There were two news stories this past week which prove that the maxim “rich cruise tycoons get richer” remains true while the debt-strapped cruise industry continues to struggle. Business Insider reported that Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd. CEO Jason Liberty collected $10,760,000 last year. Meanwhile, crew members on Royal Caribbean cruise ships made a median annual

Frank Del Rio, president and CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, received compensation in the staggering amount of $36,400,000 in 2020, consisting primarily of nearly $18,000,000 in stock awards, according to a recent Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing. The news was initially reported by the cruise trade publication Cruise Industry News.

CEO Del

Norwegian Cruise Line Holding’s CEO Frank Del Rio (photo above, via CNBC, in happier times in 2019) collected $17,808,364 in compensation last year, including $12,201,324 in stock awards and $3,600,000 in incentive plan compensation according to SEC filings. His compensation was down from 2018 when he collected nearly $22,600,000. Del Rio has collected over $85,000,000

Shortly after the new year, Royal Caribbean will again increase the automatic gratuities which it charges its passengers. Royal Caribbean will hike the automatic gratuities which it adds onto its guests’ accounts (by more than 7%) to $14.50 per person, per day. Passengers who stay in suites will pay even more, $17.50 per person, per

According to the SEC, Royal Caribbean CEO Richard Fain (below right) sold 87,488 shares of his RCL stock at an average price of $76.41, for a total value of $6,684,958.08.

After the transaction, cruise executive Fain still owns 1,139,613 shares of his cruise line stock valued at approximately $87,077,829.33.

I wrote a similar article

Last week I wrote an article about Royal Caribbean CEO and President Adam Goldstein cashing in over $2,300,000 worth of Royal Caribbean stock, still leaving him with around $19,000,000 worth of his company’s stock. 

It’s difficult to justify the enormous wealth of the cruise executives given the fact that the cruise business is rigged to