Norwegian Cruise Line: Ticket and Onboard Up for Q3, Offset by Costs

Posted on 9 November, 2022 by Spacejunkie2

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH) reported a net loss of $295.4 million on revenues of $1.6 billion for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, 2022; compared to a net income of $450.6 million on revenues of $1.9 billion for the third quarter of 2019, the last “normal” year.

Ticket revenue per passenger day was $277.69 in 2022 up from $254.99 in 2019, and onboard revenue per passenger was $127.95 this year, up from $100.24 in 2019.

Increased revenues, however, were offset by increased total operating costs: $311.08 per passenger cruise day in the third quarter of this year compared to $183.89 for the same period in 2019. The biggest cost drivers were fuel, which nearly doubled, and food costs, which were also up, as well as so-called “other” expenses.

Marketing and administrative costs were also up significantly as interest expenses.

Commenting on the cost picture, Mark Kemp, CFO and senior vice president, said the company is taking actions to right-size costs and noted that will settle as the inflation situation will not last. He noted that the cost for certain food categories was already trending down.

Norwegian Cruise Lines Holdings to Switch to 100% Cage-Free Eggs

Posted on 6 November, 2022 by Spacejunkie2

Norwegian Star arriving into Liverpool photo credit Spacejunkie2 (Flickr)

Norwegian Cruise Lines Holdings has announced its plans to source 100 per cent cage-free eggs globally by the end of 2025.

The global cruise company operating Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises, and Regent Seven Sea Cruises, has planned a timeline which includes sourcing 25 per cent of cage-free eggs from U.S. suppliers in 2022, 50 per cent from global suppliers in 2023, 75% from global suppliers in 2025, and 100 per cent from global suppliers by the end of 2025.

“We applaud Norwegian Cruise Lines Holdings for publicly publishing their global cage-free implementation plans. As the demand for cage-free eggs increases worldwide, cage-free is becoming the industry standard. Other hospitality companies like Millennium Hotels and Langham Hospitality Group need to follow NCLH’s lead or risk losing business,” said Jennie Hunter, Senior Campaigns Coordinator, at The Open Wings Alliance.

The decision comes following a cage-free campaign steered by the Open Wing Alliance, which aims to create a unified front for ending the abuse of chickens worldwide. The Open Wing Alliance is a global coalition initiated by The Humane League and includes 93 animal protection organizations from 67 countries worldwide.

In 2021, two other cruise lines, Carnival Cruise Lines and Royal Caribbean have made similar commitments and have published their implementation plans for sourcing cage-free eggs by 2025.

As consumer demand for cage-free eggs continues to grow, companies worldwide are announcing their plans for cage-free commitments.

Over 100 companies, including some of the biggest corporations around the world, have made such commitments to switch to cage-free systems including Nestlé, Aldi, InterContinental Hotels, Sodexo, Kraft Heinz, Compass Group, Shake Shack, Famous Brands, Costa Coffee, Burger King, Dunkin’, Krispy Kreme, Unilever, and Barilla.

Harry Sommer: Norwegian Prima Reimagines the Cruise Industry

Posted on 8 October, 2022 by Spacejunkie2

The new Norwegian Prima is helping to reimagine the cruise industry, according to Harry Sommer, president of Norwegian Cruise Line, speaking on the ship in New York City on Thursday.

“When we sat down in 2017 to decide what we wanted the next class of ship to be, we surveyed the universe and started primarily with what NCL (Norwegian Cruise Line) had in its offering at the time,” he said.

That offering ranged from 2,000-guest ships to the Jewel class at 2,400, then ships in the high 3,000-guest range and up.

“We thought there was a gap as we had nothing between the Jewel class at 2,400 and the Epic, Breakaway- and Breakaway-plus class ships. We thought this would be a perfect thing to fill out our portfolio,” Sommer said, noting the Prima was “97 per cent perfect” and the company would make some minor adjustments on the Viva when it debuts in 2023.

Of note, Sommer pointed to the largest bathrooms the company has ever put in its staterooms and the largest balcony cabins as well.

“Different ship class sizes can go to different ports. There are different customers in our base and we appeal to a wide range of guests … we also wanted to reimagine the cruise industry.”

Thus, working with President and CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Frank Del Rio, the idea was to build a ship that didn’t look like a cruise ship but was more similar to a high-end hotel.

“Part of that required us not to have those larger spaces, so we have smaller intimate spaces. There are no venues where you are with 500 or 600 people,” Sommer said.

“It was a little bit of a risk as all our competition keeps getting bigger and bigger. That is okay and there is a market for that too, but we did not want to create something that looked like a large indoor shopping mall.”

With the Norwegian Prima entering service in 2022, the Viva follows in 2023 and four more sister vessels are on order for Norwegian Cruise Line at Fincantieri through 2027.