Caribbean Facts and Figures

Posted on 27 February, 2015 by Spacejunkie2

Interesting
Caribbean
facts & tidbits

Tourist count

Roughly two million tourists visit the Caribbean Islands per year.

World’s top cruise destination

The Caribbean accounts for nearly half of the industry’s passenger count. Most of the world’s major cruise ships winter here.

Economy

Tourism drives the economy of most Caribbean islands. And the United States is the chief trading partner in goods and raw materials.

Caribbean compared to the Atlantic

The Caribbean water is significantly warmer, calmer, clearer and less salty. These attributes draw tourists.

Size

The Caribbean Sea is the world’s second largest sea. The biggest, the Mediterranean, is only 9% larger.

Depth

The Caribbean Sea’s deepest point is 7.5 kilometers (4.7 miles) below sea level.

Number of Islands

The Caribbean officially has over 7,000 islands (but that figure includes small cays, reefs, and islets). Only about 150 islands are inhabited.

Population

When Columbus arrived in 1492, the Caribbean had an estimated population of 700,000. Today, the number is about 40 million. Most descend from African slaves.

Language

Creole, Dutch, English, French, and Spanish are the top five languages spoken in the Caribbean. The entrenched European language on any given island reflects the island’s colonial heritage.

Nautical link

The Caribbean Sea connects the Atlantic with the Pacific Ocean (with the assistance of the Panama Canal).

Geographical origins

The rugged-mountain islands (think Jamaica) are mainly volcanic in origin. Flat islands (like Barbados) were formed by coral formation and rising sea beds.

Etymology

The Caribbean is named after the native Carib people who once dominated many of the islands.

Best Caribbean cruise lines

Best luxury

Silversea Cruises ships are modest sized and sport spiffy interiors. Passengers are sophisticated, congenial, and well-traveled. Food and service are highly regarded. Crew-to-passenger ratio is high.

Best luxury-upmarket

Azamara Club Cruises has two ships, each accommodating up to 644 passengers. Its price point is between upmarket and luxury. They provide vacationers with a needed niche between luxury and mid-priced fares.

to see my tip-and-photo pages on the Azamara Quest ship.

Best upmarket

Celebrity Cruises is upmarket, thus clearly superior to the mid-priced lines in many ways, including cabin space, service, entertainment, food, and passenger sophistication. Most ships carry about 2,000 passengers.

Best 20-something party boat

Carnival Cruise Line has a well-documented fun, party-boat reputation. Fare are mid-priced and ships are quite large (about several thousand passengers). Has glitzy Las Vegas style entertainment and decor.

Best for families

If your children
are 9 or younger

Disney Cruise Line has four ships, all family oriented. Pleasing kids is the prime focus, but there’s something for everyone. The Fantasy is the best and newest Disney ship.

If your children
are teens

Royal Caribbean International has specialized facilities and programs for teens. But there’s plenty going on to please parents and other adults. Passengers: About 3,000.

If your children
tweens ( to 12)

If 9 to 10, Disney Cruise Line is a better fit. If 11 to 12, Royal Caribbean is better.

Diversification and Norwegian’s bottom line

Posted on 18 February, 2015 by Spacejunkie2


By Tom Stieghorst

The benefits of diversification in the cruise industry will be evident this week when Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings reports its results for the fourth quarter and calendar year 2014 on Tuesday.

Norwegian, until recently a single-brand company, is heavily tied to the Caribbean in the fourth and first quarters. According to analyst Rachel Rothman, of Susquehanna Financial Group, Norwegian’s results will be pulled down by its high exposure to the Caribbean relative to its competitors Carnival Corp. and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

Norwegian does not benefit from growth in Asia, which is also helping those two companies, Rothman notes.

In a positive light, Norwegian is aided by not having any cruise brands that do business in currencies other than the dollar. That means the relatively strong dollar affects it less than Carnival, with its Costa, Aida and P&O subsidiaries, or Royal Caribbean, which owns Spain’s Pullmantur and France’s CDF.

From that perspective, Norwegian’s recent acquisition of Prestige Cruise Holdings is ideal. The two Prestige brands, Regent Seven Seas Cruises and Oceania Cruises, both do business in U.S. dollars, so their results won’t be a drag because of currency exchange.

And as destination-oriented luxury lines, Oceania and Regent do relatively less sailing in the overcrowded Caribbean and have more itineraries in Asia, although neither is set up to source business there.

