Onboard spending jumped from an average of $66 a day to $81 a day from the second quarter of 2019 to the same time in 2023. AdvertisementAdvertisementFrom WiFi to fancy dinners to go-karting at sea , cruise travelers have been spending big at sea. In the third quarter of 2021, Arnold Donald, the former president and CEO of Carnival Corp, was already noting "off the charts" onboard spend . Amid the influx of ultra-cheap cruises , onboard spend caught up to and surpassed 2019 levels before fares did. "It's a longer sales cycle that helps build that overall onboard revenue product," Mark Kempa, Norwegian's executive vice president and CFO, said during the call.

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Persons: —, Arnold Donald, it's, Holland America —, Robin Farley, Patrick Scholes, Brittany Chang, Harry Sommer, Sommer, Mark Kempa, Jason Liberty, Liberty, Scholes, We're, couldn't Organizations: Service, Carnival Corp, Holland America, UBS, Truist Securities, Farley Travelers, Royal, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, Royal Caribbean Group, MSC, Cartier, Rolex Locations: Royal Caribbean, CocoCay, Norwegian