Officials will break ground for the brand new $110 million cruise terminal at Galveston Wharves for Royal Caribbean International on Saturday at 10 a.m. local time.
Galveston Wharves will be represented by Port Director and CEO Rodger Rees, who will be joined by Royal Caribbean Group Vice President of Destination Development Joshua Carroll and Ceres CEO Craig Mygatt.
Also expected are Craig Brown, Mayor, the City of Galveston and Albert Shannon, Chairperson, Board of Trustees of the Galveston Wharves.
The new cruise terminal will cover approximately 170,000 square feet on ten acres of land in the southeast section of the Port of Galveston known as Pier 10.
The facility, which is anticipated to open in fall 2022, will feature state-of-the-art technology to enable mobile check-in and facial recognition to create an expedited arrival experience for guests, according to a press release.
The terminal will be designed and developed sustainably to meet LEED certification standards.
Carnival Corporation, Royal Caribbean Group and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings are still burning through cash as some ships emerge from lay-up back into operations.
Cash burn numbers may be up in the third quarter with added costs to reactivate ships, needed maintenance, potential drydocks, procurement, getting crew back and more.
Only one out of the three big cruise companies provided estimates on third-quarter cash burn, indicating it would be up close to 45 per cent.
Carnival Corporation
For Carnival Corporation, the company’s cash burn for the first half of 2021 was $500 million per month, which was better than a previous forecast of $550. The improvement was mainly due to the timing of cash received from ship sales just before the end of the second quarter and some other small working capital changes.
With ships quickly relaunching, and a short booking window for cruises announced close to departure, the company said it will not provide a forecast for its third-quarter cash burn rate.
Independence of the Seas in Southampton Photo credit Dave Jones
Royal Caribbean Group
Royal Caribbean reported its average monthly cash burn rate for the second quarter of 2021 at approximately $330 million, slightly higher than the prior quarter as the company returned additional ships into operation.
Similar to Carnival, Royal Caribbean would be not providing a forecast for the third quarter.
“The environment remains fluid, and for this reason, we are not providing a cash burn estimate or the related offsets generated by revenue and new customer deposits. I will highlight that the burn rate for the ships that are kept at layoff is expected to be consistent with our previous expectations,” said Jason Liberty, executive vice president and CFO, on the company’s second-quarter earnings call.
Norwegian Star in Mexico Photo Credit Dave Jones
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings said its average cash burn in the second quarter was $200 million per month, higher than its guidance of $190 million driven by the announcement of additional ship relaunches in the company’s voyage resumption plan and the associated restart expenses.
“As for the third quarter, we expect our average monthly cash burn rate to increase to approximately $285 million as restart expenses accelerate with additional vessels entering service,” said Mark Kempa, executive vice president and CFO. “Restart expenses are primarily related to repositioning, provisioning and stopping of vessels, implementing new health and safety protocols and a measured ramp-up of demand-generating marketing investments.”
Royal Caribbean International has announced that it’s extending the Singapore season for the Quantum of the Seas through February 2022.
This marks the third season extension for the Quantum in Singapore, which first returned to cruising in December 2020. To date, on 60-plus ocean getaways, more than 82,000 guests have safely sailed with zero occurrences of COVID-19 onboard, the cruise line wrote in a press release.
“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to extend the Quantum’s ultimate ocean getaway through early next year, providing Singapore residents with more time to relax and unwind. Despite the constantly evolving circumstances, Royal Caribbean remains consistent in delivering a wonderful holiday experience. We know that with her remarkable breadth of activities, delicious meals and unparalleled views, Quantum has many fans in Singapore, and there continues to be an overwhelming demand for sailings,” said Angie Stephen, managing director, Asia-Pacific, Royal Caribbean International.
The cruise line said that it has made every effort to keep guests and crew aboard the Quantum safe through a multilayered set of health and safety measures, which include pre-departure wellness screenings using gold-standard PCR tests, contactless embarkation and debarkation, and enhanced HVAC filtration systems and sanitization.
“The health and safety of our guests remain our utmost priority, and we are continuing to be nimble as we follow the science and work closely with the Singapore government and health authorities to evaluate, update and adhere to prevailing measures. In the next few months, as more Singapore residents become fully vaccinated, we anticipate that we’ll begin sailing with the fully vaccinated crew and vaccinated guests age 12 and older alongside children who are not yet eligible for vaccines,” added Stephen.
Singapore residents can choose between Quantum’s three- and four-night ocean getaways. The ship features activities, such as the RipCord by iFly sky diving adventure and the FlowRider surf simulator, entertainment that blends art, music and technology, and dining flavours from across the world at 18 restaurants onboard.
In line with the recent government regulations, the Quantum currently sails at 50-per cent guest capacity, and holidaymakers from different households have the option of travelling in groups of five.
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