Royal Caribbean Increases Financial Guidance for 2024

Royal Caribbean Increases Financial Guidance for 2024

Independence and Symphony of the Seas in San Juan, Puerto Rico photo credit Spacejunkie2 Flickr

Royal Caribbean Group today provided an update on demand and updated its 2024 guidance.

The company said it continues to be very encouraged about the demand and pricing environment for 2024.

Since its most recent update on its Q4 2023 earnings call, the WAVE booking season has exceeded the company’s initial expectations, with the first five weeks of the year resulting in the best WAVE booking weeks in the company’s history.

“Bookings have been significantly higher than during the same period last year, with the back half of the year up by more than the front half. For 2024, all four quarters and all key products are booked ahead of the same time last year in both rate and volume. Consumer spending for onboard purchases continue to exceed prior years driven by greater participation at higher prices, indicating quality and healthy future demand,” the company said in a statement.

“Since our last earnings call, robust demand for our vacation experiences has significantly exceeded our initial expectations,” said Jason Liberty, president and CEO of Royal Caribbean. “As a result, we are increasing our 2024 guidance on stronger revenue outlook, and we expect to achieve all Trifecta goals in 2024. Trifecta marks an important milestone as we remain intensely focused on delivering a lifetime of vacations and priceless memories for our guests while delivering exceptional long-term shareholder value.”

As a result of the strong WAVE season, the company is increasing its 2024 Adjusted EPS guidance by $0.40 compared to its February guidance. For the full year, Adjusted EPS is now expected to be $9.90 to $10.10 driven by an increase in constant currency net yield growth of approximately 100 bps compared to the February guidance. Approximately $0.15 of the full year increase in adjusted EPS is driven by an improved revenue outlook for the first quarter of 2024. The company now expects to achieve all Trifecta goals in 2024.

Disney Renames Global Dream Disney Adventure

Disney Renames Global Dream Disney Adventure

Disney Cruise Line announced on Saturday that the former Global Dream will debut as the Disney Adventure, and confirmed its plans to deploy the ship to Asia when it starts revenue service in 2025.

Originally ordered for Genting’s Dream Cruises and under construction in Germany at MV Werften, Disney bought the ship in a half-finished state following Genting’s demise in 2022.

The ship will have the capacity for approximately 6,000 guests and will come methanol-real.

After repositioning to Asia, the vessel is expected to start its cruise program out of Singapore’s Marina Bay facility.

The Adventure will join the Treasure, debuting in 2024, and a yet-to-be-named newbuild, also debuting in 2025 and a sister to the Treasure and Wish. In addition, with the Fantasy, Dream, Wonder and Magic in service, Disney will have eight cruise ships sailing by the end of 2025.

Disney Cruise Line Fleet

• Disney Adventure: 208,000 tons, Built in 2025, 6,000 passengers.
• Unnamed: 140,000 tons, Built-in 2025, 2,500 passengers.
• Disney Treasure: 140,000 tons, Built in 2024, 2,500 passengers.
• Disney Wish: 140,000 tons, Built in 2022, 2,500 passengers.
• Disney Fantasy: 128,000 tons, Built in 2012, 2,500 passengers.
• Disney Dream: 128,000 tons, Built in 2011, 2,500 passengers.
• Disney Wonder: 85,000 tons, Built in 1999, 1,750 passengers.
• Disney Magic: 85,000 tons, Built in 1998, 1,750 passengers.

Disney Cruise Drops Vaccination for the Under 12's

The vaccination requirement will still apply to guests aged 12 and over

From 2 September, the line’s requirement to be vaccinated will no longer apply to guests aged 5 to 11 for sailings out of US and Canadian ports. However, the company will still require guests over the age of 12 to be fully vaccinated.

Despite the line updating its website to reflect the changes, it still "highly recommends" guests aged 11 and younger be fully vaccinated before sailing.

Covid-19 testing is also still required for all guests, with different requirements for vaccinated and unvaccinated travellers.

Fully vaccinated guests who provide a negative test result taken one to two days before sailing are exempt from testing at the cruise terminal.

MSC Cruises ship due in 2019 to be called Bellissima

The MSC Merviglia was floated out on Friday. The ship enters service next June.

MSC Cruises will name a 4,500-passenger ship due in 2019 the MSC Bellissima.

The ship will be the second in MSC’s Meraviglia class.

MSC disclosed the new name at a float-out ceremony for the first in the class, the MSC Meraviglia, which is due to enter service next June.

Meraviglia means “wonder” in Italian. Bellissima means “gorgeous.”