The Reopening: Cruises

Winter vitamin D deficiency is coming to an end...

The Cruise industry is regaining its strength. Three major cruise lines projected that their ships will be sailing again soon, and that bookings for the 2H22 are strong and prices are higher than before the pandemic.

"We are excited to have every Carnival Cruise Line ship in the fleet sailing again by May and to be back in all 10 of our year-round U.S. homeports. We are also continuing to make plans for a return to guest operations in Australia upon completion of our Alaska season," noted Carnival President Christine Duffy.

In its business update published on February 8, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings said: "...the second half (of 2022), when the full fleet is expected to be back in operation, is in line with the comparable 2019 period. Concurrently, pricing for the first half, second half and full year 2022 are above the record levels for the same time in 2019, even when including the dilutive impact of future cruise credits. Booking trends for 2023 demonstrate continued strong demand for sailings in the medium and longer term with booked position and pricing meaningfully higher and at record levels when compared to 2019."

Royal Caribbean Cruises CEO Jason Liberty said, "We expect 2022 will be a strong transitional year as we bring the rest of our fleet into operations and approach historical occupancy levels. We expect a net loss for the first half of 2022 due to the impact of Omicron and a return to profitability in the second half of the year."

Shares of all three major cruise companies remain significantly below recent peaks. We expect share prices of these companies (CCL, NCLH, RCL) to start reflecting improvement in the bookings and stronger financial results. These should translate into superior market valuations in the long-term.

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This blog does not provide investment advice. Please do your own research and talk to professionals before investing.

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