In this weeks episode of Cruise Convos, Claudine chats with Kris Endreson, VP Strategic Sales at MSC Cruises USA.

Kris gives Claudine insight into the fastest growing cruise line around the world, and their current growth in the North American market!

What does the future hold for MSC Cruises world-wide? Kris shares some insight on current projects, including new home ports in North America, new ships on the way, and destination developments in the Bahamas!

Kris also shares her history in the industry and how travel has changed her life for the better!

What is currently happening in our cruise industry today? Join me for Cruise Convos as we discover and learn from cruise industry leaders across the globe all within 28 minutes!

Cruise community this is Claudine with Lemoneight and we are part of Cruise Convos. Today we are talking with Kris Endreson from MSC. Kris please introduce yourself to everyone today.

Well hi Claudine. It is a pleasure to be here. I'm Kris Endreson. I'm Vice President of Strategic sales with MSC Cruises. And you know, it's the day after Travel Advisor appreciation day so I couldn't be more happy to be here having this chat with you talking about our fantastic beloved industry.

I love it. And Kris, you are my first guest from MSC. So welcome!

I am so honored to represent this amazing company and hopefully tell all of our listeners today some exciting things that are happening with MSC.

That's amazing. So I first heard you speak at Cruise 360 last year. And I was so impressed of what a wonderful speaker you were because they it was the hot seat. So they were having lots of different people come up. And I heard you speak and I'm like, Wow, I like this lady. She is amazing. And when we started Cruise Convos, I said, I think I wrote to you right away. And I'm like,

I would be so delighted to have you on Cruise Convos. So it's such an honor, we haven't met face to face. But just the way you carry yourself, the way you speak is just I look up to you, I think the world of you and you're doing great things. So tell us a bit about yourself, Kris, how did you start in this industry?

Well Claudine, thank you for all of that, you know, I actually started in this industry, quite frankly, kind of by mistake. I had spent the early part of my career in finance in New York City. And then I was actually fortunate enough to take some time off to raise my two daughters. And they were still you know, a little young, you know, just an elementary school when this

opportunity came to me from a friend, a mutual friend in the cruise industry. And, you know, she said, This is great opportunity, you would be perfect, perfect. And you know, I kind of said no, I'm really happy, you know, with my life and focusing on my daughter's and, you know, I was a fitness instructor. And you know, anyway, life was good. And she just was really persistent. And you know, I'm

one of these believers that everything happens for a reason. So I thought, well, let me just, you know, put together a resume and see what happens. And sure enough, right, I landed my first job in the industry as a sales rep for Royal Caribbean. And, you know, that's really how I started, I'd never been on a cruise. I had no idea really, you know, didn't even know about cruising. And here I am

almost I don't even want to say how many years later.

That's amazing. That's amazing. So you've had tons of experience throughout the years. And you said your daughters are now growing up a bit.

My daughters are growing up a lot. My youngest just turned 30 And my oldest just is 34. And I have the most adorable little grandson that I couldn't be prouder of. And I'm just a really proud grandma. It is such a blessing and he's the little joy of my life. His name is Grayson and he is just everything so...

gonna love it you gave him a shout out!

Always!

forget the kids. It's all about the grandkids now. I love it. So Kris, tell me a little bit MSC you're developing all this side of the world. It's it's pretty big over in, you know, Europe, Italy. And you guys are becoming really big here in the United States and Canada. You're growing this side of the world now and you're like at the head of that. Share a little bit about that.

It is so incredibly exciting. You know, to your point Claudine were the leaders in South America, South Africa, in the Gulf region and in Europe. And so now MSC is making a major play for the North American market. And we have so many you know, we're doing so many exciting things to really solidify our place here in North America as a leader in the cruise industry. There are just

so many things that we're doing I don't even know where to begin it's just so incredibly exciting but you know something a lot of people don't also don't know about MSC is We're the fastest growing cruise line in the world. And we're the world's third largest by capacity and with more introductions of new ships into our fleet, that growth is just going to continue I mean in the past nine years,

we've literally doubled the size of our fleet so the growth has just been exponential.

I love it. I've never sailed with MSC I'll be honest with you, but I keep hearing a lot about the entertainment on board that it's really amazing. And I've been watching some videos and I'm like, Wow, this looks really good different style to it, but very elite. I would describe it as that.

