Ms. Zackfia: I think the cruise business has held up okay, given what we've gone through. Clearly, there has been pretty severe pricing pressure, the most severe pricing pressure that I think either Carnival or Royal has ever seen over a one-year time frame. But they have managed to continue to fill the ships, and it appears that the pricing pressure has started to alleviate at this point.
TWST: So slashing rates has attracted travelers to book cruises?
Ms. Zackfia: Well, the ships always sail full, so it's always a matter of at what price do the companies fill the ship. On average, both companies have had to take double-digit decreases in price - in the teens this year - and it looks like that's starting to get less bad going forward.
Tickers included in this excerpt: CCL, RCL
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