Tag Archives: Quantum of the Seas

Royal Caribbean signs deal with China’s Forbidden City Imperial Palace to showcase Chinese culture on Ovation of the Seas

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Royal Caribbean and the Chinese Imperial Palace Museum (the Palace Museum) held a joint press conference today at a signing ceremony for a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) agreement in the Forbidden City’s Jianfu Palace. 

As part of the agreement, experts from different research fields selected by the Palace Museum will be invited to give lectures of Chinese history and culture to guests on Ovation of the Seas. 

The Palace Museum also will provide professional consultation of the ship’s interior décor and art program. In addition, signature pieces from the collections of the Imperial Palace Museum will be on display to promote the traditional culture and arts of China. Paintings and art pieces created by artists from the Palace Museum will be available for guests to purchase at auctions held onboard.

Ovation of the Seas, Royal Caribbean’s newest ship that debuts in April, will be the first to homeport in China immediately after its delivery and will begin service from Tianjin beginning June 2016.

The signing ceremony officially launches the “2016 – Let’s Ovation” campaign in China and marks the countdown to Ovation of the Seas’ maiden voyage in China.

“We are proud of the extensive collection of art and relics that represent the imperial treasures of the Ming and Qing Dynasties and it is our goal at The Palace Museum to showcase the traditional Chinese culture to people all over the world,” said Shan Jixian, Director of the Imperial Palace Museum. “This partnership with Royal Caribbean International and our programs on Ovation of the Seas will help to further these objectives. We are excited to promote the rich heritage of the Forbidden City and China to the guests of the world’s largest global cruise line and we hope to continue to expand on these efforts.”

Dr. Zinan Liu, President of North APAC and China, Royal Caribbean International said: “Cruising is becoming increasingly popular with Chinese travelers and Royal Caribbean’s award-winning and state-of-the-art ships with features found only on Royal Caribbean are very appealing to those consumers looking for a high quality vacation experience. Quantum of the Seas has been very well received by our Chinese guests and we are excited to now bring Ovation of the Seas to Tianjin. Sailing two of the world’s newest and most technologically advanced ships in China demonstrate our leadership and commitment to the market and this partnership with the Palace Museum showcasing China’s rich heritage will bring yet another unique element to our vacation offering.”

Ovation of the Seas will be officially launched in April 2016, when she departs Southampton for Tianjin, China on a 53-day Global Odyssey. She will begin her first homeport sailing season in China from Tianjin in June 2016. Ovation of the Seas, together with Quantum of the Seas, Mariner of the Seas, Voyager of the Seas and Legend of the Seas, will make up the largest fleet of any cruise line sailing in China.

Cruise Outlook by industry sector

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Tracking where cruise ships will go in a given year increasingly means looking at global growth. Cruise fleets have become so large and cruise companies so adept at sourcing globally that the game has become one of matching assets to the regional economies where they can reap the most benefit.

Or suffer the least damage.

There’s no better example than China, where cruise companies are determined to take advantage of relatively strong economic growth and an underdeveloped market.

The International Monetary Fund forecasts growth in China of 6.3% in 2016, down from 6.8% this year but still more than double the expected rate of growth in the U.S.

Responding to that growth, Royal Caribbean International will send a second newbuild, the Ovation of the Seas, which will sail from Tianjin, joins the Quantum of the Seas, which will sail its first full year from Shanghai in 2016, and the Legend of the Seas, which will sail from Tianjin and Quingdao.


Legend of the Seas

Carnival Corp.’s China deployment will grow from four ships to six, as the Costa Fortuna joins the Costa Serena, the Costa Atlantica and the Costa Victoria, while Princess Cruises will deploy the Golden Princess to join the Sapphire Princess. In all, Carnival expects to carry close to 1 million passengers in China next year.

Closer to home, the IMF expects economic growth in the U.S. of 2.8% in 2016, enough to support North Americans buying cruises in the Caribbean and Alaska.

Economic growth in Europe is forecast at 1.6% next year, while Latin America and the Caribbean will grow at a 0.8% rate, up from negative growth this year.

The weak showing in Latin America is reflected in the decision by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. to pull the Pullmantur Empress back to the Royal fleet next year, where it will sail as the Empress of the Seas starting in the spring. Royal also canceled the scheduled transfer of the Majesty of the Seas to Pullmantur.

In 2016, Pullmantur will be a two-ship line focused on Spain instead of Latin America.

Across their markets, cruise executives are optimistic about pricing in 2016, having laid the groundwork by filling ships in 2015 to minimize the need for last-minute discounts. Both Carnival Corp. and RCCL say the booking curve has lengthened.

In a Sept. 22 conference call, CFO David Bernstein said that despite an almost 3% capacity increase in the first half of 2016, Carnival had less remaining inventory to sell than it did at the same time a year ago.
Royal executives said in an Oct. 23 call that 2016 load factors were the highest in the company’s history, and average per diems were ahead of the same time a year earlier.

The diplomatic opening with Cuba forged by President Obama this year is poised to pay dividends for cruisers, with several lines saying they will try Miami-Havana routes in 2016.

The most closely watched of those will be Fathom, Carnival’s new social impact brand, which also will be cruising to the Dominican Republic starting in April. Fathom has generated more than 18 billion media impressions since it launched and is drawing more attention to the Caribbean in general, Carnival CEO Arnold Donald said.

