New CEO of Celebrity Interesting but happy they stay within for promotions.

[TeeRick]

18 hours ago, adjustman said:

I have been following this thread. It is my understanding Richard Fain is still with RCL as their chairman. I thought he was still in charge of the new ship builds while Jason Liberty is handling the day-to-day business of the company. Personally, my wife and I liked both the Apex and the Beyond. We also liked the fact the IV made the cabin feel more spacious. If passengers do not like the IV, Richard Fain the new build department are to blame, not LLP. She has input but she is not the final authority. I would think she has responsibility for the interior design choices. I was surprised was LLP's retirement, but she is 65. Maybe, she figures it's time to enjoy life. If she was let go, i would not think they would let her stay around for another year. Just my thoughts. I have to say we like the Celebrity product and hope it continues as is.  

Sorry I missed the retirement bit.  Good luck to her!  She will likely get a few Board seats here and there so she won't be fully retired.  Most CEO's do this.

[paulh84]

13 hours ago, Keys Kathy said:

What I don't get, and yes I am a shareholder, is why build the last two ships in the current economy? I have to believe the penalties would be a lot less than the building costs. 

 

We have walked away from deposits because of our earnings, why wouldn't they? Why continue to increase debt? Looking to all you math people out there!

 

Corporations just don't function like that. Especially when it's something as expensive and unique as a cruise ship that has years and years of planning involved. That's the hard balancing part right now for all lines. They can't sit stagnant and not look at the future but growth has to be tempered. RCG still has almost $10 billion across 11 ships on order. 

[Ex-Airbalancer]

2 hours ago, drakes2 said:

I've used two different TAs in the past and received group pricing but my card is billed in USD. Never found a Canadian one with group rates.

Send me email 😉 

[Keys Kathy]

10 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Send me email 😉 

Me too!

[kirtihk]

3 hours ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

I stopped looking at advertising as the only true way to get a price is to do a mocking booking 

and compare basic and Always included pricing

Also find a good TA that has group pricing , where Always included can be the same price as basic 

I've just booked 12-day, March 3, 2025, East Asia on Millenium cruise, and my TA gave us his group pricing for refundable Aqua with Always included for $400 less per cabin than non-refundable Aqua basic (Celebrity on-line) and extra $100 OBC, and Distinctive Voyages package (a host on the ship, a group gathering party, and, most importable, a free excursion in one of ports of call).

Edited April 11, 2023 by kirtihk

[Lastdance]

54 minutes ago, kirtihk said:

I've just booked 12-day, March 3, 2025, East Asia on Millenium cruise, and my TA gave us his group pricing for refundable Aqua with Always included for $400 less per cabin than non-refundable Aqua basic (Celebrity on-line) and extra $100 OBC, and Distinctive Voyages package (a host on the ship, a group gathering party, and, most importable, a free excursion in one of ports of call).

Any information regarding suites?  DV

[kirtihk]

8 minutes ago, Lastdance said:

Any information regarding suites?  DV

I didn't get a suite quote from my agent, but I may ask.  Do you want the same cruise?  If yes, what exact suite category?

[Lastdance]

48 minutes ago, kirtihk said:

I didn't get a suite quote from my agent, but I may ask.  Do you want the same cruise?  If yes, what exact suite category?

No, just for Sky Suites in general; I guess I could call and ask.

[Baron Barracuda]

16 hours ago, Mickey S said:

just for the record, RCL consolidated was sailing at 103 to 104% of occupancy in 2019, 3rd and 4th in cabins.

 

Also in 2019, RCL has ~20% profit on sales which is a great neighborhood to be in. Except since RCL is so capital intensive its ROI was not all that good.

Now wth all that debt if they get back to 20% profit on sales the ROI due to leverage should be fantastic.

4q '22 they sailed at 95% capacity, had revenue of $2.6B and only achieved break-even operating earnings.  After subtracting interest expense {but ignoring extraordinary items} they lost $400MM.  Being very very very generous assume they raise occupancy to 105%, increasing revenue 10% or $260MM / qtr and are able to hold expenses flat.  After interest expense they still might not break even   That debt is killer and adding new-builds won't help.  In 2019 interest expense was $400MM, the current annual rate is $1.7B

Edited April 11, 2023 by Baron Barracuda

[kirtihk]

45 minutes ago, Lastdance said:

No, just for Sky Suites in general; I guess I could call and ask.

send me an email at mikhail_khitrik at yahoo dot com

[Keys Kathy]

35 minutes ago, Mickey S said:

sounds pretty accurate for a back of envelope calculation. I have to think cash flow is positive.

