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Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. (NCLH)

Q4 2021 Earnings Call· Thu, Feb 24, 2022

$17.87

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Business Update and Fourth Quarter Full Year 2021 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Maria, and I'll be the operator today. . I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Mark Kempa. Mr. Kempa, please proceed.

Mark Kempa

Management

Thank you, Maria, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining Frank and I for our fourth quarter and full year 2021 earnings and business update call. Frank will begin the call with opening commentary, after which I will follow to discuss our financials before handing the call back to Frank for closing remarks. We will then open the call for your questions. As a reminder, this conference call is being simultaneously webcast on the company's Investor Relations website at nclhltd.com/investors. We will also make reference to a slide presentation during this call, which may also be found on our Investor Relations website. Both the conference call and the presentation will be available for replay for 30 days following today's call. Before we begin, I would like to cover a few items. Our press release with the fourth quarter and full year 2021 results was issued this morning and is available on our Investor Relations website. This call includes forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from such statements. These statements should be considered in conjunction with the cautionary statement contained in our earnings release. Our comments may also reference non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure and other associated disclosures are contained in our earnings release and presentation. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Frank Del Rio. Frank?

Frank Del Rio

Management

Thank you, Mark, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. And as always, I hope that all of you as well as your loved ones remain healthy and safe. Before going into my main commentary, I'd like to address the recent geopolitical issue, which escalated last night. The tense situation in Ukraine is regrettable. And our hopes are that the conflict ends quickly with minimal impact to the safety and welfare of those in the region. We are following the situation carefully as it impacts our voyages in the area. We have no vessels in the region until late May. And we will be updating guests on our plans and about affected itineraries as needed. We have quite a bit to share with you today, ranging from our resumption of operations to the impacts of the Omicron surge to recent developments with the CDC. We'll also cover the booking and pricing landscape in our plans for the return to service of the balance of our fleet. So let's get started. It seems like just yesterday that we launched our Great Cruise Comeback in late July of '21 after 500 days of no cruise operations. In the 5 months that followed through the end of 2021, we safely carried over 230,000 happy guests around the globe, everywhere from Europe to Alaska and points in between, delivering the unique and upscale vacation experiences that only our three award-winning brands can provide. This is evidenced by our brands having achieved the highest customer satisfaction scores in our history and a reflection of the deep commitment from our crew members, who are as energized as ever to be back in the high seas serving our guests. In addition, onboard spend by guests during the quarter continued to exceed all expectations…

Mark Kempa

Management

Thank you, Frank. As mentioned earlier, going from a complete standstill to having over 70% of our capacity sailing by year-end, through not one but two COVID variants, has been an impressive effort in coordination and logistics. I give my thanks and kudos to our operations and hotels teams, both shipside and shoreside, for executing on this truly herculean endeavor. We have been deliberate and disciplined in bringing our fleet back gradually and have kept self-imposed load factor limitations in place to ensure the safety of our guests and crew members. I am pleased to report that strong ticket pricing and onboard revenue spend drove positive contribution from the fleet that operated in the quarter, despite the headwinds we faced from the remnants of Delta as well as the onset of the Omicron variant. This result reinforces our belief in the fundamental strength of the business as we reach 85% of our capacity back in operation during the first quarter and the entirety of our fleet back in service in the second quarter to capture demand for the peak summer travel season. Based on our current trajectory, we expect to reach a key milestone in our recovery as the net cash provided by operating activities is expected to turn positive in the second quarter. In addition, we expect the second half of 2022 to be profitable for the company on an adjusted net income basis, marking an important transition for managing the daily business primarily around liquidity needs to shifting our focus back to maximizing profitability as we exit these unprecedented times. That said, we remain keenly focused on maintaining a strong liquidity position through this transition period. Moving to Slide 8. Our cash and short-term investments for the quarter decreased by approximately $200 million on a net basis to…

