RCI announces further 2013 deployment
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Royal Caribbean International (RCI) has confirmed the 2013 deployment for Explorer of the Seas and Freedom of the Seas.
The its 3,114-passenger Explorer’s summer and autumn 2013 deployment features 30 cruises to 17 ports of call on seven varying itineraries. It will be homeported at the Cape Liberty Cruise Port, New Jersey from April to October 2013. Holidaymakers can combine a visit to the Big Apple with a cruise including five-night and nine-night itineraries to Bermuda and the Caribbean.
On August 31 the Explorer of the Seas will offer a special one-off Canada & New England sailing to catch the arrival of autumn and changing of the leaves.
RCI also announced late last week that its 154,000-ton, 3600-passenger Freedom of the Seas will undertake 26 alternate seven-night Eastern and Western Caribbean itineraries each Sunday from Port Canaveral. The Eastern Caribbean sailing will call at St. Thomas, St. Maarten and Coco Cay (the line’s private island in the Bahamas), while Western itinerary calls are Falmouth, Jamaica; George Town, Grand Cayman ; Cozumel Mexico and Labadee, the line’s private beach destination on the north coast of Haiti. The two seven-night cruises can be combined into a 14 night Eastern and Western Caribbean itinerary.
Profits fall
The ships’ deployment was announced as Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd saw its first quarter profits fall by 40% year-on-year from £49.5 million to £29.5 million. The company attributes the significant profit fall to the Costa Concordia disaster in January. “The lines first quarter results were satisfactory given the difficult and uncertain operating environment, and we continue to see gradual improvement in demand for our great vacations,” said Richard D.Fain, chairman and CEO of RCCL on the results.
Bookings for the fourth quarter of 2012 and for 2013 cruises remain strong, with both load factors and pricing running ahead of the same time last year, with an increase in demand for its Madrid-based Pullmantur brand.