Each Summer, interns are given the option to participate in an intern project. In the past, intern projects have focused on topics like the Next Entertainment Cruises City, Product Development, the Next Specialty Cruise Idea, Cruise Marketing, and How to Improve the Internship Program, among others. The intern project topics change each Summer.
Once the project topics are selected and the interns are placed in groups, they are required to work together throughout the summer to brainstorm and create presentations. The hard work and diligence required for this optional feature of the internship culminates at the end of the Summer when interns present their topics before an audience of company executives, including the CEO and Vice President of Operations.
To gain a better sense of how these projects impact students, read testimonials from past Sales and Guest Services Interns below.
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Stephanie Bailen
Summer 2015 Sales and Guest Services Intern
Finance and Marketing, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Entertainment Cruises provides interns with limitless opportunities to create a memorable and unique internship experience. This past summer, I chose to work on an intern project. I worked with six other interns to create a professional presentation about a potential new specialty cruise. As a team, we brainstormed various ideas and collaborated to create a PowerPoint slideshow to be presented in front of corporate executives. The overwhelming support from team leaders, managers and other colleagues provided our team with the necessary skills and confidence needed to be successful. After five weeks of preparation, my group presented our idea to over fifteen corporate executives, and it was a huge achievement! Not only did my presentation skills and ability to work on a team improve drastically, I also created lasting friendships with all members of my group as well as other team members in the Contact Center who helped us along the way.
The internship found at Entertainment Cruises is a unique experience that one will not find anywhere else. It is a time to grow exponentially as a professional, but also a time to surround yourself with outstanding colleagues that push you to reach new goals and achieve high levels of professional success. If someone had told me on my first day at Entertainment Cruises that I would be presenting a corporate project to over fifteen executives, I would have never believed it. But throughout my time at Entertainment Cruises, I learned a variety of skill sets needed to succeed in my career path and I gained confidence as a growing professional. By the end of my internship, I was able to stand before corporate executives confidently, and talk with assurance about my group’s concept. I cannot think of a better place to start one’s career than at Entertainment Cruises.
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Michael McNulty
Summer 2015 Sales and Guest Services Intern/Team Leader
Economics, University of Chicago
The Intern Project with Entertainment Cruises was an exciting and challenging experience that helped me to develop professionally in ways entirely independent from the internship itself. Our small group of six interns worked together to build an entirely new specialty cruise, and we pitched our final product —a Chicago Bears Tailgating Cruise— to an audience of over fifteen corporate members, including the Senior Vice President of Operations and the Vice President of Sales and Marketing!
This was an intimidating crowd to get in front of, and we made sure to be very prepared! Everything about our cruise idea – location, menu, entertainment – was based in research. As a hopeful future consultant, I really valued this aspect of the project. I gained hands-on experience doing market research in multiple cities on consumer spending and demographics, advertising and cruising costs, and possible competition. With that information, we built a cruise that was not only profitable yet competitively priced, but also widely appealing to our target market within Chicago. As one would assume, everyone in our group agreed that we would have a blast on the cruise we imagined, but it was really rewarding to hear the same approval echoed by the management and corporate teams!
Although we on our own with actually building the project, the management team was incredibly helpful with regard to the actual presentation. We had several full-dress practice runs of the presentation, and I really appreciated the feedback I got on my word choice, my speaking pace and volume, and my overall delivery. This was very helpful with not only the project but also with presenting in general.
To any future EC interns, I would highly recommend taking advantage of the Intern Project opportunity.
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Bethany Pilat
Summer 2015 Sales and Guest Services Intern
Business Administration, Olivet Nazarene University
Entertainment Cruises is not an ordinary company and their internship is not an exception. The moment you step through the door, you can sense the difference. Not only are you gaining experience at an incredibly prosperous and growing company, but you are gaining it alongside eager, successful professionals who love what they do and genuinely care about you. As you are immersed in the culture, especially in “Our Service System” (OSS), you realize that the words written to serve as a guide for how employees are to serve guests is just as applicable behind conference room doors as it is on the dining decks.
As an intern you are not simply another face in the office but you are a team member who your colleagues want to see improve and are willing to help see it happen. One specific instance in which I experienced this was through my involvement in an intern project. After I learned about the company and products I was given the opportunity to work alongside six other interns in order to research the next city that Entertainment Cruises should expand to. After thorough market and demographic research, followed by a financial analysis, we composed a proposal which we were able to present to over fifteen of the top corporate executives and some of our fellow interns.
As undergraduate college students, we were inexperienced in public speaking in a corporate setting, implementing project management, and building project proposals; however, our knowledgeable superiors were willing to come alongside us to give priceless advice and direction. Not only did they make themselves available to answer questions and encourage us throughout the process, but we were also given speech coaching which really made all of the difference when it came time to give our final presentation.
Your time spent as an Entertainment Cruises team member can be an opportunity of a lifetime but the experience is everything that you make of it. Involvement in an intern project is just one of many chances you will have to learn and grow throughout this experience and I believe it may be the greatest professional learning experience I have had thus far. I encourage every intern to take advantage of every opportunity Entertainment Cruises gives you, especially in this program. If you do, you may begin as a student but finish as an experienced, young professional.
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Mary Bittner
Summer 2014 Sales and Guest Services Intern
Public Policy with a concentration in Business & Economics, University of Chicago
There are approximately 2,469,501 cities in the world. As a college student, it is difficult to decide which one to live in after graduation, let alone which one to vacation in for a single weekend. Seven interns and I were given the task of choosing one of the 2,469,493 cities left to choose from to establish a new operation for a multi-million dollar company. A somewhat daunting task but in the end, a rewarding and eye-opening experience that I am so thankful I was a part of during my time here at Entertainment Cruises.
Our project began with bouncing a few cities around in a group message and finished with a detailed presentation in front of Entertainment Cruises Corporate Executives. The journey was filled with many hours in the library, multiple group emails and two practice presentations in front of immediate management. The first time our group discussed possible EC cities, it was obvious that we were on different pages, probably completely different books. Suggestions of touristy cities in Mexico contrasted sharply with the suggestions of American river cities such as Nashville and Savannah and tropical destinations such as Madagascar and Antarctica (kidding, although the notion of a penguin sight-seeing cruise was compelling at first and would indeed be very similar to winter cruises on Lake Michigan). A compromise needed to be made and Victoria, Canada was our solution.
Choosing a city in Canada was originally frightening because of the new challenges of expanding internationally and the immediate concern about weather and climate. However, it turns out that Victoria has the mildest climate in all of Canada and a lower average annual rainfall than NYC. The Canadian Coast Guard is also very similar to the United States, making the international transit smooth and simpler. I speak for all eight of us when I say that I genuinely fell in love with the city of Victoria after researching. Whether this is the success of the Victorian Tourism website, the breath-taking photos of the Inner Harbor sponsored on Google or the fascinating historical significance of the city itself, Victoria stole our hearts. It was then our job to channel our enthusiasm and adoration for Victoria in front of corporate, utilizing the same sales skills we had been honing during our time in the Contact Center. Except this time, we were pitching a million-dollar international operation without a scripted closing statement or list of “wow” adjectives to use.
I am happy to report that our presentation went well and I was pleased with the follow-up questions that both corporate and management had for us. I learned so much about the aspects of a cruise operation, both logistically and strategically. The project was a great experience and perhaps Entertainment Cruises will be expanding into Canadian soil soon, eh?
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Entertainment Cruises 