Yeah, it's a thank you for mentioning our entertainment because sometimes people aren't aware of the world class entertainment that we have onboard our ships. In fact, one of my friends sailing in Europe several months ago, and he literally messaged me on WhatsApp overnight to tell me his mind was blown by the entertainment, right, which I was happy to wake up to get that kind of

message, right. But the entertainment, it really is spectacular. In fact, I was just on America via a couple of weeks ago in New York. I know we'll talk about that a little bit later. And I went to one of our shows, and it was this magic show in our carousel theater. And it was mind blowing the visuals, the you know, the talent, the quality of the talent. It was first rate entertainment. And I

can tell you, I'm born and bred in New Jersey. I know good entertainment. I've grown up going to Broadway. And so you know, it's just really spectacular. And something else a lot of people don't know about our entertainment is that on a seven night cruise, we do five different shows in our main theater, so we're never repeating shows.

Oh, wow.

Yeah. And that's in addition to all the other things happening on the ship, so...

Wow! I did not know that. That's, that's a lot. You must have a big group. For sure. Just like your game and alone.

We do. They're fantastic. So yeah, it's just another great reason for you and everybody else who hasn't tried MsC either. Come on and

Do you know you know what, so I live in Canada. I don't know if you know that I live in New Brunswick. Yeah, I live in New Brunswick. So back in 2019. My friend entered this contest. And she won a trip with MSC, which like in New Brunswick, not a lot of people had heard about MSC, but she is big on social media and she spread the word everywhere. She loved that her and her husband

went and they loved it love that. And I'm like, That's so strategic to target small little areas in different parts of you know, in North America, who may not be who may not know that much about that your brand, right and it worked here in New Brunswick, even a little newspaper article about her winning this like I'm like, wow, this is so strategic. So great job on that.

Yeah, you know, our marketing team is amazing. And you know, we've we've literally spent millions and millions of dollars on our ad campaigns that for right now mostly run all along the eastern seaboard with just raising our brand awareness because to your point, not everybody knows about MSC that is changing. But we are investing in a huge way to drive business to our travel

advisors doors to raise awareness. And you know, it's interesting, I hear all the time from advisors, I'm getting so many requests from MSC I need to come on board so I can experience MSC. And so we've actually done some really robust campaigns to invite advisors on our ships for free, because we know that once you know our advisors sail on MSC, they're going to sell us and and we're seeing

that. And so it's been very exciting for us, because we've really had that opportunity as a result of that initiative to just really get we've had almost 6000 advisors on board in the past almost a year now. So it's very exciting for us, because we knew that was a key to really, you know, getting the advisors to understand who we are.

That's amazing. Yes, you're right, that is the key, they play such a big role. And if they know your product and experience your product, they're going to be able to sell your product, because they they felt that they've experienced that fully. And Kris, you just had some big news, some great things happen in New York. Share with us what's going on?

Yeah, you know, I'll tell you, we just launched MSC Meraviglia year round trip from New York. This is the third home port that MSC sailing from in North America. And, you know, again, just speaks to the growth of the brand here. And I have to tell you, we had a big event for all of our advisors, they came on for the day. I enjoyed the ship for the day. We invited them to stay for

dinner and our shows. And I have to tell you, the buzz was unbelievable. Claudine. In fact, I hosted a dinner one night, and some of the advisors, you know, we're apologizing. There's like, they're like, We're sorry, we're posting on social media. We just got to get this in there taking pictures of everything and the food. And I mean, it was palpable. You know, the excitement for the advisors to

see such a beautiful ship sailing from New York. I mean, this ship is absolutely gorgeous. She's the perfect ship for the market. She has tons of indoor space. Right. So she's year round. So you have lots to do inside over 30 restaurants, bars and lounges. So right, right. I mean, you know, that just sounds like it's going to take a week to just experience all of that. And she's absolutely

stunning. And I think the ship is absolutely absolutely going to deliver to the New York market again, because you know, that Market New Yorkers, they expect the best, and we're delivering the best so we're very excited. And in addition to that, we're offering some really fantastic itineraries. So our guests can sail from from Brooklyn, to Florida and the Caribbean, we're doing some seventh and

eighth night through the summer. And then in August, we'll be sending the ship over to Bermuda doing some five and six night itineraries to Bermuda. And then we'll head up to Canada, New England, your neck of the woods. Claudine, for 10 and 11.. Meraviglia is, you know, calling on all these iconic ports, and you know, all through, right, Halifax, St. John, all down the east coast. So, you know,

just really excited for our guests in that drive market to just have MSC, you know, in their backyards, basically.

