Carnival Corporation’s first quarter earnings call late last week celebrated record revenues and 2026 bookings up 10% year over year, with 85% of 2026 already booked. But analysts were most curious about how world events, mainly the war with Iran, would impact those numbers moving forward.
Carnival Corporation CEO Josh Weinstein remained optimistic.
“Yeah, things have shifted a little bit here and there,” Weinstein said regarding the slowing pace of Europe cruise bookings over the past month. “We’ve made progress even with our Eastern European sailings when it comes to the book percentage that we’re at today versus where we are a few weeks ago.”
Revenue management teams continue to influence the booking curve and react to world events, and advance bookings put the company in a good place going into this period of uncertainty.
Weinstein also said Carnival wasn’t seeing meaningful cancellations for upcoming Europe cruises and reminded listeners that Carnival previously took action to move ships out of the Middle East, so its brands have “minimal exposure to that region.”
But world events impact more than bookings, and the other topic on everyone’s minds was fuel — so much so that Weinstein joked he had a bet going about when analysts would bring up the topic of fuel hedging given the skyrocketing cost of oil.
Is Carnival Corporation reconsidering its decision not to hedge fuel? The answer was an unequivocable no.
“Our focus forever, and will continue to be forever, is use less. Because whatever the price is, if we use less, we do better,” said Weinstein.
Carnival’s fuel-saving measures and strategic itinerary planning has led to savings of $650 million since 2019. The corporation has plans they can implement in the short term to cut even more fuel usage, and in the long term, it can change itineraries to require less fuel consumption.
With cruises currently a better value than land vacations, and many Carnival Corporation cruises not requiring air travel, Weinstein implied that the business would remain resilient even if fuel prices drive up cruise fares.
“We will continue to navigate challenges as they come,” he said. “Over the last five, six years, we have shown how much agility and nimbleness we’ve got, and ingenuity to overcome some pretty significant things and come out stronger.”
Fewer New-Builds, More Refurbishments
Weinstein also doubled down on Carnival’s plan of measured capacity growth, emphasizing plans for future refurbishment projects for existing fleets with minimal new-builds. The corporation has no new ships debuting in 2026 and only one a year thereafter across its eight brands.
Instead of churning out new ships, Carnival will focus on refurbishing and upgrading its existing fleet, what Weinstein refers to as “return-generating modernization programs.” He points to the current AIDA Evolution refurbishment program as an example of how Carnival brands can extend the lives of older ships and create more opportunities for onboard spend. Upon seeing one of the upgraded AIDA ships, he commented that “an 18-year-old ship can look and feel like a one-year-old ship, and be maintained in that condition.”
While new-build thrills will be limited, more makeovers are on the way. Weinstein hinted an announcement is coming soon about a major revitalization project for another Carnival brand.
Weinstein, it turns out, loves Carnival’s older ships.
“New-builds are great, but we’ve got 96 ships,” he said. “Some of the best yields and some of the best NPS we get are on some of our oldest ships.”
He sees the path to financial success not in flashy new-builds but in the continued success of existing fleets.
Travel Advisors Remain Essential
When asked about new technology, Weinstein was adamant that the company has no plans to use AI in a way that would diminish the role of its travel partners. He values advisors’ work to bring new people to cruise and sees AI as a tool that both the cruise line and agents need to navigate, but that will ultimately help everyone be successful.
“Travel agents… are an incredibly important piece of our business,” Weinstein asserted. “I don’t expect that to change anytime soon.”
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