Frank Del Rio

Management

Thank you, Mark. And before we wrap up our prepared remarks, I'd like to provide an update on our global sustainability program, Sail & Sustain, which Slide 14 outlines key accomplishments and milestones. We are committed to driving a positive impact on society and the environment through the advancement of this program. And we reached several important milestones this past year, including releasing our first ESG report announcing our long-term climate action strategy and goal to reach carbon neutrality. We also made several advances since just our last earnings call. We took the opportunity during the voyage suspension period to accelerate installation of exhaust gas cleaning systems or scrubbers nearly 2 years ahead of schedule. We successfully completed our nearly $200 million multiyear investment that covered 13 ships, representing approximately 70% of our operational capacity with these state-of-the-art systems, which improved our environmental footprint by significantly reducing emissions, including sulfur oxides and improving air quality. In fact, ships equipped with this technology can reduce SOx emissions by up to 98%, allowing the ships to operate these systems within compliance in expanded areas throughout the world. Investments in technology such as scrubbers are an integral part of our climate action strategy. We were also proud to be recognized as a leader in sustainable cruise terminal construction as we were the first in the world to receive the LEED Gold New Construction certification for our flagship terminal at PortMiami. The team designed our 188,000-square foot terminal, which welcomed guests for the first time last year, with innovation and sustainability at the forefront, creating a platform that optimizes the terminal's energy performance, indoor air quality, water efficiency, utilization of local materials and resources and much more. And we will continue to innovate towards our sustainability commitment, including further investment at our PortMiami terminal,…

Operator

Operator

. Our first question is from Steve Wieczynski from Stifel.

Steven Wieczynski

Analyst

So Frank and Mark, I guess, if I look at your daily -- your per diems, they were up, if my math is correct, somewhere around 20% relative to the fourth quarter of 2019. And if I compare those to some of your competitors, which again I might -- I know it's not directly apples-to-apples. But your competitors seem to be more in that low to mid-single-digit range. So I guess, the question is what drove those per diems so much higher, not only over 2019 but also versus your competitors as well?

Frank Del Rio

Management

And thanks for the question. Look, it goes back to our core going-to-market principle of market to fill and not discounting to fill. At this stage of the recovery, having 4 or 5 more points of occupancy at the expense of lower pricing, which could have a very negative long-term effect on the brand's equity, is not the right move. And so it wasn't hard for us to resist following others and dropping prices to levels that I've never seen before. And so we were happy to see a year-over-year or '21 compared to 2019 improvement in ticket NPDs by roughly 10%. Onboard spend was over the top. And you're right, on a combined basis, our total net revenue on an NPD basis was up over 20%. Some of our competitors had flat improvement. So we're very pleased with that. And we think that if you're a long-term investor, and certainly we're a long-term management team, you would prefer maintaining that pricing structure, that pricing power that we've demonstrated, not just now during a pandemic, but year-after-year, as you know, we lead the industry in ticket yields and in onboard revenue yields in exchange for a couple of points of occupancy in a period where even the best of the operators are performing at roughly half of what they normally would. So we'll take that trade any day.

Steven Wieczynski

Analyst

Okay. Got you. And then second question, I'm going to ask this in a way, I hope isn't offensive or get you in trouble. But honestly, I think if we look at some of the changes the CDC has made relative to the cruise industry versus other forms of travel, I mean, to us, they honestly still seem somewhat archaic and outdated relative to what you guys are already doing from a protocol perspective. So the question is, I guess, why did you guys opt in to this program as it still seems somewhat outdated? Or is there a confirmation from them that you guys are on the right path and they're essentially going to leave you guys alone moving forward?

Frank Del Rio

Management

It's not going to get me in trouble at all, Steve, because I've been very vocal throughout the pandemic as to the disappointment that we've all suffered at the hands of the CDC. The CDC didn't shut down any other industry for nearly 18 months. And the CDC continues to have policies towards us that are not seen anywhere in the industry, but we are making progress with them. I will tell you that it was not an easy decision to opt in. But we think that overall, given where we are now with the prevalence, where we are with the pandemic and the CDC's commitment to continually look at protocol much more online, real-time basis, so to speak, gives us hope that this first step of a volunteer program, where masking is no longer required and a few other guest-facing improvements, that, that will get us to where we need to go. And so there's going to be another date in the near future where the CDC will once again evaluate the protocols that we're now volunteering to comply with. But look, at the end of the day, we've always exceeded whatever the CDC's guidelines are. I don't need the CDC to tell me how to operate a safe cruise line. And our protocols have always exceeded theirs and continue to do so. At the end of the day, we need to build consumer confidence, and I think we're doing that. As I mentioned in my prepared remarks, the pandemic is waning in several areas, vaccinations are up, the severity of the cases are down. And we as a society are learning to live with this. And I think the CDC is mindful of that and wants to get away from being seen as discriminatory towards the cruise industry and being behind the times. So I think that in the near future, we're going to see a much more friendly environment towards the cruise industry from the CDC.

Operator

Operator

Our next question is from Stephen Grambling with Goldman Sachs.

