Wells Fargo Leisure is reporting that pricing for North America cruise bookings made about 60 days prior to departure remain strong for cruises that go to the Caribbean and Canada.  

These analysts also indicated that Royal Caribbean has been out-performing Carnival Cruises in the last four weeks on close-in bookings.

This is good news for Royal Caribbean because they have a second quarter earnings call scheduled for tomorrow and analysts have changed their for 2011-12 earnings per share estimates from $3.30 to $3.76 (previously $3.28 to $3.73) on Royal Caribbean.

During the earnings call, analysts said they expect Royal Caribbean to reaffirm its 3% to 5% net yield guidance for 2011, and an earnings per share guidance of $3.10 to $3.30.

According to a Wikileaks message released by the site, the Bahamas government attempted to convince Royal Caribbean to build a cruise port on the island of Great Inagua, exploiting that island's 50,000 pink flamingos.

The message from February 23, 2004 indicates former Bahemian Prime Minister Perry Christie met with United States Ambassador Robert Witajewski and discussed the plans.  Christie was hoping Inagua's flamingo population would give the island a competitive advantage in attracting cruise ship passengers.

Witajewski's report to Washington also mentioned, "The Prime Minister also revealed that he was in negotiations to conclude an agreement with Royal Caribbean Cruise Line to build a deep water port at Great Inagua".

The report continued, "Though the island is currently barren, it is home to more than 50,000 pink flamingos, a huge Morton Salt plant and at least one nice beach. He was hoping that the flamingo national park would provide cruise ship passengers with an interesting diversion to the normal Caribbean port of call.

"Christie took on board charge's suggestion that costs of constructing a base on Great Inagua could effectively be reduced if any Royal Caribbean construction were to be made part of the Government of the Bahamas' plans."

That refers to plans also unveiled by Prime Minister Christie to construct a strategic Defence Force base at Inagua, in an attempt to combat drug and illegal immigrant trafficking, plus fisheries poaching.

Royal Caribbean Chairman Richard Fain spoke with CruiseMates about the company's decision to move more of its ships to Australia and the reasons for the change.  

In 2012, 2 Royal Caribbean ships (Rhapsody of the Seas, Radiance of the Seas) and 2 Celebrity ships will call upon Australia for a number of cruises.

Asked about the potential for over-saturing the Australian cruise market, Fain seemed confident that Royal Caribbean could easily adjust, "Keep in mind the flexibility of our product. If something does not work out we can always change our plans and put our ships somewhere else."

Asked if Royal Caribbean considers what other competitors are doing or if the decision to move ships to an area is based purely on Royal Caribbean, Fain responded, "We really just look at our own brand."

Photo by abruzzo24ore.tv

A large group of senior policymakers from Liguria and Genoa, with the Mayor Marta Vincenzi, Claudio Burlando, President of the Region and President of the Port Louis Merlo, welcomed with great enthusiasm the first stop in Genoa of Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas.  Mariner of the Seas will make seven stops during this summer, while 14 are expected in 2012, for a total of 60,000 passengers.

In addition, as announced by Lina Mazzucco, general manager Royal Caribbean in Italy, "the company could become a shareholder of the passenger terminal of the Maritime Station, saw the new commitment of the port of Genoa."

At the first port of Genoa, Mariner of the Seas was also the scene of an opportunity to present the Royal Caribbean's partnership with the Telethon Foundation, a group that conducts research on genetic diseases.  Along with the testimonial of the initiative in Genoa - Olympic gold medalists Valentina Vezzali, Juri Chechi, Antonio Rossi. Royal Caribbean's Director of cruises in Italy, Lina  Mazzucco has provided details of the collaboration, which will be held with regular donations by Royal Caribbean, charity dinner on board ships arriving in Italy, and hospitality on board for the regular meetings of researchers from the Foundation.

Royal Caribbean's associate vice president and general manager of Royal Caribbean in UK and Ireland Jo Rzymowska spoke at the Association of Women Travel Executive’s  Sunset Cruise and she emphasized the importance of diversity in the workplace.

When Rzymowska says diversity, she's talking about age, gender and experience diversity as the key tools to make a business successful and not gender quotas for the board.

“I feel strongly that women should earn their way onto the board, rather than through quotas. It’s not about how many women or men there are but about the diversity of the team.Too much of one thing isn’t good for you. Diversity of team, age, experience and new blood – that’s what makes a business.”

“There are lots of women in senior roles in cruise. Being a woman hasn’t hindered or helped me. Age and gender don’t matter. It depends how valuable you are to the company you work for.”

Steven Barry Krumholz was arrested on Royal Caribbea's Allure of the Seas in February under suspicion of selling drugs and plead guilty in a U.S. Virgin Islands court to dealing drugs on board a cruise ship.

Krumholz admitted to selling ecstasy, methamphetamine and ketamine on his ship.  He could face up to 20 years in jail and fines of $1 million.

Krumholz was arrested in St. Thomas after U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents searched his stateroom cabin and found 142 ecstasy pills, nearly 3 grams of methamphetamine, a small quantity of ketamine and about $51,000 in cash.  Officials were tipped off to Krumholz after they found drugs on another passenger who got the drugs from him.

Royal Caribbean says it has a zero-tolerance policy on illegal drugs at sea and it cooperated fully with authorities.

Royal Caribbean's Legend of the Seas will sail out of Xiamen, China as its homeport for the first time with its maiden voyage on Oct 19, 2011.  The cruise will feature five days and four nights itineraries.

Xiamen will become the fourth Chinese city Royal Caribbean has chosen to be a homeport once it conducts its cruises in October.  For its first cruise, Legend of the Seas will visit Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Royal Caribbean will continue to serve China with regular service in 2012 and will also add Voyager of the Seas to the mix as well later in the year.

Royal Caribbean will announce its second quarter 2011 earnings on Thursday but financial analysts are expecting some good news to be coming from Royal Caribbean.

Analysts expect a profit of 44 cents per share, which is up 57.1% from Royal Caribbean's actual earnings for the second quarter of 2010.  This estimate has gone down over the past three months from 58 cents, but the 44 cent estimate has been unchanged for the last month.  For the year, many analysts project a net income of $3.17 per share, which is an increase of 48.8% from 2010.

These bullish predictions are based in part on Royal Caribbean's past performance over the last few quarters, especially the first quarter of 2011 when Royal Caribbean beat earnings forecasts by 18 cents.

In terms of revenue, analysts expect Royal Caribbean to post $1.8 billion in revenue for the quarter, which is an increase of 12.5% from the year ago quarter.  Total revenue for the year is expected to be $7.61 billion, an increase of 12.7% from last year’s revenue of $6.75 billion.