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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news. This is Bloomberg Markets.

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Speaker 1: I'm Scarlett Foo. It's time now for our stock of

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Speaker 1: the hour, and we're looking at Royal Caribbean, following as

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Speaker 1: much as eight point eight percent at one point today,

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Speaker 1: although it has since cut that decline in half, and

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Speaker 1: of course, this after its profit outlook for this quarter

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Speaker 1: trailed analyssessments due to cost related to its newest ship.

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Speaker 1: Keep in mind, this is a stock that's holding your

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Speaker 1: record highs climbing sixty three percent through yesterday's clothes. CEO

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Speaker 1: Jason Liberty says demand for Royal Caribbean's experiences and brands

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Speaker 1: continues to accelerate, and I'm pleased to say Jason joins

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Speaker 1: us now from Miami. Jason, great to speak with you.

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Speaker 1: I want to start with that stock reaction. It's a

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Speaker 1: fairly steep decline, even though you beat second quarter earningsessments

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Speaker 1: and you raised your full year adjusted EPs guidance. So

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Speaker 1: this weaker than expected outlook for this quarter due to

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Speaker 1: the delayed launch of Star of the Season. That's a

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Speaker 1: one time thing.

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Speaker 2: Sure well, first, Scarlett, it's really great to be here.

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Speaker 2: I think in terms of when we think about off

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Speaker 2: of expectations. I think that's off of consensus, it's not

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Speaker 2: necessarily off of our expectations. We actually the year is

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Speaker 2: playing out exactly how we thought it was going to

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Speaker 2: play out from our last call, except that we've seen

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Speaker 2: elevated close in demand, which resulted in an outperformance in

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Speaker 2: the second quarter. Also, you know, if we continue to

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Speaker 2: see that out performance that we saw in the second quarter,

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Speaker 2: that leads to additional upside for the balance of the year.

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Speaker 1: I look at Royal Care being shares and how they've

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Speaker 1: done so far this year, pretty incredible run, and a

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Speaker 1: lot of people say that that raises a bar obviously

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Speaker 1: for your earnings print and your guidance. One analyst even

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Speaker 1: said investors were basically expecting perfection. Is that frustrating?

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Speaker 2: No, I mean, we manage this business for the long term, right,

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Speaker 2: We're making investments that are that are that are really yielding,

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Speaker 2: I mean significant benefits for our shareholders. You know, we're

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Speaker 2: going to generate almost seven billion dollars of EBITDA this year,

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Speaker 2: and our earnings performance is up over thirty percent year

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Speaker 2: of a year for our expectations for twenty twenty five.

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Speaker 2: So I think that it's you know, I can't manage

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Speaker 2: what people's expectations are from one quarter to the next.

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Speaker 2: What we focus on is delivering the best vacations in

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Speaker 2: the world, doing that responsibly, and that's resulting in our

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Speaker 2: guests paying us more money because they trust the vacation

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Speaker 2: experience that we're going to deliver for them.

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Speaker 1: Let me just come back to this idea of stabilization

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Speaker 1: and visibility in your business right now, can you give

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Speaker 1: us any sense of what stabilization or improvement you might

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Speaker 1: have seen following what some observers have observed as a

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Speaker 1: bit of a slowdown in April, right around the time

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Speaker 1: that the Liberation Day tariffs were announced.

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Speaker 2: Sure, thanks, Carling. So I think, first off, when the

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Speaker 2: Liberation Day occurred, you know, there was a little bit

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Speaker 2: of noise, but we really didn't see a change in

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Speaker 2: consumer behavior. You know, we're fortunate that we get to

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Speaker 2: have about a million, you know, millions of different interactions

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Speaker 2: with our guests each and every day, whether that's them

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Speaker 2: planning and booking a vacation for the future, or whether

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Speaker 2: they're spending on board, and so we've actually seen an

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Speaker 2: acceleration from the consumer and their onboard activities in terms

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Speaker 2: of what they're spending on as well as they're planning.

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Speaker 2: What we did see a shift in is I think

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Speaker 2: people will probably being a little bit patient to understand

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Speaker 2: what it all meant. So we saw a rise and

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Speaker 2: close in demand, which also allowed us to raise prices

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Speaker 2: in the quarter and that resulted in the outperformance.

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Speaker 1: Got it. Got it? And could you give us a

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Speaker 1: comment on how your strategy to enter the luxury river

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Speaker 1: cruise segment is faring right now with your first vessel

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Speaker 1: planning to debut in twenty twenty seven.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, we're really excited about it. I mean, ultimately,

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Speaker 2: what we're trying to do is keep our customer inside

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Speaker 2: of our ecosystem. We're doing that through our integrated loyalty programs.

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Speaker 2: We're doing that by better curating what our guests are

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Speaker 2: looking for, obviously establishing great trust with our guests by

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Speaker 2: delivering the vacation experience that we market and we promise

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Speaker 2: that that they're going to get, but we also realize

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Speaker 2: there's other vacation experiences that they look to do. And

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Speaker 2: one of those vacation experiences, which is not a substitute

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Speaker 2: for cruise, but it's an addition vacation they take is

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Speaker 2: on River, So we've added or we're adding River to

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Speaker 2: our portfolio through our celebrity brand. And ultimately the goal

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Speaker 2: is is how do we keep adding experiences, are having

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Speaker 2: experiences that meet our guests where they want to be

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Speaker 2: so they stay inside of our ecosystem.

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Speaker 1: All right, Jason, quick question here at the very end,

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Speaker 1: as we wrap up our conversation with you, talk a

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Speaker 1: little bit more about what you see among your customer

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Speaker 1: base that gives you confidence that they'll be building on

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Speaker 1: their spending in twenty twenty six and twenty twenty seven.

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Speaker 1: So many of the CEOs we talk to say that

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Speaker 1: they want to get past twenty twenty five because of

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Speaker 1: all the headline risk and the uncertainty, and what they're

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Speaker 1: really looking forward to is twenty twenty six. You're in

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Speaker 1: a unique position because you have so much visitibility months

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Speaker 1: and sometimes even years down the line.

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Speaker 2: Well, I like twenty twenty five. You know this is

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Speaker 2: going to be another year where we're going to have

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Speaker 2: thirty plus percent earnings per share growth, and of course,

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Speaker 2: at the same time, you know we're taking bookings for

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Speaker 2: next year. Right. One of the comments we made earlier

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Speaker 2: today is that when we look at our book position

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Speaker 2: for twenty five twenty six, we're in line with the

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Speaker 2: previous periods, but at higher rates. So what we see

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Speaker 2: is our guests are planning their vacation experiences into twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty six. They're willing to pay more money and they're

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Speaker 2: willing to act faster in order to ensure that they

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Speaker 2: have the vacation experience that they're looking for. So I

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Speaker 2: think we see a very healthy consumer as great jobs,

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Speaker 2: they've got good savings, and they're spending to ensure that

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Speaker 2: they're getting the vacation experience that they want. And that

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Speaker 2: has been the big shift over the past several years.

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Speaker 2: People want less stuff, they want more experiences, and fortunately

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Speaker 2: we're in the experience business.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and you're in the perfect place to provide it.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Jason, really appreciate your taking the

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Speaker 1: time to speak with us. The CEO of Royal Caribbean,

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Speaker 1: Jason Liberty, joining us from Miami