Stephen Grambling

Analyst

With the new protocols, how should we think about the path to higher occupancy? And as we look out to 2023, will you generally be all the way back to kind of the typical over 100% occupancy? Or could you still see some lingering social distancing or other measures that you would want to kind of continue?

Frank Del Rio

Management

Look, I think that it's too soon to know exactly. I think we're moving in the right direction with COVID overall. We've had to endure two surges, Delta and Omicron, back-to-back. That certainly shook the confidence of society as a whole. If you recall last June, when the vaccines were readily available and the case count was really dropping, business was booming. I remember calling my brand presidents into a meeting and asking them to raise prices, stop marketing, do whatever they've got to do to slow down the sales volume because we were going to end up the year without having an inventory to sell. And then Delta came along. And just when we were getting out of Delta, Omicron came along. But as we said in our prepared remarks, Steve, the back half of '22, in spite of Delta and Omicron, is in line with the record year of 2019 and 2023 is meaningfully ahead both in price and in load factor. So we believe that -- if you believe that the Omicron is the last major surge that's going to cause upheaval in everyday life, then that healing period that I referred to has begun. And I suspect that unless there is another surge -- and by the way, the experts that we talk to, including Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former FDA commissioner, doesn't believe that there will be another major surge. There will be variants. There will be mutations. But quite frankly, they will be more endemic than they are pandemic. And so I believe that 2023, based on the numbers that I have in the books right now, both load factor and pricing and further based on the assumption that we will not see another major Delta or Omicron-type surge, 2023 can get the industry and certainly our company back to pre-pandemic levels.

Stephen Grambling

Analyst

That's helpful. And then you had some helpful details on the change in itineraries by region, I think focusing on more Europe, Alaska. I guess, how will that impact net yields, kind of all else equal, looking at 2022, especially the second half versus 2019? And how are you planning for places like Australia and Asia Pacific, given some more stringent COVID policies?

Frank Del Rio

Management

Yes. Look, as you've heard me say many, many times, the #1 driver of yield is itineraries. And we strive every day to position our 28 vessels, soon to be 29, in the highest and best use for them. And so constantly, year-after-year, we lead the industry in ticket yields and onboard revenue yields and in total yields. And we think that will continue. In the back half of '22 compared to 2019, for example, we will have Encore for the entire year compared to 1 month in 2019. We'll have Regent Splendor for the full year versus 0 months in 2019. And we will have the new Norwegian Prima for about 5 months in 20 -- back half of '22 compared to 0. So those three vessels, all very high-yielding, as Mark mentioned, improvements to margin, will continue to give us the ability to drive higher and higher industry record yields. And in terms of Australia and in Asia, in general, as you know, those are the last geographic areas to come online after the pandemic. We believe that they will be online. Certainly, I believe Australia and New Zealand will be, I'm not sure about China. China, quite frankly, is an insignificant area for us. But we are hopeful that the likes of Thailand and Singapore and Vietnam do reopen in time for the winter '22/'23 season. So we still have 9, 10 months to go before that season begins. Hopefully, as the pandemic winds down and finds its way through that Asian geographic area, that those countries and those ports will reopen to us.

Mark Kempa

Management

Steve, this is Mark. As we look to 2023, it's also important to remember that we're set up extremely well. As Frank said, we have essentially almost 5 additional vessels that will be operating the full year or roughly 20% more capacity than 2019. And if we look at those vessels and the economics of those vessels, we know they're a big driver to bottom line profitability and margin accretion. So again, assuming a normal year, we are set up extremely well in terms of our profile.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from James Hardiman with Citigroup.

Sean Wagner

Analyst · Citigroup.

This is Sean Wagner on for James. I guess, on the topic of how should we think of the per berth net cruise costs, excluding fuel, as we ramp the fleet over the course of the year? And is there an opportunity to match or improve on those numbers as we look to 2023? Or I guess, is there any way to think about kind of margin potential at similar yields or similar revenue levels?

