Royal Caribbean to bank heavily on Europe - Cruise Line Fans: Cruise Forum, Reviews and Chat From Real Cruisers

GreatEscapes · 03-08-2010, 06:50 PM

Interesting article in the USA Today Cruise Log: Cruise giant Royal Caribbean plans big expansion in Europe - Cruise Log - USATODAY.com Looks like Royal Caribbean will be moving nearly half it's fleet (10 of 22) to Europe for the 2011 season. They will be sending the 2007 Liberty of the Seas to Barcelona to go head to head with NCL's 2010 Norwegian Epic.

RCL cites increased demand for the move. My question to the form is, do you think there will be an increase in Americans returning to the European market? Will the reduced value of the dollar, increased security at the airports, ever increasing airfares and luggage charges have much, if any impact? Or maybe the cruise lines are banking on the increasing demand from the Europeans alone.

Then again, could it be they are thinking it will push more demand to the Oasis and Allure?

Looking forward to hearing the thought of this esteemed body.

Blizzard · 03-08-2010, 07:36 PM

I would say that it is all of the above.

All cruise lines seem to have strong bookings in Europe.
Demand in Alaska has not been too strong and their head tax and increased operating costs to the cruise lines have not helped. As margins have shrunk in Alaska, more ships have been diverted elsewhere.

It would be interesting to know what percentage of passengers on the European cruises are Americans and how that percentage may have changed over the last few years. I expect that RCL and other lines are banking on increasing the number of non Americans on their European sailings.

I am sure that pushing the demand toward the Oasis and Allure are also part of it. That could backfire and send some of that demand to the competition.

luckybluesman · 03-09-2010, 04:30 AM

IMO, the dollar has increased in value over the last few months due to ecnomic problems in some of the EU countries. RCI uses the dollar onboard so the strength should not have much to do with US bookings.

If I remember correctly, on the BOS in Dec 2009, about 40% of the passengers were from US and Canada. There was a large group from Japan. Almost everyone we talked with used English as their first language. I think more and more Europeans are cruising than ever before. What ever the reason I am happy to see more choices.

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