Earnings Labs

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCL)

Q4 2023 Earnings Call· Thu, Feb 1, 2024

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning and welcome to the Royal Caribbean Group Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Earnings Conference Call. All participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker presentation there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to Michael McCarthy, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Michael McCarthy

Analyst

Good morning everyone and thank you for joining us today for our fourth quarter and full year 2023 earnings call. Joining me here in Miami are Jason Liberty, our Chief Executive Officer; Naftali Holtz, our Chief Financial Officer; and Michael Bailey, President and CEO of Royal Caribbean International. Before we get started, I’d like to note that we will be making forward-looking statements during this call. These statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. Please refer to our earnings release issued this morning as well as our filings with the SEC for a description of these factors. We do not undertake to update any forward-looking statements as circumstances change. Also, we will be discussing certain non-GAAP financial measures, which are adjusted as defined, and a reconciliation of all non-GAAP items can be found on our Investor Relations website and in our earnings release. Unless we state otherwise, all metrics are on a constant currency adjusted basis. Jason will begin the call by providing a strategic overview and update on the business. Naftali will follow with a recap of our fourth quarter, the full year 2023, an update on the current booking environment and our outlook for 2024. We will then open the call for your questions. With that, I’m pleased to turn the call over to Jason.

Jason Liberty

Analyst

Thank you, Michael, and good morning everyone. Before getting into the details, I would like to take a moment to reflect on last week's monumental launch of our new ship Icon of the Seas. Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that resonates so strongly and makes such a widespread impact, that it forever changes the status quo. For the vacation industry, that product, Icon of the Seas, debuted last week to incredible fanfare. Our mission at the Royal Caribbean Group is to deliver the best vacation experiences responsibly and Icon is going to deliver the best family vacation on the planet with her incredible experiences and amazing crew. I am absolutely thrilled that after years of planning and anticipation, Icon finally welcomed her first revenue guests on board this past weekend. With a phenomenal guest engagement and word of mouth from this ship, along with our landmark sports partnership with Inter Miami and football GOAT, Lionel Messi, we look forward to making millions of vacation memories for our guests in the years ahead. A big thank you to our incredible team, who worked relentlessly over seven years dreaming, innovating and flawlessly delivering Icon of the Seas. So now let's talk about 2023 and 2024. 2023 was an exceptional year fueled by unmatched demand for our brands as you see on Slide 5. Net yields were up 13.5% compared to 2019, more than 3.5 times our January expectations, and we delivered margins that were back to record 2019 levels. Our net income exceeded our January expectations by about $1 billion, resulting in adjusted earnings per share more than double our January guidance. We continued our focus on reshaping the cost structure across the operating platform, leading the durable margin expansion, which is expected to continue to provide…

Celebrity Xcel

Analyst

To wrap up, the future of the Royal Caribbean Group is exceptionally bright. With our strong operating platform and proven strategies, we are creating a lifetime of vacation experiences for our customers, while also delivering long-term shareholder value that allows us to reach new financial records. We are well positioned for continued growth in 2024 and beyond. And with that, I'll turn it over to Naftali. Naf?

Naftali Holtz

Analyst

Thank you, Jason and good morning everyone. Let me start by reviewing the fourth quarter results. Our teams delivered yet another strong performance with adjusted earnings per share of $1.25 about 15% higher than the midpoint of our October guidance. All key products exceeded expectations, delivering double digit yield growth in the fourth quarter. Net yields were up almost 18% compared to 2019, and that would have been 20% if not for the 200 basis point drag from eliminating the reporting lag related to Silver Sea. Load factors were at 105% and rates were up approximately 19% with significant growth for both ticket and onboard revenue. Net cruise costs excluding fuel, increased 6.7% compared to the fourth quarter of 2019. Since our last earnings call, the stock price appreciated over 50% and added 250 basis points to stock based compensation expense versus our prior guidance. Excluding the increase in stock based compensation, our costs came in in line with expectations. Our focus on enhancing profitability allowed us to deliver 30% adjusted EBITDA margin in the fourth quarter ahead of 2019 levels. We also utilized excess cash flow to pay down debt and lower interest expense consistent with our Trifecta goals.

