Carnival Cruise Director's Blog!
Ray Goldenberg
I received this press release from the Carnival Corporation and
thought it would be of interest. If you have missed any of my news'
postings, they are available on my web site.
Best regards,
Ray
LIGHTHOUSE TRAVEL
800-719-9917 or 805-566-3905
http://www.lighthousetravel.com
Carnival Senior Cruise Director's Blog Reaches New Audiences on
Corporate Web Site
Features on Cunard Line, Princess Cruises, P&O, Holland America Ships
Expanding Readership Base
MIAMI, May 30
Although the popular blog of Carnival Cruise Lines' Senior Cruise
Director John Heald has been featured on the Web site of parent
company Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK) since
last August, in the past few months he has broadened the scope of his
postings to showcase other Carnival-affiliated brands.
"While our corporate Web site is primarily aimed at investors, the
feedback we're receiving indicates that visitors really enjoy John's
unique brand of humor and insight into different facets of the cruise
industry," said Beth Roberts, Carnival Corporation & plc's vice
president of investor relations. The site has had some 300,000
visitors since the blog was prominently displayed on its splash page.
Heald's blog is one of the most popular Internet sites in the cruise
industry, generating more than 2.2 million hits since being introduced
in March 2007. Typically, Heald posts near-daily blogs while he serves
in his role as senior cruise director. However, being on vacation in
his native England for the past three months has provided him the
opportunity to broaden his focus with features on other
Carnival-affiliated brands.
"When you are not actually working aboard you have less material to
write about, so I've really enjoyed visiting and blogging about the
ships and personnel of our sister companies," Heald said.
Earlier this year, he created blog posts based on the inaugural
festivities of Cunard Line's Queen Victoria and P&O Cruises' Ventura,
as well as a Caribbean cruise aboard Princess Cruises' Emerald
Princess.
Heald's features on Carnival Corporation & plc's cruise brands - which
encompass both ship reviews and interviews with brand executives - are
among the most popular on his blog. For example, the entry entitled
"An Afternoon with the Queen," based on a shipyard tour of Queen
Victoria while the vessel was under construction in Italy, generated
more than 23,000 hits alone.
In just the past week, Heald has interviewed the hotel director of
Cunard Line's Queen Victoria, restaurant entrepreneur Todd English
whose namesake restaurants are featured on both the Queen Mary 2 and
Queen Victoria, and noted cruise ship designer Joe Farcus, and he also
traveled to Naples, Italy, to board the AIDADiva for a review.
He now heads to Genoa to take up residence on Carnival Cruise Lines'
Carnival Splendor as part of the inaugural team that will launch the
vessel in early July. Heald will serve as senior cruise director and
will continue blogging during the start-up activities of the vessel,
which is in the final stages of construction at Fincantieri's shipyard
in Sestri, Italy.
"John offers real insight into the behind-the-scenes action aboard
ship -- something that is of keen interest to readers," Roberts said.
"Literally thousands of people are involved in the successful launch
of a ship before the first passengers step on board. John will
chronicle those stories, all in a highly entertaining and engaging way
and I think investors will find it to be a fascinating look at a
ship's launch," she added.
In addition to the corporate websites, www.carnivalcorp.com and
www.carnivalplc.com, Heald's blog can be viewed at
johnhealdsblog.wordpress.com and www.carnival.com.
Carnival Corporation & plc is the largest cruise vacation group in the
world, with a portfolio of cruise brands in North America, Europe and
Australia, comprised of Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America Line,
Princess Cruises, The Yachts of Seabourn, AIDA Cruises, Costa Cruises,
Cunard Line, Ibero Cruises, Ocean Village, P&O Cruises and P&O Cruises
Australia.
Together, these brands operate 86 ships totaling more than 162,000
lower berths with 20 new ships scheduled to enter service between July
2008 and June 2012. Carnival Corporation & plc also operates Holland
America Tours and Princess Tours, the leading tour companies in Alaska
and the Canadian Yukon. Traded on both the New York and London Stock
Exchanges, Carnival Corporation & plc is the only group in the world
to be included in both the S&P 500 and the FTSE 100 indices.
newbie
> www.carnivalplc.com, Heald's blog can be viewed at
> johnhealdsblog.wordpress.com and www.carnival.com.
>
There is a mistake in the PR. If you want to read John's blog at
wordpress.com, you need to go to http://johnhealdsblog.com/ . I guess
someone doesn't want readers to go to non-commercial site.