Tag Archives: royal caribbean cruises

Cruise lines add crime data to websites

Posted on by
Reply

Cruise lines add crime data to websites

By Tom Stieghorst
The biggest North American cruise lines on Thursday began posting quarterly reports about allegations of crime on their ships.

At a congressional hearing last week, Royal Caribbean International CEO Adam Goldstein said that Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., Carnival Corp. and Norwegian Cruise Line had all agreed to post the information.

The numbers will be different than those available currently on the U.S. Coast Guard site, which only count crime investigations that are considered closed by the FBI.

The numbers the cruise lines are voluntarily providing include all allegations of serious crime on their ships anywhere in the world.

Some in Congress have criticized the official statistics required by the Cruise Vessel Safety and Security Act of 2010 as under-representing the amount of crime on ships.

A bill introduced by Sen. Jay Rockefeller would require cruise lines to report all allegations of crime, regardless of whether they are investigated by the FBI or whether the cases have been closed.

Royal Caribbean is reporting its statistics in the Safety & Security tab of the Customer Service page on its website. Norwegian Cruise Line is reporting its crime stats under additional information at the bottom of its Safety & Security tab on its Corporate page.

RCCL overcoming negative media coverage of cruising, says Fain

Posted on by
Reply

RCCL overcoming negative media coverage of cruising, says Fain

By Jerry Limone
_ Richard FainDespite the “unrelenting pressure of a deluge of negative publicity” on the cruise industry this year, things are looking up, said Richard Fain, chairman and CEO of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

Speaking during RCCL’s second-quarter earnings call on Thursday, Fain said the company is overcoming what he called “the CNN effect” of media scrutiny on events that have occurred this year, including fires on the Grandeur of the Seas and Carnival Triumph and the Carnival Dream stalling.

Negative coverage “clearly hurt our bookings, and unfortunately to a greater extent than we originally understood,” Fain said.

The company’s net income for the second quarter was $24.7 million, compared with a net loss of $3.7 million in the same period a year earlier.

The company managed a profit despite the Grandeur fire in May, which resulted in the cancellation of six cruises. Royal Caribbean estimated that the financial impact of the Grandeur incident was about $11 million in the second quarter (an approximate $11 million hit is expected for the third quarter, too).

An unexpected noncash charge of about $15 million also was a second-quarter setback. The charge occurred because the company needed to readjust liability in its affinity credit card program.

Still, Royal Caribbean was profitable, and Fain credited robust onboard spending, effective cost control and the performance of its largest, newest ships — the Oasis and the Allure of the Seas.

Looking ahead, Fain said that bookings for the rest of 2013 and 2014 are ahead of where Royal Caribbean was at this time last year, in terms of load factor and pricing.

The company is still dealing with the effects of negative publicity from incidents in the industry that occurred earlier this year, Fain said, including “competitive pricing.”

However, he added, “We can already see indications that [the media coverage] factor is waning, and this is most encouraging going forward.”

Addressing concerns about cruise safety, Fain said, “I think most of you understand that the recent incidents in our industry are an aberration from an otherwise exemplary safety record over many decades.”

Passengers refunded as Grandeur of the Seas repairs continue

Posted on by
Reply

Passengers refunded as Grandeur of the Seas repairs continue

Passengers refunded as Grandeur of the Seas repairs continueRoyal Caribbean has been forced to re-accommodate a number of guests due to embark on tomorrow’s Grandeur of the Seas sailing as work on the ship continues following a fire.

A blaze, which engulfed part of the ship on May 27 and took about two hours to extinguish,caused several sailings to be cancelled.

The ship is setting sail from Baltimore to Bermunda tomorrow but the occupants of the 78 staterooms affected by the fire have be given a full refund with finishing touches still being carried out.

A spokeswoman for Royal Caribbean said: “In the past weeks, Grandeur of the Seas staff and crew and many others have worked tirelessly to restore the onboard spaces that were affected by a fire in May.

“Every member of Grandeur of the Seas’ staff and crew demonstrated a heroic response that night and has since been dedicated to bringing the ship back into service.

“While Grandeur of the Seas is ready to welcome guests again, there are still a few finishing touches that remain to be done. We unfortunately had to re-accommodate some guests on the July 12 cruise to later sailings so that additional needed workers may stay onboard in order to complete these remaining tasks as quickly as possible.

“We sincerely appreciate our guests understanding as we ensure that Grandeur of the Seas continues to deliver an unmatched vacation experience from Baltimore, Maryland.”

The affected guests have also been given a 25% cruise credit for future sailings.