Royal Caribbean Fans

Royal Caribbean has announced that as of March 1, 2013, all passengers will be charged an automatic daily gratuity for the crew members in the dining room and housekeeping team.

Royal Caribbean will add an automatic daily gratuity of $12.00 USD ($14.25 USD for Suite guests) to the onboard account of each guest to be shared by Dining Services Staff, Stateroom Attendants and Other Housekeeping Services Personnel. The new gratuity system replaces the previously optional gratuity guidelines and the distinct gratuity envelopes.

Passengers who have already prepaid their gratuities for their upcoming cruise will not be affected by the change.

The move by Royal Caribbean now mirrors what rival cruise lines Carnival , Princess, Cunard, Holland America and Norwegian have already instituted.

Royal Caribbean has confirmed that it will ditch its 5% online discount as part of plans to reduce base rate agent commission.

From January 1st, the new base rate of 10% will come into place. Royal Caribbean has pledged to offer more marketing funds to agents that do not sell purely on price.

The commission reduction is the second in the UK cruise sector in the last two years after rival Carnival UK cut its base rate to 5%.

Royal Caribbean UK general manager Jo Rzymowska said the line was determined to bring price clarity to the market and to work with agents to increase the profits of its brands.

Jo explained that “We will be taking our 5% online discount off our own website as from January 1st 2013, when we introduce the new terms to show how serious we are about doing all we can to ensure price clarity.”

The new commercial terms will only be applied to Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises.

Royal Caribbean will be sitting down with agents to negotiate bespoke marketing arrangements over the next few months tailored to their particular business models.

The reaction to the announcement has been broadly supported by agents.

Royal Caribbean has scheduled a conference call for Thursday, October 25, 2012 at 10am Eastern time to announce the results of it's third quarter fiscal calendar earnings.

If you're interested in hearing the results live, you can listen on-line at Royal Caribbean's investor relations web site, www.rclinvestor.com. To listen to the call by phone, please dial (877) 663-9606 in the US and Canada. International phone calls should be made to (706) 758-4628. A replay of the webcast will be available at the same site for a month following the call.

Royal Caribbean will hold a conference call on July 26, 2012 at 10am to discuss its second quarter 2011 financial results.

The call will be available on-line at the company's investor relations web site, www.rclinvestor.com. To listen to the call by phone, please dial (877) 663-9606 in the US and Canada. International phone calls should be made to (706) 758-4628. There is no passcode or meeting number. A replay of the webcast will be available at the same site for a month following the call.

The Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) said more than half of travel agents they polled are claiming to be selling more cruises this year, compared to last year. Moreover, 25% said by midyear the numbers were similar to 2011.

This is good news for the cruise industry after the Costa Concordia shipwreck hurt bookings, but the industry sees that as an "isolated event".

Travel agents report that 15 percent expected growth of more than 25% this year compared to last year and another 25% predict a rise of 11-15 percent.

CLIA president, Christine Duffy, commented on the news, ""Particularly for the U.S. consumer market, people certainly saw the Costa Concordia as a terrible tragedy that was a very isolated event and not indicative of how the broader cruise industry operates. And I think that bears out in the fact that we are seeing cruise bookings up over the same time last year. There is still a lot of consumer confidence in the cruise product."

Royal Caribbean reported its first quarter 2012 financial results today.

Royal Caribbean's net income for the first quarter 2012 was $47 million compared to $78.4 million in 2011. Revenues improved to $1.8 billion in the first quarter of 2012 compared to $1.7 billion in the first quarter of 2011 as a result of capacity increases and yield improvements.

As Royal Caribbean expected, booking activity continued to improve over the span of the last few months. Cumulative bookings since early February have been down mid single digits, although gradual improvement continues. Bookings from the United States have been running ahead of same time last year for the past four weeks.

Royal Caribbean Chairman Richard Fain commented on the results, "First quarter results were satisfactory given the difficult and uncertain operating environment and we continue to see gradual improvement in the demand for our great vacations. We did not expect the impact of the tragedy to be long term."

Bookings for the fourth quarter of 2012 and for 2013 sailings remain strong, with both load factors and pricing running ahead of same time last year. In addition, the company has seen an increase in summer demand for its Pullmantur brand's tour product.

You can listen to the conference call here

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. has scheduled a conference call with analysts for 10 a.m. Eastern time, Friday, April 20, 2012, to discuss the company's first quarter 2012 financial results.

The call will be available on-line at the company's investor relations web site, www.rclinvestor.com. To listen to the call by phone, please dial (877) 663-9606 in the US and Canada. International phone calls should be made to (706) 758-4628. There is no passcode or meeting number. A replay of the webcast will be available at the same site for a month following the call.

Royal Caribbean announced today that the Board of Directors has nominated Ann S. Moore, former chairman and chief executive officer of Time Inc., for election as a director at the Company's Annual Meeting of Shareholders to be held on May 31, 2012.

If elected, Ms. Moore will serve for a three-year term, and the Board will expand from 11 to 12 members.