As the travel industry continues to rebound and reshape guest expectations, City Cruises—a leader in dining and sightseeing cruises across the U.S., U.K., and Canada—is redefining the digital guest journey through its latest collaboration with customer experience innovator Medallia. Launched on August 12, 2025, this strategic alliance brings AI-powered insights into every facet of the guest experience—from digital booking to post‑cruise engagement.
Streamlining Guest Feedback with Real-Time Digital Insights
At the heart of this partnership lies a shared commitment to reducing friction and enhancing satisfaction across City Cruises’ digital touchpoints. Utilizing Medallia’s suite of tools—including AI-powered feedback capture and Digital Experience Analytics—City Cruises now gains a comprehensive view of how customers interact with its platforms. This means understanding where engagement thrives and identifying where guests encounter obstacles—whether slow site navigation, unclear messaging, or booking bottlenecks.
This newfound clarity enables City Cruises to act swiftly, improving the user interface and communication, enhancing search capabilities, and promoting self-service options. As a result, the company is better positioned to anticipate guest needs, versus merely reacting to issues that arise.
From Pre-Boarding to Post-Cruise: A Seamless Guest Journey
Recognizing that the guest journey begins well before boarding and lasts long after passengers disembark, City Cruises is deploying Medallia’s platform to monitor satisfaction at every stage—booking, boarding, on-deck experience, and even post-cruise follow‑up. This allows for a truly end‑to‑end enhancement of the guest experience.
Kacy Roseberry, Vice President of E‑Commerce and CRM at Hornblower Group, emphasized the importance of digital engagement as the tone‑setter for onboard experiences—whether celebrating a milestone, sightseeing, or attending a live event. The partnership equips City Cruises with actionable intelligence that helps anticipate and address issues long before guests step on board.
Backed by a Legacy in Maritime Hospitality
As part of the Hornblower Group, City Cruises operates an expansive network across 21 destinations spanning the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.—serving millions through dining cruises, sightseeing ventures, ferry services to iconic landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty, and private events.
Driven by this history of innovation and market leadership, the addition of Medallia’s analytics capabilities marks a significant step forward in how the brand listens, learns, and evolves to meet—and exceed—the demands of modern travelers.
Driving Loyalty and Business Growth Through Data-Driven Strategy
Beyond improving interactions, Medallia’s technology empowers City Cruises to track key performance indicators like guest sentiment, Net Promoter Scores, and revenue fluctuations. Through this data-driven framework, the company is forging a clear path to improved guest loyalty and increased lifetime value.
Moreover, insights drawn from digital feedback will inform the development of more personalized online experiences across Hornblower’s entire portfolio—helping each brand deliver a tailored, tiered product interface that responds dynamically to guest preferences.
A Digital-First Future for Maritime Hospitality
This partnership signals a broader shift within the cruise and maritime hospitality sector, where digital transformation is no longer optional but essential. From refined booking flows to interactive, feedback‑driven onboard services, City Cruises is pioneering a guest-first philosophy powered by real-time intelligence.
Mark Bishof, CEO of Medallia, highlighted the strategic advantage of unifying customer signals: “The work City Cruises is doing with Medallia will not only amplify the voices of their customers, but also empower the team with the right actions and strategy to stay ahead of customers.”
Charting Smooth Waters Ahead
With Medallia’s digital experience tools and City Cruises’ deep roots in maritime guest satisfaction, the collaboration creates a powerful framework for continuous improvement. From frictionless digital platforms to responsive onboard services and beyond, every guest moment can now be informed by insight—and optimized for delight.
As the industry continues to evolve, this partnership demonstrates how hospitality at sea can become more intuitive, personalized, and connected—setting a new standard for guest-first, digitally enabled cruising.
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