Cruise Lines Agree: Europe Is Back

Posted on 27 February, 2018 by Spacejunkie2

The downturn in the European cruise market is history as leaders from Carnival Corporation, Royal Caribbean Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings painted a picture of a strong and robust European cruise environment on year-end earnings calls.

Capacity in the Mediterranean will be up significantly this summer, and the same goes for Northern Europe.

“You will recall that successive geopolitical events through the summer of 2016 resulted in a noted depressed demand environment for European sailings. 2017, however, saw an unprecedented turnaround in demand for Europe voyages from our core North American customer, particularly for the brands that were disproportionately negatively impacted in 2016,” said Frank del Rio, president and CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, on the company’s year-end earnings call. “The strength and speed of this turnaround was faster than anticipated, taking only one year for European itinerary pricing to recover and surpass 2015 prior peak levels.”

Royal Caribbean Cruises will position its newest hardware in the Mediterranean, with the Symphony of the Seas this summer followed by the Celebrity Edge’s 2019 summer program in the Mediterranean,.

“Recent trends have been particularly strong for North America, Europe and Asia Pacific itineraries,” said Richard Fain, chairman and CEO of Royal Caribbean Cruises.

CFO Jason Liberty added: “Demand for both Mediterranean and Northern Europe sailings has consistently surpassed our expectations with all key source markets booked nicely ahead of last year in both rate and volume.”

At Carnival Corporation, CFO David Bernstein said on the company’s December earnings call that its seasonal Europe program was considerably ahead of the prior year on both occupancy and pricing.

“For our EAA (Europe, Asia, Australia) brands, for European deployment, occupancy is nicely ahead at higher prices,” he said.

“We don’t go into details by brands, but a number of times we have talked about seeing an improving economy in the southern part of Europe for a long time. We had talked about it bouncing along the bottom, but we have started to see some improvement, and we have seen that Costa has done very well in 2017, and we expect it to do well in 2018,” Bernstein continued. “So, we are comfortable and very confident and happy to see the improvement in that part of the world.”

Speedcast Expands Deal with Royal Caribbean for More Bandwidth

Posted on 15 February, 2018 by Spacejunkie2

Royal Caribbean’s Harmony of the Seas.

Speedcast International announced it has extended its relationship Royal Caribbean Cruises to increase the bandwidth delivered to 37 ships.

“Speedcast has been an integral part of our long-standing efforts to implement the latest connectivity solutions that allow us to provide enhanced communications for everyone, from our guests onboard to our employees onshore,” said Guillermo Muniz, director, Network and Satellite Engineering, Royal Caribbean. “We are consistently raising the bar on ship innovation and increasing requirements, and Speedcast is right there with us, collaborating to make sure that we have the infrastructure and support to deliver the best experience.”

Speedcast’s experience with Royal Caribbean dates back to 2006 when the company installed Royal Caribbean’s first Ku-Band VSAT antenna onboard a vessel to satisfy peak seasonal communication demand in the Brazil region.

The Speedcast network now delivers fully managed communications solutions and value-added services to 37 ships for shipboard administration, and guest and crew usage.

Multiple antennas on each ship with seamless automatic fail-over between Ku-Band and C-Band ensures high availability and Service Level Agreements (SLAs), Speedcast said.

“We have a true partnership approach to our relationship with Royal Caribbean,” said PJ Beylier, CEO, Speedcast. “As one of the largest cruise line brands in the world and one of our largest customers, we are proud that they continue to trust our expertise in designing and deploying reliable solutions that connect their ships to shore and provide a premier onboard guest experience. Over the past 11 years, we have seen tremendous growth in Royal Caribbean’s business, and we look forward to helping them continue to develop their brands as they introduce new ships and look for innovative ways to enhance guest and crew experiences.”

Tried and tested: Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Senses pop-up

Posted on 5 February, 2018 by Spacejunkie2

Image result for symphony of the seas

by Harry Kemble

“Bizarre”, “outrageous” and “unbelievable” were some of the words spluttered by rather flabbergasted journalists last night after exiting Royal Caribbean’s interactive cruise experience.

I had only been in the room for 30 seconds but already I knew this was going to be no ordinary event.

Billed as the Symphony of the Senses, the experience uses sight, sound, feel, taste and scent to give people a unique preview of the soon-to-be world’s largest ship.

Through clever marketing and a clearly sensational product, Symphony of the Seas’ launch date has been fixed in our diaries for months now.

But on a dreary London night at Victoria House, Royal Caribbean managed to ramp up the excitement levels that little bit more.

The aim of Royal Caribbean’s pop-up, which runs until Saturday, if you want to take a look, is to inspire a new-to-cruise audience.

And they certainly did just that.

Image result for symphony of the seas senses

Mirroring the features that will be on Symphony, we walked through tunnels reminiscent of the Ultimate Abyss slide, tried some Mexican food that you can eat onboard and learned the moves from Hairspray, the musical that will be performed for the ship’s guests – among other surprises.

Even the most ardent cruise-goer would struggle not to smile at the experience’s “perfect synergy”, as Royal Caribbean’s Ben Bouldin put it.

He also said: “As with all our ships, Symphony will push the boundaries of what is possible when holidaying and this event promises to do exactly that… except in London!”

With more than 400 members of the public expected to pass through the Symphony of the Senses event, Royal Caribbean is giving potential passengers a little taster of what they can find onboard Symphony, ahead one of the most eagerly anticipated ship launches in its history.