Do not forget that without deposits, none of the cruise lines would be around. Which is the goal of environmentalists and the off the chart go green folks where everything  needs to be done yesterday.

 

But lets humor ourselves and goes the other way--what if occupancy drops to 85%? Most of the expenses are still there but the revenues are not. THere is a lot of leverage when you have high fixed costs and that leverage goes both ways.

 

as a publically owned and traded company, RCL and the others need to show real growth to justify anything more than a single digit PE ratio. That makes the 4th and 5th E class a done deal and thats why Beyond was stretched. More cabins,  the same energy used , nominal increase in crew and probably food costs do not go up proportionately.

 

I wonder where the costs have increased viz viz 2019-and I have other things to do than look. I wonder if some the ratio of Royal fleet to X fleet has chaned and which one has the higher markng and growth rate.

 

 

At least RCL has not screwed up its brand names like Budweiser has.

Did you mean Buttweiser? The King of Hers?

 

Seriously though, since deposits mean so much, why did they shorten the time on the "Book now, Book later"? They gave me 6 months to use it. It used to be at least a year. I don't know if I will find something by August and it doesn't give me the opportunity to look at the late 2025 itineraries. I read somewhere that now it is 90 days. If you don't use it, it is an automatic refund. I would believe they would like to hold on to that money.

 

Explain, please.

 

 

[Mickey S]

1 hour ago, Keys Kathy said:

Did you mean Buttweiser? The King of Hers?

 

Seriously though, since deposits mean so much, why did they shorten the time on the "Book now, Book later"? They gave me 6 months to use it. It used to be at least a year. I don't know if I will find something by August and it doesn't give me the opportunity to look at the late 2025 itineraries. I read somewhere that now it is 90 days. If you don't use it, it is an automatic refund. I would believe they would like to hold on to that money.

 

Explain, please.

 

since it only applies to bookings made on board,  I have no clue but I think it redices the pricing bemefits and OBS overall benefit and other costs. THey don't do anything now unless it improves the bottom  line. And one reason would  be to just get more bookings to make lenders more comfortable. A lower deposit with less risk is a way to get more future bookings.

[Ipeeinthepools]

1 hour ago, Keys Kathy said:

Did you mean Buttweiser? The King of Hers?

 

😂

[Bill Miller]

Will the new President address the clicking, banging, groaning creepy noises afflicting some of the cabins on the Beyond? Is the Beyond haunted or just poor shipbuilding.

Several resources are available in Miami, including a wide selection of Santeria priests/priestess.  Miami Catholic Archbishop Tom Wenski is been known to sling some Satan banishing Holy Water.  

Will the ever popular topic of lobsters be addressed?

Will Goop be gone?

Will Bingo be brought back?

Will frozen butter in the Aqua class Blu restaurant ever thaw?

Can we please keep the virtual lifeboat drills?

Will the Celebrity IT department raid some hotel/airline software engineers and develop a stable and customer centric platform?

Did I miss something? Please chime in. Hoping for the best. Here comes the nurse with evening meds.

 

[NutsAboutGolf]

7 minutes ago, Bill Miller said:

Will the new President address the clicking, banging, groaning creepy noises afflicting some of the cabins on the Beyond? Is the Beyond haunted or just poor shipbuilding.

Several resources are available in Miami, including a wide selection of Santeria priests/priestess.  Miami Catholic Archbishop Tom Wenski is been known to sling some Satan banishing Holy Water.  

Will the ever popular topic of lobsters be addressed?

Will Goop be gone?

Will Bingo be brought back?

Will frozen butter in the Aqua class Blu restaurant ever thaw?

Can we please keep the virtual lifeboat drills?

Will the Celebrity IT department raid some hotel/airline software engineers and develop a stable and customer centric platform?

Did I miss something? Please chime in. Hoping for the best. Here comes the nurse with evening meds.