NCCx

Analyst

Now, switching to our 2024 outlook, I will start by taking you through capacity and deployment for the year. For the full year, our capacity is expected to be up 8.5% compared to 2023. This year we have almost twice as many drydock days compared to 2023, reducing APCD growth by 1% and resulting in a more pronounced capacity growth in the first and third quarter. APCDs are expected to grow around 10% in the first and third quarter, 5% in the second quarter and 8% in the fourth quarter. 2024 has consistently been in a strong booked position and as Jason mentioned, the year is off to a very strong start with a record Wave. As a result, both rates and volume are currently booked significantly ahead of same time last year. All key products, including the Caribbean, Europe, Alaska and Australia are booked nicely ahead of last year. The Caribbean represents just over 55% of our deployment this year following a 13% increase in capacity year-over-year. The growth is due to the additions of Icon of the seas and Utopia of the Seas combined with Celebrity's upsized summer program. Supporting this increase in capacity is the addition of Hideaway Beach at Perfect Day at CocoCay. Our Caribbean programs are booked nicely ahead of last year in both rate and volume. While bookings and pricing for Icon can only be described as iconic and Utopia is demanding significant price premiums in the short Caribbean market, we are also very pleased with the trends we are seeing on existing hardware. Europe accounts for around 15% of our capacity following a 7% reduction year-over-year. At the time of our last earnings call, we were in the process of altering itineraries for European Mediterranean sailings that were previously expected to visit Israel,…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Steven Wieczynski with Stifel. Please go ahead.

Steven Wieczynski

Analyst

Yes. Hey guys, good morning and congratulations on a strong 2023 and the launch of Icon. So, as we think about your guidance for this year, specifically thinking about yields, just wondering if you could break down that yield guidance a little bit for us? Essentially, just trying to figure out what you guys have included in there in terms of things like core pricing, your occupancy ramp. Obviously you've got new hardware in CocoCay as well and then maybe how you're thinking about onboard yields this year? And then finally there, maybe help us think about the cadence of yields for this year, as this guide might make some believe there's a potential for slowing in the back half of the year. But I would assume that's just more lack of visibility and tougher comps with load factors.

Jason Liberty

Analyst

Well, thanks, Steve, and good morning, everybody. I think you pointed to a lot of things there. So first, obviously 2023 was an incredibly strong year on both a ticket and onboard standpoint. Q1 the strong yield, as Naf commented, is driven by having a kind of full period with the pricing that we saw in the ramp up starting in the middle of the first quarter of last year, and then the recovery of the load factor. There is nothing that we see in the booking environment or onboard spend that doesn't point towards acceleration. And so our formula for success, which is moderate yield growth and good cost control, is very much how we see Q2 forward. But when we look at things, whether it's the new hardware, whether it's like for like, whether it's onboard spend, all those things are pointing north on a positive basis in terms of what we're seeing in the booking environment. And I think there shouldn't be any concern at this point in terms of what we see that there's any slowdown occurring in our business Q2 forward.

Steven Wieczynski

Analyst

Okay, got you. Thanks for that. That makes sense. And then, Jason, as we think about your Trifecta goals, you're essentially knocking off two of those goals this year with a strong possibility that your third Trifecta goal of getting north of $10 a share in earnings is probably a very high probability based on what we're seeing right now, based on what you're seeing right now. So, Jason, I know you talk about Trifecta being what you call base camp, but I guess the question is really, where do you guys go from here? I mean, if Trifecta goals are indeed base camp, do you start to think about introducing at some point something that moves you well beyond base camp? And then maybe help us think about the return to investment grade and how you and your agency partners are thinking about that timeline as well? Thank you.

