Welcome to Cruise News, your daily update on
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alerts. Great to be here. We have a really packed
slate today. It almost feels like we're looking
at three chapters from a business textbook. How
so? Well, we've got expansion, inflation, and
then retention. It all fits. I love that framing.
Yeah, it's rare that the stories line up so thematically.
We're not just talking about, you know, a ship
moving from one port to another. No, not at all.
We are looking at a massive strategic play in
the southern hemisphere by Carnival Corporation
and Nassau LAC. A huge play. But then we also
have to get down to what it means for the traveler's
wallet. Right. We're definitely going to look
at that. Specifically, a very quiet, but I'd
say very aggressive price hike on Carnival Cruise
Line's Wi -Fi. And then... To wrap it up, we'll
dive into what I think might just be a game changer
for loyalty programs with Royal Caribbean Group's
new ecosystem approach. That loyalty story is
fascinating. It's really challenging that whole
idea of brand loyalty, isn't it? It is. It's
moving from loving one specific cruise line to
loving an entire corporate portfolio. But let's
not get ahead of ourselves. No, let's start with
the big map. Let's head down under. To Australia
and New Zealand. Exactly. Carnival Cruise Line
dropped their deployment for the 2027 -2028 season.
And it is, well, it's a heavy one. This is a
big deal. It is massive. And you really have
to understand the context of what happened last
year to get why this matters so much. You're
talking about the P &O merger. Exactly. Back
in March 2025, Carnival Cruise Line basically
absorbed P &O Cruises Australia. And P &O was
the local brand, right? Yeah. The heritage brand.
They were the dominant force there for years.
They were. So when Carnival took over, they didn't
just get the ships, you know, the hardware. They
inherited the responsibility for the whole market.
They had to prove they weren't just an American
line visiting for the summer. Right. They had
to become the new home team. And this schedule,
this is them flexing that muscle. So what's the
headline from Carnival on this? Well, Peter Little,
the country manager for Carnival Corporation,
he said this answers the call for more local
convenience. And he specifically called the brand
the only year -round global player in the region.
That's very specific wording. It is. It's a statement.
It says, we're not going anywhere. Let's talk
numbers because the scale here is kind of staggering.
Go for it. It's a full 12 -month schedule, over
200 cruises. four ships, and 39 different destinations.
They're projecting more than half a million guests.
Half a million. And the strategy isn't just about
volume, it's about reach. They're keeping cities,
but the port logistics and, frankly, the profitability
can be tricky there. You have to sail a lot further
to get to the sunny Queensland or Pacific Island
destinations. Bringing it back now signals that
Carnival believes the market is finally strong
enough to support it. I really liked seeing the
reaction from the locals in the reports. There
was this one quote from a grandmother in Adelaide,
Shirley Van Hout. She was described as ecstatic.
And that's what it's all about, right? It is,
because now she doesn't have to fly to Sydney,
get a hotel, and then get on a ship. The holiday
just became so much more accessible. It answers
that call for convenience. So let's talk about
the ships themselves, because moving four of
them around a continent is a real puzzle. The
one that fascinates me is the Carnival Adventure.
That's the rover, isn't it? It seems to be popping
up everywhere. It is. It starts in Auckland from
May to July 2027. Then, if you fast forward to
early 2028, it suddenly shows up in Melbourne.
And those Melbourne trips look great. They have
four -night sailings to Kangaroo Island. A fantastic
spot. It's like a zoo without any fences. Totally.
So, adventure does Melbourne, then what? Then
it moves to Adelaide. for its inaugural season
in late February 2028 before finally slotting
into the Sydney rotation in March. It's a very
agile deployment. So they're moving the supply
to where the demand is. Exactly. Rather than
making people fly to Sydney all the time. Meanwhile,
the heavy hitter, Carnival Splendor, is just
parked in Sydney year -round. Yep. It's their
largest ship in the region, over 113 ,000 gross
tons. It's the workhorse. But what's interesting
there are the themed sailings they're doing.
