when lisa lutoffperlo took the helm of miamibased celebrity cruises as president and ceo in 2014 no amount of forecasting could have predicted how much the covid19 pandemic would ravage cruise companies but twoandahalf years later the industry—which some believed would never fully return—is thriving once more “this is an industry that is resilient that has been throughout all of the difficult situations weve faced” lutoffperlo says “this is probably the worst but its not the first” lutoffperlo 65 who has 20000 team members under her watch has used the opportunity to rethink what cruising should be celebrity recently unveiled a partnership with chef daniel boulud works with internationally recognized architects and designers and has collaborated with ambassadors and advisers ranging from actress and health guru gwyneth paltrow to gymnast simone biles its part of a reimagining of what large ships are capable of and the type of highend experience the company is able to offer guests lutoffperlo spoke with penta about her views on the future of luxury cruising penta with the cdc lifting its “covid19 program for cruise ships” in july what can cruisers expect in the near and longer term future lisa putoffperlo every day gets better that’s what i say it seems to be getting a little easier although you know we always have to be vigilant so we take the little bit of reprieve that we’re getting and we continue to ensure that we exercise as much caution as possible so that everybody is safe and healthy in june we put our 15th ship back into service so within a year we got all of our ships back into service the only thing that will be different moving forward at least in the short term is that unvaccinated guests can still sail they will be required to test on any cruise they choose to take for fully vaccinated guests for cruises five nights and under at least for this short term period they won’t have to test which will be a nice thing for them just because that test adds another element of something that they have to do and hopefully eliminates a barrier for us what do you think the future holds for luxury cruising as we continue to come out of the pandemic the pandemic has strengthened our guests resolve to explore the world and visit it in a meaningful way that’s the reason they travel and they are travelers their mindset is that theyre culturally curious and they want to enjoy the world and they want to enjoy the things that celebrity focuses on youre seeing people just really wanting to see the world again explore it deeply and improve their mind body soul and spirit and enjoy the culinary the design the details that we offer one of the details receiving attention is your partnership with daniel boulud how did that come about our culinary program on celebrity is headed up by a michelinstarred chef cornelius gallagher cornelius happened to be a protege of daniel’s they are good good friends and they’ve known each other for decades cornelius trained under him at many of his restaurants in new york as they’ve stayed in touch over the years daniel has become more and more intrigued and interested in the cruise industry especially since someone like cornelius chose to join it up until then daniel wasn’t really curious about our industry at all we evolved our partnership over time which culminated in le voyage which is daniel’s signature restaurant that we now have on the celebrity beyond what’s your response to the contingent of travelers who don’t believe a cruise can offer a truly luxurious experience celebrity is really changing people’s minds about that i’ve been in my role of president and ceo of celebrity for eight years now and one of the things i first thought was why don’t people believe that a cruise experience can be luxurious at scale and why in our industry do people think that unless you’re on a ship with only 100 people that you’e not having a luxurious cruise experience i looked at vegas and i thought if vegas could change its reputation and offer luxury at scale started by steve wynn then why do people not believe that this industry can do it and we are proving them wrong every single day with celebrity what has the pandemic taught you about being able to manage or mitigate different pressing health concerns or risks it’s taught all of us and me especially resilience and agility in a bigger way than i’ve ever had to use those two things throughout my career one of the things you learn through that is that this isn’t going to last forever we are going to come back and when we come back we’re going to come back stronger than ever one day at a time that’s a phrase we’ve used a lot this interview has been edited for length and clarity