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Rich Campbell
Rich Campbell
Written by noiZe Staff
In late January, the latest Atlantis gay cruise set sail. noiZe had a chance to speak with Rich Campbell, President of Atlantis Events, Inc., just before he embarked on what was to be the biggest cruise, gay or straight, in history. The Freedom of the Seas, Royal Caribbean’s newest and biggest ship, was host to 3600 guests who joined Rich on this floating city for one of the most unique experiences of their lives.
How did you get started with Atlantis?
We started this company in 1990 as the gay brand of Club Med. I was bouncing around television in Los Angeles and I was trying to figure out something else to do for a period of time. You rarely actually plan on things to come out the way they do. I had this crazy idea of hosting a gay week at Club Med. I thought I’d do that for a year or two, make a little money, and then go back to Hollywood. In 1990, we went to Club Med on a cold call and walked out with a contract, knowing absolutely nothing about the travel industry. In May of ‘91, we operated our very first Club Med resort under the name “Atlantis at Club Med” and we sold it out and had an amazing time. And that was the beginning. I liked the experience, our guests liked the experience, so we went back and said let’s see what else we can do. There really was no grand plan. There still isn’t. We’ve always been very opportunistic about trying to create these really unique interesting experiences for people. We continued with Club Med for the next seven years. We grew considerably; we were doing six Club Med resorts at our peak in 1996. In ‘97, we decided it was time to broaden our horizons. There was an opportunity to charter a small ship - a 900-passenger ship called the Leeward that Norwegian Cruise Lines owned. We chartered that ship, sold it out in about six months, and that was how we got into the cruise business. In early ‘98, we did our first big ship cruise and we’ve been growing steadily ever since. In 2007, we’ll do eight full-ship charters ranging from 700 passengers to 3600 passengers.
Do you have competitors?
Everyone is our competitor. Every possible type of travel experience - whether it’s going to a party in Miami, going to Hawaii for vacation, or going to Europe with your family - all of those things are competitors to us. The biggest issue with Americans is that they don’t have much time for vacation. We’re trying to fight the two-week limit more than anything else. There’s one other company that does what we do, RSVP, and there’s a company in the women’s market called Olivia. RSVP is a quarter of the size of us - they’re running four cruises this year, we’re running eight.
And now you can say you’ve chartered the largest cruise in history…
My thing has never been to be a travel company - we’ve always been an event production company. The idea was to create unique experiences in really interesting places. Lately, those places have been cruise ships. But we also have resorts. We’re back at ClubMed this year for the first time ever. They’ve upgraded their resort substantially and they’re pretty fantastic. So I’m really thrilled to start a new relationship with them.
What types of things do you do to turn a cruise into an event?
We rip it apart and put it back together. We basically reinvent the cruise experience from the ground up. Besides the fact that it’s a gay audience, it’s also a completely different style of cruise from what the cruise lines typically offer. They try to be all things to all people; we try to be great things for a few people. We bring all of our own entertainment. We’ll have twenty-five different shows on the Freedom next week.
What kind of shows?
They range from cabaret singers to a couple of big name headliners that I can’t disclose to you. We had Jennifer Hudson on the last cruise, who just got a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress in Dreamgirls. That’s the caliber of people we bring in for our headline entertainers. We’ve had Patti Lupone on a few times, Roseanne Barr has done a few, Joan Rivers has done a couple. We have a stable of people that we like to work with. And then we try to get the newest, freshest, most exciting talent out there that’s appropriate for a gay audience. It’s also what’s appropriate for an audience that tends to be more active, younger, and more social in nature than a typical straight cruise.
We start the week with Charo! We have performance acts - on this next cruise we’re bringing a couple of really unique people. We’ve got five DJs on this cruise - Manny Lehman, Brett Henrichsen, Warren Gluck, Abel, and we’re bringing Junior Vasquez for the first time ever on a ship. We’re going to have him do a highly-themed, really unusual indoor night that will really blow people away.
What is the age range of your clientele?
The youngest person is 20; the oldest is 88. 80% fall between 34 and 43.
Your DJ selection is really impressive - there’s such a wide range of styles.
That’s the idea. With 3600 people, we don’t throw one party - we throw twenty. And we use different venues. There will be an R&B night, a classic disco T-dance with all 70’s music, and we’ll do an 80’s party. We’ll do an alternative night as well as a trance night. We try to vary the music programming in different sized venues so that if you want something unique musically, you’re going to find it.
Are there multiple events going on at the same time?
Always. The most difficult thing for people is picking and choosing. The suicide guests try to do everything; the smart guests go, “OK, I guess I’m not gonna see this.” At any given point and time, I’ve got between five and nine different events going on. We have an ice rink on the ship where we could have a show, as well as a show in the theater, a parade going on in the promenade - we have a promenade that’s the length of three football fields.
You have parades?
Parades! These are things that Royal does that we just adapt slightly. There could be a cabaret performer in the Schooner Bar, a small show in Pharaoh’s Lounge, and a party just starting out on the top deck - that’s all entirely plausible. Oh, and at the same time, we could have nighttime surfing on the back deck on the FlowRider surf machine. And that’s not counting the thousand people that are still finishing dinner. We try to do it so we’re not entertaining 3600 people all at once. Five hundred here, eight hundred here, a thousand there - and even then you’ve still got twelve hundred people to handle.
Do you have a staff that helps you out with all this?
We have about 100 people onboard. Some of them are employees; a lot of them are contractors. And that includes the talent. Also, we bring on a team of about thirty - they’re not quite staff, they’re not quite guests - they’re more or less facilitators. They keep the show running. They’re the glue that holds the entire week together. They’re basically volunteers that we bring in from all over the world.
It sounds like event promotion times a thousand…
It’s a live theatre production with 3600 people and they’re all part of the show. You don’t walk off of this saying, “Oh, I was just on a cruise.” You walk off going, “That was the most unique experience I’ve ever had.” We create this somewhat artificial but very real community that people become a part of and engage in. What’s really cool is that there’s a lot of down time. There’s a lot of time out in the sun and on the pool deck, time wandering around the ports, time sitting with friends and, sometimes, total strangers. It creates this wonderful social interaction.
So you’re all stuck together for seven days and you end up talking and meeting new people and making friends…
Exactly! And I would hardly call them “stuck”!
Stuck in a good way!
Exactly! And that’s really why I’ve been doing this for so long. I walk off that ship and I see people who’ve made friends and will remain friends for a long, long time.
Compared to doing a land-based operation, what would you say are the biggest challenges working on a ship like this?
There’s no turning back. Once you sail, if you forget something, you’re screwed! Once we forgot the dog tags for a Dog Tag T-Dance on the dock!
Do you ever get down time? Do you ever get to relax and enjoy the cruises yourself?
I love what I do! I have the best job in the world. Are you kidding? I get paid to go to really fun places with really cool people and entertain them for a living.
