There are times when cruise industry watchers ask ‘Is there nothing they won’t do to be different?‘.  Robot bartenders come to mind. Popular with everyone except the human they replaced, robots are probably not going away.  Existing robots may be replaced with smarter, more efficient robots.  Sometime in the future, a robot may very well clean my stateroom or make your meals.  Carnival Cruise Line has had a long run of innovation, more skewed toward supporting the Funship experience than features like robots.  I was reminded of this at the naming of Carnival Horizon in New York City as I watched entertaining cruise industry leaders perform.

Yes, I said perform. As in entertaining us.

Carnival Corporation CEO Arnold Donald kicked off Lip Sync Battle: Horizon, a version OF the hit TV series currently rolling out across the Carnival fleet.

 

Donald was joined on stage by Carnival Cruise Line President Christine Duffy as well as a full complement of Carnival Entertainment’s best singers and dancers.

This could actually be a very short story.
Carnival Cruise Line’s current rendition of ‘We’re The Funships’ is resolving as #ChooseFun.  Look for contests and promotions based on that concept going forward.
Somehow, after that performance, a thought about #ChooseFun made it around Carnival Horizon’s Liquid Lounge:  It starts at the top.
Brilliant.
I guarantee you that by the time the stellar performance was over, crew on all 26 ships in the Carnival Cruise Line fleet had heard about it.
Again, Brilliant…and not a robot. A person.  Not a feature, people. That song they are singing: Our song.

Just before that performance, Carnival Horizon was named by godmother (+ actor/singer/really nice person) Queen Latifah.

 

Unexpected but not surprising: much of the focus of this event centered around Carnival Cruise Line’s work with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Their art is featured on the Dreamscape, a stunning three-deck-high LED sculpture in the ship’s atrium.

 

Just after that performance,  Latifah took on Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl champion Jake Elliott in Lip Sync Battle: Horizon. Elliott performed Whitesnake’s Here I Go Again along with backup performers provided by Carnival Horizon’s Playlist Productions. 

 

Latifah took home a rather predictable win with the Weather Girls classic “It’s Raining Men”.

 

All in (trademarked Carnival) Fun, the winner was actually neither Latifah or Elliott but St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital which went home with a check for $100,000.

Interesting here, this was not a donation from Carnival Cruise Line or Carnival Corporation but was raised from various fundraisers, both onboard and ashore. That ongoing effort has brought St. Jude more than $16 million to help their battle against childhood cancer.

Carnival Horizon’s naming ceremony was one of our best yet, with Queen Latifah carrying out her duties as godmother then battling it out with Super Bowl champion Jake Elliott of my hometown Philadelphia Eagles in an entertaining Lip Sync Battle -Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line.

So, the bottom line on singing cruise industry leaders: More, please.  This leading by example event reminds us of other successful people-focused efforts by other cruise lines as well.

Entertaining Cruise Industry Leaders

• Holland America Line President Orlando Ashford believes ‘travel can change the world’.
• Windstar Cruises President John Delaney wants us to not only see destinations but ‘understand them’.
• Viking Cruises Chairman Torstein Hagen points out all we really don’t have enough of is ‘time’.

We’re watching those people-focused stories and others developing that have not yet made headlines but probably will one day.

 

Also in the future, look for more robots. Not robots like machines that will take over the world, the stuff of Sci-Fi fantasies.  I’m talking about what comes next, the feature or focus no one has thought of yet. You can bet entertaining cruise industry leaders will bring that to us.

SEE MORE Images From Carnival Horizon In New York City and the naming ceremony that also included Food Network star Guy Fieri (who we’re really not sure can sing)

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Carnival Horizon will operate four-day Bermuda and eight-day Caribbean departures from New York through September then reposition to Miami for year-round six- and eight-day Caribbean cruises beginning later that month.

To learn more about Carnival Cruise Line or to make a reservation, visit Carnival.com, call 1-800-CARNIVAL, or contact any travel agent. Follow Carnival Cruise Line on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube.