An Inside Look at Carnival's Your Peek at Paradise Event Series

Yeah, of course. So first of all, I'll just kind of look back a little bit. You know, you think back to all the different events that we do in the summer. We typically do a summer series. Obviously, we've done the Agent Palooza bus tour. We did that three years. We did the W, which was Why Us, a Travel Advisor. And last year we did Your Winning Plan. And then this year, because we are so excited about the launch of Celebration Key in Grand Bahama Island, which is going to be our exclusive destination that we are really excited to talk about, and we want agents to learn more about it because we know that their guests are going to love this destination. And if you think to some of the top-rated ports that we typically have, are our private destinations like Half Moon Key, like Amber Cove, even Grand Turk. And this event, you know, Celebration Key is not opening up until next year, July of 2025, but we wanted to get people excited about it because there's already 500 itineraries open for sale out of nine different home ports on the East Coast. And we're just so excited for agents to learn about it. This year, our summer series, Your Peak at Paradise, is really kind of a preview to the actual Celebration Key destination in Grand Bahama. We are really excited about this event. We just did our first one in Miami on June 8th. We're getting ready to do three more in person. So we have Baltimore, we have Atlanta, and Chicago, as well as a virtual event. It really is going to give the agents, the advisors, the ability to really kind of immerse themselves in what we're kind of thinking about for Celebration Key. We're working with the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism. They're going to help us with some of the food options. They're going to have a Junkanoo band at each of these events. So it's going to be a lot of fun for travel advisors, not to mention education.

Well, we were really excited because the day that we announced the series, we sold out. When I say sold out, we're not charging anything, but we filled up every single event by 9:00 p.m. that night. I think part of the reason people are really excited about it is because we're going to be giving out like magic golden keys. And if your golden key unlocks Your Peak at Paradise, you're actually going to get—we're going to have 10 travel advisors that are going to be flown to Grand Bahama overnighted, and they're going to get to see the space pre-being finished. It will actually be sometime in early January or February of 2025. So the place doesn't open until July, so they're going to get a sneak peek. They're going to get an idea as to how everything's kind of turning out. And I think that's one of the most exciting things about this event is that they're going to have that opportunity to win a spot to go and get a tour of it.

Well, the virtual event is going to happen at the same time that we're doing the Chicago event. So if you don't get a space in person, our virtual event is going to have all of the—obviously, you're not going to be there and you're not going to get to, you know, taste the food, but you'll have an opportunity to see all the stuff that we're doing. Like we're going to have a main stage. We have a few things set up. We have two experts on Celebration Key from Carnival that will be attending one or two of the events each, and that will be Glenn Ariel and Amy, who is our CMO. She's been very heavily involved in the project. So they'll be able to really, you know, get into details. We'll have like a fireside chat with them. They'll be able to talk about the destination, give some insights. So really, I mean, yes, it is a fun event in person and all, but at the end of the day, it really is supposed to be educational as well so that they get the opportunity to use this as a sales tool. Because what we're finding is those sailings to Celebration Key are selling at a premium. So therefore, that means more commission for travel advisors.

Yeah, like I was saying before, private destinations and exclusive destinations are typically very highly rated. We have already a few of them and they do really, really well. So this one, I think, is going to take it up a few notches. I think we're spending over $500 million initially on the destination, so you can imagine that's a pretty significant investment. And then by the—I forgot when, because the initial plans included one pier for up to two XL-class ships. The second phase will be another pier, so we'll be able to have up to four ships visiting this destination. It's a huge destination. It's got great places. We have the different portals there. We have a family-friendly zone. We have an adults-only pool area with a DJ, with a swim-up bar, as well as what do you call it, cabanas, some floating cabanas. And then we even have a beach club destination, which is also adults-only, but it's to the next level. It'll be a much more elevated experience for the guest attending that. And you know, having the ability to be so close to a destination is great for many reasons. A, it's easy to get to. B, from our fuel consumption targets and our carbon reduction, this really gives us an opportunity to go somewhere close by that's going to be very impactful for travel advisors as well as their guests. And I'm sure we'll have quite a few travel advisors. In fact, I've seen it on my Facebook. They're like, 'I'm already booked on the July sailing. It better be done on time.' But yeah, I think it's going to be really exciting. We're going to have a big gigantic sandcastle with slides. We're going to have a splash area for the kids. We're going to have a great retail area as well as food, all done by local Bahamians. So not only are we building this great destination in the Bahamas, but we're also going to make sure that we're helping the Bahamians in our efforts to, you know, as we always say, we want to leave every place we go better than it was before we got there. So this will give the opportunity to the locals to both sell food as well as artisanal things and all the great stuff that you find in the Bahamas.

Well, just keep a lookout on GoCCL to make sure that, you know, we might have spots open back up because, you know, everybody doesn't always go. We may have actually added a few extra because we typically get some washout. Although this one is on a Saturday, so typically when it's a Saturday, you can bring a guest. Most people show up. We found that when we went to Charlotte on our Agent Palooza bus tour a couple years ago, it was like over 600 people. So those events that are on weekends tend to be the most attended. So anyway, keep a lookout. If not, like worst comes to worst, you can always do the virtual event. You know, this is going to be, like I said, a premier destination with the largest freshwater lagoon in the Americas. It's going to be spectacular, and we are so excited. And like I said, these sailings are driving a premium, and whenever we have a premium, agents have a premium too. So learn as much about it as you can. We still haven't revealed everything about the destination. Some things because we just don't want to yet, but some of them because we're still ironing out some of the details because we are working with locals there. So once we have all that, we're also going to be giving away some $500 gift cards as well as the trip to Celebration Key before she opens.

I hope so too, and I'm sure we'll be hearing more about it as we get closer to the dates.