Micky Arison Quotations

Significant improvements in pricing, particularly for our North American brands, more than compensated for increases in fuel costs.

Given the significant decline in our stock price over the last few weeks, the company believes that the purchase of its stock represents a very attractive investment.

What we asked for was to be kept whole basically. And to make up for the revenue that we would have made had the ships been operated. And to pay for the expense of canceling 100,000 people and protecting travel agent commissions.

We are extremely disappointed to have to withdraw from this transaction. The proposed combination of Fairfield and Carnival was a tremendous opportunity to capitalize on many outstanding marketing synergies that would have benefited both companies.

We are extremely disappointed to have to withdraw from this transaction, ... The proposed combination of Fairfield and Carnival was a tremendous opportunity to capitalize on many outstanding marketing synergies that would have benefited both companies.

I thought there was a better than 50-50 chance that he would choose to do that.

I think that was a big psychological plus for us.

It is a testament to the resilience of our cruise business that despite an approximate 50 percent increase in fuel costs for the quarter and the worst hurricane season in our history, we were still able to grow earnings by 20 percent to achieve record fourth quarter results.

Robust demand for cruise vacations continued into our seasonally strong summer period. Significant improvements in pricing, particularly for our North American brands, more than compensated for increases in fuel costs, resulting in higher profits and another record third quarter,

Pier is a highly talented international executive and his years in Asia, combined with his vast experience overseeing Europe's leading cruise company, bring a unique insight and perspective into our new Asian cruise initiative.

Pat told me what had happened before practice Friday, and I stayed to watch. It looked like any other practice I've ever seen him run.

We continue to believe that our offer is a superior proposal to the Royal Caribbean proposal and is a credible, deliverable and more valuable transaction for your shareholders,

We've got ships for all different types of people and all different sizes, just like the hotel industry. There's some people that love hotels like Bellagio, and others -- I'm staying in a hotel right now with I think six rooms.

We have been exploring a strategy for entering the Asian marketplace for some time and have indicated that our entrance into this hugely populated market would be through one of our existing brands. These cruises represent a first step in this initiative and will serve as a platform for future expansion into other areas of Asia. Although all of our brands are virtually unknown in China, we chose Costa because it is already very international in nature, serving guests of many different nationalities, languages and cultures.

We are very pleased that our ships are making a difference in their lives and contributing to the recovery of New Orleans,

We have every intention of relaunching cruise service from the great city of New Orleans as soon as the infrastructure is in place so that our ships may contribute to the economic recovery of the area.

Costa is the largest and most successful cruise line in Europe and will serve as Carnival's primary platform for expanding our presence in this increasingly important market,

Originally, we envisioned this ship would be designated for one of our European brands. However, Carnival Cruise Lines continues to perform at a very high level and based on the tremendous consumer demand for its products, we now believe that this specific tonnage would be best utilized for Carnival's North American market,

That's quite a remarkable accomplishment considering that fuel price increases are estimated to cost the company an additional $170 million, or 20 cents a share, in 2005.

I'm looking forward to an interesting period. We have a lot of opportunities obviously for the league and a lot of challenges, and I look forward to working with the league office to help in any way I can.

NCL ... stands to achieve greater success under the Carnival Corp. umbrella, which will provide NCL with economies of scale, greater access to capital, marketing and operating expertise and stronger credibility in the leisure and vacation industry.

It's not easy to take three ships out of service.

And the vision that I had when I decided to come here is all coming true. Through adversity, through everything we've been through, we've been able to persevere ... It's an unbelievable feeling.