The cruise giant, which owns lines such as Cunard, P&O, Holland America and Princess, made the increased profit on the back of a 7.8% rise in revenue to $18.9 billion during its financial year ending on November 30, 2018 – up from $17.5 billion in 2017.

But despite this increase in profit, investors were left unimpressed by Carnival’s forecasts for the first quarter of 2019 and its share price nose-dived by more than 10% to £38.77 immediately after the release of the results on Thursday (December 20).

Carnival Corp chief executive Arnold Donald still struck a positive note when looking forward to 2019.

“We are poised to deliver another year of strong revenue and earnings growth, with booking volumes running significantly ahead of our higher capacity growth and net revenue yields expected to exceed last year’s record levels,” he said.

“We remain committed to driving demand in excess of measured capacity growth to continue the momentum into 2019 and beyond.”

Carnival’s net cruise revenue rose by more than 5% to $15.2 billion in 2018 while also recording its highest revenue yields in company history.

Donald said these results had been achieved “despite a significant drag from fuel and currency”.

“I thank our 120,000 team members around the globe who encountered multiple headwinds and still delivered for our shareholders a more than doubling of return on invested capital in just five years, as well as our valued travel agent partners whose strong support enabled these record results,” added Donald.