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Carnival profit beats as onboard spending rises, fuel costs fall

* Says demand for Caribbean cruises strong

* First (Other OTC: FSTC - news) -qtr adjusted profit $0.20/share vs. est $0.09

* Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) rise as much as 7 pct (Adds details from conference call, analyst comment; updates shares)

By Sruthi Ramakrishnan

March 27 (Reuters) - Carnival Corp reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit, helped by higher onboard spending and lower fuel prices, and the company said bookings for Caribbean cruises, its biggest business, were strong for the rest of the year.

Shares of the world's largest cruise operator by revenue rose as much as 7 percent to an over four-year high of $47.70 in morning trading on Friday.

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The operator of Carnival (LSE: CCL.L - news) , Holland America and Costa cruise lines faced intense competition in the Caribbean for most of last year as rivals such as Europe-based MSC Cruises slashed prices to attract customers.

"The Caribbean was really crowded last year," Carnival Chief Executive Arnold Donald said on a conference call on Friday. "We are looking at the Caribbean environment being a positive for the rest of the year..."

Carnival also expects lower fuel prices to boost its earnings, Chief Financial David Bernstein said.

Crude oil prices have slumped about 50 percent since June last year, lowering fuel costs for cruise operators and airlines.

The booking environment continues to improve and should offset the negative impact of a strong dollar, Stifel, Nicolaus & Co analyst Steven Wieczynski wrote in a note.

Net revenue yields, which combine onboarding spending and ticket sales, rose 2 percent in the first quarter ended Feb. 28.

Carnival swung to a net profit of $49 million, or 6 cents per share, from a loss a year earlier and in the fourth quarter. The company's operating costs fell 7 percent.

Excluding items, Carnival earned 20 cents per share.

Revenue declined 1.7 percent to $3.53 billion.

Analysts on average had estimated a profit of 9 cents per share and revenue of $3.57 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Carnival's shares were up 5.9 percent at $47.05 in noon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares of rival Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd were also up 6 percent at $79.49. (Editing by Savio D'Souza and Kirti Pandey)