“Celebration Key is as phenomenal as we expected,” said Josh Weinstein, CEO of Carnival Corporation, speaking on the company’s third-quarter earnings call.

“I could not be prouder of the line and our destination development teams for getting this fantastic development done on time and on budget and delivering an amazing guest experience right from the start,” he added.

According to Weinstein, the company’s marketing teams have worked to make Celebration Key a household name, and the opening alone generated almost one and a half billion media impressions.

“We’ve been activating a ton of live footage from the destination on social media and the like ever since,” he explained.

Weinstein said that the destination will increase consideration among new-to-cruise passengers and provide repeat guests with a reason to return.

The company also expects word of mouth to continue building, and that 2.8 million guests will visit Celebration Key next year on 20 Carnival ships, departing from 12 different home ports.

“This adds up to high utilization rates with a ship in port virtually every day of the year and at least two ships 85 percent of the time,” Weinstein noted.

He also highlighted that the pier extension is in progress and, by next fall, will accommodate up to four ships at a time.

“By making targeted incremental investments and stepping up our marketing efforts to support this broad destination portfolio, we believe we have further opportunity to monetize these strategic assets by using them to drive consumer consideration and conversion, taking share from land-based alternatives,” he explained.

“Altogether, our exclusive Caribbean destinations will capture over 8 million guest visits next year, almost equal to the rest of the cruise industry combined,” Weinstein said.

As for future improvements on the destination, Weinstein pointed to more thought being given to scheduling arrivals and departures, adding more shade lounges and umbrellas, as well as improving on a rocky stretch of beach without damaging the environment.

“While early guest feedback from Celebration Cay has been fantastic, we are paying close attention to our guests’ suggestions and will continue to fine-tune operations and strive for continuous improvement,” he said.