Jason Liberty

Analyst

Well, I'll let Naf take the investment grade question. We are an organization I think that does really well with kind of two, three year targets. And we can see that, obviously here when we consider Trifecta, getting the hearts and minds of our organization, really focusing on delivering strong returns for our shareholders, and also an incredible guest experience, while also lightening our impact on the planet. All these things are so heavily into consideration of what we do each and every day. As we get closer to achieving Trifecta, we will evaluate what's the next program, financial performance program that we're going to put out there that we think is important, not just to make sure management is focused on what it is we're looking to achieve, but also to make sure everybody understands where we're navigating, too. But if you just run the math on moderate yield growth, good cost control, while we moderately grow our business, while continuing to invest in destinations and so forth, that math will tell you that we will be in a very strong financial performance on an earnings basis, ROIC basis, as well as a margin basis. And all those things, I think are really important as we consider how disciplined we have been on capital. And also we'll be in the consideration set as we think about returning capital to shareholders as we zero in on getting to investment grade metrics. But I'll hold here for Naf to talk about investment grades.

Naftali Holtz

Analyst

Thanks, Jason. Hey, Steve. So on the balance sheet, part of Trifecta is getting back to investment grade metrics, and we've really focused on that. And as you could see, what we've announced for the results in 2023, we made significant progress in that direction. We lowered our cost of capital. We repaid roughly $4 billion of debt with excess cash flow, because as we saw the performance accelerate, our formula of just being disciplined around the capital allocation allowed us to pay down debt faster than we thought and we'll continue to do that this year. And in my remarks, I said that we'll be very close to the leverage levels that we have in the targets. In addition to that, we also want to unsecure the balance sheet and that will come as some of the notes that we've had to issue, either secured or guaranteed, have the opportunity to refinance those or pay them down. With regards to the rating agencies, we're very close contact with the rating agencies. We were very pleased with the credit upgrades, that rating upgrades that we had last year. We are focused on making sure that we have the balance sheet we are comfortable operating under and that's really what the goals are and then we'll continue to be in close contact with the agencies as we make progress on that. But we're not focused necessarily on the ratings, really on the metrics there.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Robin Farley with UBS. Please go ahead.

Robin Farley

Analyst · UBS. Please go ahead.

Great, thanks. I wanted to ask, you alluded to potential changes with some of the itineraries in the Red Sea. Is it fair to say that your guidance stay, your EPS guidance for 2024, already includes what you think you may have to do in terms of rerouting anything that would be transiting there. I don't know if you can help us quantify what -- if there's downside that's already baked into your EPS guidance for that? And then I do have a follow up, but I'll start with that one. Thanks.

Jason Liberty

Analyst · UBS. Please go ahead.

Yes, well, thanks for the Robin. And I think just as we talk about how we guide, our guidance does not plan for perfection. And so when we consider things like the Red Sea and there are things that come up from time to time within the course of the year, we very much kind of take those kind of things into account. And so I don't think, we think the handful of sailings that will sail through or expected to sail through the Suez is something that's going to impact our guidance at this point in time. And I think that's how we just generally set up our guidance to not plan for perfection.

Robin Farley

Analyst · UBS. Please go ahead.

Okay, perfect. Thank you. And then I don't know if you have any initial thoughts on potential tax changes, the global minimum tax, and how that might impact you, given your incorporation and your itineraries, and kind of anything that you may be able to do to mitigate that? Thank you.

Naftali Holtz

Analyst · UBS. Please go ahead.

Hey, Robin. So, yes, the global minimum tax is obviously out there, and it's been there for quite some time. If we -- so we continue to evaluate it, and if we do nothing, that doesn't really impact us until 2026, so I think that's important. And of course, we believe that we can do with some mitigations, mitigate majority of that impact, so that's kind of that.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Brandt Montour with Barclays. Please go ahead. Hi, Brandt, please check to see if your line is on mute.

Brandt Montour

Analyst · Barclays. Please go ahead. Hi, Brandt, please check to see if your line is on mute.

Can you hear me?

Operator

Operator

We can.

Jason Liberty

Analyst

Hey Brandt.

