OREANDA-NEWS. For most, tropical breezes and beaches are out of reach during the peak of winter – but AT&T, Samsung Electronics America, Inc. and Carnival Corporation & plc are making it easier to access sun and fun on the high seas. Starting tomorrow, customers can walk in select AT&T stores and experience a fully immersive virtual reality cruise experience.

Kicking off in in 133 AT&T stores across 37 states, customers can trial a unique experience on the Samsung Gear VR, powered by Oculus.  Store visitors can walk up to the Gear VR demo, put on the headset and be surrounded by the sights and sounds of a warm and sunny cruise vacation. The virtual reality content is first-of-its-kind and exclusively developed by Carnival Corporation and its 10 global cruise line brands.

Samsung Gear VR[1] – designed to accelerate virtual reality into the mainstream – provides an untethered, fully-immersive experience with 360-degree content for an extremely high quality mobile VR experience. Built to work with Samsung’s Galaxy S6, S6 edge, S6 edge+ and Note5, the Gear VR headset lets people enjoy an ever-growing library of premium and entertaining games, apps, photos and videos.  

Consumers will also be able to enter a sweepstakes to win one of 10 seven-day cruises on Carnival Corporation’s Holland America Line, Princess Cruises and Carnival Cruise Line brands by checking the virtual reality experience and sign up via an in-store tablet or by visiting www.vrcruisewlcl.com. The sweepstakes is available Feb. 19 to Mar. 11.

“Our customers know they can come to an AT&T store to experience the future of a connected life.  The Samsung Gear VR is awesome, especially with this great content from Carnival.  We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to show it off,” said Brian Shay, president, Retail Sales and Distribution, AT&T.

“Samsung Gear VR delivers an innovative way for people to transport themselves to far-away locations from around the world,” said Tim Baxter, president of Samsung Electronics America. “Now, people can immerse themselves into a one-of-a-kind cruise line adventure, powered by virtual reality. We are excited to work with the premier brand in leisure travel to bring the complete cruise line experience to AT&T’s stores across the U.S.”

“Globally, the growing popularity of cruising vacations is far outpacing land-based vacations, by a 23 percent margin,” said Arnold Donald, CEO of Carnival Corporation, the world’s largest leisure travel company. “But there are still many people who have not had a chance to enjoy the one-of-a-kind experience we provide with one of our 10 cruise line brands. With most of the U.S. dealing with winter weather, the timing for this launch is designed to give people a fully immersive look at why cruising is a great vacation – and helps remind them to think about going on a cruise when planning their next vacation.”