Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE:RCL) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Brandt Montour: And just to add — go ahead, Michael.

Michael Bayley: Sorry. Sorry, just to add one comment on the demand from North America. We’ve also seen strong demand coming out of the Latin American markets for the European product, which has surprised us, but obviously, we’re taking advantage of that. But it’s pretty much across the board that we’re seeing the strength in the consumer and it’s across so many of our markets, which is really healthy to see.

Brandt Montour: That’s great. And just a follow-up on both of those comments. It sounds like U.S. into Europe and the UK that you called out are where you’re most excited, even if it’s the Europe end market. In terms of the consumer that you sell to and that European consumer that you sell to that might not be as good as a consumer right now for you, are they accelerating to sort of against their own comparables?

Jason Liberty: Yes, they are. And I think the other thing that has been — that we’ve seen through the course of this WAVE is our ability to raise prices at the same time. So the demand is that strong and we’re able to raise price across these different products and really not seeing a pullback from the consumer as we continue to do so. And that is really a reflection of what we’ve seen since our last earnings call, or really since the announcement of the protocol being dropped just acceleration and the propensity to cruise across all three categories of new-to-cruise, first-to- brand, first-to-cruise has returned. And in many cases, it’s better than what we saw pre-COVID.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Benjamin Chaiken with Credit Suite.

Benjamin Chaiken : Maybe I missed it, but the guide implies some net yield growth for the year, clearly. Is this simply occupancy improving? Or is the revenue per passenger cruise day also expected to improve? And I guess I asked that in the context of what sounds like better pricing in the last few weeks and months.

Naftali Holtz: Ben, it’s Naf. So it’s both. And you can see the acceleration in the business. Obviously, with the normalizing of the occupancy levels and the continued strength of pricing.

Benjamin Chaiken: Got you. That’s really helpful. And then on CocoCay, are you still seeing the same or similar pricing premiums to the CocoCay itineraries as you did in 2019? And then longer term, should we assume that you make further build-outs in other locations that are similar to CocoCay? And if so, how do you think about that opportunity while also bringing down ?

Michael Bayley: Hi, Ben, it’s Michael. I think the answer to those questions is yes and yes. I mean we ironically opened CocoCay in 2019, and it is just a huge success. Now, of course, it’s really doing an amazing job. And the demand for that product is exceptionally high. We have a significant increase in our overall capacity that we bring into CocoCay. I think for this year ’23, we’ll be bringing 2.5 million to 3 million guests to CocoCay. And the demand not only is there from a volume perspective, but the rate is there. And that rate has been going up again in a very healthy way. And it’s the same with the spend for the products and experiences on Perfect Day. We’ve seen a great demand and a lot of resilience as the prices go up.