Carnival Corp. reports “strong finish to a record year,” forecasts robust 2025

Carnival Corp. & plc exceeded fourth quarter expectations, swinging to a profit and chalking up record revenues, while full year revenues hit $25 billion – a new high.

“This has been an incredibly strong finish to a record year,” said CEO Josh Weinstein in a statement. Carnival's full year revenues hit an all-time high of $25 billion, over 15 per cent higher than the prior year, with continued strength in demand.

Its full year net income came in at $1.9 billion, outperforming September’s guidance by more than $130 million; its full year adjusted EBITDA of $6.1 billion was also 40 per cent higher than the prior year.

The cruise line's cumulative advanced booked position for 2025 is also at an all-time high for both price (in constant currency) and occupancy.

“Revenues hit an all-time high driven by a strong demand environment that we elevated throughout the year, enabling us to outperform our initial 2024 guidance by $700 million and deliver nearly $2 billion more to the bottom line, year over year,” said Weinstein. “The progress was broad based as we drove strong pricing in 2024 as compared to 2023 across our major cruise lines and trades.”

The resilient demand for cruise vacations helped Carnival in the fourth quarter, reports say. 

Adjusted cruise costs, excluding fuel, increased 7.4 per cent from 2023 but were better than the firm's projections of about eight per cent, announced in September.

Carnival will roll out heavier promotions in the run up to Wave Season, which starts right after winter holidays and lasts till the end of March.

Carnival Corp. includes Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Seabourn, Cunard, AIDA Cruises, Costa and P&O Cruises. 

Don't miss a single travel story: subscribe to PAX today!  Click here to follow PAX on Facebook.