In the Dominican Republic, Fathom’s ship will dock at the $85 million Amber Cove private port opened by Carnival in October on the country’s north coast near Puerto Plata.

Another big private port is expected to open in 2016 when Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings inaugurates Harvest Cay, a $50 million island in Belize with sandy beaches, a water sports lagoon, an island-style village and an excursion staging area.

Having just added the Norwegian Escape to its fleet, Norwegian Cruise Line is one of the few big lines that won’t be adding new tonnage next year.

One of the most anticipated ships is the 2,650-passenger Koningsdam, which in April will become the biggest Holland America Line ship and its first new vessel since the Nieuw Amsterdam in 2010.

The Koningsdam’s new features include a circular theater with LED panels surrounding the audience, a large culinary arts center, a wine mixing experience and a two-level pool area.

Also replete with new features will be the 3,936-passenger Carnival Vista. Passengers will be able to ride a recumbent bicycle suspended from an 800-foot-long oval track, watch an IMAX movie or take advantage of a families-only lounge.

Viking Ocean Cruises’ second ship, Viking Sky, is scheduled to be delivered in March. In September, the line’s first ship, the Viking Star, will make its debut in North America, with a cruise to Montreal ahead of its winter season of 11-night Caribbean sailings from San Juan.

The first Oasis-class ship from Royal Caribbean in seven years, the Harmony of the Seas, will sail in Europe after a June delivery before heading for its homeport in Fort Lauderdale, freeing the Oasis of the Seas to sail from Port Canaveral.

In the luxury segment, Regent Seven Seas Cruises will get its first new capacity in 13 years with the July debut of the 750-passenger Seven Seas Explorer.

The ship is on track to be christened in Monaco and sail in the Mediterranean for the summer before moving to Miami in December for its winter season.

Also new in 2016 will be the Seabourn Encore, a cousin to the line’s three Odyssey-class ships. The Encore, due out in December, will have an extra deck, giving it a passenger capacity of 604, up from the 450 carried by the other Odyssey-class ships.

Senior editor Tom Stieghorst covers the cruise industry for Travel Weekly.

Royal Caribbean hews to ‘price integrity’ plan, sees rise in close-in pricing

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Quantum of the Seas
While long-term pricing discipline has for decades eluded the cruise industry, Royal Caribbean International is sticking to a pledge not to deeply discount its cruises in the last few weeks before departure, according to travel agents and a Wall Street analyst.

Abandoning the industry’s traditional “sail full, whatever it takes” imperative, Royal has been forgoing last-minute discounts for the past seven months in an effort to wean passengers from the practice of waiting until close to the sailing date for the best deals.

Moreover, several agents said they were seeing no signs that Royal has been selectively abandoning what the cruise line calls its “price integrity” policy.

“For the short period of time it’s been available, I haven’t seen them break their promise; I haven’t seen them discount at the last minute,” said Jay Johnson, president of Coastline Travel Advisors of Garden Grove, Calif. “I have not had any clients tell me, ‘Hey, we’re leaving next month, and we found it lower online.'”

Patrick Scholes, a cruise analyst with SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, said he was seeing signs in the firm’s monthly survey of cruise pricing that close-in fares for Royal are far higher than they were at this time last year. In August, fares for bookings within one to three months of departure were up 13% after rising 16.9% in July and 15% in June. In fact, they have risen each month since March, when the policy began.

“This is the strongest near-in advertised pricing growth we have ever observed for the Royal brand,” Scholes said of the July numbers.

Under its “price integrity” policy, Royal stops discounting 10, 20 or 30 days before departure, depending on itinerary and other variables. In a conference call with analysts in July, Richard Fain, chairman and CEO of Royal’s parent, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., said that one sign the program is working was that Royal recently extended the no-discount period to 40 days in some cases.

“We recognize that this policy is costing us some money in the short term, but we believe that in the long term it will pay handsome dividends,” he said.

Fain said the impact on occupancy has been “relatively small,” but where it might be costing the brand is in lower prices for bookings made from four to six months before departure.

Scholes said his surveys show that Royal prices for cruises four to six months from departure were up only 1.7% in June and down 0.1% in May.

“We suspect [Royal] is not aggressive on the four- to eight- [month] pricing, so better load the ships earlier on so they have less last-minute inventory to fill,” Scholes said.Other cruise lines might be copying the strategy, at least informally. Scholes said Carnival Cruise Line’s surveyed pricing for bookings one to three months out was up 14.8% in July, which he described as “not too dissimilar to the Royal brand’s.”

However, several travel agents said they were seeing no signs that Carnival was mimicking the Royal policy.

“All the competitors around [Royal] haven’t changed,” said Linda Bosch, owner of Just Cruises & More in St. Louis.

Bosch said she was excited to see Royal try to end last-minute discounts because it makes for smoother planning and fewer rebooking hassles when prices drop.

“We, as the agent, are looking to project that bookings are there,” Bosch said. “We can’t project when they’re doing the discounts at the last minute.”

But Bosch predicted that it will take six months to a year before the changed incentives are reflected in consumer behavior, primarily in the form of earlier booking habits.

Johnson said he fielded an inquiry from one group recently for a cruise on the Harmony of the Seas next summer and the price went up between their first phone call and the time they called back to make a deposit.

“They said, ‘Find out if you can get the lower rate back,’ but I don’t think I can,” Johnson said.