That's amazing. That's amazing. And, Kris, you are in the sales part of the business, like you've been mentioning, what do you notice now with travel advisors? What has changed before you know, you know, pre pandemic? What has changed? What are you guys doing differently? Like, you know, having now 6000 people on board, I can, you know, travel advisors on board? That's a big

difference. How else are you connecting with the travel advisors?

Something good has to come out of everything. And you know, after 911, we saw the whole landscape of our industry change. And certainly now, right after the pandemic, we're seeing that, and I think what's really, really exciting is that we have so many new advisors that are coming into the business, so they're fresh eyes, they're excited. And this is the perfect opportunity for us to

introduce them to our brand, because, you know, they're new to the industry. And so, you know, MSC isn't as well known. So our goal is to really connect with those new advisors and really, you know, get them well, the MSC right from the start, so that they really can understand the brand and understand how to sell. And then you know, something else that I just love that came out of the pandemic

was the fact that, you know, listen, we spent how many months right on teams and zoom calls. But, you know, this gave us all the opportunity to connect face to face right? Long, Long gone are the conference calls, right with no video. And I think those connections became, I guess, a lot more personal. And I think that change things were in our homes. And when you see the kids running in the

back, or the phones ringing, the mailman is out the door. It just made it our industry so much more personal. I think it brought us all closer together. And so it's just an exciting time to be out there. And for the advisors who have been in the industry. Listen, a lot of advisors left the industry. So that created a lot of new opportunity, right? And a lot of that business kind of where did it

go? Somebody had to grab it. So I just think it's such an exciting time. And then certainly seeing the business come in as it is now. I mean, wave was absolutely just off the charts right beyond everybody's expectations, including MSCs. And so I think we're just really riding high and riding this huge wave of excitement and opportunity. And I think we all earn it. Right. But yeah, I think

it's such an exciting time for the industry.

Yeah, definitely. And can you mentioned connecting and connection. And I think that's key, you know, connecting with the travel advisors and staying top of mind as well, like you were mentioning all the things you're doing with them. And I remember my friend who sailed with you, she came back and she was just telling stories about some of the experiences that she shared. I think

she went to Jamaica. And she shared about a Martha Stewart experience that she had there. And I was amazing. And on top of that it was the stories. So stories is what really connects people. And you know, those stories is what really set you say, Oh, I love that experience. I want to go there, right. Could you share with us, Kris, You know, what is one of your travel experiences that you've had,

but you know, stays close to your heart? Can you share that with our audience?

Yeah, sure. Well, are we talking about ms on MSC or just in general?

In general, whatever you'd like.

All right, well, in general, because I have a lot about MSC I want to talk to you about Ocean Key Marine Reserve two, because that really is an experience on MSC that everybody really needs to check out. It's a huge favorite of our guests. But you know, Claudine, I've thought about this a lot. And I've been in this business a long time now where I do the maths, and there are just

so many things that that have shaped my life as a result of being very lucky to fall into this industry. Right. You know, it changed my children. You know, my daughters were very lucky to be able to travel from very young ages. They've seen the world and now my youngest is in Washington DC literally working to change the world, working in the government as a result of her travel and seeing the

world in a different lens as a young child and being very influenced. And then there was a time I met my husband on a cruise. I met my husband on a cruise Can you imagine!

No way. Tell me more? Tell me more.

I was on vacation full disclosure, and I was on with my whole family. He was on with his whole family. And I don't know we met last place I ever thought I would meet you know anyone my second marriage and we met we fell in love and it's next year will be our 20 year anniversary. I met my husband on a cruise. Isn't that hilarious.

Oh my goodness, congratulations, what a story. Wow.

And then and then honestly, you know, also connecting with my advisors. You know, over the years, I've had the opportunity to host advisors on board and do families and things. And I can tell you what our wedding 50% of our guests were my Travel Advisor friends that have become family to me. And so this industry is my life. I mean, that's I couldn't narrow it down to just one

thing. There's just so many wonderful things that have, you know, all come into play.

