Setting Sail: Cruising With INTX
As the summer is coming to an end, we’re taking a look back at the fantastic opportunity we had to coordinate transport for our client EBK Travel. Our blog post from earlier this year highlighted just how strongly the cruise industry is recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic and the exciting new cruise lines setting sail in 2023.
It’s no surprise that cruises are as popular as ever and at INTX, we welcomed the great challenge of organising transport for 300 Delegates from Mexico on a privately chartered cruise ship.
The Challenge
Of course such a fantastic and complex journey was not going to be without it’s challenges and vehicle needs. Some of those needs and challenges were:
- Arrivals at Dublin Airport over 2 days involving coaches, minibuses, executive MPVs and cars.
- Tours around Dublin for 2 days, requiring 10 Coaches per day and extra support vehicles for VIPs and luxury gold tours.
- 10 coaches and luggage vans to take passengers and luggage to the ship.
- 10 coaches in Liverpool for tours including The Cavern Club, Liverpool Cathedral and Anfield Stadium.
- 10 coaches in Belfast for tours including The Titanic Museum, Peace Wall Belfast and transfers to and from Bangor Marina.
- 10 coaches in Cork for tours including Jameson Distillery and The English Market and transfers to and from Cobh Harbour.
- 10 coaches in Cardiff to run shuttles between the port and the city.
- Executive cars and minibuses for VIP CEOs joining the cruise in Cardiff
- 3 coaches running a shuttle service in Falmouth between the ship and the castle for a pre-planned medieval event.
- 15 coaches in Southampton and 10 chauffeur driven cars for airport departures from Heathrow and city departures in London city centre.
- Continued minibuses and chauffeur driven cars for guests who stayed in the UK for 5+ days after the end of the cruise.
A Successful Cruise
Despite the seemingly overwhelming and complex transport needs, we managed to ensure that every vehicle arrived on time and as expected. Our clients had a fantastic time on the cruise and we received glowing feedback on how indispensable we were to the success of the cruise.
We were able to truly show INTX’s capabilities and just how adaptable our team is to every situation. We provided our client with 2 members of staff who stayed with the cruise group to coordinate transport on the ground every day. The rest of our team back in the office were available as support for any additional requirements as they became known as well as anticipate any possible challenges before each journey.
One of our Directors, Mark Globe had the following to comment on the cruise experience:
“This event was one of the most challenging INTX has worked on, with well over 400 individual movements and hundreds of touch points to consider. INTX stepped up to the plate and delivered an exceptional service in 8 cities over a mammoth 15 day period, which just goes to show the ability and competence of our whole team.”
We are proud to be an asset to all who require our transport coordination expertise and on this occasion, we were able to ensure that each stop on the cruise was one the cruise group would enjoy and remember.
