Tag Archives: royal caribbean cruises

Port Canaveral approves new cruise terminal

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Port Canaveral approves new cruise terminal

By Tom Stieghorst
Port Canaveral will gain another cruise terminal under a plan approved by port commissioners.

The 185,000-square-foot terminal, along with a 1,000-square-foot parking garage, will be the first on the south side of the port channel in the Cove restaurant and retail area.

That’s the same side of the port where a striking new Exploration Tower is set to open this month. The combination of the tower, restaurants and retail will for the first time give passengers pre- and post-cruise activities within walking distance of the ships, said Port Canaveral CEO John Walsh.

The terminal is expected to cost $80-$85 million and be ready for use by November 2014. It will be able to handle the largest ships in the industry, Walsh said.

Construction is expected to start in January, with tenants to be announced shortly.

Currently, Carnival Cruise Lines, Disney Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean International are prime users of the central Florida port.

To accommodate the new terminal, Port Canaveral will relocate its recreational boat ramps to a new, larger complex at the channel’s entrance west of Jetty Park.

Royal Caribbean’s increase in on-board revenue attributed to cruise ship revitalizations

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Royal Caribbean’s increase in on-board revenue attributed to cruise ship revitalizations

Royal Caribbean reported third quarter financial results today and the big “star” of the results was the onboard spending, with a 7% increase overall.  So what is Royal Caribbean’s secret?  They think it’s all about the revitalization program.

During the financial results conference call, Royal Caribbean Chief Financial Officer Jason Liberty pointed to a few key factors that are part of the fleet-wide renovations to why the company is seeing better guest spending onboard their ships.

  • Specialty Restaurants
  • Casino
  • Internet
  • Unlimited alcohol packages
  • Shore excursions

“We benefited from new onboard venues introduced as a result of our revitalizations, and we saw further strength in spending from our U.S. customers, which helped generate improvement in gaming, beverage, specialty dining and shore excursions,” Liberty said during the conference call.Royal Caribbean CEO Adam Goldstein elaborated on how the company is looking to get more onboard spending, “So as I believe we mentioned earlier, gaming, beverage, shore excursions, retail and also some of the smaller revenue streams, internet has been doing well for us, which we wanted to see because we made a significant investment in, I think, 7 or 8x more bandwidth to the ships this year, and that seems to be paying off.

So a number of the investments that we have already made, we would expect to continue to pay dividends and revenue growth into 2014 and beyond. And we continue to look under every stone for onboard revenue opportunities that don’t conflict with the satisfaction of the product offering.”Basically, guests are spending more money in all these aspects and most of these venues are areas of the cruise ships that get upgraded or added as part of the revitalization program.  When each ship is refurbished, more restaurants are added and wifi is spread out to more areas across the ship. Add to that the new drink packages and Royal Caribbean is offering its guests more opportunities to spend money.

Royal Caribbean will add cabins to Voyager ships

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Royal Caribbean will add cabins to Voyager ships

By Tom Stieghorst
Each of Royal Caribbean’s Voyager-class ships will gain about 75 additional cabins during revitalizations scheduled to begin in the next few months.

Royal Caribbean International CEO Adam Goldstein disclosed the capacity increase in a call with Wall Street analysts to discuss third-quarter earnings.

The Voyager class started in 1999 with the introduction of Voyager of the Seas. Each of the five Voyager-class ships currently have capacity for 3,114 passengers at double occupancy.

Goldstein said that when Voyager was introduced, it was never expected to sail outside the Caribbean, but the ships have led expansions into Europe and Asia. He said the five ships account for about 25% of the cruise line’s total capacity.

 

During Royal Caribbean’s third quarter financial results conference call, Royal Caribbean CEO Adam Goldstein mentioned that as part of the fleet-wide revitalization program, all Voyager class ships will receive 75 new staterooms.


Voyager class ships are the next batch of Royal Caribbean’s ships to get the upgrades that will roll out many new amenities and upgrades, first seen on the Oasis class.  These new staterooms, however, are a departure from other ship upgrades and unique to the 

 

Voyager class.

The order of upgrades is currently scheduled as follows

  • Navigator of the Seas: February 2014
  • Adventure of the Seas: April 2014
  • Voyager of the Seas: May 2014
  • Explorer of the Seas: February 2015

Mariner of the Seas received her upgrade back on May 2, 2012 and did not receive a stateroom upgrade at that time.