Brandt Montour

Analyst

Okay, great. Sorry about that, guys. Congrats on the results this morning, and thanks for taking my questions. So, the first one is, given the European slowdown in bookings that you saw in sort of November, which is great to hear that that came back. But taking into account the seasonality of Europe and thinking about yields for the back half or sort of for the balance of this year, that's baked into your full year guide, is it fair to assume that the yield growth cadence for the balance of the year will sort of correlate with the quarters that are strongest in the Caribbean? Right? Given you have Hideaway Beach and Icon sailing there, just anything else you can help us to think about how that cadence will progress?

Jason Liberty

Analyst

Well, we're very happy that the demand for Europe came back and we saw this acceleration soon after our last call. I really don't think anybody should be reading into any concern around Q2 going forward in terms of any kind of slowdown. We're seeing acceleration in pricing and volumes from all of our key markets for all of our key deployments. And obviously the first quarter is higher because of what I talked about with load factor and the normalization of rate. So, I would just leave it at that. We expect Q2 forward to continue to be strong and our yields to grow across like-for-like new hardware onboard, et cetera. And of course, we are lapping, as you commented, Brandt, on some very high comps year-over-year, and I think that's an important line to appreciate.

Brandt Montour

Analyst

Okay, great. That's helpful. And then my second question is on the booked position record book, the commentary, obviously upbeat in your release and your prepared remarks. Are you willing to sort of give us a sense for how much of the first half or the full year is booked at this time and how much different that is year-over-year? And to the extent that you don't want to answer that, I would also just be curious if you want to refresh your sort of philosophy on the optimal curve. Right? And if you're at that point where you wouldn't want to become any more booked, unless you leave money on the table or how you're thinking about that revenue management strategy?

Jason Liberty

Analyst

Well, I'll start off with the latter. I mean, I think on an optimal curve, the answer is, we always get it wrong. It’s -- there are always estimates, we do not give out the percent booked that we're in, but it is meaningfully higher, obviously, than last year, for sure and also versus our highs in 2019. We have installed very sophisticated yield management systems. Those yield management systems, we've obviously seen them perform exceptionally well in 2023 and what we're now seeing here in 2024 through Wave, and they continue to allow us to get more and more share of the wallet. And also taking those practices in which we also saw this last year, and feeding them into our onboard activities, our pre-cruise sales activities, is also something why, I think as we look at the 2023 results and what we're seeing in the 2024 estimates on the top-line is what's causing just, I think, continued outperformance.

Naftali Holtz

Analyst

Yes. Just one other comment, not just on the volume, but also the pricing. Obviously, we are on more booked versus last year on a volume, but also on a pricing level as well. So, we're very encouraged with where we are.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Matthew Boss with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Matthew Boss

Analyst · JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Great, thanks, and congrats on another great quarter.

Jason Liberty

Analyst · JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Thank you.

Matthew Boss

Analyst · JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

So, two-part question. Jason, when you talked about taking things to a whole new level, could you size up where you stand today versus the larger total addressable market share opportunity? And maybe you see beyond cruise and just the multigenerational customer base that you're attracting. And then for Naftali, maybe just how best to think about the breakdown of the 4% cost guide this year and multiyear what you see as the right run rate for costs going forward?

Jason Liberty

Analyst · JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Yes. Well, I'll start off, Matt, by I think it's important to understand what our orientation is. Our orientation is experiences, and we keep trying to advance experiences that our customers are not only do they desire, but they're also willing to pay for. And so when you have an experience, mind focus, obviously there are a lot of things that we're adding onto our ships. I think Icon is an incredible example of the dreaming and the delivery of endless experiences for multigenerational travel. But you also see those, for example, in Silver Nova and what that does for the ultra-luxury space in terms of the dreaming and innovating to deliver those experiences that our guests seek and are willing to pay for. You see that also extend into the destination and what we're doing in the private island space, whether it's with Hideaway that we just announced we have the Royal Beach Club into the Bahamas and we continue to think about and dream about other opportunities that are there. Our goal is to keep our customers in our ecosystem, and we're building, as I mentioned in my notes, a travel platform on a technology basis that makes sure that our guests, through loyalty as well as experiences, stay within that ecosystem. That all kind of comes into continuing to grow what we believe are the best brands in each of the segments and invest in those experiences for us to deliver each and every day.