Rothman expects Norwegian to earn about $76 million in the fourth quarter and about $508 million for 2014. The company is building ships just about as fast as is practicable, which should help it diversify its itineraries further away from the Caribbean to areas like Brazil in the winter.

Norwegian has come a long way in a short time. Tuesday’s results may show it has further to go.

Preview 2015: Cruise

Posted on 6 January, 2015 by Spacejunkie2

The 4,200-passenger Norwegian Escape, due late in the year; it is one of two big ships that will be delivered in 2015.

The flood of cruise cabins sloshing around the Caribbean will finally ebb in 2015, bringing with it the prospect of higher pricing.

At Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCCL) alone, Caribbean capacity next summer will be down 5% year over year, although it doesn’t begin to decline until after the first quarter.

In a conference call with analysts, RCCL Chairman and CEO Richard Fain said he expected a “noticeably better operating environment for the last nine months of 2015.”

Royal will have close to 70% of its total capacity in the Caribbean in the first quarter, officials said.

The moderation in supply growth is prompting more confidence about price increases at Norwegian Cruise Line, according to a report by Patrick Scholes, an analyst with SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.

Scholes said the company’s big addition for 2015, the Norwegian Escape, is being advertised at rates that average 10% higher than the rest of the fleet. The 4,200-passenger Escape, due late in the year, is one of two big ships that will be delivered next year, along with Royal’s Anthem of the Seas, also 4,200 passengers, in April.

To make room for bigger, newer ships, cruise lines in 2015 are divesting some of the older, smaller ships that no longer fit with the rest of their fleets.

In Royal’s case, that means the 2,350-passenger Majesty of the Seas will be transferred to RCCL’s Spanish-based Pullmantur brand in May. Built in 1992, the Majesty had only one deck of balcony cabins and looked increasingly out of place next to Royal’s newest ships.

Likewise, Celebrity Cruises has sold its remaining Century-class ship, the Celebrity Century, to a new joint venture in China that it formed with the Chinese travel mega-company Ctrip.com. The newly formed venture plans to begin operating the ship for Chinese passengers around midyear.

Other fleet departures in 2015 include the Holland America Line ships Statendam and Ryndam, which leave in November to begin sailing for P&O Cruises Australia, and the Seabourn ships Legend and Spirit, which will depart in April and May to sail for Windstar Cruises.

Princess Cruises will say goodbye to the 684-passenger Ocean Princess in 2015, after taking delivery of the 3,560-passenger Regal Princess this year.

River convergence

Another trend emerging in 2015 is the confluence of river and ocean cruising, starting with river cruise giant Viking Cruises, which is taking to the seas in April with its 928-passenger Viking Star.

Next year will also see the launch of Celebrity Cruises packages that bundle a European ocean cruise with river cruises provided by Amras Cruises on the Danube, Rhine, Rhone and Seine rivers.

Some of the most anticipated debuts next year will be in Asia, notably the arrival of the Quantum of the Seas in June in Shanghai, where it is scheduled to take up permanent residence to serve the Chinese market.

Carnival Corp.’s push into China has yielded a tentative deal to build a “world-class cruise ship” in China through a joint venture with the China State Shipbuilding Corp. and the Italian shipyard Fincantieri.

In the meantime, the deployment of Costa Cruises’ 3,780-passenger Costa Serena to Shanghai in April will give Carnival Corp. four ships homeported in China in 2015.

Back in North America, tighter air pollution rules for cruise ships that take effect on Jan. 1 will limit emissions of sulfur dioxide in the North American Emissions Control Area to 0.1% by weight, down from 1% previously. Cruise lines are complying by adding scrubbers that treat exhaust gases, a process that will unfold over several years.

The coming year might also see a quieter regulatory climate for cruise lines with the retirement of one of the industry’s most dogged critics, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D.-W.Va.).

Internet speeds at sea are poised to get faster with the rollout of new technology from Royal Caribbean and Carnival. Royal began testing midorbit satellites in the O3b network on several of its most modern ships, and it will make the service more widely available in 2015.

Carnival is using a hybrid of land and satellite links to quicken Internet speeds. It started with the Caribbean region in the fourth quarter and will be building out the needed infrastructure in Alaska in 2015.

Finally, there will be new leaders for several large cruise brands, including Drew Madsen at Norwegian, Michael Bayley at Royal, Orlando Ashford at Holland America and Christine Duffy, recently named to replace outgoing Carnival chief Gerry Cahill.