Royal Caribbean Group: Losing $5.8B, a Shared Shipyard and a Record 2025

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Royal Caribbean was founded in Norway in 1969 by three shipping companies tied to the Skaugen, Wilhelmsen and Gotaas-Larsen names. Its key decision came in 1997, when it bought Celebrity Cruises, founded in 1988 by Greece's Chandris Group, and kept the brands separate under a holding company instead of merging them. Today the Miami-based, Liberia-incorporated group is the world's second largest cruise operator behind Carnival, with 71 ships and three brands: Royal Caribbean International, with about 27 percent of global cruise passengers in 2025; premium Celebrity Cruises, which plans at least 20 European river ships by 2031; and ultra-luxury Silversea, bought in stages in 2018 and 2020.

The group also bought into the infrastructure under its fleet. Its Holistica Destinations venture develops ports in Costa Maya, Roatán and Puerto Plata, though the Bahamas withdrew support for its Grand Lucayan resort plan in Freeport. It holds 40 percent of the Grand Bahama Shipyard, as does rival Carnival, and the two announced a joint $350 million rebuild in 2021. The pandemic brought net losses of $5.8 billion in 2020 and $5.2 billion in 2021, with revenue down to $1.5 billion. The group was back to $1.7 billion in profit by 2023, and in 2025 reported records of $17.9 billion in revenue and $4.3 billion in net income.

• The company dropped "Cruises" from its corporate name in 2020, becoming Royal Caribbean Group.
• In 2022 it bought the former Crystal Cruises ship Endeavor out of bankruptcy for $275 million and renamed it Silver Endeavor.
• In 2019 two cranes collapsed onto Oasis of the Seas in dry dock at Grand Bahama, and Hurricane Dorian later damaged the yard.
• A 2022 deal with Icon Infrastructure covered port projects including Terminal A in Miami, plus sites in Spain, Italy and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
• Celebrity's first river ships, Celebrity Compass and Celebrity Seeker, are planned for 2027 on the Rhine and the Danube.