Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas made her final call to Sydney on Saturday, officially marking the end of the summer cruise season for Australia.
Between Royal Caribbean and sister brands Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Club Cruises, the three brands carried over 250,000 guests throughout the season from October 2015 to April 2016, an increase in passengers of 27 per cent year-on-year and representing an injection of more than $140 million in passenger spend into the Australian economy.
Two Royal Caribbean ships were introduced to the region in the 2015/2016 cruise season: Explorer of the Seas to Sydney and Legend of the Seas to Brisbane.
Explorer of the Seas made a dramatic arrival in Sydney for her inaugural season, reuniting with Voyager of the Seas in a historic harbour rendezvous – a meeting of the two most feature packed ships based in the region. Combined, the ships carried 10,000 passengers and crew and injected almost $1.6 million into the Sydney economy in passenger spend in one day alone.
Together with Radiance of the Seas and Legend of the Seas, home-ported in Brisbane for her inaugural season down under, the four locally-based ships in the Royal Caribbean International fleet sailed 72 itineraries, making 371 port calls in Australia, New Zealand, the South Pacific and Asia.
“With our three brands and their six locally based ships in Australia, this was our biggest and most varied season to date. The substantial growth demonstrates the success of our strategy in delivering the newest, most feature-packed and the most technologically advanced ships to our doorstep,” said Adam Armstrong, managing director, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd Australasia.
