Carnival Corp in 'position of strength' as new-to-cruise levels jump

Speaking during the firm’s quarterly results call on Tuesday (25 June), Carnival Corp president Josh Weinstein highlighted how pricing and occupancy levels for 2025 sailings are ahead of last year. 

He explained this put the company, which currently operates nine brands although this will become eight in early 2025 when P&O Cruises (Australia) is folded into Carnival Cruise Line, in a “position of strength”. 

The company reported revenues of $5.8 billion which includes an operating income of $560 million – nearly five times 2023 levels. 

“As far as 2025 goes, this is the first year where we’ve been able to stop firefighting in the short-term while figuring out how to also extend the booking curve,” Weinstein said. 

He stressed the difficulty of having to do “firefighting” and extend the booking curve.

“In the last three months, not only did we take more bookings for post-2024 sailings than we did for in-year sailings, we set another record for the most future bookings ever taken during the second quarter,” he added. 

Carnival Corp’s booking curve in North America is “higher than it’s ever been”, noted Weinstein, who added Europe’s is at its highest point for 15 years. 

New-to-cruise passenger levels rose to 10% while new-to-brand passengers jumped 6% during the last quarter, according to Weinstein.