Arrived in New York at Newark Airport toting over 2 million dollars in a canvas bag worth of jewelry and gems. Destination? Queen Mary 2 in Manhattan. Owners of the vessel? Carnival Corporation. Revenue Operations courtesy of Princess Cruise Lines. Imagine, the grandest Ocean Liner in the world owned and operated by Carnival Cruise Lines. Revenue operations were taken over by Princess Cruise Lines after Carnival dismantled (basically fired) all of the "old guard" at Cunard.

No doubt, Princess runs a pretty tight ship when it comes to revenue operations but, their cut-throat tactics and lack of people skills can get out of hand. They are a company full of corporate, forward thinking individuals. They "summon" people (vendors) to their table with their knives and forks at the ready. When they're done with you, there's nothing left (not even scraps for the seagulls).

They won't like this blog, as it will disclose what happened on the QM2 during their inaugural year. The incidents surrounding what happened on QM2 go straight to the top of Princess Cruise Lines and down the gang plank to their marketing and revenue department executives.

Here's the deal...

Come on board the QM2 and sell jewelry and gems. Princess/Cunard/Carnival will get 60% of the GROSS! We're talking GROSS (not after expense of product) we're talking GROSS! In other words, GROSS $500,000 and our Pirate friends (the cruise line) take is $300,000.00. Sounds like Tony Soprano operating The Bing at sea and quite frankly, it's not too far off the mark.

Now, you might be asking yourself just what are you paying 60% of your gross for and to whom?

The answer? A venue. The captured audience at sea (as they like to call it). The ability to churn out cash for the mother ship - Princess Cruise Lines - Cunard - Carnival Corporation. Stockholders can sleep well at night knowing the Princess is not exactly sleeping on a pea.

So, you buy something (anything on a cruise ship) and you just paid 60% more just to cover the back end for the cruise line, as the vendor is NOT going to take the full 60% hit at his gross.

The more money you make Princess, the worse off you are, as the art auction vendor, the port shopping guide company, the Hotel Manager (on down to the on board Shop Manager) will see to it that you don't throw a monkey "money wrench" at any one department in particular. There must be a financial pecking order in place and harmony comes at a high price.  In other words, make money but, not too much money, as the "fury" of the Princess will come down upon you like a white squall.

Make too much money and the CEO of Princess will get on the phone and ask you if you bribed the Captain of the QM2 to get "things" done. What "things" you might ask? Like a dinner table next to the Captain's table every night in which to wine and celebrities and royalty. How about "sail away" on the bridge with the Captain. Did you bribe the Hotel Manager to use the main salon area to sell jewelry? How "exactly" did you earn all of this money for Princess? Show us your business model so we can learn from it and then copy it after all, duplication is the purest form of flattery.

Well, I'll tell you, it wasn't easy and by the time I got off the ship in New York (and rushed to the Hospital by ambulance), you find yourself listening to the siren and asking yourself "how did I get to this place"? Stress from all sides no doubt, sat phone calls with Princess upper executives, dealing with passengers (or PAX as Princess likes to call them), cumulating into the final "summoning" from the QM2 to Los Angeles to meet with Princess Executives.

This is NOT a story. You will find it hard to believe but, it's all backed up with notes, diaries, meetings and phone calls with the CEO of Princess Cruise Lines. As we go forward from day to day, from person to person, from pax to pax, the story will unfold, as one of the most unbelievable "factual" events surrounding the QM2 and just how a few Fortune 500 companies operate from within.

To be continued....