Revenue rises, but IPO expenses put Norwegian Cruise Line in the red

Posted on 7 May, 2013 by Spacejunkie2

By Tom Stieghorst

Norwegian Cruise Line posted a $96.4 million first-quarter loss, but said accounting rules that require it to recognize some one-time expenses masked a solid improvement in its business.

Revenue rose to $527.6 million from $515.4 million.

Norwegian said that without $110 million in expenses related to its public offering in January, income would have been $12.9 million. Norwegian’s net profit was $3.3 million in last year’s first quarter.

“We had a fantastic quarter — above consensus,” said CEO Kevin Sheehan in an interview.

The expenses include costs tied to prepaying bonds and stock compensation for former executives.

Sheehan said by using the proceeds of the public offering, Norwegian was able to replace secured debt that carried 11.5% interest rates with unsecured debt that costs about 5%.

Norwegian raised $447 million in the quarter by selling 23.5 million shares for $19 each.

Excluding fuel, net cruise costs fell 1.5% in the quarter. Sheehan said the expense of introducing Norwegian Breakaway will likely raise cruise costs by 5% to 6% in the current quarter.

The New York-themed Breakaway is set to arrive before daybreak on May 7 at the Manhattan Cruise Terminal. The ship will be named the next day by the Rocketttes before starting a series of seven-day cruises to Bermuda.

Grandeur starts Baltimore service, Port Canaveral could get third Royal ship

Posted on 6 May, 2013 by Spacejunkie2

Grandeur starts Baltimore service, Port Canaveral could get third Royal ship

By Tom Stieghorst~ image of Port Canaveral

Royal Caribbean International launched service with a new ship from Baltimore and may be looking at Port Canaveral as home to a third ship next winter.

The Grandeur of the Seas has begun sailing from Baltimore, offering six- to 10-day cruises to Canada, New England, Bermuda, the Bahamas and the Caribbean. The ship was refurbished last year.

Grandeur replaces Enchantment of the Seas, which went to Port Canaveral to do three- and four-day cruises.

Port Canaveral interim CEO John Walsh told the Florida Today newspaper in Melbourne, Fla., that Royal Caribbean plans to base a third ship at his port in the winter of 2014-15.

In addition to Enchantment, Port Canaveral is home to Freedom of the Seas. Walsh also said the port is in discussions about the potential to host either an Oasis-class or Quantum-class ship, possibly in conjunction with a new terminal.

Both Oasis and Allure of the Seas sail from Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale. Royal Caribbean has ordered a third in the series for delivery in 2016.

Earlier this week, it was disclosed that Navigator of the Seas will sail from Galveston, Texas, year-round starting in February 2014. It currently sails from Galveston in the winter but will go to the Mediterranean this summer.

‘Transformational’ space on a cruise ship

Posted on 30 April, 2013 by Spacejunkie2

‘Transformational’ space on a cruise ship

By Tom Stieghorst

*Insight As cruise ships get larger, how do ship designers find ways to distribute passengers throughout the ship and not bunched at a few headline attractions?

Maximizing space so that it accommodates different activities is starting to get more thought.

Efforts at several cruise lines involve creating spaces with different activities for night and day. Designers refer to “transformational space,” and a prime example will be Two70Degrees on Royal Caribbean International’s coming Quantum of the Seas.

The space is an aft lounge with a three-deck-high wall of windows that wrap the stern of the ship, giving passengers a 270-degree view of the fantail, the wake and the ocean beyond.

For day use, Two 70 Degrees will resemble a grand den, with a library, an activities room, a gourmet market, a bar and nested seating zones that occupy terraces cascading from the entry to the floor. *TomStieghorst

At twilight, the lighting in the room will begin to change, and ambient music will clue guests that something is about to happen. Blackout screens descend to cover the glass, and fourteen hidden devices will use a new technology called 3D Mapping Projection to throw startling three-dimensional images across the curved blackout surface.

The scene can be anything from a jungle to a Spanish galleon to the daytime exterior view from the ship, said Tim Magill, a partner in the California firm of 5+Design, which helped create the room.

To date the technology has been mostly used to stage elaborate promotions on the sides of buildings, such as a 2010 installation on the side of New York’s Guggenheim Museum.

On the Quantum, the screens will be used to bring a feeling of outdoors inside the ship, expanding its visual volume, Magill said.

In front of the screens, entertainers will descend on apparatus from the ceiling or ascend through the floor on hydraulic platforms.

The next morning, like Cinderella’s carriage, the space will be a lounge with a view of the sea.

“If we can make the spaces transform over time through the cruise,” said Magill, “then it provides more variety, more excitement, more things for the guest to do.”