Regular cruise passengers rarely get to have meaningful interactions with top cruise line executives.
Some cruise lines hold Captain's Cruise events where select people get to attend a question-and-answer session or maybe even ask a question.
Media, of course, sometimes get interview time with top executives, and when they do journalists can ask the questions the public wants answered. That's usually why during uncertain times when the public has a lot of questions, those interviews become pretty hard to come by.
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Business executives — even leaders of publicly traded companies like Carnival Corp. (CCL) — do not have to talk to the media. They are required to file various reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission, like their quarterly earnings, and they usually host media Q&A sessions as part of those calls.
In many cases, the analysts and other finance types dominate those calls and mostly ask fairly wonky questions.
That was not the case, however, during Carnival's third-quarter-earnings call, when CEO Josh Weinstein fielded and answered some questions of serious interest to the cruise line's passengers.
(Questions and answers have been edited for clarity and brevity).
Image source: Carnival Cruise Line.
Carnival outlines Half Moon Cay plans
Patrick Scholes, Analyst: Do you have any longer-term plans above and beyond just a pier for Half Moon Cay, such as water parks and the like down the road?
Josh Weinstein: I'll give you a yes and a no. So, do we have more plans? Absolutely. Do we want a water park? Absolutely not.
So ... the difference between Half Moon Cay and what we're building at Celebration Key is Celebration Key is really about five portals of fun and looking to be that entertainment center.
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What we have at Half Moon Cay is one of the most naturally beautiful white sand beaches, Crescent Shape islands in the Caribbean. And that's a true private destination and something that we want to enhance.
And we will be talking about that more over the coming months. I won't steal [Carnival Cruise Line President Christine Duffy's] thunder, but good things are coming that are going to make that a pretty amazing destination. ...
Carnival Cruise Line pleased with its bookings
Steven Wieczynski, Analyst: I want to ask about the '25 and '26 bookings. [You] talked about how you're already 50% booked for next year and in a pretty good position, it seems, like already for 2026. So, just wondering if you think about your booking window, has it expanded too much? Or saying that differently, are you nearing a point where you might start leaving money on the table if demand kind of stays status quo from here?
Weinstein: The goal is not an ever-increasing booking curve. It's to maximize the revenue that we're going to generate by the time we sail. I would say this is a brand-by-brand, itinerary-by-itinerary buildup.
And I would say that almost all of our brands are pretty much, are higher year over year. There's one that's not, and that's an active decision to pull back because we want to make sure we're not leaving price on the table, exactly to your point.
So, despite the fact that overall we're in a record position, we are looking at that, obviously, with a lot more clinical eye and making sure we're doing the right thing to optimize that revenue.
Brandt Montour, Analyst: OK. Thanks for that. And then just a follow-up. Maybe, Josh, if you could address the broader land-based leisure demand environment? What we're seeing elsewhere is not what cruise has seen. We see steady, slow somewhat softer normalization. We don't get any of that from you in your commentary today.
I guess we understand why it's happening, but if the rest of the world is narrowing a little bit toward ... let's say, your gap from the top, do you see any of that affecting your consumers' behavior and willingness to spend and pricing sensitivity?
Weinstein: We are still a remarkable value to land-based alternatives. And maybe land-based is softening because we're doing better. Who knows? You have to ask them that. I can't tell you their business.
But we have a tremendous value. We are doing a better job of getting our word out: better marketing, more eyes on the industry, more eyes on us. Our new-to-cruise this past quarter was up about 17% year over year. That's not an accident.
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That's because our brands are really focused on driving that demand profile. So, I don't have a crystal ball, and I can't tell you what the world is going to look like a year from now, two years from now.
But I can tell you [that] if we keep focusing on commercial execution and doing the right things and doing them better, then there's a long runway because the one thing that's never been a question is can we execute on board and deliver a great experience. And that's always been the case.
It's just a matter of how we convince people to come with us who never have, and I think we're doing a good job on that.
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