Takeaways from Arnold Donald interview on CNBC

[wesport]

Just watched the interview with Arnold Donald. My takeaways.

 

No sailings until social gatherings are safe.

 

Enough cash to not sail until the end of the year.

 

2021 bookings are good.

 

Watching that interview, I really had a lot of sympathy for him. What a time to be a CEO of a cruise industry. 

[Lady Chew]

We also watched … talk about a hot seat!!  But he always handles himself very well …  We'll all just have to wait and see what happens, pray for this pandemic to get under control,  try to get all of our lives back to Normal (or what passes for normal, for some of us!), and then we can think about traveling again.  Hope Carnival Corp will end up in decent shape … 

[Sir PMP]

He makes 40 million a year!

[RBB]

2 minutes ago, Sir PMP said:

He makes 40 million a year!

 

     That could finance a whole lot of full refunds for cancelled cruises & still leave him with a couple million.

[St Pete Cruiser]

17 minutes ago, Sir PMP said:

He makes 40 million a year!

I think his base salary is $1.5 million.  The stock options and incentives boost that, but this year is completely different!  Stock down 80%, dividends cancelled, and there will tremendous losses.

[NordicPrince]

19 minutes ago, St Pete Cruiser said:

I think his base salary is $1.5 million.  The stock options and incentives boost that, but this year is completely different!  Stock down 80%, dividends cancelled, and there will tremendous losses.

Let's set up Fund   page for him...

Even if the Carnival Corporation gets reorganized he'll still end up with a sizable amount of money no doubt.

He lives in a nice condo in southern Florida, he;s not worried about getting unemployment.

No sympathy.

Edited April 14, 2020 by NordicPrince

[KirkNC]

Come come now, he might have to squeeze by just a few million this year.  I wonder if he got a stimulus check?

[bluesea321]

1 hour ago, wesport said:

Just watched the interview with Arnold Donald. My takeaways.

No sailings until social gatherings are safe.

Enough cash to not sail until the end of the year.

2021 bookings are good.

Watching that interview, I really had a lot of sympathy for him. What a time to be a CEO of a cruise industry. 

 

The words underlined above are key, and IMO social gatherings will not be safe until a reliable and effective vaccine is available.  He mentioned, correctly so, that cruising is a social gathering so I see that as a difficult hurdle to overcome.

 

Regarding 2021 bookings the concern on the financial circles is that many bookings are on account of FCCs, not new cash.  The massive debt CCL took to "survive" through 2020, most of it at 12%, would require large positive cash flows.

 

[The-Inside-Cabin]

I  plan to be on the first ship sailing....

[npcl]

My notes from the interview

 

Stated when social gathering is allowed again will be the time to look at cruising again.

 

Emphasizing how the lines voluntary stopped.

 

Stated by nature cruising is a social event.

 

Now talking about health and cleaning guidelines

 

Cruising depends upon how the world moves on this.  Will be in total compliance with whatever is required by countries around the world.

 

The difference with this compared to previous heath problems (ebola, Zika, SERS, etc.) is that community spread is global.

 

He is saying that they will wait until the experts say it is safe to cruise again.

 

They are now grilling him about the CDC comments.  He is saying that if people are not comfortable with social gathering, they will not be cruising.  Cruising will wait until social distancing is not the norm. 

 

Actually he seems to be saying right thing " when society is ready, we will be ready"

 

Asked if they regret letting Ruby Princess go to sea.  Answer - based our decisions about what we knew at the time, if we knew then what we know now.  We would all have been sheltering in place.

 

`When asked if they need to be including in future bail outs, he is now going through the CLIA line about all of jobs impacted by the cruise lines.  Most important to help those impacted.  That CCL has gotten their financing to withstand a long pause.

Can get through the end of the year with no revenues.  Working to seeking additional liquidity trying other places Italy, Germany, etc.

 

A better interview than I expected.

[wesport]

It was a good interview. He was humble and to me handled the questions gracefully. 

[bluesea321]

The interview of Mr. Donald, the CEO of CCL, can be watched here.  Looks like cruises may not go until social gatherings are deemed safe.  May be a while.

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/14/carnival-ceo-despite-devastating-coronavirus-2021-cruise-bookings-are-strong.html

[JRG]

1 hour ago, wesport said:

It was a good interview. He was humble and to me handled the questions gracefully. 

 

Yes,   he handled himself very well under difficult circumstances.   

 

 

[ontheweb]

14 hours ago, KirkNC said:

Come come now, he might have to squeeze by just a few million this year.  I wonder if he got a stimulus check?

No, there are income limits for receiving a stimulus check, but I bet you knew that.

[Krazy Kruizers]

We listened to his interview.  Thought he did an excellent job answering the questions and giving his point of view.

[KirkNC]

2 hours ago, ontheweb said:

No, there are income limits for receiving a stimulus check, but I bet you knew that.

Yea, it was a joke.

 

i actually thought he did about as well as anyone could given the circumstances.

[kangforpres]

"social gatherings" or "mass gatherings" because mass gatherings are not going to allowed in most parts of the world by June 27.  In CA mass gatherings are not going to be allowed until there is heard immunity and a vaccine. So that may not be for quite a while.

 

Starting to think our 02-27-21 Mexico Riviera Cruise is looking a little iffy.

 

Maybe if you have the antibodies and have ID and a certificate to prove it,

your freedom of movement will be less restricted, but we are still a ways from that happening.

 

-Paul

[ontheweb]

3 hours ago, KirkNC said:

Yea, it was a joke.

 

i actually thought he did about as well as anyone could given the circumstances.

I knew you knew that, but figured that many on here may not have had the pleasure of meeting you in person, and did not realize it was a joke.

[bluesea321]

19 hours ago, wesport said:

It was a good interview. He was humble and to me handled the questions gracefully. 

 

I agree, he did well on CNBC and he changed his "message" from another interview he gave in late March which IMO was a flop.

https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-carnival-cruises-ceo-arnold-donald-f58bf581-4ff6-484f-9fa4-a9f0c7d74769.html