FlyWithX

CCL vs RCL vs NCL

Overview

Big 3: Carnival, Royal Carribean, Norwegian (excluding expedition ships)

Group Brand Category # Ships Smallest Largest Future Largest
Carnival Carnival Contemporary 27 70,367 133,868 183,900
Carnival Costa Contemporary 14 56,769 185,010
Carnival P&O Contemporary 6 76,152 143,730 183,900
Carnival P&O Australia Contemporary 3 55,451 77,499 108,977
Carnival Carnival China Contemporary 1 85,619
Carnival Princess Premium 19 30,277 145,281 175,000
Carnival Holland America Premium 14 55,575 99,863
Carnival AIDA Premium 14 38,531 183,858
Carnival Cunard Premium 3 90,049 149,215
Carnival Seabourn Luxury 5 32,346 41,865
Royal Caribbean Royal Caribbean Contemporary 26 48,563 228,081 230,000
Royal Caribbean Celebrity Premium 10 91,000 130,818
Royal Caribbean Silversea Luxury 6 16,900 40,700
Norwegian Norwegian Contemporary 17 75,904 169,145
Norwegian Oceania Premium/Luxury 6 30,277 66,084 67,000
Norwegian Regent Seven Seas Luxury 5 28,550 55,254

Carnival

Contemporary:

  • Carnival Cruise Line
  • Costa Cruises
  • P&O Cruises
  • P&O Cruises Australia

Premium & Luxury:

  • AIDA Cruises: caters primarily to the German-speaking market; designed to attract younger and more active vacationers.
  • Cunard Line: only 3 ships, including the world only ocean liner Queen Mary 2.
  • Holland America Line:
  • Princess Cruises
  • Seabourn Cruise Line: all oceanview suites; small ships, 200-400 guests

Shareholder benefits: shareholders holding >100 shares can get onboard credit depending on the brand and length of the trip. Details: https://www.carnivalcorp.com/shareholder-information/shareholder-benefit

Carnival Cruise Line

Excellence class will be dual fueled by LNG and traditional fuel oil. Ships are under different operators: Carnival, AIDA, Costa, P&O.

Holland America

Founded in Rotterdam, originally operating primarily between the Netherlands and North America, that's why it is named "Holland America". Now headquartered in Seattle

  • All ships named with suffix "-dam":
    • after city names: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Volendam, Zaandam, Veendam, Maasdam, Nieuw Amsterdam, Nieuw Statendam
    • after directions in Dutch: Noordam(Noord=North), Zuiderdam(Zuid=South), Oosterdam(Oost=East) and Westerdam(West=West)
    • others: Eurodam (Europe), Koningsdam (Koning=King), Ryndam(Ryn=Rijn=Rhine, the river)
  • All ships less than 100,000 GT(the largest Pinnacle class gets 99,863 GT)
  • Private Caribbean island: Half Moon Cay.
  • Serving Alaska the longest among the major cruise lines.

Royal Caribbean

Royal Caribbean has the world's largest cruise ship: Symphony of the Seas(228,081 GT, comparing to the largest container ships 232,618 GT, operated by MSC)

Brands:

  • Contemporary: Royal Caribbean Cruises
  • Premium: Celebrity Cruises
  • Luxury: Silversea Cruises: Royal Caribbean acquired 2/3 of Silversea to enter the luxury market; then acquired the rest 1/3 during COVID-19 in 2020.

Other investments:

  • TUI Cruises (50%): the German brand (TUI Cruises is the joint venture under TUI Group; Marella Cruises, formally Thomson Cruises is a British cruise line brand also under TUI Group; TUI Group is the world's largest leisure, travel and tourism company)

Shareholder Benefits:

Icon Class is LNG powered, 200,000 GT

Norwegian

Contemporary

  • Norwegian Cruise Line

Luxury

  • Oceania Cruises
  • Regent Seven Seas Cruises: medium-sized vessels

Shareholder benefits: http://www.nclhltdinvestor.com/ (there's a Shareholder Benefit link on the bottom, static pdf file may change from time to time)

Norwegian has solo staterooms.

2020 Q1 Earnings

CCL's Q1 ends on Feb 29 while the other 2 end on Mar 31, and COVID-19 hits the industry worse in March, so CCL's earning may look better, but be aware.

Interestingly for many key metrics, RCL almost always sits in between CCL and NCL, no surprise.

(in millions) CCL RCL NCL
Revenue - Ticket 3,234 1,377 841
Revenue - Onboard/other 1,556 656 406
Net Income (Loss) (781) (1,437) (1,881)
Total Assets 46,943 33,445 16,463
Shareholders' Equity 24,290 10,232 4,375

The next few quarters may be bad for all 3 groups. But for the long term I'm still feeling positive. At least this is a proven business, unlike many of the unicorn tech startups that keep burning money without a guarantee of turning profit at all.

Reference