FRANK WEBER
PROFILE
Frank Weber with Richard Branson and Tom McAlpin aboard Scarlet Lady
Delivering epic sea change Frank Weber on what goes into giving Virgin Voyages its edge. Anne Kalosh reports. V
irgin Voyages promises ‘An Epic Sea Change For All,’ but when it came to reinventing the hotel experience, the
company turned to a seasoned cruise pro. Frank Weber, svp hotel operations, brought expertise from shaping the vast food and beverage program for Royal Caribbean’s Oasis class and leading product development for Norwegian Encore.
He’s responsible for all guest-facing areas – F&B, guest services, housekeeping, events & gigs (entertainment) and on-board revenue (spa, beauty services, casino and retail like the Voyage Vinyl record store and Squid Ink tattoo studio).
Virgin’s ‘adult by design’ concept ‘changed the whole focus,’ Weber says. ‘We don’t want to be everything for everybody. That limits you; you have to stay on a middle ground ... We are focusing on a very specific area of the market that may be different, a little edgier.’
Scarlet Lady offers a ‘distinct product for a distinct customer. It is design-driven, lifestyle-driven, with an emphasis on entertainment and food and beverage but in a modern way.’ The model is how people dine and are entertained in a major city.
‘Not everyone has to experience the same thing on our ships,’ Weber says. ‘Sailors can customise their experience.’
Also, Virgin’s image revolves around the ‘modern romance of the sea.’ The tattoo studio may be edgy, but tattooing has a historical context since seafarers picked it
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up from South Pacific cultures. In company lingo, passengers are ‘sailors’ and all employees are ‘crew.’
‘It’s almost gone back to the basics, rather than adding gimmicks,’ Weber says. ‘A lot of things take me back to the days when I started working on the ships. We looked to the past then created our modern version of that.’
So a cabin is a cabin but instead of the typical hotel room design, a flexible Seabed changes the look and functionality from day to night, abetted by mood lighting and technology. During the once-a-cruise Scarlet Night, sailors are invited to wear a touch of red, harkening back to a time when travellers dressed for a masquerade or other ship-wide theme night.
Scarlet Lady has more than 20 dining options – steak and seafood, Korean barbecue, upscale Mexican, mezze, Mediterranean and Italian, among others. Each restaurant has its own galley, executive chef, manager and team, singular decor, tabletop and bar selection. The staff stay with their venue so they’re experts in the menu and service style.
Weber says: ‘We had to think how a restaurant company on land would think, not how a cruise line thinks.’
The same went for entertainment. Scarlet Lady features a festival-like lineup of shows and ‘happenings.’ Virgin’s approach is like that of an entertainment company or a theatre and involves multiple producers from New York and London. The Red
Room performance space can convert into different setups for different types of shows. And there will be pop-ups around the ship.
Frank Weber ‘Frank is a great
leader because he trusts each of us to run our business and lead our teams while keeping aligned with our collective goals,’ according to Richard Kilman, vp entertainment. ‘We both strive to innovate in meaningful ways, which is a fun environment to work in. He’ll challenge us and is also open to different points of view.’
With lots of people new to cruising at Virgin, Weber’s toughest task was conveying that certain things on a ship can’t be changed. There’s no getting around US Public Health, for example. Yet to be sure he was open to fresh thinking, Weber bolstered his team with an industrial engineer who had no preconceived notions about cruising. Seth Baklor looked at optimising operations, layout, flow and technology.
‘I see myself as somebody who can be quite innovative and come up with solutions. But after 20 to 25 years, you do things a certain way so you need people who help you step out of the routine,’ Weber explains.
He reports to chief commercial officer Nirmal Saverimuttu, who also oversees sailor experience (product development). Key team members include Kilman, formerly of Norwegian Cruise Line;
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