Tag Archives: royal caribbean cruise

Royal Caribbean’s Grandeur Resumes Service with New Barbados Program

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After a 21-month operational pause, the Grandeur of the Seas is resuming service for Royal Caribbean International today. The vessel is also launching a new program for the company that features Barbados as a new homeport. 

Sailing from Bridgeport, the Vision-class ship is now offering a series of island-hopping itineraries throughout the Southern Caribbean and Latin America.

The program includes new ports of call for the Royal Caribbean, with itineraries ranging from seven to 14 nights.

For its first cruise, the Grandeur is offering the “Southern Caribbean Explorer” itinerary that features calls in Grenada, Dominica and St. Lucia, in addition to three new ports: Scarborough, Tobago; Port of Spain, Trinidad; and Kingstown, St. Vincent.

Another itinerary offered is the “ABC Caribbean Adventure Cruise” featuring Grenada, Bonaire, Curacao, Aruba, Trinidad and one day at sea.

In January, a longer 14-night cruise also includes stops in Central and South America, with calls to 11 ports, including Limón, Costa Rica; Colón, Panama; and Cartagena, Colombia.

Previously slated to be transferred to sister brand Pullmantur, the Grandeur of the Seas is now the first Vision-class ship to resume service for Royal Caribbean.

The vessel is the third in the series of six ships and entered service originally in 1996. Built in Finland, it has a capacity for 1,950 guests and 74,140 tons.

In 2012, the vessel underwent a major bow-to-stern revitalization. During the five-week-long, $48 million drydocks, the Grandeur received venues first introduced on Oasis-class ships, including new dining options such as the Giovanni’s Table Italian trattoria and the Park Café casual eatery.

The ship’s seven-deck Centrum atrium was also transformed into a chic and lively new space that features an array of daytime activities, as well as unique nighttime entertainment with high-flying aerialists.

The Grandeur of the Seas is the first of three ships that are resuming service for Royal Caribbean International in December.

On Dec. 16, the Brilliance of the Seas is set to welcome guests back for a series of cruises departing from Tampa, while, on Dec. 23, the Enchantment of the Seas resumes service in Baltimore.

With the three vessels returning, Royal Caribbean will close out the year with 20 of its ships back in revenue service.

Azamara’s Fleet Comes Under V.Ships Leisure’s Ship Management

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Azamara’s four-ship luxury fleet is now under the ship management of V.Ships Leisure, which has assumed all technical oversight, crewing and port operations, according to Per Bjornsen, CEO, V.Ships Leisure.

After private equity firm, Sycamore Partners’ acquisition of Azamara from the Royal Caribbean Group earlier this year, the Azamara Onward entered V.Ships’ management following the ship’s acquisition, while the company brought the Quest into management on October 23, the Pursuit on October 28 and the Journey on October 31.

Detailed Way

“We’ve been through the plan in the most detailed way to ensure there is no change to the guest experience. That has been the core,” said Bjornsen, noting that while it is rare to decouple brands from a major cruise group, V.Ships has done it several times.

Taking over four sister ships, the crew will stay the same, but be managed by V.Ships, while other new systems have been put in place.

“We are moving toward more data-driven management for planned maintenance, for example,” Bjornsen told Cruise Industry News. “The data is being migrated to our platform, ShipSure, which is the digital platform in the centre of everything we do. There has been detailed planning with Azamara, Royal Caribbean Group and our team to make this smooth.”

“There has been thorough planning of crewing, the procurement hand over and customization of the safety management system – making sure there are no gaps compared to the service which was provided previously. However, we see this as a greenfield opportunity to do things smarter.”

Four Ships

“When you have the opportunity to have four sister ships, it’s quite interesting what you can do, comparing the fleet, how you operate and sharing best practices. There is a tremendous amount of data and if you use it cleverly you can move towards predictive maintenance,” Bjornsen explained.

Moving to V.Ships, Azamara has access to a global network of offices, purchasing power and redundancy of resources.

“It’s important that we share the same culture,” Bjornsen said of Azamara’s and Sycamore’s relationship with V.Ships. “Safety is the number one priority and we are going into this with a long-term horizon working together as partners.”

Royal Caribbean’s Ships: 44 Percent Full in Q3 But Cash Flow Accretive

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Independence of the Seas in Southampton Photo Credit Spacejunkie2

How full are Royal Caribbean Group’s cruise ships?

The company reported on Friday that ships in its core deployment regions in the third quarter saw a load factor of 44 per cent occupancy.

Despite the low load factor, the company said that those ships were cash flow accretive excluding start-up costs.

Total revenue per passenger cruise day was up 12 per cent versus record levels seen in 2019 based on strong onboard revenue performance.

The company said in its third-quarter earnings release it hopes to ramp up to load factors of 65 to 70 per cent during the fourth quarter and expects ships in the fourth quarter will be cash flow accretive even when including start-up costs.  

By the end of the year, the company expects that 50 out of 61 ships will have returned to service, representing almost 100% of core itinerary capacity and approximately 80% of worldwide capacity. 

The remaining ships are expected to return by the spring of 2022 and return to historical load factors in the third quarter of 2022.