Michael Bailey

Analyst · JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Hey Matthew, it's Michael. Just to add some comments to Jason. There's quite a big difference, and we've had these conversations before, between the addressable market for traditional cruise and the addressable market for land-based vacations. When you consider Orlando, Las Vegas and all of those different land-based options, we really believe that with ships like Icon and Perfect Day, Hideaway Beach, the coming of Royal Beach Club in 2025, Utopia coming straight into the short product market to perfect day, that we are really kind of transcending and moving, particularly the royal brand, from that traditional cruise space where the addressable market is big, but smaller than the land-based. And we feel that now we're beginning to really attract a lot of demand from those land-based options with better quality product, more exciting product and great price points. So, I think we feel there's a big opportunity with the addressable market, particularly as it relates to what we've done with kind of repositioning the brand and becoming acutely focused on the multigenerational family and particularly with the kind of new products that we're introducing now. And I think Icon really is a great example of that. We've never seen such incredible demand reaction and pricing power that we've seen with a new product that we've introduced. It's really been phenomenally successful.

Naftali Holtz

Analyst · JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Hi Matt. So, on your question on cost, so this year we gave the guidance of 3.75% to 4.25% cost growth and I think it's just important. Obviously, I mentioned it in my remarks that there's 300 basis points throughout the year impact from both increased drydock days and also the operations of Hideaway Beach, that while it is very accretive to margin, just does not have an APCD, so that's the reason. But I think if you put that into context of all the things that we have done over the last couple of years and our really relentless focus on enhancing margins and controlling cost is really coming into play as we continue to grow the business. For the cadence of the year, because we have most of our drydocks really in the last -- latter part of the first quarter and early in the second quarter and that will weigh on cost. Also, I mentioned in the first quarter, we have specifically for that quarter more impact from starting Icon as well as just catching up on the load factor, but obviously it normalizes throughout the year. And the second half will benefit from those lower drydock days and also the addition of Utopia, which will add APCDs to the half part of the year. But all in, we're very pleased with how we've really, in a durable way, enhancing margins that will help us as we continue to grow the business and create operating leverage. For the long-term, our formula really remains unchanged. Moderate capacity growth, moderate yield growth and strong cost control really leads to enhanced financial returns. And the formula is basically, we've got to grow yields faster than we grow our cost and double enhanced margins, more cash flow and more earnings.

Matthew Boss

Analyst · JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Great color. Congrats again.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Conor Cunningham with Melius Research. Please go ahead.

Conor Cunningham

Analyst · Melius Research. Please go ahead.

Hi, everyone. Thank you. Just keeping with the theme on cruise versus land in the context of moderate yield growth, there seems to be an argument that you can make that actually should be a little bit higher given you're going to close the gap to land based. Can you just level set on where you sit on the discount versus land based right now? And then how we get back to kind of the pre-COVID levels, I think that's been like 15% historically. So if you could just talk about that, that'd be great. Thank you.

Jason Liberty

Analyst · Melius Research. Please go ahead.

