Carnival Corporation’s new-to-cruise bookings were up 17% for the past quarter compared to the same time last year.
This is an incremental increase on the last quarter when the cruise giant reported this segment was up 10% compared to the same period last year.
Overall third-quarter revenues hit an all-time high of $7.9 billion, with net income up 60% to $1.7 billion.
The cruise giant’s quarterly revenue was up $1 billion on the prior year, while net income outperformed guidance from June by $170 million.
Carnival Corporation upgraded its full-year 2024 adjusted profits [ebitda] guidance to $6 billion, which would be an increase of 40% compared to last year.
This was attributed to “strong demand” and “cost-saving opportunities”.
The company also reported its cumulative advanced booked position for full year 2025 is above this year’s record.
Speaking during the company’s quarterly earnings call, president Josh Weinstein said this increase was “not by accident”, with all of its brands – which include P&O Cruises and Cunard – “really focussed on driving that demand profile”.
“We are doing a better job of getting our word out, better marketing, more eyes on the industry, more eyes on us,” he added.
Weinstein also highlighted the work of travel agents to “amplify our voice in a tremendous way” and that the success they were seeing is “hand in hand with their success”.
He also mentioned better usability of websites, cost efficiencies and “remarkable value” for passengers as “continuing to pay off” to allow the company to “once again to take share” from land-based peers as its brands attracted more new-to-cruise customers.
Weinstein additionally pointed to new-to-cruise bookings for Alaska itineraries over the past year as “off the charts”, even though these voyages always tend to skew higher for that demographic as cruising is one of the only ways to see the region.
He added that repeat guests over the quarter were up double-digit percentages compared to the same time the last year.
Weinstein called the last quarter “phenomenal” with the line was “outperforming on every measure”, adding that “strong demand” and “historical emphasis on efficiency” had enabled the company to increase its full-year guidance for the third time this year.
Looking ahead, he said the “momentum continues” as 2025 was on “a historical high on both occupancy and price”.
He revealed that the group was already “about two-thirds booked” for the next 12 months, with nearly half of 2025 already booked and “a record booking volume” this far out for sailings in 2026 over the last quarter.
Weinstein added: “We feel confident in maintaining our trajectory. This incredibly strong booked position for 2024, 2025 and 2026 drove record third-quarter customer deposits towards $7 billion and that is along with continued growth in pre-cruise purchases of onboard revenue.”
He said: “All core deployments are at higher prices than the prior year. Every brand in our portfolio is well-booked at higher prices in 2025 demonstrating the ongoing benefits of our demand generation efforts throughout our optimised portfolio.”
Weinstein noted that for 2025 the booked position was “higher” for North American and European brands, which was consistent across all the quarters, with all brands “doing a great job pulling forward the booking curve”.
He also pointed to the “game-changing Bahamian destination”, Carnival Cruise Line’s private island Celebration Key, which will open in July 2025 and “ramp up” in 2026 with it becoming a premium call for 19 of the fleet’s ships.
Weinstein said land-based development to Celebration Key would “fully leverage” the use of four berths being built for 2026, alongside introducing a two-berth pier at Half Moon Key, to make both available to the line’s largest ships.