Carnival takes tech to the sea, inspiration courtesy of Disney
INSIDE a clandestine Carnival Corp complex here, two former Disney executives have been plotting a drastic cruise industry overhaul. Their mission: Take lessons learned at Walt Disney World, where they helped bring about a $1 billion vacation management system involving Fitbit-style bracelets that link to personal information, and apply them to cruises. The result: Millions of passengers on Carnival ships will soon be using a similar but more advanced system that allows travellers to do everything from plan vacations to open stateroom doors to order poolside cocktails.
“As long as bigger, newer, cooler ships have kept coming, the cruise industry has treated guest liabilities – standing in long lines, having a frustrating embarkation experience – as acceptable,” said John Padgett, who joined Carnival in 2014 as chief experience and innovation officer after 18 years at Disney. “That thinking stops now.”
Carnival, which operates more than 100 ships worldwide under 10 brands, will unveil its ambitious technology initiative today at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. In a keynote speech, Arnold W Donald, Carnival’s chief executive, planned to announce that the system – an app called Ocean Compass paired with a quarter-size so-called smart medallion that can be carried in a pocket or worn as jewellry – will arrive on the company’s Princess Cruises fleet this year.
Donald declined in an interview to give a timeline for bringing the technology (code name: Trident) to other Carnival brands. But he emphasised that rolling out the personalised disks and app was a companywide priority.
“The cost is in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and, over time, more than that,” Donald said. “People want the world to be organised around them. On vacation, even more so.”
Analysts expect the technology to increase profits in multiple ways, including allowing Carnival to charge more for tickets, particularly on older ships. Ease of purchase is another big component – cruisers will be able to pay for food, drinks and merchandise simply by having their credit card-connected Ocean Medallion in their pocket. Carnival’s disks, each laser-etched with the guest’s name, will also power a new, shipwide gambling platform.
And Carnival gift shops will be stocked with a wide array of jewellery, clips and key chains that passengers can buy to carry and display their disks.
Carnival’s top rival, Royal Caribbean Cruises, already offers smartbands on high-end ships like the Anthem of the Seas. Called WOW bands, they serve as room keys, allow for wireless payment and make it faster and easier to embark and disembark.
But Carnival says that its offering takes such systems much further, in part because its technology is designed to be invisible. Unlike with smartbands, there is no need to tap a sensor on a stateroom door for entry; simply approaching the correct room with the Ocean Medallion in your pocket will unlock the door. Among the medallion system’s other offerings is a navigation tool designed to help family members find one another on the often-labyrinthine ships.
Under Donald, who took over Carnival in mid-2013 after a string of ship debacles, the company has boomed. In the most recent quarter, Carnival had a record $1.4 billion in net income, a 17 percent increase from the same period a year earlier.
But he remains under pressure to recruit new customers. About 24.2 million people worldwide took a cruise in 2016, according to the Cruise Lines International Association. That sounds like a lot, but “cruise vacations only represent about 2 percent of all vacations”, said David Beckel, an analyst at Bernstein Research.
The system that Carnival plans to introduce officially today still has a lot to prove. The technology will require the mass retraining of employees and substantial retrofitting of ships, including the installation of roughly 7,000 sensors per boat.
And do passengers really want to sacrifice privacy for personalisation? One feature will allow guests to watch live entertainment in ship lounges on their stateroom televisions – and the performers will know who is watching and will be trained to do shout-outs. (“Hello to Brooks, tuning in from his bed on the Promenade Deck!”)
Padgett acknowledged that some guests will have “creepiness factor” questions. But he expects the vast majority to participate.
“As long as you benefit the guest, they don’t mind sharing” personal information, he said.
Using the connected app, guests can order food to be delivered wher- ever they plan to be at a designated time. (Waiters will know who you are because your photograph will pop up on an iPad-style device when they get close to your medallion.) By loading preferences into the app while still at home, Carnival will be able to offer tailored lists of activities.
“The goal of preplanning is learning more about our guests,” said Michael G Jungen, who joined Carnival in 2015 as vice president for design and technology after 15 years at Disney. He noted that passengers would have the option of linking their medallions with social media accounts, allowing Carnival to delve even deeper.
As he gave a reporter a tour of the Carnival site, Padgett continually returned to the topic of Disney – how the cost of cruising compares with a family trip to Disney World, and how Disney frames vacations as overarching stories.
“The ultimate goal here,” he said, turning to a well-worn Disney phrase, “is to delight and surprise our guests.”