More details on homeporting cruise ship

[Charles4515]

Twelve sailings, they expect passengers to arrive a day early and stay in a hotel the night before. Ship will sail at 50% of 2400 capacity.

 

https://www.royalgazette.com/tourism/news/article/20210326/homeporting-cruise-ship-to-make-12-trips-from-bermuda/

[princeton123211]

On 3/26/2021 at 8:45 AM, Charles4515 said:

Twelve sailings, they expect passengers to arrive a day early and stay in a hotel the night before. Ship will sail at 50% of 2400 capacity.

I think this starts to get sillier as it progresses. They're now expecting folks, who are spending $500-700 per person for a 7 night budget cruise to now spend $300-400 a night for a hotel in Bermuda on top of flights which are not very cheap right now. I see how its good for Bermuda but I think thats going to be a major hurdle for RCCL to overcome even to fill the ship at 50% if they don't offer this as some sort of package. The same demographic that goes for lower budget Bahamas cruises isn't the type that spend a whole lot before or after the cruise itself, especially on an island that tends to be one of the more expensive ones. 

 

If you told me they were going to homeport Crystal Serenity there that would make a ton more sense. 

 

On a sidenote from the article-- I had assumed that Fairmont Southampton had closed like everything else but the wording sort of made that sound more permanent. Whats the story there?

[njhorseman]

50 minutes ago, princeton123211 said:

I think this starts to get sillier as it progresses. They're now expecting folks, who are spending $500-700 per person for a 7 night budget cruise to now spend $300-400 a night for a hotel in Bermuda on top of flights which are not very cheap right now. I see how its good for Bermuda but I think thats going to be a major hurdle for RCCL to overcome even to fill the ship at 50% if they don't offer this as some sort of package. The same demographic that goes for lower budget Bahamas cruises isn't the type that spend a whole lot before or after the cruise itself, especially on an island that tends to be one of the more expensive ones. 

 

If you told me they were going to homeport Crystal Serenity there that would make a ton more sense. 

 

On a sidenote from the article-- I had assumed that Fairmont Southampton had closed like everything else but the wording sort of made that sound more permanent. Whats the story there?

I think you're going to see air/hotel/cruise packages being offered that will be much cheaper than the retail price of the three components sold individually. That sort of packaging is very common in the travel industry. Probably Royal Caribbean will be offering charter flights as there's a lot of excess metal sitting on the ground that the airlines would like to put into service again.

 

I've tried to follow the Fairmont Southampton story as it's unfolded but honestly I can't say when or even if the hotel will reopen. 

[Charles4515]

21 minutes ago, njhorseman said:

I think you're going to see air/hotel/cruise packages being offered that will be much cheaper than the retail price of the three components sold individually. That sort of packaging is very common in the travel industry. Probably Royal Caribbean will be offering charter flights as there's a lot of excess metal sitting on the ground that the airlines would like to put into service again.

 

I've tried to follow the Fairmont Southampton story as it's unfolded but honestly I can't say when or even if the hotel will reopen. 

 

They said the hotel was closed to make major renovations but apparently they don't have financing for them and no renovations are underway.

 

I think the air/hotel/cruise packages are likely. I also think Royal Caribbean is doing this for public relations to put pressure on the US government to restart cruises out of the US. I don't see them having a positive balance sheet for these sailings. 

[njhorseman]

1 minute ago, Charles4515 said:

 

They said the hotel was closed to make major renovations but apparently they don't have financing for them and no renovations are underway.

 

I think the air/hotel/cruise packages are likely. I also think Royal Caribbean is doing this for public relations to put pressure on the US government to restart cruises out of the US. I don't see them having a positive balance sheet for these sailings. 

Sailing at 50% capacity they will be breaking even on an EBITDA  basis and losing money on a GAAP basis. You're right...this is primarily to ramp up pressure on our government by demonstrating they can cruise "safely" .

I suspect we'll see  NCL announce  a similar itinerary very soon...also on a smaller ship such as the Gem. 

[princeton123211]

On 3/27/2021 at 4:06 PM, Charles4515 said:

They said the hotel was closed to make major renovations but apparently they don't have financing for them and no renovations are underway.

They are going to have to figure something out-- that one hotel accounts for roughly 1/4 of all hotel rooms on the island. The new St Regis that is about to open in St Georges looks amazing. 

 

I cant imagine the government letting the Fairmont Southampton just sit idle though long term. 

[Charles4515]

1 hour ago, princeton123211 said:

They are going to have to figure something out-- that one hotel accounts for roughly 1/4 of all hotel rooms on the island. The new St Regis that is about to open in St Georges looks amazing. 

 

I cant imagine the government letting the Fairmont Southampton just sit idle though long term. 

 

I don't doubt that the Bermuda government will be asked to bail out the owners and like in the past the Bermuda government will.