Cruise Lines & Cruise Sellers
Cruise Line BPO Services | Reservations and Disruption
A cruise booking is worth several times a hotel stay, is made six to twelve months ahead, and involves a departure time that does not move. Everything distinctive about supporting cruise guests follows from that last fact: a passenger whose passport, visa or health documentation is not right does not sail, cannot be rebooked onto the next one an hour later, and will tell everyone about it. The deadline is the ship leaving the pier.
Global Empire Corporation supports cruise lines, cruise sellers and travel trade desks across reservations, pre-departure documentation, disruption handling and post-cruise billing — staffed for a booking curve that peaks in wave season and a disruption profile where one itinerary change generates several thousand simultaneous contacts.
- 1.1B+
- Transactions Processed
- 11+
- Contact Centers Worldwide
- 27
- Service in 27+ Languages
- 35.5k+
- Over 35000 Happy Employees
- 10M+
- New Customers Acquired
One Itinerary Change Produces Three Thousand Calls in an Hour
Most industries experience disruption as a stream. A cruise line experiences it as a single event: a port is dropped, a ship is redeployed, a sailing is canceled, and every booked guest and every travel advisor holding those bookings is notified at once. They then all call at once. A contact center sized for ordinary volume does not degrade gracefully under that — it stops answering, and the vacuum fills with speculation from social media and advisors improvising their own explanations.
The other pressure is quieter and entirely predictable. In the weeks before each sailing, the same questions arrive from every guest on the manifest: what documents do I need, does my passport have enough validity left, do I need a visa for this port, what about my child travelling on a different surname. None of it is complicated, all of it is time-critical, and any of it left unanswered turns into a guest denied boarding at the terminal.
- Disruption surge capacity that can absorb a whole sailing contacting you inside an hour
- Pre-departure documentation chased proactively rather than answered reactively at the pier
- A separate trade desk, because a travel advisor holding twelve bookings is not a guest with one
- Wave-season reservation coverage staffed against a booking curve you can predict a year out
For cruise lines, cruise sellers and travel trade desks
Cruise Support Services We Deliver
Reservations & Booking Support
Cabin category, deck and dining questions handled as a considered sale, not a transaction, on a booking worth several thousand dollars.
Pre-Departure Documentation
Passport validity, visa and health requirements, and outstanding check-in items chased before the guest reaches the terminal.
Disruption & Itinerary Change
Port cancellations, redeployments and weather events handled at event scale with one consistent message.
Travel Advisor Support
A dedicated trade line for advisors, whose questions, authority and commission concerns differ entirely from a guest's.
Onboard Credit & Billing Queries
Folio disputes, onboard credit application and post-cruise charge questions resolved against your records.
Group & Charter Bookings
Multi-cabin groups, family reunions and incentive charters, where one contact represents many bookings.
Loyalty Program Support
Tier status, benefit application and past-guest recognition, which repeat cruisers care about intensely.
Shore Excursion & Add-Ons
Excursion, beverage package and specialty dining sales in the pre-cruise window when guests are actively spending.
How a Cruise Program Gets Built
Disruption is designed first, because it is the only scenario where the program either holds or visibly fails in public.
Write the disruption playbook
Agree in advance what agents say for a dropped port, a canceled sailing and a redeployment, including what compensation is authorized. Improvised answers at event scale become the story.
Separate trade from direct
Advisors get their own routing, their own authority level and their own scripts. Queueing an advisor behind guests is how a cruise line loses distribution.
Build the documentation matrix
Requirements vary by itinerary, nationality and port. It is maintained as sourced reference with a named owner, never recalled from memory.
Staff to the sailing calendar
Volume is driven by departure dates and wave season, both known far ahead. Rosters follow the calendar rather than last month's average.
Rehearse the surge
Run the cancellation scenario before it happens, so the escalation path and the bench are tested rather than assumed.
Related services
Build a complete support program
Frequently asked questions
Can agents advise on passports and visas?
They can state your published requirements for the itinerary and tell a guest exactly what is outstanding on their booking, and that resolves the large majority of these calls. What they do not do is interpret an individual's immigration position — dual nationality, a name that does not match a document, a prior refusal, an unusual travel history. Those go to your team. An agent who guesses about entry requirements and gets it wrong has cost the guest a cruise, and that is not a mistake anyone recovers from with an apology.
What happens when a sailing is canceled?
The playbook runs, which is why it is written before it is needed. Surge capacity opens, every agent works from one approved message so guests and advisors hear the same thing, compensation and rebooking options are stated exactly as authorized, and anything outside the authorized set escalates rather than being improvised. The failure mode we are designing against is not long hold times — it is five agents giving five different answers, which reaches social media within the hour.
Why does the travel trade need a separate desk?
Because an advisor is a distribution partner, not a customer, and treating them as one is expensive. They hold multiple bookings, they need answers at a different level of detail, they have commission and group questions no guest ever asks, and they are choosing between cruise lines every time they make a recommendation. An advisor who waits forty minutes behind consumer calls remembers it when the next client asks which line to sail.
Can you sell excursions and packages before sailing?
Yes, and the pre-cruise window is when guests are most willing to spend — they have already committed to the holiday and are now looking forward to it. Agents work from your published inventory and pricing, and the discipline is to sell against what the guest has actually booked: recommending an excursion at a port the ship no longer calls at, or one unsuitable for the mobility needs noted on the booking, does more damage than the sale is worth.
How do you handle onboard billing disputes after a cruise?
