We've got some breaking news just coming now from Royal Caribbean.
They have reported eye-watering losses.
You need to stick around and hear this.
And they've provided us with an update on its return to cruising.
We have this and more.
Well ahoy there cruises welcome to Cruise with Ben and David.
I'm Ben, David's just doing some work in the next room.
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So that news from Royal Caribbean.
Well they've just reported their financial results for 2020
And as expected it really isn't good.
They said the pandemic is having a painful and profound impact on our world
And on our business.
Unquestionably this crisis is the most difficult in the company's history.
It really is.
For the full year of 2020, they've reported a loss of, get this, 5.8 billion dollars.
Nearly six billion dollars.
That's a hell of a lot of money.
Financial officer Jason T Liberty for Royal Caribbean said;
These results reflect the staggering impact that their pandemic brought to our company
and the whole industry during 2020.
They currently estimate that their monthly cash burn to be around
250 to 290 million dollars per month.
This is whilst their ships are completely empty.
Floating around in the oceans and seas with no passengers.
They haven't sailed fully since they ceased all cruisers
all the way back last year on March 13 2020.
This has always been a voluntary suspension.
Over that time the restart date has been pushed back and back
And it's rapidly approaching a full year since any cruises sailed in Europe or America.
Except for the one ship in Singapore the Quantum of the Seas.
No one ever thought this could happen.
Really nobody saw this coming.
Guys can you actually believe it we're now at the one year mark.
But there is some good news with all of this.
Royal Caribbean is absolutely going nowhere.
They have enough money to further sustain a continued lockdown.
The CEO Richard D. Fain said.
We remain confident about the ability of our company to recover and return to the
positive trajectory that they were on previously.
We can't wait to get back to the business of showing people the world
and making great memories.
Oh guys we can't wait either can you?
It's been so long now we really want to get back on the ship.
And it's really good news because we really love Royal Caribbean.
So it's great to see that they are secure and going nowhere.
These are huge businesses.
It's not just the cruise ship.
You've got to think about all of the people behind the scenes, all the planning people,
all of the crew on board, all of the ports they visit as well.
It has such an impact all over the world.
So many people have lost their jobs.
So many people are making no money.
It's really awful.
They've also provided a business update including talking about new health and safety protocols.
I know we've had lots of this already.
They have said they are still working with the healthy sail
panel along with the Norwegian Cruise Line.
And that knowledge of the virus is becoming more known so this is making it much easier for them.
So it can improve their protocols because they know how the virus reacts,
how it spreads and all of that stuff.
They mentioned that guests onboard the one sailing ship that's sailing right now,
Quantum of the Seas in Singapore,
That the passengers have been really happy with the protocols
And that they are getting lots of positive reviews.
They believe that these cruises in Singapore, even before the availability of vaccines,
are helping them to learn and demonstrate to others
all around the world that they can operate successfully under the current environment.
So these are a kind of test cruise to show how it can work
and how it will work with the rest of the world.
Talking about test cruises they are still working to meet the framework for conditional
sailing issued by the centres for disease control and prevention or the CDC for US sailings.
But they have said many uncertainties remain as to the specifics, timing and the cost of implementing
all of these requirements to get cruising again.
But they have announced in some good news that they are expecting technical details
from the CDC any day.
And that they have been in regular contact with the CDC.
Royal Caribbean president and CEO Michael Bailey gave an update on how things stand.
He said; we're literally expecting the technical specifications any day soon.
But the CDC has assured us as soon as these things come together
that they want to get us back into operations.
So we are literally just waiting.
Hopefully, we'll get them soon and we can start trial sailings.
So they want to get those trial sailings up as soon as possible.
We know lots of you guys as well have signed up for the trial sailings.
So as soon as we hear anything we'll let you know.
And as we predicted months ago we said this ages
ago that they plan to restart cruising in a phased manner.
So it's going to be a phased restart with only a few ships
maybe from one port or more and then building on that.
Most cruise lines are going to be doing that.
Carnival Cruise Line has already said this.
They'll be carrying fewer people with lower capacities with heavily modified itineraries.
So for Royal Caribbean, we expect to see maybe just private island cruises only
as stops royal has a few options for this including a perfect day at coco cay and Labadee.
And what's great is that they're also seeing strong long-term demand for cruising.
Especially in the 2022-23 seasons.
With demand just about the same as usual.
Well, you might be saying the same as usual that's not great.
But they haven't advertised, there's been little marketing and people are still booking.
So it's a really good sign.
And as far as people cancelling for a full
refund instead of taking a future cruise credit from Royal Caribbean.
Well, around 53 per cent of people booked on a cancelled cruise have requested cash refunds.
Which is fair enough.
We know a lot of people need money.
But if you can book we do recommend booking.
There some great deals.
Just make sure it's in the future and if they are cancelled you are protected.
And you'll be given a future cruise credit or you will be given a refund if you want to choose that.
So we have some other news.
Two European Carnival brands have announced when they will be resuming sailing.
Well, first up Italian Carnival brand Costa cruisers have announced that their new ship
Costaesmeralda will start sailing on March 27th.
She will sail three and four-night mini cruises
and then a seven-night voyage calling at ports in Italy only.
Then, from May, the first shall then return to operating one-week cruises
in the western Mediterranean with visits to France, Italy and Spain.
Then the second ship the Costaluminosa will return departing from Trieste.
That support in northern Italy near Venice.
On May 2nd offering cruises to Greece and Croatia.
Some of Costa's protocols include swab testing at the port,
social distancing, reduced capacities, masks and temperature checks.
All of the Costacruisers scheduled until the end of May will now be cancelled.
Next german Carnival brand Aida have announced that they will be returning
to cruising on the AIDAperla from march 20th.
These cruises will depart from the canary islands in Spain.
Passengers will fly and then cruise from Germany only.
This may be pushed back even further as the German
government has just pushed back their lockdown until march the 7th.
So we'll keep you updated with any changes.
Finally, another cruise line has announced vaccinations will be mandatory.
The news comes from the luxury cruise line Crystal Cruises.
So they're the first luxury cruise line to do this.
It's going to be part of their Crystal clean plus 4.
0 protocols.
That's a mouthful.
Which will include a negative test for both guests and crew prior to embarkation.
Temperature checks at the terminal prior to boarding,
reduced ship capacity, mask-wearing and social distancing.
As well as all of that extra cleaning and things like that.
Hopefully, this isn't a thing that's going to last long into the future.
But we'd love to hear from you.
So let us know in the comment section below.
So that's it for this episode.
We hope you enjoyed it.
It was just a quick one sharing the breaking news from Royal Caribbean there.
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That's it till next, time happy cruising.