Fain "sees silver lining;" Interview in Lloyd's List

[GMoney]

http://www.lloydslist.com/ll/news/fain-sees-cruises-silver-lining/20017575560.htm

[Maraprince]

He is obviously in denial about how bad the economy is in the US. As long as RCCL keeps marketing agressively in Europe and Asia and he keeps getting bookings from them, he could care less about US passengers.

 

When push comes to shove, discretionary spending, i.e. cruises, will be one of the first things to go. If people have to choose between paying their mortgage to keep a roof over their heads, buying food, paying to gas and heat, guess what they will not be spending money on?

 

It should get interesting when those really big ships have all those cabins to fill up!

 

 

MARAPRINCE

[Lynnees]

Perhaps I could borrow those rose coloured glasses?

[Maraprince]

It's not just the rose colored glasses, it's those big fat checks and those stock options that keep rolling in!

 

 

MARAPRINCE

[TEXASMUNK]

EVIL CORPORATE EMPIRE kool-aid.

 

I honestly thought the IQ was higher for most Americans. I guess it is not.

 

Who is in trouble? The housing market. Why is it in trouble? Bad mortagages given to people who could not afford them. Is the whole country falling apart? No, 95% of Americans pay their mortgages on time. And yes, some parts of the US have seen home values increase.

 

Fat CEO's? Yes...at Fannie and Freddie. But worry not, they got new jobs working for one of the candiates for President. But don't make a connection there.....that would require use of that IQ.

 

Rip offs? Yup! An Ex- asst attorney general from the 90's made $25 million plus these past few years working for the CEO's of these two companies....hmmm, can you say Washington DC?

 

Please before you paint Richard Fain and other cruise line CEO's with the stench of filth coming from politicans that had created this mess, get your facts together...I am not aware of any Cruise Line CEO skimming from the mortgage mess.

[PhoenixCruiser]

I wonder if he made his comments before or after the bailout vote today.

 

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[Darkwolfe]

I fail to see what the cruise industry has to do with the predatory loan sharking that has caused this mess. Mara, almost every post I've seen from you today has been downright nasty. Lighten up a bit, it won't hurt.

[Lynnees]

EVIL CORPORATE EMPIRE kool-aid.

 

I honestly thought the IQ was higher for most Americans. I guess it is not.

 

Who is in trouble? The housing market. Why is it in trouble? Bad mortagages given to people who could not afford them. Is the whole country falling apart? No, 95% of Americans pay their mortgages on time. And yes, some parts of the US have seen home values increase.

 

Fat CEO's? Yes...at Fannie and Freddie. But worry not, they got new jobs working for one of the candiates for President. But don't make a connection there.....that would require use of that IQ.

 

Rip offs? Yup! An Ex- asst attorney general from the 90's made $25 million plus these past few years working for the CEO's of these two companies....hmmm, can you say Washington DC?

 

Please before you paint Richard Fain and other cruise line CEO's with the stench of filth coming from politicans that had created this mess, get your facts together...I am not aware of any Cruise Line CEO skimming from the mortgage mess.

 

Who said anything about the stuff your nattering on about? Just talking about the present situation not who is in whose pocket. Sheeesh - sounds like maybe you need reading glasses.

[Maraprince]

I fail to see what the cruise industry has to do with the predatory loan sharking that has caused this mess. Mara, almost every post I've seen from you today has been downright nasty. Lighten up a bit, it won't hurt.

If you are in a part of the country that is not greatly affected by the economy, you probably see things differently.

 

The reality is catching up to all the spending that has gone on without a care to the time when payment would be due. Every part of the economy raised prices because everyone else was doing it and consumers paid the going rate.

The cruise industry built bigger and bigger ships. To pay for those larger ships, items that were once included in the cruise price started to have a separate charge attached to them. Then came the speciality restaurants with fees to dine there. The casino added on a surcharge, etc.

 

It will be interesting to see what will happen if more passengers icancel deposits on future cruises. I was amazed when reading the boards on how many passengers felt they could not chance being unemployed with future cruises to pay for.

 

People have lost their jobs over the poor economy. So that is why it seems out of place to try to deny that it is happening and that everything is just bright and sunny and as fine as it can be.

 

 

MARAPRINCE

[shaggyofwv]

The economy is not as bad as the media might lead you to believe. Unemployment is still relatively low, despite recently rising.

 

The main problem is with the uncontrolled greed and corruption in corporate America.

 

If we could get oil prices under control I think the average American would return to their normal spending habits. The outrageous cost of gas and the associated increase in food costs are what most of us feel the most.

[Mocorobabe]

The economy is not as bad as the media might lead you to believe. Unemployment is still relatively low, despite recently rising.

