Royal Caribbean: Mobile Devices Driving Onboard Spending

Serenade of the Seas leaving the Port of Vancouver photo credit Spacejunkie2 Flickr Account.

More and more guests are prebooking onboard experiences and spending money on their mobile devices on Royal Caribbean Group ships, said Jason Liberty, president and CEO.

“The outsized increase in our onboard revenue over the past couple of years has been fueled by new capabilities introduced to make it easier for guests to pre book onboard experiences. We will continue to enhance those capabilities in 2024,” said Liberty.

Approximately 70 percent of guests book at least one activity pre-cruise, he said.

“About a third of onboard purchases are now coming through the mobile app and we already have about 40 percent more pre-cruise revenue booked in 2024 as compared to 2023,” he continued.

“As a reminder, customers who purchase onboard experiences before their cruise, spend about two and a half times more than those who do not buy pre-cruise.”

Carnival: Wave Season Sales Exceeding Expectations

Carnival Pride arriving in Liverpool UK, photo credit Spacejunkie2 Flickr Account.

Carnival Corporation announced that it has experienced an early and robust start to wave season (peak booking period), exceeding expectations, with bookings volumes since November hitting an all-time high.

According to a statement, for 2024, the company continues to have the best booked position on record, with both pricing (in constant currency) and occupancy considerably higher than 2023 levels.

The company said the first half of 2024 is almost fully booked and it said it believes its continued strong bookings momentum is expected to deliver outperformance during the year, offsetting the Red Sea rerouting impact.

Red Sea Changes: Carnival Corp. Rerouting 12 Cruise Ships

Carnival Corporation said on Tuesday it had made the decision to reroute itineraries for 12 ships across seven brands, which were scheduled to transit the Red Sea through May 2024.

The Red Sea rerouting is expected to have an adjusted earnings per share impact of $0.07 to $0.08 for full year 2024, the company announced, with the vast majority of the impact in the second quarter.

Carnival said it has not seen an impact on booking trends due to the Red Sea situation and has no other Red Sea transits until November 2024.