It will be a busy second quarter for Carnival Corporation as the company is planning to drydock 24 ships as part of its ramp-up to a full service resumption.
“We expect a further 24 ships to enter drydock as part of our resumption of cruising ramp-up, optimizing our drydock schedule while the ships are not in service and ensuring that the ships look great when they welcome their first guests back onboard,” said David Bernstein, CFO, on the company’s first quarter earnings again.
That continues a trend across the industry of more drydock days as ships prepare to welcome guests back onboard, and gives suppliers an opportunity to bid on technical, hotel and other projects, according to the 2022 Drydock and Refurbishment Report by Cruise Industry News.
“This will again result in a doubling of the drydock days during the quarter compared to 2019,” Bernstein added.
Carnival Corporation, which operates nine cruise brands, had 273 drydock days in the first quarter, compared to 141 in 2019.
“In the second quarter, there’s 399 days versus 184 days in 2019,” Bernstein said. “For the full year, this year, right now, the plan is 802 drydock days. We have some additional drydocks in the fourth quarter.”
Bernstein said 802 was an unusually large number for the company, and said the company was in the range of 550 drydock days annually in the past, at most.