Although the popular blog of Carnival Cruise Lines’ Senior Cruise Director John Heald has been featured on the Web site of parent company Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK) since last August, in the past few months he has broadened the scope of his postings to showcase other Carnival-affiliated brands.

 

Heald’s blog is one of the most popular Internet sites in the cruise industry, generating more than 2.2 million hits since being introduced in March 2007.  Typically, Heald posts near-daily blogs while he serves in his role as senior cruise director. However, being on vacation in his native England for the past three months has provided him the opportunity to broaden his focus with features on other Carnival-affiliated brands. 

Earlier this year, he created blog posts based on the inaugural festivities of Cunard Line’s Queen Victoria and P&O Cruises’ Ventura, as well as a Caribbean cruise aboard Princess Cruises’ Emerald Princess.

Heald’s features on Carnival Corporation & plc’s cruise brands – which encompass both ship reviews and interviews with brand executives – are among the most popular on his blog.  For example, the entry entitled “An Afternoon with the Queen,” based on a shipyard tour of Queen Victoria while the vessel was under construction in Italy, generated more than 23,000 hits alone.

In just the past week, Heald has interviewed the hotel director of Cunard Line’s Queen Victoria, restaurant entrepreneur Todd English whose namesake restaurants are featured on both the Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria, noted cruise ship designer Joe Farcus, and he also traveled to Naples, Italy, to  board  the AIDADiva for a review.   

He now heads to Genoa to take up residence on Carnival Cruise Lines’ Carnival Splendor as part of the inaugural team that will launch the vessel in early July.  Heald will serve as senior cruise director and will continue blogging during the start-up activities of the vessel which is in the final stages of construction at Fincantieri’s shipyard in Sestri, Italy.  

        

In addition to the corporate websites, www.carnivalcorp.com and www.carnivalplc.com, Heald’s blog can be viewed at johnhealdsblog.wordpress.com and www.carnival.com.