Focused on the Customer Experience
Carnival is the world's number one cruise line, but that doesn't mean Dickinson is resting easy. He wants an even bigger slice of the travel industry pie. That means getting more people onto his ocean liners.

To catch up, Dickinson explains, Carnival has to deliver a stunning vacation experience. "We train our staff and motivate our staff to exceed the expectations of our guests, not meet them. Meeting them is like kissing your sister, there's no great advantage to that. We wanna go the extra mile, we wanna blow their socks off."

Will Dickinson discover new ways to wow the customers when he takes to the high seas as a cabin boy?

Dickinson's wife, Jodie, is skeptical of her husband's ability to switch roles. "Boy, this could be a very interesting cruise," she says. "Bob doesn't know how to clean cabins. Bob basically goes to work, comes home and everything's done for him."
Bob realizes he could be in for a challenge. "I like to consider myself a hands-on manager," he says, "but this is a new dimension where they're actually going to have me bussing tables, cleaning the trays."

Yet he's ready to try, if only to get a closer look at what goes into satisfying passengers. "I look forward to it, because the key to any business is the customer, the customer's king," he says.

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