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User:MatthewStevens/Entertainment Cruise Productions (ECP)

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Entertainment Cruise Productions, LLC (ECP) is a privately-held company specializing in themed music cruises. Founded in 2000, ECP holds seven annual cruises, each chartering a full ship holding about 2,000 passengers. Each cruise addresses a different musical genre, such as jazz, smooth jazz, R&B and country. The company is the world’s largest operator of full-charter programmed entertainment cruises. ECP is based in St. Louis, USA.

Business Model

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ECP chooses to completely take over a ship—not only the ship itself, but also the hiring of its crew, staff and entertainers. Furthermore, it operates its own reservation center, and programs its own entertainment. This integrated model is unusual, and possibly unique, in the cruise industry.[1]

History

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In the mid-1980s, Norwegian Cruise Line (“NCL”) began sponsoring an annual jazz cruise on the SS Norway. This program was a special "group," meaning that it shared the ship with other passengers. During the early years of NCL’s Jazz Cruise, Anita E. Berry quickly became the largest group leader in terms of the number of guests she produced for the cruise. This resulted in Berry becoming increasingly influential, with NCL asking her to become involved in the production of the cruise, the selection of the artists, the ports-of-call and other aspects of the cruise’s development.

In 2000, NCL decided to terminate its theme cruises. By this time, Berry had accumulated significant proprietary assets: a guest list, cruise expertise, relationships with musicians, and finances. She calculated that these were sufficient resources to continue offering jazz cruises on her own. With these, she founded ECP.

ECP began by chartering complete ships for jazz cruises. When Berry’s son, Michael Lazaroff, joined ECP, its offerings expanded. Lazaroff developed The Smooth Jazz Cruise, hosted by Wayman Tisdale; Dave Koz & Friends at Sea; the 2007 North Sea Jazz Cruise, hosted by Marcus Miller; The Playboy Jazz Cruise™; The Signature Jazz Cruise on Seabourn; and, with StarVista Time Life, the Malt Shop Memories Cruise, Country Music Cruise and Soul Train Cruise. Lazaroff now is ECP’s Executive Director. Other past formats included Rock ‘n’ Roll and Elvis.[2]

From 2000 through mid-2014, ECP chartered 52 full ships.

Offerings

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ECP currently offers the following cruise formats, sailing annually unless otherwise noted:

References

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  1. ^ http://www.ecpcruises.com/About-Us
  2. ^ http://www.ecpcruises.com/About-Us
  3. ^ http://www.thejazzcruise.com/2015/Lineup
  4. ^ http://www.thesmoothjazzcruise.com/2015/Booking
  5. ^ http://www.thesmoothjazzcruise.com/2015/Lineup
  6. ^ http://www.signaturejazzcruise.com/The-Ship
  7. ^ http://www.signaturejazzcruise.com/Cruise-Schedule/Itinerary
  8. ^ http://www.signaturejazzcruise.com/Cruise-Schedule/Shore-Excursions
  9. ^ http://www.signaturejazzcruise.com/Cruise-Events/Special-Nightly-Entertainment
  10. ^ http://maltshopcruise.com/news/welcome-to-the-july-edition-of-the-scoop
  11. ^ http://maltshopcruise.com/lineup
  12. ^ http://soultraincruise.com/lineup
  13. ^ http://countrymusiccruise.com/lineup
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