Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. It is so great to have back with us. Josh Weinstein. He's president, CEO, and chief Climate Officer of Carnival Corporation. Their brands, you know them, their namesake, of course, Carnival, Princess, Holland America, Seaborn, many more. He joins us right now, Josh does from Carnival's headquarters in Miami. Josh, good to have you here with us. Happy holidays.
How are you?
Thanks for having me at Happy holidays, Carol, Tim nice to be here, Thank you.
Hey.
Listen, last time we talked in September after earnings, we highlighted that nearly I think half of your bookings were done so at record ticket prices. Now some two thirds of twenty twenty five have been booked. Tell us about those bookings. Are they also at record prices?
Yeah, they are.
You know our book position as well as we did this past year. If you look at where we are today versus same time last year, we are hire in occupancy, higher in prices. As a matter of fact, it's historical levels for both for each of the four quarters for twenty twenty five. So, as I heard you saying before, I came on. The demand for our cruises is pretty.
Phenomenal typically this time of year, Josh, how much of the following year is booked? How different is this than historical averages.
We don't give that out for various competitive reasons, but I'd say it's nicely it's nicely higher.
To give you a sense of the momentum.
You know, if you think about what was our booking activity, how much activity did we generate in the last quarter, So from the period of September through the end of November, that beat last year, even though we had less to sell.
So we sold more.
For twenty twenty five, and we sold it at higher prices versus the same time last year, And at the same time, we set a record for booking activity for the following year out so in this case twenty twenty six. So things are moving really positively across the board. And
the great thing is this is broad based. So when we look back at twenty twenty four and we look at our portfolio of world class brands, we were actually higher mid single digit to mid teens percentage wise in our yields, in the revenue we generate for person per day across all of our major brands, all of our major trades. So it's really gratifying the team, our global team has done a phenomenal job and really a shout out to each and every one of them from doing what they do.
Okay, this maybe sounds a little bit stupid, but why do you think this is happening? I mean, and I'm just curious what is it? Tell us a little bit about it and remind us, because you do have a portfolio of brands and it reaches across different consumers, if you will, of your brand, So give us an idea of why you think you are still seeing kind of record bookings.
Will need an hour, right, I mean, there's so many reasons. The principle and I remember I remember being on with you a year ago and talking about what we'll call the price to experience ratio, and the price to experience ratio of a cruise versus the price and what you pay for a land based alternative is nuts, right, I mean, the value that you get from a cruise for what we provide is night and day to what you can
get on land. And people are recognizing that, and so we are catching a net much wider into the general population for people who will now consider cruising as a vacation alternative, people who have never cruised before. As a matter of fact, in twenty twenty four we had over ten percent more new to cruise than we did the prior year, So becoming more mainstream, breaking down myths, and that value gap is real. So we can still increase our pricing as we've been doing the last few years
and be an incredible value. And I tell you there's so many things that our teams are doing better and better every single day, from how we manage the revenue curve, the yield curve between the time we launched two and a half years in advance to the time we sail.
Our marketing is amazing.
Our brands doing a better better job of creative marketing, getting in the consideration set and then performance marketing and make sure we close the deal and get the booking, you name it. We could talk about it all day, but everything is moving in a positive direction.
Josh, forgive me. We have some breaking news, so I want to jump in with that. Speaker Johnson says the House to vote on a funding bill today. He said, vote on a government funding the House. He says that the agreement has been reached on government funding, and he says there will be no government shutdown once again, Johnson saying, Speaker Johnson saying that agreement has been reached on government funding and there will be no government shutdown.
You know, I got to say, Josh, there's so much coming at us, and so many individuals and leaders CEOs that we talked to say, you know what, we're kind of holding off until we get an idea clear picture of what happens in twenty twenty five. You are obviously optimistic. You see numbers and data in real time in terms of bookings, But I am curious about the upcoming White House. Is it good, bad, or neutral for your business?
You know, we had a great relationship with the Trump administration the first time around. We had great relationship with the Biden team, and I expected that that great relationship we'll pick up with President Trump again. So you know, our job is to deliver amazing vacation experiences to millions of guests.
A year around the world.
That is what we do, and we do it very well, and every single year there is something right because we are global and the macro economy and the geopolitics are what they are when I was with you a year ago. Today, we didn't have Red Sea on the radar screen. The Baltimore Bridge hadn't collapsed, you know, hurricanes hadn't done the damage that they did in the United States, government elections getting thrown for a loop in Europe like the UK and now Germany.