 

 

Don't mind if I do...Most of these are pre-covid:

Higher food quality, specifically cuts of meat

Elite happy hour on embarkation day

Zeniths/high casino status can use the Retreat

Get rid of the room service fee if CC or above

 

Wish list, I've been booking more Carnival lately; most of these things are from CCL/RCI/NCL

-The Mast Grill is awful, do better than Carnival, give us better burgers and dogs

-The baked desserts are sugar bombs without much flavor, for example, if chocolate, make it taste like chocolate...Again, do better, Carnivals chocolate melting cake blows away any of X's baked desserts

-Switch the MDR/Blu lobster from spiny to Maine lobster like Carnival and RCI did

-Ability to PURCHASE a premium steak and/or lobster and/or a sushi boat any night in MDR/Blu; once on board specialty dining reservations before 9pm are rare even the ship is half full

-Add a sing along piano bar

-Have a comedian perform a show every night in the sky lounge or The Club, other lines have 3_ shows per day/night

 

[markeb]

39 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

Don't mind if I do...Most of these are pre-covid:

Higher food quality, specifically cuts of meat

Elite happy hour on embarkation day

Zeniths/high casino status can use the Retreat

Get rid of the room service fee if CC or above

 

Wish list, I've been booking more Carnival lately; most of these things are from CCL/RCI/NCL

-The Mast Grill is awful, do better than Carnival, give us better burgers and dogs

-The baked desserts are sugar bombs without much flavor, for example, if chocolate, make it taste like chocolate...Again, do better, Carnivals chocolate melting cake blows away any of X's baked desserts

-Switch the MDR/Blu lobster from spiny to Maine lobster like Carnival and RCI did

-Ability to PURCHASE a premium steak and/or lobster and/or a sushi boat any night in MDR/Blu; once on board specialty dining reservations before 9pm are rare even the ship is half full

-Add a sing along piano bar

-Have a comedian perform a show every night in the sky lounge or The Club, other lines have 3_ shows per day/night

 

 

How about ACTUAL goals of a President/CEO:

 

Increase gross margin (increase revenue and/or decrease operating costs)

Control admin and selling costs

Increase EBITDA

Get Celebrity to a point that it can contribute to an increased stock price and maybe even a dividend for RCG

 

Everything else listed is operations. COO, not CEO. And since most of them would decrease rather than increase the gross margin...

 

Seriously, a change of leadership gives them a good opportunity to look at their segmentation and targeting again. If they want to be a premium line, then they have to offer a premium product (which includes food, beverages, etc.), but they're going to have to charge for it. And she has to attract 35-50 year old affluent professionals to replace cruisers who age out of the market and keep the higher yield cruisers in that new group. Maybe those folks don't care about lobster and pay for AI so Elite happy hour is meaningless. I don't know; I'm already older than that group. It's also possible those newly acquired customers actually like the Edge class and don't care about IVs. And don't be like other lines! Then there's no differentiation and you're competing on price!

 

Anyway, back to a nice Yellow Spot. Not available on Celebrity...

[NMTraveller]

For those that say the ships are fully booked.  LOL.  I am looking at some Edge cruises where the cabins are selling for a very low price.

[DrKJ]

On 4/7/2023 at 5:25 AM, Ipeeinthepools said:

 

Really?  I'm really not sure how Royal or Celebrity's financial position compares to Carnival or Virgin but you need to view financial performance on an absolute scale non a relative comparison.  All of the cruise lines took on a lot of debt and are in bad financial condition.  Even if your correct on a relative basis, Royal or Celebrity would only be the best house in a bad neighborhood.  

 

If they want to dig out of that debt they need loyal customers.  A lot of thought needs to be put into price increases and cutbacks.  It’s a delicate balance.  I’ve never received a Capts Club survey asking about what we are looking for in general.  Granted they can’t give us everything we want and they do have a fiscal responsibility.  It does seem important to know what your most loyal customers want before just making cuts, raising prices or making major changes.  Returning customers are one major way of paying that debt off.  We all know costs have gone up.  Leadership means being as transparent as you can be and then getting the team on board with direction.

[paulh84]

14 hours ago, Bill Miller said:

Will the new President address the clicking, banging, groaning creepy noises afflicting some of the cabins on the Beyond? Is the Beyond haunted or just poor shipbuilding.

Several resources are available in Miami, including a wide selection of Santeria priests/priestess.  Miami Catholic Archbishop Tom Wenski is been known to sling some Satan banishing Holy Water.  