 

The main problem is with the uncontrolled greed and corruption in corporate America.

 

If we could get oil prices under control I think the average American would return to their normal spending habits. The outrageous cost of gas and the associated increase in food costs are what most of us feel the most.

 

Yes, and fuel is one of the big factors for the cruise lines

[LonW]

EVIL CORPORATE EMPIRE kool-aid.

 

I honestly thought the IQ was higher for most Americans. I guess it is not.

 

Who is in trouble? The housing market. Why is it in trouble? Bad mortagages given to people who could not afford them. Is the whole country falling apart? No, 95% of Americans pay their mortgages on time. And yes, some parts of the US have seen home values increase.

 

Fat CEO's? Yes...at Fannie and Freddie. But worry not, they got new jobs working for one of the candiates for President. But don't make a connection there.....that would require use of that IQ.

 

Rip offs? Yup! An Ex- asst attorney general from the 90's made $25 million plus these past few years working for the CEO's of these two companies....hmmm, can you say Washington DC?

 

Please before you paint Richard Fain and other cruise line CEO's with the stench of filth coming from politicans that had created this mess, get your facts together...I am not aware of any Cruise Line CEO skimming from the mortgage mess.

 

That same candidate was the second highest reciever of campaign contributions from those organizations. His Name starts with an "O":D

[aurelius180]

That same candidate was the second highest reciever of campaign contributions from those organizations. His Name starts with an "O":D

 

Despite being a junior Senator....;)

[Maraprince]

The economy is not as bad as the media might lead you to believe. Unemployment is still relatively low, despite recently rising.

 

The main problem is with the uncontrolled greed and corruption in corporate America.

 

If we could get oil prices under control I think the average American would return to their normal spending habits. The outrageous cost of gas and the associated increase in food costs are what most of us feel the most.

Again, it is all relative to where you live. Some areas are really hurting in the financial area where there have been layoffs. This has trickled down to the coffee shops, restaurants, etc. that depend on workers buying food from them. Commerical real estate is just ridiculous in the Northeast. Everyday another shop posts a "going out of business" sign due to the high rents that are being demanded. Starbucks is closing shops that are not pulling in as revenue as they once did. When you make big money, you can afford to buy a $6 cup of coffee. When you are unemployed, you look for the cheapest coffee you can find, or you don't buy any outside home.

 

When banks are taken over, employees are let go due to duplication of services. My friend's sister works for Chase now. When Chase took over Manufacturer's for months on end, employees were told they were no longer needed. Some were told right away. Others had to wait until the review of each service was completed before they were told they were no longer needed. Can't tell you the stress than these people were under not knowing from day to day if they still had a job. This was the "back office" staff who do not work in the banks, but are responsible for everything else.

 

Every time Chase took over another bank, that bank's former place of business was closed down. Lots of commercial real estate empty these days.

 

MARAPRINCE

[Cruisenouvelle]

That same candidate was the second highest reciever of campaign contributions from those organizations. His Name starts with an "O":D

 

Sigh... can't you just leave the politics off a cruising board ? Do your talking in the voting booth, not here. (and no, I'm not a Democrat)

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/announcement.php?f=83&a=136

[lori450]

Back to the original article...I'm sure Fain knows what's what. I think it's just "spin". If he makes everything sound OK, then he hopes some people won't panic and cancel their cruises, etc.

 

No more, no less...just spin

[Darkwolfe]

Maraprince- Hey I'm not to thrilled with the skimmers either. The point is that you seem to be sniping at ALL corporations right now. TEXASMUNK said it right, the cruiseline CEO aren't skimming off the mortgage crisis so why are you spitting so much venom in here at them??

 

As for my area, I've seen houses on three sides get foreclosed on. Complements of people getting (or being tricked into) subprime ARMs that they couldn't afford when the interest jumped up. The fourth house was paid for by it's owners when it was built in the 60s and they're still there.

 

So yeah, I see hurt. I'm not getting much of it because DW and I went into Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover and I saw ARMs as traps from day 1. So we don't need or want credit any more. That's just having some sense to see a way out and doing it. Don't spend what you don't have and you don't have a problem.

 

aurelius180- You mean wet-behind-the-big-ears junior. Whoever heard of someone trying to get the top dog job in a company after only 143 days in the business??? I better stop there, my political opinions might show and we really don't want to go there.

[shaggyofwv]

aurelius180- You mean wet-behind-the-big-ears junior. Whoever heard of someone trying to get the top dog job in a company after only 143 days in the business??? I better stop there, my political opinions might show and we really don't want to go there.

 

Sadly, there appear to be a lot of people of "questionable" judgement who are supporting the person of which you speak.

[TEXASMUNK]

regarding the new builds at RCI.

