19 October 2011; SMC Atlanta, Georgia.

Today we finished our three day Senior Management Conference or SMC and we are now all returning to the ships so that the 2^nd group can attend next week. That means that I will be flying from Atlanta to San Jose in Costa Rica tomorrow morning. There I will say overnight and then the next morning will be transported to Puerto Caldera where the ship is. The ships staff on board will then go the other way for their meeting. That ride between San Jose and Puerto Caldera is always of great interest and as it is mainly downhill, steeply downhill and some bus drivers have the most peculiar ideas about what a safe speed is to go down the mountain, and when or not to overtake. I have made that ride twice before and in both cases the cab driver considered the brake a nuisance and oncoming traffic of only minor concern. Their concern, not his. So that will be an interesting experience again.

The SMC is attended by Captains, Hotel managers, Chief Officers, Chief Engineers and S.E.H officers. (Formerly the Environmental officers)This year we also had the IT officers in attendance as electronics become more and more a part of our daily life. The conference has a theme each year and this time it was New Horizons; a name aptly chosen as for the first time some of our colleague’s from Seabourn were present as well. As everybody knows, Seabourn is now managed by Holland America although it will remain a COMPLETELY separate product. However navigation, safety and ships management are the same for each ship and every company, so here it works out to have joint meetings. Each company has developed procedures for anything and everything and by comparing those, you can pick the best one or merge the two to improve total outcome.

So what do we talk about? First there is the State of the Business where our Sr. VP Fleet Operations takes us through the results of the past, the current situation and the future. The last two years we were not as profitable as before due to the recession, but now we are on the up again. If you check the Carnival Corporation website you can see that on the balance sheets which are freely available for all the years. This is normally followed by presentations by the various Vice Presidents about changes that are coming and product or operational enhancements that are being implemented. One of the major topics is fuel reduction. Hal does not want to add a surcharge to the cruise ticket so we all try to find ways to reduce fuel consumption while still delivering the same guest product. This can be done by installing more and new machinery but also talking to the captains to they see if they know ways to reduce fuel by adjusting speeds, taking advantage of currents, optimizing engine settings etc. etc. We are doing very well here; each year we save over 2% on the projected budget, and that means that in the last 10 years we have brought our fuel consumption down by more than 20%. So while the fuel prices have been going up, we have reduced our consumption in a similar way and that made it possible for the company to keep the ticket prices lower. If you brain storm with 15 colleagues about these things, it is amazing what you can come up with. Captains are normally good in thinking outside the box, as they are not directly involved in the detailed running of a shipboard department but there to keep oversight.

Other items that we discuss are new ports, advantages of one port against the other; if you have to deviate what port is the best, based on weather, port costs, fuel costs, shorex options and general guest satisfaction. The latter we find out through the comment onboard forms filled out by the guests before the end of the cruise. The rating system goes from 1 to 9 and year after year Quebec receives the highest ratings. We have numbers for all other ports as well, so you can choose from multiple ports if you have to cancel the scheduled port for whatever reason, then it makes more sense for the captain to pick the higher rated port, as he then knows that at least he has a better chance of pleasing the guests than otherwise would be the case.

We spent three days on these subjects and a lot more. Sometimes with the whole group of over a 100, and sometimes in breakout sessions with only your peers present. Apart from the educational part there is also the social side. With the fleet so large you hardly see your colleagues any more with whom you went through the ranks and thus this is an excellent chance to catch up. With the aid of corporate sponsors we were able to visit an American football game (Atlanta Falcons against Carolina Panthers, Falcons won….) and to go to the World of Coca Cola. Both things I had never seen before.  We also spent one afternoon working on a good cause, by upgrading a public garden in the Martin Luther King national park here in Atlanta. After seeing a short movie of his life, his church and grave site, all 100 present where let loose on weeding, planting flowers, building a doggy park, planting trees, clearing grass land etc. etc. It was quite funny to see that the non-technical people (Hotel managers etc) tackled the building projects while the more technical minded focused on flowers etc. This was not planned, it just went that way. I kept myself busy with watering plants and newly planted trees, which under the hot Atlanta sun, was quite a useful activity.

During one of the meetings our Sr.VP Fleet Operations made a statement which very much put all our work here in perspective:  You are only as good as your next achievement………………………

And that is what all of us will work on during the coming period.

Our next meeting will be in 18 months again, so April 2013. The advantage will then be that most of us will not have to fly that far, as the Europe season will not have started yet.