Oh, I saw that. The Melbourne Cup cruise. For
international listeners, that's a horse race
that basically stops the entire nation of Australia.
It's their Super Bowl. And Carnival's building
a whole cruise around that energy. Then there's
a 14 -night Mutiny on the Bounty in Fiji trip.
Mutiny on the Bounty. That's a bold theme for
a cruise line. I'm hoping it's just historical
education. And not a suggestion for the passengers.
It's hope. But it shows they're targeting different
kinds of cruisers. And we can't forget Brisbane.
Carnival Encounter is there year -round, and
then you have Carnival of Muminosa. Right, the
seasonal one. That's the ship that does Australia
in their summer and then heads to Alaska for
our summer. And those repositioning cruises are
just monsters. 22, 23 nights across the Pacific.
Who takes those? It's a specific kind of traveler.
You have to really love sea days. You know, the
per day cost is usually incredibly low. It's
a cheap way to see the world if you have the
time. So the big takeaway for Australia is just
consolidation. Total consolidation. Carnival
has filled the P &O gap and basically said, we
are the Australian cruise line now. If you want
to cruise from there in 2027, odds are you're
getting on a Carnival ship. OK, so while cruisers
down under are getting new itineraries, the rest
of us are dealing with, well... Something less
fun. Let's talk money. Let's talk about the cost
of staying connected. We have to talk about Wi
-Fi. Oh, the quiet inflation. It was so quiet.
No press release. No big email. The prices just
changed. And we're not talking about small changes.
These are double digit percentage increases across
the board. OK, let's break down the numbers.
The social plan. That's the basic one, right?
Yep. Just social media and airline sites. That
jumped from $15 .30. to $18 .70 per person per
day. That's a 22 % increase practically overnight.
Then the value plan is up to over $22. And the
premium plan, the one you need for streaming,
is now almost $24 a day. And these are the pre
-purchase prices, the ones that are supposed
to be the discount. Exactly. So let's do the
math for, say, a family of four, two parents,
two teens. Everyone wants the premium plan. Of
course they do. The kids need to stream. So the
multi -device bundle for that went from $75 to
$84 a day. Okay, so on a seven -day cruise, that's
almost $600 just for Wi -Fi. That's a car payment.
For some people, that's a mortgage payment. It's
a serious line item on the budget. And here's
where it gets even more concerning. The dynamic
pricing. The dynamic pricing. This is like surge
pricing for Uber, right? Pretty much. The prices
we just talked about are the baseline. But if
you look at a cruise in 2026, say, during spring
break. The algorithm just pushes them higher.
We saw an example, March 2026 on the Carnival
Freedom. The social plan wasn't $18 .70. It was
$20 .40. And the premium? Over $25 per person
per day. So that family of four we mentioned,
their Wi -Fi bill could easily be over $700,
maybe even $800. So why? Is there a reason for
this beyond just charging more? Well, it's a
mix. If you look at the trend line, back in October
2020, the social plan was $6 .80. Right, $6 .80,
and now it's pushing $20. That's about a 175
% increase. But to be fair, the product is completely
different. Okay, how so? Back then, Cruise Wi
-Fi was... Painful. It was old satellite tech
you'd wait forever for an email. Now Carnival
has Starlink across the entire fleet. Ah, the
Starlink rollout. So the speed is actually good
now. It's comparable to home internet. And that's
the key. It's shifted from being a perk. to being
a utility. That's a good way to put it. A perk
is nice to have. A utility is essential. And
they know people will pay for it. The demand
is inelastic. People are terrified of being offline
for a week. So the advice for our listeners is
pretty clear here. Oh, absolutely. Do not wait
until you're on this ship to buy Wi -Fi. Even
with these new higher prices, you're still saving
up to 20 % by buying it beforehand. Check your
cruise planner early. If you see a price you
can live with, lock it in. It is not going to
get any cheaper. OK, let's shift gears to our
last story. And this one really connects to spending,
but more about how you're rewarded for it. It's
about loyalty. And it's a big move from the Royal
Caribbean Group. They're launching something
in early 2026 called Points Choice. And this
is really a shift from what I'd call brand loyalty
to portfolio loyalty. I like that. Explain what
that means. What is Points Choice? So Royal Caribbean
Group. is the parent company for Royal Caribbean
International, Celebrity Cruises, and Silversi,
three very different brands. And three very different
and separate loyalty programs, Crown & Anchor,
Captain's Club. And Venetian society. Right.
