Carnival Cruise Line does not break out financial stats for its various cruise lines.
It has separate leadership for all of its brands which include Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Costa, Holland America Line, Seabourn, Cunard, P&O UK and AIDA. The P&O brand used to also have an Australian line, but that brand has been closed with two ships joining the Carnival Cruise Line fleet.
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During its fourth-quarter earnings call, Carnival Corp. CEO Josh Weinstein did offer a small tidbit about which brands are leading the way for the company.
“AIDA is pretty much neck-and-neck with Carnival Cruise Line for the highest returning brand in our portfolio,” he said during the call.
Weinstein was also broadly excited about the company’s performance.
“Our global portfolio is clearly firing on all cylinders, and I am very proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish together. We delivered another stellar quarter to close out a phenomenal year. In fact, this was our seventh consecutive quarter achieving record revenues alongside favorable forward indicators, like record booking trends and record customer deposits, indicating a continuation of the strong momentum we’ve been experiencing for the last two years,” he shared.
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Sun Princess joined Carnival’s fleet in 2024.
Image source: Princess Cruises.
Carnival passengers can expect higher prices
Carnival Corp. saw its revenue reach an all-time high of $25 billion for the full year. Weinstein explained how the company hit those heights.
“Robust demand delivered a full year 2024 yield increase of 11%, with the majority of the increase attributable to higher prices. Yields finished the year nearly 250 basis points better than our original guidance, driven by a strong demand environment that we elevated throughout the year,” he said.
That demand was not limited to the company’s top brands.
“Encouragingly, this was broad-based. For 2024, prices were up in all of our major brands,” he added.
The CEO does not expect prices to fall in the coming year.
“At the outset, and with about two-thirds of the year already on the books, 2025 is shaping up to be another banner year with yield growth exceeding 4%, far outpacing historical growth rates and again exceeding unit cost growth, delivering more than $400 million incrementally to the bottom line,” he added.
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Prices, he added, have continued to increase.
“Booking trends even accelerated during the quarter. Despite less inventory for sale as compared to same time last year, 2025 booking volumes over the quarter were actually higher year on year at higher prices for each quarter, including the period leading up to the election. Booking volumes for 2026 also continue to break records, reflecting sustained demand even for further-out sailings,” he shared.
Why are Carnival prices going up?
When you have less to sell, prices rise. Carnival has been growing its capacity by adding new ships, but that added capacity has not offset increased demand.
“Both price and occupancy are higher for each of the four quarters of 2025, and we managed to increase both our price and occupancy advantage for our 2025 book position thanks to our outstanding efforts this past quarter. I can actually now report that our North American and European segments are each at their longest advanced booking windows on record,” Weinstein shared.
That strength is across all the company’s major cruise lines on both newer and older ships.
“All core deployments are also better booked at higher prices than the record levels we achieved at the same time last year. So with a good amount less inventory to sell for 2025, I cannot stress enough to our customers and trade partners that if you want to sail with us this year, book now while there’s still space available,” he added.
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Weinstein noted that even when you exclude the company’s 3 new fleet additions (Carnival Jubilee, Princess Cruises’ Sun Princess, and Cunard’s Queen Anne, the company’s 2024 yields were up almost 10%.
“That’s because we’re achieving demand growth well above our modest supply pipeline through ground-up efforts to improve execution across the commercial space,” he said.
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