Royal Caribbean’s UK trade sales executives have unveiled a raft of trade-friendly initiatives, from opportunities to get on the line’s newest ship Legend of the Seas to an advisory board.
The cruise line will launch the next Icon Class ship from Civitavecchia (Rome) next July and the ship will return to Europe the following summer.
Speaking at London venue Fulham Pier to 80 trade and media partners, senior sales director Aaron Langford said: “It is very important for us to recognise our trade partners who make a lot of bookings for us and are invested in the brand.
“I’m really thrilled that we’ve been able to do that today and [will be] giving more to people that sell our brand.”
He revealed there will be allocations for 500 people from the EMEA region on Legend of the Seas next August as part of the line’s biggest ’Seminar at Sea’ training initiative.
This will be followed by another Seminar at Sea opportunity in the Caribbean in November 2026.
These are in addition to family ship visits taking place between May and November 2026, with dates to be confirmed in the New Year.
Another initiative Royal Caribbean will be launching for this year will be a regular advisory panel every other month, with the first to take place next week around the topic of accessibility.
Future events will be based on topics that “we feel are important to our brand and the industry,” Langford said.
He added: “I know there are gaps and we do not know absolutely everything.
“We want to hear from the experts about what we do well and what we need to do better and build something for the future together.”
In addition, he promised to take ’Royal on the Road’ initiative “a step further” next year.
“If you want us to come and take over a whole call centre or store, we will give you the opportunity to have a first-class takeover experience from Royal Caribbean and there will be no charge,” he said.
Director of sales enablement for the EMEA region, Nicki Lewis, added the cruise line will be adding another tier to the company’s agent rewards programme Upper Deck, called Upper Deck 250.
“Upper Deck 250 is going live today and that is an overlay on Upper Deck 100 and Upper Deck,” she said.
“Any member of Upper Deck that claims over £250,000 worth of bookings through the programme will become a member of this exclusive club.”
Upper Deck 250 members will gain a guaranteed place at travel agent advisory panel, a guaranteed place on any of Royal Caribbean’s ship launches, no matter where they are and £200 cashback on their own holiday.
There will also be a wider choice of events tickets as incentive prizes on Upper Deck, she revealed, from concert and Winter Wonderland tickets to Big Feastival, Fulham Football Club matches and Six Nations games up for grabs.
Next year, Langford said the family-friendly cruise line will be launching a podcast and AI updates to its My Royal Genie personalised digital brochure tool so that it will be “a huge sales closing tool” for frontline agents.
