News

All doors open to improve RCCL’s liquidity position

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines; Published: 08 May 2020 08 May 2020

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCCL), the world’s second largest cruise shipping company, says all options are option to increase the group’s liquidity, while operating expenses of its fleet that is in lay up is about $150 million to $170 million per month.

"Since late January, we have undertaken several proactive measures to mitigate the financial and operational impacts of COVID-19." said Jason T. Liberty, executive vice president and CFO, said in a statement.

"Our focus is on bolstering liquidity through significant cost cutting, capital spend reductions, and other cash conservation measures. In addition, the Company is considering additional financing sources. We continue to evaluate all options available to us to further enhance liquidity."

As of April 30, 2020, the Company had liquidity of approximately $2.3 billion all in the form of cash and cash equivalents.

On May 4, 2020 the company increased the 364-day senior secured credit facility and drew $150 million, further enhancing the Company's liquidity profile.

The company has taken significant actions to reduce operating expenses during the suspension of its global cruise operations. Significantly reduced ship operating expenses, including crew payroll, food, fuel, insurance and port charges.

The company's ships are currently transitioning into various levels of layup with several ships in the fleet transitioning into cold layup, further reducing operating expenses.

The company estimates that its average ongoing ship operating expenses and administrative expenses is approximately $150 million to $170 million per month during the suspension of operations. RCCL may seek to further reduce this average monthly requirement under a prolonged non-revenue scenario.

RCCL says bookings, prices lower than year ago

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines; Published: 08 May 2020 08 May 2020

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCCL), the world’s second largest cruise shipping company, said that both bookings and prices are lower now than a year ago as a result of the cOVID19 crisis.

Prior to the outbreak of COVID-19, the company started the year in a strong booked position and at higher prices on a prior year comparable basis. “Given the impact of COVID-19, booking volumes for the remainder of 2020 are meaningfully lower than the same time last year at prices that are down low-single digits,” RCCL said in a statement.

Due to the suspension in sailings, booking trends reflect elevated cancellations for 2020 and more typical levels for 2021 and beyond. Although still early in the booking cycle, the booked position for 2021 is within historical ranges when compared to same time last year with 2021 prices up mid-single digits compared to 2020.

The company has instituted several programs in order to best serve its guests: for cancelled cruises, guests are offered the choice of future cruise credits valued at 125% of the initial cruise fare paid in lieu of providing cash refunds. As of April 30, 2020, approximately 45% of the guests have requested cash refunds.

For non-cancelled cruises, the company has implemented a "Cruise with Confidence" policy.

As of March 31, 2020, the company had $2.4 billion in customer deposits. This includes approximately $0.8 billion of future cruise credits related to previously announced voyage cancellations through June 11, 2020.

The company also continues to take future bookings for 2020, 2021 and 2022, and receive new customer deposits and final payments on these bookings.

Marella Cruises unveils plans to staged resumption of operations from July

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines; Published: 07 May 2020 07 May 2020

Marella Cruises, the UK focused cruise unit in TUI AG group, said it has a road map to gradually resume operations from July should conditions allow and that one ship would leave the fleet.

“The cruise line will continue to monitor the ongoing situation and has adjusted its itineraries accordingly. Should it be safe to set sail, Marella Cruises will commence its summer 2020 programme in July 2020, with three of its five ships sailing,” the company said.

However, the 1984 built Marella Celebration would not re-enter service with the company. At just under 34,000 gross tons, it is the smallest unit in its fleet.

In the summer of this year, Marella Explorer will set sail from Corfu, Marella Explorer 2 from the UK and Marella Discovery from Palma all as originally planned.

Marella Discovery 2 will recommence sailings in winter 2020 and will no longer operate from Naples for the summer 2020 season. Marella Dream will no longer sail from Palma this season as she will resume sailing in summer 2021.

In the winter 2020-21, Marella Discovery 2 will homeport in Cyprus, setting sail from 24 March 2021 replacing the itineraries that Marella Celebration was due to sail. “This itinerary change means that the cruise line will no longer offer its Asia and the Middle-East sailings,” the company said.

Marella Discovery will no longer sail its December and January sailings from Jamaica and will officially set sail on 3 February 2021 with a repositioning cruise from Malaga to Jamaica before continuing her Caribbean programme from Jamaica as planned on 16 February 2021.

“There will be no changes to Marella Explorer 2 and Marella Explorer. Marella Explorer 2 will still homeport in Barbados and Marella Explorer will still homeport in the Canaries, offering customers their cruises as planned,” Marella cruises said.

In the summer 2021, Marella Explorer 2 will no longer homeport in Naples for summer 2021 as the cruise line will no longer operate sailings from Naples, this means Marella Explorer 2 will replace Marella Celebration’s itineraries from Dubrovnik.

Marella Explorer, Marella Dream, Marella Discovery and Marella Discovery 2 will all sail their itineraries as planned. Including the cruise lines eagerly anticipated USA itineraries on Marella Discovery.