Royal Caribbean has done well in recent years in Australia but its plans for further growth may be running into a problem come 2014/2015 but there's still hope for the future.
Cruise ship capacity constraints in Sydney will impact Royal Caribbean come 2014 according to managing director Gavin Smith, who indicated that rival Carnival Cruise Line is holding slots for an additional, unnamed cruise ship.
Smith said itineraries are currently being developed for 2014/15 with Port Botany a potential solution to the problem.
"There are periods in February 2015 when there is no berth space and that is the summer when our growth plans could face material curtailment,” Smith told Travel Today. “It gets very tight from December to February so you finish up with sub optimal itineraries of 16 or 17 nights because you can’t get back to Circular Quay. That is certainly a limitation to our plans. We are working through that at the moment to see how we can get around it."
Royal Caribbean dodged this issue for 2013/2014 when Carnival booked a berth for an unnamed ship, but subsequently withdrew that berth and allowed Royal Caribbean to take up the extra spot.
While declaring it was “unhelpful” for a cruise line to book for a vessel which ultimately doesn’t materialize, Smith refused to condemn Carnival.
"We are all masters of the slow reveal. I can understand what Carnival is doing but it’s certainly unhelpful if they don’t ultimately deliver the ship."
"The potential at Port Botany is for us to say ‘we’ll commit to this ship if you commit to helping us work one of the container terminals. But for us to make that commitment we’ve got to be very clear on what our deployments need to be."
Royal Caribbean also revealed it was in "active discussions" over developments in Brisbane for 2015/16 that would allow the company to expand into Queensland. Although Royal Caribbean already calls at Brisbane, it does not have permission for a full turnaround.
