Tag Archives: Carnival Corp.

China could be first for cruise return

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Shanghai at night photo credit Dave Jones

China could be one of the first destinations that Carnival Corporation resumes sailings to, since it has already recommenced social gathering, according to chief executive Arnold Donald.

The boss of the nine-brand cruising giant said: “The most important thing affecting our decision-making is that as long as there’s no social gathering, we are not able to cruise. Cruise, by definition, is a social gathering. When society is ready for social gathering, then we can talk about cruising.

“We are hoping it will be sooner rather than later but we won’t be driven by what we want to do, but by what society is prepared to do.”

And Donald said: “China has resumed some social gathering and it’s possible that China could be somewhere that cruise may resume first. Logically, because they are moving to a social gathering already and other areas of Asia are handling it [Covid-19] well, it could be a possibility that it may be the first place, but we don’t know yet.”

He pointed out that a lot would depend on whether China and other countries would accept cruise passengers.

“There is a lot of evaluation going on, but the world is not yet aligned around the epidemiology of this virus. There are still debates on-going about testing etc. The world’s scientific and medical community are pulling this all together and once there’s a better understanding of this virus, then we can engineer specific steps and actions.”

Donald predicted a staggering return to worldwide cruising.

“I doubt all destinations will open simultaneously. Different countries will have different protocols and compliance. So there will be some changes to our business model short-term and certainly, for the first three months, there will be changes to itineraries to some degree.

“But the long-term business model is secure. As the world overcomes this pandemic and it goes into the background or is not around at all, then we’ll return to normal. Over time, we’re going to have a great cruise industry again.

“Once this particular storm has passed, we’ll be able to continue to do what we love, and that’s to take guest cruising all over the world.”

Carnival Corp boss denies sector was slow to react to coronavirus

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Carnival Corp boss denies sector was slow to react to coronavirus

Carnival Corporation boss Arnold Donald has refuted suggestions the cruise industry was “slow” to react to the outbreak of coronavirus.

He argued that cruise is actually one of the best-placed sectors of travel to cope with anticipated stricter health and safety protocols in the future.

The chief executive of the nine-brand cruising giant said: “The cruise industry put a pause on the cruise before anybody else did. Before hotels or restaurants and other places of social gathering.

“Cruise ships are not the cause. Neither are they the reason for the spread.”

Commenting on the outbreak onboard Diamond Princess which was held in quarantine off Yokohama by Japanese authorities, Donald said: “This was an evolving situation. There was very little knowledge early on, in February and early March.

“But we did exactly what we were told to do. We co-operated fully with the Japanese Ministry of Health. They decided to hold the ship and put a quarantine in place, so we complied with that and at the same time, we tried to make it as comfortable as possible for our passengers and crew.”

And he added: “If you listen to our guests on Diamond or Grand Princess, you’ll hear lots of plaudits for our crew and our corporation. Our guests feel strongly that we did our best.”

Asked if he blamed authorities of the destinations and ports that wouldn’t allow ships with confirmed cased of Covid-19 to disembark passengers, Donald said: “I won’t sit and judge anybody at the moment. We all need to focus on helping.

“There were certain situations where we had ships with people on board that needed medical attention – not even Covid-19 related – that couldn’t get it in a timely manner they would have normally. That was unfortunate. There’s no question that happened and we tried to give assistance where we could. But I will not judge.”

Donald concluded: “So people say we were slow, but we were first [to suspend operations] – before all the other social gathering venues.”

And he added that cruise was well-placed for the future when stricter health and safety protocols are expected to be introduced across the travel industry.

“I don’t think there’s anything unique to this that particularly ascribable to cruise alone. In fact, in many ways, a cruise is better set up to handle this than society in general,” said Donald.

“We already do isolation, deep cleaning, hold medical records, do temperature scanning, use hand sanitizers and promote regular hand-washing. We also document a lot of passenger information. So we’re uniquely suited in some ways.

“Airport terminals? Not so much. Subways? Not so much. Hotels? Restaurants? Not so much,” he said.

But he added: “Covid-19 has its own epidemiology. Whatever the medical experts deem is necessary to deal with it in the future, we will cooperate and implement.”

Saudi Arabia buys a piece of Carnival Corp.

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Saudi Arabia buys a piece of Carnival Corp.

The Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, has acquired an 8.2% stake in Carnival Corp.

According to Carnival Corp.’s securities filing on Monday, Saudi Arabia acquired 43.51 million Carnival shares. Carnival’s closing stock price of $8.49 last Friday makes the transaction worth about $370 million.

With the news, Carnival Corp.’s share price increased 22% on Monday afternoon. The company’s stock has fallen about 80% since mid-January.

Like other cruise companies, Carnival Corp. has paused its operations since mid-March due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Cruising has been suspended through the middle of May.

Carnival Corp. last week shored up its liquidity, securing about $500 million from a stock sale and about $5.75 billion on the bond market.

Carnival Corp. borrowed at a high cost. The company is paying 11.5% interest on $4 billion in three-year senior secured notes and 5.75% interest on $1.75 billion in three-year senior convertible notes.