By working from the folio rather than the argument. Agents retrieve the charge detail, explain what was actually billed and when, and take a correction request to your revenue team where the record does not support the charge. They do not issue refunds or waive charges on the call. Post-cruise billing is the single most common trigger for a card chargeback in this sector, and the way to reduce it is an accurate answer on the first contact, not a fast concession.
Our bookings are seasonal. Can staffing follow?
It has to, and cruise is one of the easier sectors to plan because the curve is genuinely predictable. Wave season drives new bookings, the weeks before each departure drive service contacts, and the days after drive billing queries. Coverage is built against your sailing calendar and scales for the peaks rather than carrying a flat headcount that is over-resourced in September and short in January.
Do you support multiple languages?
Where your source markets require it, and for cruise this is usually not optional — a sailing manifest routinely mixes several nationalities, and a guest sorting out documentation in their second language under time pressure is where errors happen. Language coverage is built to the markets you actually sell into, and the documentation scripts are prepared in each rather than translated live by an agent.
What does cruise support cost?
It is driven by the shape of the program: fleet and sailing volume, how much surge capacity you want held for disruption, whether the trade desk is in scope, the languages required, whether agents sell excursions and packages or handle service only, and how deep the documentation and loyalty training goes. Held surge capacity is the line most operators debate and the one that pays for itself the first time a sailing is canceled. We quote per line.
TESTIMONIALS
Our trusted clients
Global Empire provides reliable 24/7 coverage with live support when it matters most. Their breadth of service, professionalism, and ability to answer calls quickly has made a major difference for our organization. We’re very happy with the partnership and would recommend them confidently.
Wait times no longer exist with the service Global Empire provides. We have cut labor costs dramatically, eliminated overhead from dispatch staffing, and our clients are getting picked up quicker. Spending less while improving service has become the backbone of our business.
We are not only meeting but exceeding our service level objectives. Global Empire resolves many calls without needing a live agent, and the calls that require support are answered quickly and handled faster than before. Their reporting gives us visibility anytime we need it.
We set very challenging service level objectives and insist on those standards being met. At first we were unsure if Global Empire could consistently deliver at that level, but they proved they could. Based on performance and reliability, we know we made the right decision.
Service matters greatly for customer loyalty and experience, and Global Empire provides exactly the professional support required. We’re confident we achieve more value in our contact center because of the strategic partnership and the consistency of their service.
During our recent flood disaster, Global Empire provided messaging services vital to our communications management. Their quick, efficient, and professional response stood out throughout the crisis. In situations like this, service quality is not taken for granted — it’s recognized.
Excellent service — we consistently receive comments about how professional and friendly their agents are. To our customers, it feels seamless and they assume the people answering are part of our in-office team. It has worked out far better than we thought possible.
Global Empire has provided essential call center services for over a decade, responding to medical and non-medical emergencies with accuracy and professionalism. Their commitment to quality and continuous learning is clearly reflected in the service they deliver.
I never realized how much overtime we were paying until we started using Global Empire. We were able to eliminate overtime completely while improving how calls are handled. Now our staff can focus on other important tasks that keep our customers happy.
I wasn’t using all the options Global Empire offered until one of their representatives noticed and reached out. Based on their recommendations, we made several changes that saved money and improved response time. Customers now comment on how efficiently our business runs.
We believe excellent customer service provides the sharpest competitive edge. Global Empire shares that same vision and works closely with us to deliver the best possible service quality. Their partnership supports our ongoing commitment to excellence.
The main reason we work with Global Empire is the ‘red carpet’ treatment. They have the best group of agents I’ve worked with in over 20 years, and they consistently maintain high standards for compliance and customer interactions. They lead by example.
Efficient, professional service with a personal touch. It’s rare to find a provider that consistently delivers both quality and responsiveness at this level.
Over the years I’ve been impressed with the professionally trained staff at Global Empire. Our customers are often anxious or angry, and their team consistently puts them at ease. In two decades, we have never had a customer complaint — which says everything.
As we expanded from Europe into North America, we knew customer service and technical support would be critical to success. We were impressed to learn Global Empire was handling support for a market leader. After working with them, it’s clear why — their service sets the standard.
One of our members struggled with registration and called our toll-free number. The Global Empire agent remained calm, extremely helpful, and professional throughout a long troubleshooting process. Because of that call, the customer remained loyal — and that is a huge asset.
Global Empire is over-delivering on SPH and sales targets. Their performance has helped us reduce acquisition costs significantly, and they have proven to be the missing link in our growth strategy.
I can’t believe we didn’t use Global Empire sooner. Since joining, our order accuracy improved, wait time is virtually gone, and customers receive their orders correctly and on time. This partnership has had a major impact on our national pizza business.
Because of their experience in the energy industry, Global Empire has become a valued marketing partner. Their call center solutions help us acquire customers, retain them, and provide quality service after the sale — 24 hours a day.
Our business relationship with Global Empire has been long and very satisfying. Their employees deserve full credit for the professionalism and consistency they bring to every interaction. I know firsthand how stressful frontline work can be, and their team delivers every time.
Global Empire has been an integral part of our business for years. Our customers expect to speak with someone who can assist immediately, and their team consistently delivers. They maintain professionalism, empathy, and flexibility, making it easy to work together.
With so much outsourcing in the answering services space, it was a relief to find a provider that is truly efficient. The pricing is excellent, onboarding was smooth, and our clients were far happier speaking to a live operator instead of voicemail.
We have partnered with Global Empire for over 15 years and they remain a crucial part of our 24/7 operations. They support multiple sites across states, and we couldn’t be happier with their service, reliability, and long-term consistency.
Travel, hospitality and food
Related industry programs
Neighbouring sectors that buy the same capability for a different operation.