Yes. So obviously, last year we talked around having a 40% to 45% gap to land based vacation. Our yields in 2023 rose 13.5%. Our APDS were up, I think 16%. So we obviously made a dent into that. And this year we expect obviously, to make a further dent into that. We are obsessed about really, it's much less about what's happening in the cruise space. It's more about how do we close that gap, how do we compete with land based vacation and we can see in the consideration how much cruise has moved into the average consumer's consideration for travel. So our focus is on that. How do we close that gap? And really how do we make sure going back to the ecosystem, which I think land based does very well, is how do we make sure that, that focus on a vacation of a lifetime evolves into a lifetime of vacation. And I think the commentary about the return of what we're getting from our customers, that repeat rate has now doubled, shows that what we're doing in delivering the best vacations in the world, what we're doing to incentivize through loyalty, to keep our customers in our ecosystem, and really leveraging our house of brands that are the best in each one of their segments is really starting to create another Wave of demand. And we think land based does this really well. We're focused on doing this obviously exceptionally well. And when you think about what we're doing on the destination side with perfect day as an example, when you look at Icon, you can see in that how it's an extremely competitive product, we would probably argue even a better product to what's happening on land. And that’s by us continuing to dream and innovate and deliver on that, that's going to chip away further and further into that value gap to land based vacation.

Conor Cunningham

Analyst · Melius Research. Please go ahead.

Super helpful. And then you mentioned the digital investments and increased direct bookings. Can you just talk about how that's evolved over the past few years and how we continue to kind of increase the direct booking channel going forward? Thank you.

Jason Liberty

Analyst · Melius Research. Please go ahead.

Yes, well, it's less about the shift from direct or through our travel partners. We are really channel agnostic. What we want to do is whether it's we want to show up on how our guests want to shop and book a cruise and we want to take as much friction out of that experience as we possibly can. Sometimes that leads them through our digital channels like the web or our app. Sometimes it has them call our call centers. And of course, that very much takes them to our travel partners who do an exceptional job helping guests identify and have the experiences that they want to do. So we're very agnostic about that. But we also recognize that the customer expects very little friction in their shopping experience. So we spent a lot of time figuring out not only how to be easier to do business with, but also how to use technology like AI and so forth, to curate and put those experiences in front of the guests in the way in which they want to consume them. I think we're getting better and better at that every day, but it's a journey. When I feel we're heading to the fourth or fifth inning, I find out we're back in the first inning as the consumer continues to evolve and just the technology that's available to do it, so thoughtfully is growing stronger and stronger every day.

Naftali Holtz

Analyst · Melius Research. Please go ahead.

Yes. And just one other thing to add is also it allows us to make sure that the customer gets the vacations they want. So some of the meaningful progress we've seen, and we also noted in the last couple of earnings call, is just the ability to buy and design your vacation ahead of time through pre-cruise. And as Jason mentioned also in the remarks, it also leads to great financial success as people are booking their vacations, then they get on board and they spend two and a half times more than those that have in pre cruise.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Vince Ciepiel with Cleveland Research. Please go ahead.

Vince Ciepiel

Analyst · Cleveland Research. Please go ahead.

Thanks for taking my question. I wanted to dig a little bit more into the Icon. You keep talking about how it's taking things to a new level. Curious kind of how it compares to what you saw with a new class. You think about Oasis 15 years ago, Quantum 10 years ago. How does this launch compare in terms of reception to the customer, the travel agent community, the national coverage that you've been getting, your approach to marketing? And do you think that that's sustainable as you move into utopia and star in the next 12 to 18 months?

Jason Liberty

Analyst · Cleveland Research. Please go ahead.

Vince, thank you very much for that question. I've been waiting for about 20 minutes to talk about Icon. First of all, Icon is a product in terms of the design and the focus on multi-generational family and the evolution from Oasis-class. I think what we've created really is a game changing hit. I mean, it really is working with customer demographic and it's really working with our target market. And I think if you've got an exceptional product that people really are impressed with, then you're almost there and we feel like we've really achieved that with Icon. It's epic and you combine that with perfect day and the opening of Hideaway beach, we have a product and a vacation experience for a multigenerational family that truly is the best in the world. And we've made that statement. It's the best family vacation in the world. So you've got to have that foundation. But I would say that in comparison with previous first in class launches, Icon has knocked this just out of the park. We've never seen the response that we've seen with Icon. It's been genuinely unbelievable from every single metric that you would want to look at; the bookings have been phenomenally strong. The rate has been unbelievable. The appreciation of the product has been high, the interest from the trade partners, from the consumer, from destinations we've never seen. The kind of response that we've seen with Icon of the seas, the employee response, the crew response when we opened up and we had our first shakedown cruises has been unbelievable. We really feel as if this product is absolutely right on the mark and the response has been phenomenal. When we look at the metrics and we have all of these metrics where we…

Vince Ciepiel

Analyst · Cleveland Research. Please go ahead.