You mentioned three beautiful things like your daughter, and you know, how travel has shaped her and what she's doing now. And also mentioned meeting your husband and the connection with the travel advisors. They become like family, right, like our industry.

Definitely.

Let's jump over. Let's talk a little bit about the you know, the island the development that you wanted to share about. I was talking with Rick Sasso, he was on a panel with me at Seatrade... And wow. I don't think people realize all the work that went into that. The Sustainable aspect. Share a little bit more about it. It's just beautiful.

Yeah, and Rick is amazing. I'm so glad that you had the opportunity to talk to Rick he is just such an icon in our industry and oh my gosh, he is He is everything to us at MSC!

I really look up to him. He's just a he's a good hearted man. He's been in the industry so long. And he absolutely he's got a good heart for sure.

Oh, he sure does. He sure does. Yeah, so Ocean Key Marine Reserve really is a real commitment to MSCs commitment to sustainability. You know, our commitment to sustainability goes way beyond checking the boxes. And so as we venture on building new ships that will be LNG powered furthering our goal to be net zero emissions by 2050. You know, we also had this passion project of Ocean

Key Marine Reserve, where we took this island that was literally Over-mined for amalgamate, which is a chip that you put in your cell phones, and the island was just literally destroyed. And so we came in, and we remove 7500 tons of scrap metal and waste. We planted over 50,000 trees and shrubs. And you know, we basically ultimately created 64 square miles of protecting green reserve. And so

that was a $400 million dollar passion project of converting this island back to the way nature intended. And so today, our guests can experience the most beautiful, beautiful island in the Bahamas. You know, we have eight, white, sandy, pristine, gorgeous beaches. There's lots to do on the island. And what's really nice is our guests when they're only on and they can spread out and find their

own little piece of a beach. They're not crowded on top of each other because they can all spread out. One ship is on the island at a time. We have all sorts of fun things on the island. We have food trucks, there's actually a Bahamian village on the island. Lots of watersports to do. But then what makes this experience even more unique is that many of our calls to the island either stay long into

the evening or even overnight, offering our guests a very unique nighttime experience on the island. So it's super cool, right? Imagine you know you have dinner, you come back out over the island you're under a million stars. We have our iconic Lighthouse show which is spectacular. You can hop on a glow in the dark paddleboard if you want or take a cruise around the island under all the stars

or you can go have fun at our at our silent disco on the beach. So there's so much to do on the island at night. And it really makes it a unique experience.

That's amazing. Absolutely amazing. And the sustainable aspect. You guys have done so much there.

Absolutely.

We mentioned travel advisors, that's your area. We have some travel advisors listening which I know we will - Hello travel advisors! - what would you like to say to them?

First of all, I'd like to say thank you because we we couldn't be who we are in so successful without the support of our travel advisors. So thank you and I know we had one day of gratitude yesterday but it's a truly a year of appreciation. And so I do want to say thank you. I want them to know that everybody at MSC is vested in supporting them and helping them grow their

business and helping them get on board we have some really great Travel Advisor rates that if they haven't experienced us, they can do that. We highly encourage it like I said we know once our advisors sail on us they will sell us you know take the time to learn more about MSC to they can go to MSC book and take our MSc masters Academy course so they can become that expert and know a lot

about us so that when the phone does ring remember we're driving that business to their doors with these marketing campaigns. These commercials. We want them to know about MSC so they can recommend MSC so and don't hesitate to reach out to your local BDM You can find your BDM on MSC book as well. Or you can always reach out to me and I'll always be happy to point them in the right direction.

Yeah.

And you have some good deals as well for group rates. I think one of my friends said that she just booked a big group. And it worked out really well. So Good on you guys.

For sure. Yeah, yeah, we always have some really terrific very compelling group promotions in place with additional TCS or discounted rates. So, absolutely. And our advisors can check those latest promotions out on MSC book as well.

Excellent, Chris, it's, it's been amazing speaking with you just so you know, It just flows, the conversation just flows. I think, I think the worlds are you, Kris, I want to ask you one of my most favorite questions. It's our last question. Well, no, wait, first. Is there anything else about MSC we should know? Like, is there anything else you want to tell us?

