Carnival Corporation reports no ‘significant’ cancellation trends

Carnival Corporation has not seen any “significant” cancellation trends among its cruise lines since the outbreak of war in the Middle East.

 

On a webcast about its first-quarter results for the three months to February 28 – the day that the conflict began – Josh Weinstein, Carnival Corporation & plc chief executive, said: “We are really not seeing any anything significant to talk about with respect to cancellation trends.”

 

He added: “Our onboard spends have been consistently strong as we got out of Q1 and headed into Q2.”

 

On Friday (March 27), the cruise giant reported record revenues of $6.2 billion for its first quarter, compared to $5.8 billion in Q1 2025.

 

Weinstein said that life has been “normalising” over the past three weeks, adding: “We are pretty pleased with how things have been progressing.

 

“Certainly, volumes have been stronger for places like Alaska and the Caribbean.

 

“Northern Europe is going quite well. We’ve made progress even with our Eastern European sailings.”

 

More: Carnival Corporation continues record performance in Q1

 

He said the booked percentage would have been higher without the conflict between the US, Israel and Iran but added: “One of the strategies that we had going into wave was pull forward the occupancy, pull forward our bookings…so we entered into this period with a nice amount of headroom, which we’ve maintained overall.”

Weinstein also commented on the importance of using less fuel, as the impact from the recent rise in fuel prices was more than $500 million.

 

“We’d be performing better if fuel was back at $60-70 [per barrel] but we don’t plan our lives around the world where you’ll stay at $60-70 – that is why our focus is to use less,” he said.

 

And he added: “The savings that we’ll get in this year alone – because of the consumption savings – that’s nicely higher than the over $500 million impact we’re seeing because of the spike in fuel. So that will remain our focus.”

 

He continued: “We do have very minimal exposure to that region…and we have the ability to move our assets…so we feel very good about the long-term trajectory.”

 

Weinstein also commented on Carnival’s AI strategy but noted it would take longer to develop in the cruise sector than “places like Walmart” because cruises are more complicated to sell – they are an experience not a commodity, he explained.

 

“With respect to our travel agents – we have been saying this forever – they are an incredibly important piece of our business,” he said.

 

“I don’t expect that to change anytime soon. [Agents] are great at providing newcomers access to us,” he said.

 

Carnival Corporation & plc is the world’s largest cruise company, with brands such as Carnival Cruise Line, Cunard, Holland America Line, P&O Cruises, Princess Cruises, and Seabourn.

 

Chief financial officer David Bernstein told the webcast that he had “great optimism” for the long term based on his experience at Carnival.

 

“We have managed through so many challenges: 9/11 the global financial crisis, the Arab Spring uprisings, Covid and the Ukraine war, just to name a few,” he said.

 

“And we have always come away demonstrating our ability to execute and achieve new record results while building resilience and growing stronger. I expect no less as we look ahead to our future.”