When COVID-19 social distancing and safety mandates hit the $45 billion cruise industry, a global cruise line group needed to find a way to stay afloat and operational. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had issued a No-Sail Order, suspending cruise passenger operations across the country, and the cruise line’s systems needed to become agile enough to respond to whatever came next. The problem was that its legacy frameworks simply weren’t built for that kind of speed. Its systems across operations were rigid, not the flexible models needed to scale, and modernizing them had to happen fast, with a genuinely customer-centric approach that could ensure safety protocol adherence and smooth communication to keep guests comfortable and confident onboard.
Ascendion’s engineers reimagined the passenger experience with safety at its core, developing a digital, touchless platform with a suite of applications designed to enable safety while still creating genuinely delightful guest experiences.
At the heart of the solution was a web application for guest room TVs, enabling on-demand hospitality including pre-booking meal choices and dinner time slots, fully contactless transactions, safety and booking applications, and a faster path to grievance redressal. Ascendion then took what had been a platform exclusive to certain ships and made it available fleet-wide, recreating the guest experience model across every vessel with a focus on safety protocols and smoother communication, built on flexible, scalable resources ready for the business growth expected once operations resumed.
Delivered a 45% increase in ROI as operations resumed with greater customer satisfaction and increased brand value.
Reduced IT and business effort by 45% once legacy systems were optimized and made more cost-effective to maintain.
Improved operational efficiency by 5% through predetermined processes and the elimination of manual systems.
Cut food waste by 50%.
Enhanced health safety, simplified safety training, improved customer service, and boosted crew productivity across the fleet.