Mark Kempa

Management

Sure. This is Mark. So look, we're thinking about that every day, like any business, and as I said in my prepared remarks, we, too, have pressures like the rest of the world. That also comes along -- comes together with stronger top line. But this is a relatively fixed cost business. So we're lucky that we're afforded some protection on that front. That said, as we look as a comparable base back to 2019 and you think about it on a per unit cost basis, we do have more efficient capacity coming on. We do have more growth. So that's going to give us some opportunity there. To the extent some of that is offset by continued inflationary pressures, that remains to be seen. We have started -- we were -- prior to today or yesterday, we were starting to see some settling on the cost side. So we'll have to see how this recent geopolitical event impacts that. But all else equal, we should be gaining efficiencies. That said, keep in mind, we have not gotten rid of any of our older vessels during the pandemic. We have a relatively young fleet. And at this time, we have no plans to shed any of that capacity. So we won't have that optical benefit, so to speak, versus some of our competitors. And I highlight the word optical on that front, so -- but again, we've always run a lean company. We will get scale as we continue to bring -- to grow and bring on efficient capacity. And it's in our DNA to look at every cost, every line item and drive efficiencies where we can.

Sean Wagner

Analyst · Citigroup.

That's very helpful. And I guess, on the yield end of it or the per diem specifically, how much of that premium that you're seeing, and I guess, the industry as a whole is seeing, is due to not having to kind of fill up ships to capacity? And kind of how much of that -- what do you think about your ability to maintain that strength as you do get closer to kind of historical levels of occupancy?

Frank Del Rio

Management

Well, as I mentioned earlier, the phenomena that you mentioned is not new in Q4. It's something that we've been able to achieve year after year after year. We lead the industry in yields, ticket yield, onboard revenue yield and we continue to do so, primarily because of our go-to-market strategy, where we believe in marketing to stimulate demand. We believe in the product, you pay for what you get for. And we have three industry-leading brands, the highest luxury brand in Regent, the highest-yielding premium brand in Oceania and what we believe to be the highest contemporary yielding brand in Norwegian. So we're just going to continue doing what we always do because it's a winning strategy.

Mark Kempa

Management

And Sean, I think it's a bit of a fallacy to think that we're just getting these premium per diems as a result of lower capacity. Yes, there's some of that mix that impacts onboard revenue. Yes, we've said that in the past. But core, fundamental, solid ticket revenue, pricing is strong. We've maintained pricing. That's our strategy, market to fill. We're going to continue to do that. So it's not by accident that we're getting those premiums as a result of our self-imposed capacity limits.

Operator

Operator

Our next question is from Fred Wightman with Wolfe Research.

Frederick Wightman

Analyst

There was a comment that some vessels could potentially be impacted just from geopolitics starting in late May. I'm wondering if you could maybe frame the potential impact either on a capacity basis, if that's easiest.

Mark Kempa

Management

Sure, Fred. So when we look at -- obviously, we're talking about the Baltic region, more specifically, St. Petersburg. As we look, we have roughly about 5% of our total capacity that calls on St. Petersburg over this course of the summer season. And that's heavily weighted more towards our Norwegian brand than Oceania or Regent. But it's -- all in all, it's about 50 sailings. And we are looking at alternative ports as we speak. I mean, this is something we've been thinking about. And worst-case scenario, if we're not able to call on St. Petersburg or the surrounding areas, there's plenty of other ports in the -- in that Scandinavian region that we have the ability to call on. So not a huge impact, obviously a bit disappointing because that is a premier port, but there's other viable, very attractive ports that are available.

Frederick Wightman

Analyst

Great. And then I guess, just conceptually, is this current situation something that you've seen actually reflected in booking trends over the past few days? Or is it still just sort of up and to the right post Omicron?

Mark Kempa

Management

Yes. Look, I think it's way too early. I mean, we definitely did not see anything as of close of business yesterday. And this morning, I haven't received -- we haven't received any red flags. But like anything, you'll probably see a little bit of slowdown here and there around margin. That's normal. But it's definitely too early to indicate if there's going to be any longer-term effects. Europe is a big continent, too. So this is affecting a very small portion of Europe. And there's a lot of other areas that we can operate in, especially the Med, where we have a significant capacity as well.

Operator

Operator

Our next question is from Vince Ciepiel with Cleveland Research.

Vince Ciepiel

Analyst

Could you talk a little bit more about brand performance, maybe what you're seeing luxury high-end versus contemporary, anything, differences in booking patterns? And then your recent change that, I think, goes in effect March 1 regarding age under 12 allowed to be unvaccinated, I think that's a change from previously being 100% vaccinated. And on the contemporary brand, curious how that change is being received, if that's generating any new interest. Any thoughts there?

