’t complain, they don’t want to be whingers and we respect that but our crew is used to New Yorkers who give us an instant negative feedback loop,” Vandekreeke explained.

“You really have to put it out there to find out what Australian cruise guests want changed.”

As a result, Carnival has curated many experiences specifically for the Australian market.

“Aussies get stuck into everything from trivia, bingo and they are really loving our new crafts studio on board,” Vandekreeke said.

“Carnival Spirit will be the first ship in the entire fleet to get Soulplay and it was designed for the Australian market because getting ‘touchy feely’ with crafts and creative stuff, particularly mothers and daughters and creating something is a real trend in Australia,” she added.

Carnival Cruise Line’s Jennifer Vandekreeke ( pictured) hops aboard Little Carnival at the 2019/2020 program launch party in Sydney last night.