Will the ever popular topic of lobsters be addressed?

Will Goop be gone?

Will Bingo be brought back?

Will frozen butter in the Aqua class Blu restaurant ever thaw?

Can we please keep the virtual lifeboat drills?

Will the Celebrity IT department raid some hotel/airline software engineers and develop a stable and customer centric platform?

Did I miss something? Please chime in. Hoping for the best. Here comes the nurse with evening meds.

 

 

You have confused middle management tasks with a CEO. If I had a board seat and the CEO was concerned about butter and bingo, we would need to have a discussion about priorities. 

[OysterD]

16 minutes ago, DrKJ said:

If they want to dig out of that debt they need loyal customers.  A lot of thought needs to be put into price increases and cutbacks.  It’s a delicate balance.  I’ve never received a Capts Club survey asking about what we are looking for in general.  Granted they can’t give us everything we want and they do have a fiscal responsibility.  It does seem important to know what your most loyal customers want before just making cuts, raising prices or making major changes.  Returning customers are one major way of paying that debt off.  We all know costs have gone up.  Leadership means being as transparent as you can be and then getting the team on board with direction.

I wonder if they are targeting who they send their surveys to then, I've had two in the past 6 months or so asking me general questions about what I look for and my priorities etc. 

 

Granted, a lot of the questions on the last survey were a load of drivel and all about diversity, environmental and social impacts etc. I did let them know that whether they fund schools and social programs in Caribbean Islands is pretty far down my list of priorities when booking a cruise! 

[Spif Barwunkel]

9 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

For those that say the ships are fully booked.  LOL.  I am looking at some Edge cruises where the cabins are selling for a very low price.

Book 'em Dano! And Gladys and Herman and Margie, as well.

Edited April 12, 2023 by Spif Barwunkel

[shipshape sam]

34 minutes ago, OysterD said:

I wonder if they are targeting who they send their surveys to then, I've had two in the past 6 months or so asking me general questions about what I look for and my priorities etc. 

 

Granted, a lot of the questions on the last survey were a load of drivel and all about diversity, environmental and social impacts etc. I did let them know that whether they fund schools and social programs in Caribbean Islands is pretty far down my list of priorities when booking a cruise! 

I have never gotten a request to complete a survey.  Not sure of how they choose, but there are many different types of cruisers on the continuum.  We have lots of land based trips, we do want and try to sail once or twice a year and we have land based trips with our kids/grandkids competing for our retirement/vacation time.

 

We got off HAL Rotterdam VII (Pinnacle class-their newest ship) less than 3 weeks ago and it has changed my thinking of where I want to spend my cruise dollars. The musical entertainment was like nothing we had ever seen on a cruise ship before and we loved it!  Constant live music each night in a proper venue(s).  We have been loyal to Celebrity, but darn, I now have this image/experience stuck in my head. Every night the venues were busy and had a great vibe and there was lots of singing along with the bands/music.

 

I say the above to suggest Celebrity may want to rethink a number of areas of the onboard ship experience.  They seemed to have concentrated on the cabin/class segregation and the infinity cabins with the Edge class. Neither appeal to us.

[NMTraveller]

10 minutes ago, Spif Barwunkel said:

Book 'em Dano! And Gladys and Herman and Margie, as well.

For E class they would have to pay me to sail ...  🙂

[Keys Kathy]

9 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

For those that say the ships are fully booked.  LOL.  I am looking at some Edge cruises where the cabins are selling for a very low price.

Which ones?

[Honolulu Blue]

1 hour ago, shipshape sam said:

We got off HAL Rotterdam VII (Pinnacle class-their newest ship) less than 3 weeks ago and it has changed my thinking of where I want to spend my cruise dollars. The musical entertainment was like nothing we had ever seen on a cruise ship before and we loved it!  Constant live music each night in a proper venue(s).  We have been loyal to Celebrity, but darn, I now have this image/experience stuck in my head. Every night the venues were busy and had a great vibe and there was lots of singing along with the bands/music.

I'll make a short interruption to say I've been on several music charter cruises that had a lot of live music in a lot of different places. I think someone should do a proper comparison between those and your experience on the Rotterdam.

 

P.S. My one and only HAL cruise was on the Rotterdam VI.