 

The new technologies mean these new vessels will cost per per passenger per nauticval mile than ships just 3 or 4 years older than the new builds...ie, lower cost per passenger. No I did not say lower prices per passenger, but lower cost.

 

That bodes well for RCI in the long term.

[Rancher Dave]

EVIL CORPORATE EMPIRE kool-aid.

 

I honestly thought the IQ was higher for most Americans. I guess it is not.

 

Who is in trouble? The housing market. Why is it in trouble? Bad mortagages given to people who could not afford them. Is the whole country falling apart? No, 95% of Americans pay their mortgages on time. And yes, some parts of the US have seen home values increase.

 

Fat CEO's? Yes...at Fannie and Freddie. But worry not, they got new jobs working for one of the candiates for President. But don't make a connection there.....that would require use of that IQ.

 

Rip offs? Yup! An Ex- asst attorney general from the 90's made $25 million plus these past few years working for the CEO's of these two companies....hmmm, can you say Washington DC?

 

Please before you paint Richard Fain and other cruise line CEO's with the stench of filth coming from politicans that had created this mess, get your facts together...I am not aware of any Cruise Line CEO skimming from the mortgage mess.

 

 

I think too many folks believe the media too much...our media lacks the ability to be fully trusted...

 

Also, I thought the on-time mortgage payments are at 98% with only about 2% over 30 days late and only some of them at risk of forclosure.

 

Funny how 8 years ago it was the Internet Bubble bursting that was the talk of the town...

 

As for cruising still being good...well the ships sail mostly full...there are becoming more wealthy folks elsewhere in the world who can cruise so the population of available PAX is growing, and when it grows around the world, there are definitely options to have ships sail around the other areas of the globe that can make more money for the line.

[PhoenixCruiser]

Maraprince- Hey I'm not to thrilled with the skimmers either. The point is that you seem to be sniping at ALL corporations right now. TEXASMUNK said it right, the cruiseline CEO aren't skimming off the mortgage crisis so why are you spitting so much venom in here at them??

 

As for my area, I've seen houses on three sides get foreclosed on. Complements of people getting (or being tricked into) subprime ARMs that they couldn't afford when the interest jumped up. The fourth house was paid for by it's owners when it was built in the 60s and they're still there.

 

So yeah, I see hurt. I'm not getting much of it because DW and I went into Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover and I saw ARMs as traps from day 1. So we don't need or want credit any more. That's just having some sense to see a way out and doing it. Don't spend what you don't have and you don't have a problem.

 

aurelius180- You mean wet-behind-the-big-ears junior. Whoever heard of someone trying to get the top dog job in a company after only 143 days in the business??? I better stop there, my political opinions might show and we really don't want to go there.

 

Do you get a commission every time you mention Ramsey's name :rolleyes: :eek:

 

As someone else stated you can get the same materials on the internet for free...

 

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[Darkwolfe]

Do you get a commission every time you mention Ramsey's name :rolleyes: :eek:

 

As someone else stated you can get the same materials on the internet for free...

 

###

 

Heck no, DW got curious and got the audio book. She asked me listen to it on a roadtrip last February. I was expecting to be bored. I was wrong.

 

Shoot, stick your nose into Ramsey's radio or Fox Business shows and about two weeks later, you'll be answering caller's questions before Ramsey does. Don't spend anything if you don't want to, the book just makes a nice reference once you have the plan down.

 

That and it's reasonably entertaining. (This coming from a guy who hates dealing with finances!!)

[PhoenixCruiser]

Heck no, DW got curious and got the audio book. She asked me listen to it on a roadtrip last February. I was expecting to be bored. I was wrong.

 

Shoot, stick your nose into Ramsey's radio or Fox Business shows and about two weeks later, you'll be answering caller's questions before Ramsey does. Don't spend anything if you don't want to, the book just makes a nice reference once you have the plan down.

 

That and it's reasonably entertaining. (This coming from a guy who hates dealing with finances!!)

 

Thanks for responding, I too hate to deal with finances! Love the Fox Business Network as well as radio talk shows. Just might look up Ramsey.

 

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[Darkwolfe]

Thanks for responding, I too hate to deal with finances! Love the Fox Business Network as well as radio talk shows. Just might look up Ramsey.

 

###

 

You won't regret it.:)

[TahoeBob]

Sigh... can't you just leave the politics off a cruising board ? Do your talking in the voting booth, not here. (and no, I'm not a Democrat)

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/announcement.php?f=83&a=136

 

I am a democrat and I want to thank you for your well thought out intelligent statement.

 

I post on this board for the fun of cruising, not to debate politics.

 

to the people who they feel the need to talk politics on a cruising board, its time to drop it. try joining a debate club