None of that was on the radar screen.
And we outperformed our December guidance by seven hundred million dollars. Our job is to deliver no matter what the world might bring, and we'll continue to do that.
So I do wonder when you look at twenty two twenty five, what macroeconomic factors, what geopolitical factors concern you the most? Josh, you know when you think about the company's twenty twenty five performance potential? Oh man, you know, sorry, I'm asking you, Chris.
Yeah, that's all right. I'm not going to single anything out. I mean, like I said, our job is to deliver. We deal with whatever the world might bring.
We are nimble.
Our team is amazing at reacting as they need to. But more importantly, we are proactively doing what we need to do to position our ships with our guests the right way and delivering onboard so the world of turn crises will come and go and people will keep cruising.
You've been President's CEO Chief Climate Officer since August of twenty twenty two, so you've been in this position for a couple of years. Relative to the last couple of years, how would you describe the health of the American consumer right now? Same, better, worse.
We're just seeing continued positive momentum.
So I think it's hard to say anything, but it's just as good now as it has been for the last few years for us, in particular, given the record yields that we're just coming off of and we're building on top of that.
And you've got to remember we're a global company.
So yes, the United States is the biggest cruise market by far, and we're doing incredibly well in the United States, but we are also the biggest in the United Kingdom, the biggest in Germany, second biggest thing in Italy, second biggest in Spain, Brazil. So we have an incredible global presence. And the fact is economic cycles come and go, prises come and go, macroeconomics will flow different times in different
places around the world. So our portfolio approach of being in these phenomenal markets really serves as a great hedge for us because things will come in their cycles and leave their cycles at different times.
So, of those geographic markets that you mentioned, even those that you didn't mention, where you do operate, where you do play, where are you most bullish?
Oh? Where am I not? You?
You know, if you think about cruising right and you think about our brands, we're about a third of the market. Let's just say, in broad terms, if you take the whole cruise market and you put it into a bucket with all of the vacation alternatives at the same time, we're about two to three percent of the overall vacation market. And so how can you not be bullish when we are so underpenetrated as a global industry. I mean, it is remarkable what inroads we can make by just getting
people who have never cruised before to consider cruising. And I'll tell you what, I don't know a Disney's strategy anymore than anybody else does from the outside, But I do know that they talked them awful lot lately about reducing the investment in their land because they want to build more investment into cruise and double the size of their fleet. I think that is very, very telling, and I think it's a brilliant idea.
Okay, and you guys have invested in your fleet. And I'm also curious about you know, when I did a deep dive on the company and I got off at Grand Turk, you guys have a port there, and I am curious about these offshore destinations for Carnival travelers. How significant is the July twenty twenty five opening of your Celebration Key private island destination to the companies full your revenue out look, I am curious about how this moves
the financial needle, these offshore ports that are yours. You know that you guys highlight.
Yeah, absolutely, They're a critical piece of our strategy. So even today without Celebration Key, we've got six jewels in and around the Caribbean, and we carry We took about six and a half million guests to one of our destinations in that geography. That's about equal to the rest of the industry combined with theirs. On top of this, we've got Celebration Key, which is going to be a phenomenal guest experience built from the ground up for Carnival
Cruise Line. And their idea of fun and just a wonderful guest experience on board, and there's a lot that we can go into, but it's going to be phenomenal.
Now.
With respect to twenty twenty five, it's really not that much of an impact because we don't open until July with a handful of cruises and then we build up. So for the corporation overall, it's only about five percent of our itineraries in twenty five we'll touch Celebration Key. That ratchets up to about fifteen percent when we get
to twenty twenty six. On top of this, we've announced that we're doing some major investment in one of our other existing destinations, traditionally known as Half Moon Key and rebranded relax Away at half Moon Key, because it's a different vibe than Celebration Key. It is a beautiful tropical paradise, white sand beaches, and what we want you to do there is lean into the beauty and the pristiness of that location and the crystal blue waters and relax and enjoy yourself and unwind.
And we're going to be able to.
Marry these two types of experiences on the same itinerary, so you get the idyllic and the ultimate beach days across those portfolios.
Well.
Listen, great to check in with you. You and investors are certainly respecting the optimism that you have put out, certainly in earnings and then on your call with analysts. I'm so glad we could get some time with you. Josh. Happy holidays to you and your family, and look forward to talking to you in the new year. Josh Weinstein Folks, President, CEO, and Chief Climate Officer of Carnival Corporation, joining us from Miami