Absolutely. So when you layer in this, it sounds like new hardware is kind of firing at a cylinder that you haven't seen before. You have the discount to land based and then you have kind of a multiyear stretch of pretty muted industry supply. Is there any reason to think that yield growth couldn't be at more elevated levels on a multiyear stretch than what you've seen historically?

Jason Liberty

Analyst · Cleveland Research. Please go ahead.

Well, I'm the brand guy, so I've got to tell you, yes, we live in a very optimistic world, and we are extremely excited with the product and the brand that Royal Caribbean International has now become. So, yeah, I see plenty of upside. Naf and Jason may have a slightly different perspective, but I can tell you we're very excited with the lineup that we've got coming, and we feel unbelievably proud of the performance of Icon to date. So, yes, I see a lot of upside.

Naftali Holtz

Analyst · Cleveland Research. Please go ahead.

Yes, I think we're all extremely optimistic on the very strong quality demand that we continue to see. And I wouldn't want to leave the call with anybody thinking that we are not very optimistic about Q2 and beyond. I know Q1 is very high in terms of the overall performance, but the bookings, the level of onboard spend activity is exceptionally strong. I know that there is, I can just tell by the questions there's some focus on that, but it should only be focused on the opportunity that's ahead of us.

Operator

Operator

Our final question comes from the line of Jamie Rollo with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Jamie Rollo

Analyst

Yes. Thank you. Just one sort of follow up, really, on Icon Michael, which you'll like, I guess, just given the figures you gave then how has that changed the way you think about ordering new ships and also some of the older ships in the fleet? I mean, is this an opportunity to really press your foot down and accelerate this sort of new class of ship, or are you going to carry on perhaps as you were before? Thank you.

Michael Bailey

Analyst

Yes, we see the huge opportunity with the direction that we've taken in terms of this combination of phenomenal, land based, curated destination experiences, like Perfect Day, the Royal Beach Club in Nassau, and Icon class. So I think our direction, our mindset is very much focused on the future and further development of that kind of product experience that we know absolutely resonates with the customer.

Jason Liberty

Analyst

Yes. And Jamie, I think just to add, we are very purposeful in our actions. We're very purposeful in the segments in which we are operating in. We think we operate in segments where the level of quality demand significantly outpaces the current supply. There's obviously constraints inside the yards in terms of the ability for anyone to grow at a fast pace, but we expect in the future to continue to invest in our business. We expect to continue to invest, as Michael said, in destinations and also in the growth of our fleet. But it's going to stick generally to that formula of moderate yield growth, good cost control and moderate capacity growth over time.

Jamie Rollo

Analyst

I'm just surprised, given what you've seen, which sounds much better than expectations, you're not changing anything, even for the existing ships. Is there nothing you might be doing with some of the vision or radiance class ships or maybe putting some of the successful features of Icon on some of the sort of maybe Quantum or Oasis -class? Anything there?

Michael Bailey

Analyst

Yes. We're always modernizing. We have Allure coming up and the actions we took on Oasis. Some of the learnings on Icon is going to be in the modernization of allure of the seas. We're always updating our ships to make sure those ships stay relevant. It doesn't move like the CapEx number potentially or maybe it's not as exciting today as we're talking about Icon and Hideaway, et cetera. But we're always investing and bringing a lot of the learnings, probably not just on an experience standpoint, but also on a sustainability standpoint so that our fleet stays relevant and competitive.

Operator

Operator

I'll now turn the call back to Naftali Holtz, CFO for any closing remarks.

Naftali Holtz

Analyst

Thank you, Operator. We thank you all for your participation and interest in the company. Michael will be available for any follow-up. We wish you all a great day.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.