Frank Del Rio

Management

Vince, it's Frank. Look, the -- all three brands are performing very, very well. As you know from normal times, if you've been following this industry for a while, the upscale brands, Oceania and Regent, by the nature of their itineraries, their psychographic demographics, the customer base, those itineraries tend to book earlier than the more contemporary Norwegian brands. In this business, everything else being equal, the longer the itinerary is, the more exotic the itinerary is, the further out people book. And we're certainly seeing that. And so we have great visibility into the second half of '22 and into '23 from -- especially from those two brands. And the news is just fantastic. As I said, we are in line with 2019, and 2019 was a heck of a year, and significantly ahead of -- for 2023 and at higher pricing. So I will tell you that the upscale market is very much alive and well as is Norwegian. Now as far as Norwegian goes, we believe that the combination of allowing children under the age of 12 and no longer having to wear masks is a big boost to demand. We just announced it in the last couple of days. As I said earlier, business has been trending upward sequentially now for about 4 weeks. And we believe that this announcement will add fuel to that sequential improvement week-over-week in terms of net bookings.

Vince Ciepiel

Analyst

Great. And then I had a follow-up question on costs, specifically fuel. You talked earlier about installing more scrubbers. And I'm thinking back to pre-COVID times and with IMO 2020, the thought that the percentage of fuel that was MGO that you burn would have to step up, I think, it was to like 60% or something like that, which was pretty high. Now that you've kind of digested some of these changes, installed more scrubbers, what percent of fuel in 2022 do you think will be MGO?

Mark Kempa

Management

Yes. Roughly, we've now completed our exhaust gas scrubber installation recently. And when we look at our mix, we're settling out at about 50% HFO versus MGO, so right down the middle of the path, slightly better than what we were anticipating, which is good news.

Operator

Operator

. Our next question comes from Robin Farley with UBS.

Robin Farley

Analyst · UBS.

Great. I wanted to ask about pricing. You showed your itinerary mix, which would be driving price increases with the higher mix in Alaska and Europe. Can you help us sort of think about the same-store increases in the Caribbean, just given the resort hotel rates on land, the types of increases we're seeing and how that may be looking for your kind of same-store Caribbean? And then just a follow-up, too, on the potential changes with Baltic ships. So just to clarify, are you saying that Baltic ships would not be moved to the Med, just thinking about potential impact, if there was that kind of change in the Med closer in? So you're saying that's not where Baltic ships would go? So I just want to clarify that, too.

Frank Del Rio

Management

Robin, it's Frank. No, the Baltic ships will stay in the Baltic. The Med ships will stay in the Med. What we said was if we cannot go to St. Petersburg, there are many alternative ports to visit in the surrounding countries. We also have the opportunity to overnight in another port so that we don't have to affect the length of the itinerary nor the embark or disembark. It is disappointing because St. Petersburg is one of the crown jewels of the Scandinavian itineraries. But certainly, there are alternatives. In terms of the Caribbean, look, we've seen strong pricing in the Caribbean. We -- as we move certain capacity out of the Caribbean and into higher-yielding itineraries, whatever is left for us, by definition, provides a lift to yield because we have less competition among ourselves. We also are seeing that with cost pressures affecting all businesses, it's also affecting the land resorts. They're having to charge more. And so our cruise, as the industry's presence in the Caribbean theater, we believe we're more competitive than ever. And it's allowing us at least to raise prices in the Caribbean. So we like the Caribbean, especially in the winter. But we're always tweaking our deployment such that we can move our vessels to what we believe are higher and higher yields, not just ticket yields but also onboard revenue yield. So for example, a vessel that might generate the same ticket yield in the same month in the Caribbean versus Alaska, you would probably want to move that ship to Alaska because we know historically, Alaska generates more onboard revenue. So you've got to look at the total -- and I know that analysts and investors don't have the same visibility on onboard revenue yields as you do on ticket yields. But I've got to tell you, onboard revenue yield continues to grow, becoming more and more important as a part of the overall yield. And so we don't look at just ticket yields, which is itinerary-driven, but we also look at onboard revenue yield. And if you see it from our lens, you'll see why we are constantly tweaking our overall deployment and, on a net-net basis, are moving ships out of the Caribbean into places like Alaska and in Europe.

Operator

Operator

Our next question is from Andrew Didora with Bank of America.

Andrew Didora

Analyst

Frank, can you maybe help us understand the booking curve a little bit more? When you say back half of '22 and 2023 bookings are ahead of 2019, I guess, how much of your budgeted kind of back half of the year and forward year is typically filled right now? Just trying to get a sense of how much there is left to fill between now and the sell date. What -- how has that looked historically?

