Larry Pimentel is president and CEO of Azamara Club Cruises.
“[Azamara] is clearly being redefined as Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.’s boutique brand,” Pimentel says. “It will absolutely be in the up-market space, but because we have very few people who are dedicated to it, we’ll offer extraordinary value. I think we’ll be in a very interesting value position going forward, which I believe will make us grow a great deal.”
Larry Pimentel is president and CEO of Azamara Club Cruises.
Larry Pimentel’s strategy for Azamara Club Cruises benefits from his more than 25 years of travel industry experience catering to high-end consumers.
Before taking the helm at Azamara, he served as president, chief executive officer and co-owner of Seadream Yacht Club, designed to provide an intimate luxury yachting experience while sailing primarily in the Caribbean and Mediterranean. Read more...(179 words, estimated 43 secs reading time)
Larry Pimentel is president and CEO of Azamara Club Cruises.
The changes that Larry Pimentel and his team brought to Azamara Club Cruises have infused the on-board staff with enthusiasm.
“What’s really occurred here is magic with the crew,” said Pimentel, interviewed this week on a sailing on Azamara Quest. “And that’s the secret ingredient. This crew is fantastic.” Read more...(88 words, estimated 21 secs reading time)
Azamara Club Cruises now includes complimentary speciality coffees, bottled water, soft drinks, wine with lunch & dinner and gratuities. The addition of these included extras creates lively social environment, says Larry Pimentel, president and CEO of Azamara Club Cruises.
At 60 percent of the ports they visit, Azamara’s two vessels now stay late into the evening, and overnight in 38 destinations, more than triple of what was offered in the past. Also, in some destinations two-night stays are becoming more common, giving passengers three days of touring. Larry Pimentel discusses the longer stays in port and night tourism.
Azamara Club Cruises is in a transition period since the line was relaunched in April 2010. “We went from a product that was Azamara Cruises to Azamara Club Cruises,” says Larry Pimentel, president and CEO of the line.
The relaunch featured a more-inclusive product, which Pimentel instituted after he paid for a cruise so that he could observe the product as a passenger. Read more...(140 words, estimated 34 secs reading time)
This is the first in a series of video interviews with Larry Pimentel, Azamara Club Cruises President & CEO. Larry took the helm of Azamara in July 2009. One of the first things he did was relaunch the line as Azamara ‘Club’ Cruises. In this video, he explains the rationale behind the name change. Read more...(198 words, estimated 48 secs reading time)
This week, I am on Azamara Quest, sailing from Barcelona to Rome. It will be interesting to see how this two-ship cruise line has evolved since Larry Pimentel took the helm not yet one year ago. I will have a chance to speak with Larry later this week. He’s on board this sailing with his wife. Read more...(199 words, estimated 48 secs reading time)
It seems that everyone wants to belong to a club. Even cruise lines have such aspirations, but the phenomenon is apparently exclusive to two-ship cruise lines. There’s SeaDream Yacht Club, and now there’s Azamara Club Cruises. The latter is only a rebranding of the hastily launched Azamara Cruises – the two-ship brand that came to surface in 2007 with the 694-guest Azamara Journey and sister ship Azamara Quest.
Azamara’s newly refined brand features more inclusive options for guests such as gratuities, house wines with lunch and dinner, and coffee and bottled water throughout the day. Azamara Club Cruises also focuses on slowing the cruise experience down with more overnight stays and late night departures from ports of call to increase opportunities for immersion in a destination. Read more...(712 words, 1 image, estimated 2:51 mins reading time)