You know what, truly, very quickly, I want to let everybody know, we just announced another ship. It's our 23rd ship in the fleet. It's called MSC World America, it's going to be the largest ship sailing from North America in 2025. This ship is going to be a game changer for MSC so much to do on board. Maybe we can talk again. And I can tell everybody more about world America, but

she is open for sail. And I know 2025 Sounds far away. But listen, you know, it's gonna be here before we know it right. And it is open for sale. So I definitely wanted everybody to know about that. And I also want everybody remember about our Yacht Club, which is our ship within a ship, Within a ship experience. We were the first to pioneer this concept where we offer our guests, we have, you

know, about 10% of our staterooms allotted for this yacht club experience. It's all butler service, a 24 hour Butler, private lounges, pools, it's truly an exclusive experience. So our guests can have that very exclusive experience concierge service, but still having the rest of the ship to enjoy. That's a huge favorite for our guests. So I just wanted to give a shout out to Yacht Club because it's

such a favorite.

Well, that's interesting, Kris. So this Yacht Club now, is this on all your ships? So how does this work?

It's on most of our ships. It's on most of our newer ships. So the majority of our ships have the Yacht Club. And again, it is the suites or it's not all suites, we actually have some inside Yacht Club. If we have a family, it's perfect for multigene we have insides Balcony Suites. So it really kind of appeal to, like I said, multigene families or whomever. And it's a really

affordable way to have a very exclusive experience on board. You know, I spent the past 10 years of my career quality and on the luxury side of the business. So I know luxury very well. And experiencing Yacht Club was spot on, it was 100% spot on with what a guest would expect to have, you know, in a very exclusive, you know, part of what we offer with Yacht Club, so, it's really

terrific.

I'm glad you mentioned that, because I didn't know about that. And the more we we know about the brands, the more we can share with all the time people always ask me, Claudine, what do you know about this brand? Right? And this is new information. I can be like, did you know?

You can call me anytime.

I love it. I love it. Kris, last question. Here we go, you're ready. I'm really looking at yourself now in your life. And I want you to think if you look back, and you could give yourself any piece of advice, what would you tell your younger self?

Wow, you know, when I look back, I never would have dreamed I would have had the opportunity to be so fortunate in my career in this industry, I would absolutely tell myself and I tell this to my daughters all the time now. It's all going to work. And it always does. Everything happens for a reason. So that one may be missed opportunity that you think is the worst thing right in the

moment. Eventually, you're going to look back and say, You know what, it's a good thing that didn't happen. Because here I am now and this is happening. And so I would have just told myself to just calm down, take it as it comes. It's all gonna work out and I know that now. Thankfully I can I really do live by that now. I really don't worry. I just say you know what, I believe Great. Things are

gonna come to me and they will because I've been very lucky and I'm blessed. And you just have to believe in yourself and believe in, in how everything works out and not get so caught up in the moment. It really is a journey. It just it's a journey and you have to trust that journey.

I love that you're spot on. It is a journey. You have to believe in ourselves and and you know what it does work out. And I think that you're saying it now. And I think with the older we get, you know, I just turned 40 So the older I get the more I believe okay, you know, just go with the flow. It's gonna work out and we start believing in our selves even more, that confidence just

grows more.

It's true. It's true. I think we call that wisdom, right? Wisdom thing. But I wish somebody had told me that when I was younger, right, I wished you know, when I look back on a couple of missed opportunities very early on in my career, I look back and say, thank goodness, I didn't have that opportunity. Because me I probably wouldn't have had this opportunity to grow the way I've

grown right or, you know, put me in different you know, given me different experiences. So, so yeah, I absolutely live by that. I really not only tell my daughters, but anyone who's you know, asking me for career advice, or my friends, I believe in to my core and, and it's worked out so far. So, yeah, I'm very blessed.

I love it, Kris. And listen, congratulations, you almost have you said 20 year anniversary coming right up, right? With the hubby. Yes, yes. Congratulations on that. Congratulations on an amazing career in the cruise industry. And thank you for all that you do and your leadership in this industry. I truly look up to you. And I know many people do as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Claudine. You're the best and we so appreciate the opportunity. We're here for you and for everybody. Thank you.