Here are the latest on the fire on the Grandeur for Thursday May 30th:
- Biggest news today broke overnight. Royal Caribbean announced that the ship will be out of service until July. In addition to the 5/31 cruise that was already cancelled, they announced that cruises departing 6/7, 6/14, 6/21, 6/28 and 7/5 have all been cancelled.
- That would make her first voyage back from the shipyard on July 12th going to Bermuda.
- A Wells Fargo analyst estimates the cost related to the fire, including refunds to passengers, loss of onboard revenue and shipyard repairs, at $15m to $20m. That equals $0.07 to $0.09 per share. Wells Fargo went on to say they see a “limited fallout” from the fire.
- The limited brand damage can be contributed to the ship never losing power, as the fire never affected the engine or control room. And that Royal Caribbean was very proactive in controlling the story via their PR department. I had stated before that I was very impressed by Royal Caribbean’s PR dept. handling of the situation. Now it looks like its paying off.
photo via wpxi.com