MSC Cruises Appoints Rubén Rodríguez President, MSC Cruises USA

[capitalbarry]

If anybody is interested:

MSC Cruises USA has appointed Rubén Rodríguez as President; he will join the organization on March 18.

Rodriguez’s role will be to help the business achieve further growth and strengthen the company’s strategy in the US region, both in terms of its commercial presence and brand awareness, and leverage long-term investments made in recent years, the company said, in a press release.

Reporting to MSC Cruises’ CEO Gianni Onorato in Geneva, Switzerland, Rodriguez will also oversee the development of its future terminal in Miami, Florida which is due to open in October 2022 and Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve in The Bahamas which opened at the end of 2019.

The executive is experienced in the cruise business, having worked for eight years at Carnival Cruise Line. He was Executive Vice President Ship Operations between 2009 and 2015, and Executive Vice President Marketing and Guest Experience between 2007 and 2009.

Prior to joining Carnival, he was a Partner and Managing Director at management consulting firm The Boston Consulting Group.

Rodríguez more recently was CEO of Great Wolf Resorts, North America’s largest owner and operator of indoor water park family resorts, between 2015 and 2017. In the last two years, he has been a senior advisor and board member to a range of international companies and private equity firms, engaged in investments as well as growth and performance improvement programs for brands in the travel and leisure sectors.

He has a degree in mechanical engineering from Princeton University, a Master's in civil engineering from the University of California and an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Rodriguez will work side-by-side with Rick Sasso, Chairman MSC Cruises USA, Ken Muskat, COO, MSC Cruises USA and the rest of the local leadership team based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

He replaces Roberto Fusaro, who left MSC Cruises USA at the end of January for personal reasons.

Cruise Industry News Email Alerts

Edited February 10, 2020 by capitalbarry
forgot picture

[sidari]

Ex Carnival, more changes on the way I wonder!

[shipgeeks]

10 minutes ago, sidari said:

Ex Carnival, more changes on the way I wonder!

I hope not!  MSC is fine the way it is; we don't need more Carnival/RC/NCL/X.

[reedprincess]

Oh lordy. Carnival is not the direction I want to see to see MSC head.  

[cellfree]

Shipgeeks, agree with you, “MSC is fine the way it’s is.” 

[rkacruiser]

My opinion:  why is this gentleman's appointment seen as a negative just because we was a former CCL executive?  

 

My January cruise on Meraviglia in the non-YC areas of the ship, the entertainment offered were Carnival Cruse Line type and even of better quality.  When was the last time you attended an opera performance on a Carnival Cruise Line ship?  Meraviglia's theater was filled to capacity that afternoon.  Why would such a successful program be eliminated?

 

I have great respect for Mr. Sasso and his expertise will still be in the mix.  

 

The entire cruise industry has learned from Carnival Corporation, Royal Caribbean International, and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings.  MSC, trying to increase their market share in North America, it makes sense, at least to me, to attempt to profit from what executives of other cruise lines have learned.

 

 

[mickey89]

13 hours ago, reedprincess said:

Oh lordy. Carnival is not the direction I want to see to see MSC head.  

It's already there, or worse than Carnival.  Read the reviews, gone from  3 star to mostly 1 star, can't go any lower.

[Beardface]

Adding a little spice of the Carnival fun to MSC wouldn't be a terrible idea.  Sometimes its ok to not take yourself too seriously.

 

But they definitely need to stay away from the party boat experience that Carnival has adopted.  That market segment is fairly saturated.

[RC Dancers]

I hope that he can improve US customer service so phone calls and e-mails actually get answered.

[perakcruiser]

15 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

When was the last time you attended an opera performance on a Carnival Cruise Line ship?  Meraviglia's theater was filled to capacity that afternoon.  Why would such a successful program be eliminated?

Because it is expensive and it is already almost eliminated from MSC 😥 I do not see many chances to save it, but if you were lucky to enjoy on your last cruise, please tell them! 

 

On our last cruise on the Sea view there was zero classical music or opera so we cut down the DSC 50% and also told them how disappointed we were.