Frank Del Rio

Management

Well, there's still a lot to sell. As you know, we always say that we'd like to turn the year somewhere between 60% to 65%. Certainly, we didn't turn 2021 into '22 at that level because of Omicron and Delta for the full year. But it's like I said, in line for the back half. And certainly, today, based on what the booked position is for '23, reaching that 60%, even 65% for 2023 at year-end '22 looks very, very doable and at higher prices. Again, it all boils down to is if you believe, as we do, that the pandemic is receding, that the healing process has begun and that momentum is picking up. We've now -- we saw momentum pick up last -- late last spring, when the original, I guess, it was called Alpha variant, was beginning to die down, only to be thwarted by the arrival of Delta in early July. And then just when we thought Delta was over in the October, November, we were cranking again. Then Omicron came. If you believe it's over, then we're at the cusp of that momentum, a hockey stick type of growth in net bookings arriving on the scene. And that's what we believe. And it's not because I believe it, but those who know better, our SailSAFE panel, the experts around the country, believe that the combination of Omicron receding, more and more people being vaccinated, more and more immunity in the -- in society, both in the U.S. and worldwide, the new therapeutics coming online, that the pandemic will soon turn into an endemic. In fact, there are countries now, Iceland, Denmark, who declared the end of the pandemic and an endemic arrival. So at this stage -- and again, not because I think, I'm giving you what the numbers are showing, 2023 could be -- assuming that no other major variants arise in the scene, could be a fabulous year, to be a record year.

Andrew Didora

Analyst

Got it. Mark, just a clarification on the operating cash flow guidance, when you say cash from operations will inflect positively in the second quarter, does that include your estimate for cash in from customer deposits? And then -- because I think does that differ from your cash burn definition in terms of excluding any deposits? Am I thinking about that right?

Mark Kempa

Management

Yes. Cash burn, we give the cash burn guidance to help you guys model. But cash flow from operations takes all that into account, all of your working capital changes, essentially write off your cash flow statement, cash flow from operations. So that's what we're referring to. There is no other definition of it, just a straight GAAP interpretation.

Operator

Operator

Our next question is from Jaime Katz with Morningstar.

Jaime Katz

Analyst

My first question is on marketing ROI and how you guys are planning on your marketing spend over 2022, given the lift obviously that you have seen in spend so far. And then just a clarification, I think in your prepared remarks, you had articulated that some of the refinancing had maybe given you availability to tap into the secured debt markets again if you chose to do so. I just wanted to make sure I heard that correct.

Mark Kempa

Management

Jaime, yes, you are correct. So with completion of our recent transaction, the series of debt transactions that -- where we raised $2.1 billion, we did free up collateral on two of our vessels as well, as I said, all of our islands and, of course, the all-sacred intellectual property. So going forward, we do have secured capacity in addition to what we just issued in the course of the last 2 to 3 weeks. And I think your first part of the question was on marketing spend. Look, we -- as we've always said, we market to fill. And that's demonstrated in our pricing. We demonstrated it in Q4. We will market where needed. We're always looking for an ROI on our marketing, of course. There's a portion of marketing that is agnostic, where you just have to spend, where you can't necessarily pinpoint an ROI, right? You have to get a certain amount of load on the ships. But beyond that, it's very pointed. Our marketing groups are very sophisticated in that aspect. And if we can spend $1 of marketing and get a 5 to 10x return, we'll do that all day long. And we watch that. We look at that. Our brand presidents from each area of each brand do that day in, day out. So again, we will market to fill. And that's the important strategy.

Frank Del Rio

Management

One thing I'll add to what Mark just said, Jaime, is that we recognized very early in the Omicron wave that consumers were not -- cruising was not top of mind in consumers' mind in December and January. So we pulled back our marketing spend considerably at the end of '21 and early '22, believing that it would not have been as effective as it would in other times. So we've got plenty of dry powder that we're going to be deploying over the next few weeks and months ahead as we rev up the marketing machine to get to the booking levels we need to generate the booked position we want. So we did two very smart things. Maybe we were a lot more lucky than smart, but we didn't drop prices. And that's by design because that's just not what we do. And number two, we were able to recognize that Omicron was going to have an impact on consumer behavior. And we reduced our marketing spend during that 8-week period or so. And so we come out of it with plenty of dry powder to deploy now in a more favorable environment. Well, thank you, everyone, as always, for your time and for your support. We will be available to answer any questions you might have throughout the day. And I wish you a good day, and a healthy and safety stay. Thank you so much.

Operator

Operator

This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.