RCI-Royal Caribbean cruise ships to be back to full capacity by summer 2022

   May 12, 2022 ,   Cruise Industry

The cruise shipping industry is slowly moving back towards normal numbers by getting more ships back into service and more guests onboard.

Full capacity is expected to return this summer.

At last week's earnings call with investors, Michael Bayley  (RCI-Royal Caribbean's President and CEO) said that most vessels should be back to full capacity again.

During the call, Mr. Bayley explained to a Wall Street analyst that they were headed towards the Memorial Day weekend and they were going to see a significant percentage of their ships "sailing at 100% and greater."

Ships sailing at full capacity have already happened on select voyages:

"We have ships now sailing at 100% and we've had ships sailing at 100% now for several weeks out of the Caribbean, into the Caribbean market and a short product."

According to Mr. Bayley, the Oasis Class ships' capacity had been ~80% or so.

Utopia Of The Seas cruise ship

In Royal Caribbean Group's quarterly results, the company (including RCI, Celebrity and Silversea) had vessels sailing during the first quarter averaging a capacity of 59%. Month-by-month, capacity went up with March capacity averaging 68%.