February 26, 2021
(3:30 p.m. EST) -- In this week's edition of our video series, "This Week in Cruise News," Cruise Critic's Managing Editor in the UK Adam Coulter dissects the two big news stories of the week -- Royal Caribbean Group's and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings' earnings calls -- and finds out how vaccines are driving the bookings surge.
He also addresses the big question on every cruisers mind: When will cruising resume?
In case you missed it, you can also check out last week's video, where Cruise Critic's Managing Editor in the U.S. Chris Gray Faust announces big news for Marvel and Star Wars fans from Disney Cruises, as well as new mandatory vaccine requirements for a well-known luxury cruise line and the latest on a hot new MSC ship coming to Miami in November.
Video Transcript
This week two of the major cruise line groups -- Royal Caribbean and Norwegian -- both reported their Q4 earnings and -- in terms of debt and lost revenue -- it wasn't pretty.
But shares went up the next day, so what was the good news that prompted that?
Three main themes emerged for both groups:
Bookings -- up on this time last year, and with prices staying steady. So if you're looking for a bargain -- dream on. The ships are selling out fast.
Vaccines -- the vaccine roll out is really driving bookings, and this was emphasised by both groups' bosses. As each demographic gets the vaccine, the lines see a corresponding bump in bookings.
And third -- restart dates. Still no word on those, although Royal Caribbean Group's CEO Michael Bayley did say "any day now".
If you want to learn more about this week's cruise news you can click on the "News" tab on Cruisecritic.com, or click one of the links below.
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Til next week -- Goodbye.
