Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news. This is Bloomberg Markets. I'm Scarlett Foo. It's time now for our stock of the hour, and we're looking at Royal Caribbean, following as much as eight point eight percent at one point today, although it has since cut that decline in half, and of course, this after its profit outlook for this quarter trailed analyssessments due to cost related to its newest ship. Keep in mind, this is a stock that's holding your
record highs climbing sixty three percent through yesterday's clothes. CEO Jason Liberty says demand for Royal Caribbean's experiences and brands continues to accelerate, and I'm pleased to say Jason joins us now from Miami. Jason, great to speak with you. I want to start with that stock reaction. It's a fairly steep decline, even though you beat second quarter earningsessments and you raised your full year adjusted EPs guidance. So this weaker than expected outlook for this quarter due to
the delayed launch of Star of the Season. That's a one time thing.
Sure well, first, Scarlett, it's really great to be here. I think in terms of when we think about off of expectations. I think that's off of consensus, it's not necessarily off of our expectations. We actually the year is playing out exactly how we thought it was going to play out from our last call, except that we've seen elevated close in demand, which resulted in an outperformance in
the second quarter. Also, you know, if we continue to see that out performance that we saw in the second quarter, that leads to additional upside for the balance of the year.
I look at Royal Care being shares and how they've done so far this year, pretty incredible run, and a lot of people say that that raises a bar obviously for your earnings print and your guidance. One analyst even said investors were basically expecting perfection. Is that frustrating?
No, I mean, we manage this business for the long term, right, We're making investments that are that are that are really yielding, I mean significant benefits for our shareholders. You know, we're going to generate almost seven billion dollars of EBITDA this year, and our earnings performance is up over thirty percent year of a year for our expectations for twenty twenty five. So I think that it's you know, I can't manage what people's expectations are from one quarter to the next.
What we focus on is delivering the best vacations in the world, doing that responsibly, and that's resulting in our guests paying us more money because they trust the vacation experience that we're going to deliver for them.
Let me just come back to this idea of stabilization and visibility in your business right now, can you give us any sense of what stabilization or improvement you might have seen following what some observers have observed as a bit of a slowdown in April, right around the time that the Liberation Day tariffs were announced.
Sure, thanks, Carling. So I think, first off, when the Liberation Day occurred, you know, there was a little bit of noise, but we really didn't see a change in
consumer behavior. You know, we're fortunate that we get to have about a million, you know, millions of different interactions with our guests each and every day, whether that's them planning and booking a vacation for the future, or whether they're spending on board, and so we've actually seen an acceleration from the consumer and their onboard activities in terms of what they're spending on as well as they're planning.
What we did see a shift in is I think people will probably being a little bit patient to understand what it all meant. So we saw a rise and close in demand, which also allowed us to raise prices in the quarter and that resulted in the outperformance.
Got it. Got it? And could you give us a comment on how your strategy to enter the luxury river cruise segment is faring right now with your first vessel planning to debut in twenty twenty seven.
Yeah, well, we're really excited about it. I mean, ultimately, what we're trying to do is keep our customer inside of our ecosystem. We're doing that through our integrated loyalty programs. We're doing that by better curating what our guests are looking for, obviously establishing great trust with our guests by delivering the vacation experience that we market and we promise that that they're going to get, but we also realize
there's other vacation experiences that they look to do. And one of those vacation experiences, which is not a substitute for cruise, but it's an addition vacation they take is on River, So we've added or we're adding River to our portfolio through our celebrity brand. And ultimately the goal is is how do we keep adding experiences, are having experiences that meet our guests where they want to be so they stay inside of our ecosystem.
All right, Jason, quick question here at the very end, as we wrap up our conversation with you, talk a little bit more about what you see among your customer base that gives you confidence that they'll be building on their spending in twenty twenty six and twenty twenty seven. So many of the CEOs we talk to say that they want to get past twenty twenty five because of all the headline risk and the uncertainty, and what they're
really looking forward to is twenty twenty six. You're in a unique position because you have so much visitibility months and sometimes even years down the line.
Well, I like twenty twenty five. You know this is going to be another year where we're going to have thirty plus percent earnings per share growth, and of course, at the same time, you know we're taking bookings for next year. Right. One of the comments we made earlier today is that when we look at our book position for twenty five twenty six, we're in line with the previous periods, but at higher rates. So what we see is our guests are planning their vacation experiences into twenty
twenty six. They're willing to pay more money and they're willing to act faster in order to ensure that they have the vacation experience that they're looking for. So I think we see a very healthy consumer as great jobs, they've got good savings, and they're spending to ensure that they're getting the vacation experience that they want. And that has been the big shift over the past several years.
People want less stuff, they want more experiences, and fortunately we're in the experience business.
Yeah, and you're in the perfect place to provide it. Thank you so much, Jason, really appreciate your taking the time to speak with us. The CEO of Royal Caribbean, Jason Liberty, joining us from Miami