Royal Caribbean mulls shorter ex-UK cruises on larger ship to attract new-to-cruise

Royal Caribbean International president Michael Bayley has identified an opportunity to deploy a larger ship offering shorter three or four-day sailings from the UK to encourage bookings from new-to-cruise customers.

This comes as Europe welcomed its first Icon Class ship, Legend of the Seas, for the summer season, with more than 1,000 agents from the UK and Ireland joining a four-night shakedown sailing from Málaga.

Speaking to Travel Weekly editor-in-chief Lucy Huxley on the preview voyage, Bayley said the UK market “was, is and will always continue to be a major component of our consumers”, but said new-to-cruise customers were “slightly under-performing” compared with other markets.

Bayley said this was “somewhat connected” to UK-based itineraries being longer and “skewing” towards older customers.

“The ideal product for new-to-cruise in a western market is a three or four-day,” he said. “We should actually try putting in a big ship [in the UK] for a three or four-day sailing and it would probably go nuts. We will take a look at that.”

Speaking about distribution in the UK, he said the line had “long-term relationships” with the trade but was “always open” to bringing on new partners.

He said: “If you mirror our strategies in the UK versus our strategies in the US, they are similar and we do put a lot of time and energy into investing in new partnerships and new relationships.

“We’re particularly interested in travel partners who’ve developed some kind of niche, such as high-value families or multi-gen.”

Bayley added Legend of the Seas, the first Icon Class ship to be deployed in Europe, has sold “fantastically well” and seen “significantly more” international customers booking than US passengers compared to other new products in the Mediterranean.

He said that it would be “pretty logical” for the vessel to return for another summer season in 2028, adding: “I am not saying that is what we are going to do, but if I had to put it on a percentage metre [for probability], it would be way up there past 95%.”

Regarding the line’s private destination strategy, with new sites opening in the past eight months in Santorini and the Bahamas, Bayley said the company was learning there is “no one-size fits all” approach.

Looking ahead, he said there were “no other options in front of us” that would fit the Santorini formula of renovating a pre-existing beach club, for example, but work was continuing to launch Lelepa in Vanuatu and Perfect Day Mexico in Mahahual.

When asked about paused developments on the Mexico project due to the local government’s environmental concerns, Bayley said: “We’re working our way through it.

“We’re optimistic that we can figure out the right path with having multiple meetings with the communities.”

Bayley said he hoped the opening “will not be delayed too much”, adding Royal Caribbean had to be “more sensitive” to feedback from communities, the government and other stakeholders.

When asked about the new Discovery Class coming in 2029, Bayley described it as “a more adventurous class” which will combine “the best” of previous ships.

He said the new itineraries would go on sale in late 2027and teased one new “fantastic” innovation which would wow customers.  

The ships will be deployed in Asia Pacific, Alaska, Mediterranean and northern Europe and will be small enough to transit the Panama Canal, cutting down the time it takes to move from one region to another.

On the impact of the Middle East conflict on trading, Bayley said “everything has kind of regulated itself back to pretty much normal”, highlighting an ongoing trend in late bookings, partially linked to Royal Caribbean’s shorter product offering.