They operated in silos. If you sailed royal,
you earned royal points. If you went on a celebrity
cruise, you were basically starting from scratch.
They did introduce status matching a couple years
ago, though. They did. So your tier level, like
diamond, would carry over. But points choice
is a huge leap forward. It lets you earn points
on one brand and then choose to apply them to
another brand's program. Whoa. Okay, that is
a big deal. So let me get this straight. Let's
say I'm a loyal Royal Caribbean cruiser trying
to hit diamond status. Okay. But my wife wants
to do a celebrity cruise for our anniversary.
You know, a bit more upscale. In the old system,
you do that cruise, you get a few useless Captain's
Club points, and your progress on Royal would
just stall. Which would make me not want to try
celebrity. Exactly. With points choice, you take
that celebrity cruise, but you just tell the
system, hey, send these points to my Crown and
Anchor account. So I get the anniversary trip
I want, and I still make progress in the loyalty
program I actually care about. That's it. It
completely removes the feeling that you're cheating
on your favorite cruise line. And that has to
be the whole strategy. Jason Liberty, the CEO,
said he wants to keep guests in their orbit.
They know your taste change. Sometimes you want
water slides with the kids. Sometimes you want
quiet luxury. Instead of losing you to a competitor,
they keep you in the family. It makes the whole
ecosystem so much stickier. It does. But what
makes this really juicy is when you put it side
by side with what Carnival Cruise Lines is doing
right now. Oh, yes. The contrast could not be
more stark. It's like two opposite philosophies
on loyalty. It is. Carnival is ditching their
VIFP program for something called Carnival Rewards
in 2026. And the reception has been, let's call
it spicy. Spicy is a polite word for it. They're
moving to a revenue -based model, right? Points
for money spent, not days sailed. Which is great
for people in suites, but not so great for the
loyal cruiser who books cheap inside cabins five
times a year. And the really big one, a two -year
expiration on your status. If you don't sail,
you lose it. Plus, they got rid of some of those
little perks people loved. like the VIFP pins
for gold members. Yeah. It feels like they're
tightening the rules. So you have Royal Caribbean
Group over here saying, we'll give you more flexibility.
We want to make it easier to stay with us. And
then you have Carnival over there saying you
have to spend more, you have to sail constantly,
or you're out. It's a real divergence. Royal
is betting on that ecosystem value. They're removing
the risk for the customer. Right. If I try a
Silversea cruise and I hate it, well, at least
the points went to my Royal Caribbean account.
It's a safety net. We should probably add that
Royal hasn't released all the fine print yet.
That's true. We don't know the transfer ratios
or if there are limits, but the overall intent
is very, very clear. So to wrap it all up, we
have Carnival basically claiming an entire continent.
We have the cost of something essential like
Wi -Fi skyrocketing as it becomes a utility.
And we have this battle for loyalty with one
company opening the doors and the other one seemingly
tightening the locks. It's a time of real evolution
for the industry's business models. It definitely
keeps things interesting. Here's a final thought
for you to chew on today. With Royal letting
you cross -pollinate points and Carnival moving
to a spend -based model, are we seeing the end
of brand loyalty as we know it and the beginning
of portfolio loyalty? And if that's the case,
what does that mean for the smaller independent
lines that don't have a portfolio to offer? That
is the billion -dollar question. And it might
be what forces the next round of mergers. Thanks
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