That was the message from Celebrity’s senior vice president of sales, Dondra Ritzenthaler.
Speaking to TTG at the line’s Agent Appreciation Awards in London this week, Ritzenthaler revealed that details about the ship’s innovations and itineraries were set to be released in March.
She refused to disclose what these would be, but said: “Solstice class put Celebrity on the map, and Edge will trump what we did for Solstice class. It’s extremely innovative.”
She also revealed that it would be open for sale from mid-March, when itineraries and destinations will be announced. “There will be significant revelations,” she added.
Elsewhere, Ritzenthaler said the line had seen a strong wave period so far, despite the weakening of the pound against the dollar. In particular, she noted that winter 2017 Caribbean 14-night sailings were performing well with the British market.
“We’re not seeing any sign of a slow down in demand for our cruises. We feel very honoured that our travel agents and our guests are really aligned with the brand.”
Michael English, head of business development at Celebrity Cruises, added: “We’re not picking up any negative feedback from our partners about the market at all. We’re really optimistic, and that’s the message that we’re getting from our reps on the road as well, because people still want to go on holiday.”
It comes as the line launches its new promotion, which sees air fares for its European sailings dropped to between £99 to £199.
Ritzenhaler continued: “We launched our wave campaign in the middle of December, but we wanted to reinvigorate it, as everyone goes back to work, and this new offer helps keep the momentum up.”
English said the line’s Moments social media campaign, held in partnership with TTG, was also performing well.
“The Moments campaign is really personal. We’ve noticed a real theme - that a number of agents are using the boards to state: ‘I’ve booked my first cruise’.
“People are taking a real pride in it. We’re getting at least 20-30 posts a day.”
Last year Celebrity expanded its sales team from four to six, which Ritzenhaler said was “testament to our commitment to agents”.
English added: “We’ve got the right number now. But where we can do more is in training, because you can never have enough training. We have just launched a Galapagos training module in December.”
