The world watched in horror and disbelief as a novel coronavirus spread like wildfire onboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Yokohama, Japan. An illness that once seemed to only plague one region of the world quickly spread around the globe - leading to an unprecedented halt of the travel industry.
Other cruise lines started to deal with localized outbreaks, which garnered more media attention that no other sector in the travel industry had to deal with.
As the pandemic progressed, the airlines slowly made their recovery through government assistance and the eventual increase of travel demand. Meanwhile, the cruise industry was wrangling with a tarnished reputation and a near worldwide shutdown of all cruising.
It wasn’t until vaccines become widely available in the spring of 2021 that the cruise lines were able to restart operations. Of course, the cruise industry was struggling financially from a 14-month operational hiatus; but the cruise lines were dealing with - arguably - a bigger blow to the industry’s reputation.
How could the cruise lines convey to the hesitant public that cruising was safe when people still had the disastrous Diamond Princess incident burned in their memory?
Slowly but surely, the cruise lines restarted operations with updated protocols and regulations to keep cruisers safe. Contact tracing, vaccine requirements and pre-boarding testing all proved to be an effective approach to cruising in a post-pandemic world.
In fact, some argued that the COVID-19 requirements made cruising even safer than other vacations without regulations.
Even still, the media continued to give a negative spotlight on cruising by highlighting even minuscule, manageable incidents relating to COVID-19. Compared to other sectors of the travel industry, cruising has always dealt with more media scrutiny and continues to deal with sensationalism in mass media.
Rather than allowing the media to feed into a false narrative, the cruise industry fired back with a new approach to its post-pandemic comeback by reframing the narrative.
Here’s how the cruise lines fueled their post-pandemic comeback through an unlikely collaboration with pop-culture.
With a successful cruising restart throughout 2021, the cruise industry looked forward to an optimistic 2022 for its first full year of operations in a post-pandemic world. Although a more contagious variant emerged in early 2022, the cruise lines continued to operate safely due to proven health measures.
This is when an unlikely partnership emerged, with cruise lines joining forces with pop-culture in the second half of the year to fuel a full-fledged comeback for the cruising industry.
In August 2022, The Bachelorette brought audiences to a new and unexpected destination - a mainstream cruise ship.
With potential suitors fighting for the attention of Rachel Recchia and Gabby Windey, the 19th season of ABC’s hit reality series, The Bachelorette, made history for more than one reason.
Having dual bachelorettes for the entirety of the season was a first for the reality-tv dating show, but Season 19 was also the first time The Bachelorette filmed a majority of the season at sea.
Known for traveling to far-flung destinations throughout the season, viewers were introduced to Virgin Voyages’ newest ship, Valiant Lady, as one of The Bachelorettes’ primary filming locations. The beautiful new cruise ship was the main backdrop of the reality show’s season, showcasing the ship’s amenities, including stunning bars, lounges and venues around the ship.
Of course, Gabby and Rachel were able to stay in the massive Rockstar Suite. These suites are impressive, spanning over 2,100 square feet at the very front of Valiant Lady. A season of The Bachelorette isn’t complete without a hot tub date, and luckily the Rockstar Suite has a private one to use.
During the season, Valiant Lady sailed to Le Harve, France. This port city is the gateway to the most romantic city in the world: Paris. Could there possibly exist a better destination for The Bachelorette to host dates than in the City of Love?
Other romantic destinations onboard Virgin Voyages’ Valiant Lady included stops in Northern Europe, such as Amsterdam and Belgium.
At the end of the season, The Bachelorette finale hosted a live audience and everyone was gifted a free cruise, courtesy of Virgin Voyages.
Virgin Voyages was was thrilled to play a role in The Bachelorette and hoped it would create a “Bachelor Bump” in demand.
Virgin Voyages is the newest mainstream cruise line to enter the industry, but the pandemic inevitably pushed back the launch of Richard Branson’s new cruise line.
Seeing The Bachelorette and Virgin Voyages join forces inherently made sense. Virgin Voyages is an adults-only cruise line with a sexy flair compared to other cruise lines. With a drag queen brunch and the cruise industry’s first ever tattoo parlor at sea, the new Valiant Lady was the perfect backdrop for Gabby and Rachel to fall in love.
Virgin Voyages is quite possible the best cruise line to host The Bachelorette with its trendy approach to cruising. Aligning perfectly with the demographics of The Bachelorette’s audience, Virgin Voyages announced they were hopeful the visibility would pique viewers’ interest in the cruise line.
President Saverimuttu continued, ”I think fans will be intrigued and realize that the incredible experience we offer on-board extends beyond the show. They too can embark on a luxurious and relaxing couple’s getaway or guys/girls trip and have an amazing time setting sail the Virgin way.”
Virgin Voyages wasn’t the only cruise line to host a reality TV show, as Princess Cruises welcomed The Real Love Boat in October 2022.
It wouldn’t be out of line to say Princess Cruises took the biggest blow to their reputation during the onset of the pandemic (again - remember Diamond Princess?).
Luckily, the cruise line has made a successful comeback in the post-pandemic era of travel and the early 2020 incident is just a distinct memory for many. To aid in Princess Cruises’ comeback, the cruise line collaborated with CBS to host The Real Love Boat onboard its very own Regal Princess.
The reality-based show also relied on key crew members for its production, including a real captain, cruise director and bartender.
Inspired by the classic, scripted series The Love Boat, CBS brought together singles looking for love onboard the luxurious Regal Princess that sailed around the always-romantic Mediterranean Sea. Of course, the show included destination dates and challenges throughout the reality TV’s season.
After spending a month as sea, only one winning couple docked in the final port, taking home a cash prize and once-in-a-lifetime trip courtesy of Princess Cruises.
However, this isn’t the first time Princess Cruises has played an influential and key role within pop culture.
Going back all the way to the 1970s, Princess Cruises was one of the first mainstream cruise lines to partner with pop culture. The hit-series The Love Boat was an introduction to leisure cruising for many viewers back before mainstream cruising was popular.
When The Love Boat premiered, it was a smashing success and went on to have 10 seasons until 1987. The television show is largely credited for introducing millions of viewers to the idea of contemporary cruising, leading to a huge expansion of the cruise industry. Princess Cruises became a household name, leading to global success for the cruise line.
Princess Cruises’ provided two of its cruise ships, Pacific Princess and Island Princess, as the original floating stars of The Love Boat. However, The Love Boat was filmed on Princess Cruises around the world, also introducing viewers to exotic destinations, such as Australia, China and Greece.
The Love Boat is weaved into the history of Princess Cruises, so it’s not surprising the cruise line looked to mass media once again in its post-pandemic comeback redemption.
In a final collaboration for 2022, Celebrity Cruises’ newest ship hosted an episode of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.
Finally, Celebrity Cruises also looked to pop culture to fuel its post-pandemic comeback with an exciting partnership. In November 2022, Celebrity Beyond joined forces with NBCUniversal and Bravo to host the late-night show Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.
Like most cruise lines, Celebrity Cruises dealt with unforeseen delays in the debut of its newest ship, the dazzling Celebrity Beyond. By partnering with NBC and Bravo, Celebrity Cruises gained some much-needed visibility for its incredible new cruise ship thanks to custom marketing content and Twitter promotions.
On the special episode, Celebrity Cruises welcomed Andy Cohen to host his popular Bravo show with captains from the network’s hit series, Below Deck. The episode aired immediately following the premier of the new Below Deck Adventure.
Celebrity Cruises’ chief marketing officer, Michael Scheiner, said, “The partnership opportunity with NBCUniversal and Bravo was meant to be from the start. We both wanted to do something that hadn't been done on a cruise ship before, so using our newest ship, Celebrity Beyond, as the backdrop, filming 'Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen' on our ship was the perfect opportunity."
In addition, Scheiner continued, “Leveraging the fanfare of the show, along with our own content to use in advertising across NBCUniversal, really gives us a great opportunity to market our brand."
During the episode, Celebrity Cruises invited its own celebrity, Captain Kate, to be the bartender during the Twitter After Show.
Celebrity Cruises wasn’t going to let this opportunity partnership pass without showcasing the cruise line’s very own celebrity, Captain Kate McCue.
Known for her viral following on social media, particularly TikTok, Captain Kate is an integral part of Celebrity’s culture and brand. As the first female captain from North America, Captain Kate herself has been introducing cruising to a new sector on social media by taking viewers on her day-to-day life at sea.
Not to mention, Captain Kate serves as an inspiration for women everywhere and a real-life role model for breaking the glass ceiling.
During Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Captain Kate made an exciting cameo as the bartender during Twitter the After Show. She also participated in a few nautical-inspired games with Below Deck’s captains.
Will 2023 bring more pop-culture partnerships with the cruise lines?
The post-pandemic comeback year was fueled with the help of pop culture for cruise lines like Virgin Voyages, Princess Cruises and Celebrity Cruises. Featuring sparkling new cruise ships to a wider audience has surely garnered interest from the general public.
In fact, most cruise lines have already been experiencing record-breaking bookings for the upcoming 2023 and 2024 seasons. While this might not be entirely correlated to the high-profile partnerships we saw in 2022 with pop culture, it’s hard to ignore the potential impact of these collaborations.
Utilizing pop culture to reframe the media’s seemingly always-negative perception of cruising is a power move by the cruise lines - and one that I hope continues to fuel their post-pandemic comeback.
Allie Hubers
Allie Hubers has been cruising since she was a tiny toddler. What started as a yearly vacation with family quickly turned into a passion for travel, cruising and adventure. Allie's been on over 45 cruises all over the world. She even studied abroad on Semester at Sea, sailing the world on a ship while taking courses for college and visiting 4 continents.
