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Anyone repeating Economics 101 might take a look at Carnival (CCL) to learn how to boost profits in a recession. The cruise-line operator says first-quarter profit increased 10% on lower fuel costs and higher bookings. The company lucked into lower fuel costs as the slump in worldwide demand cut the price. A barrel of oil recently fetched $52.94 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down from $147.27 last July - a decline of about 64%. But Carnival needed more than funny hats to attract customers during a recession. The buccaneering souls at the cruise line did it the old fashioned way - they cut prices. This meant first-quarter net revenue fell to $2.9 billion from $3.2 billion in the same period a year ago. Job Descriptions: The Big Oil CEO Quick Hits: Royal Carribean Goes Big, Doesn't Go Home Contrarian Concepts An Edge For Traders Five Things You Need to Know: Where Your Tax Rebate Is Really Going Economic Snapshot: Where Are We Vacationing? Dish Network Cold-Cocked for Cold Calls Boeing Takes the Long View Sales Surge At Best Buy B&N, BlackBerry Try to Extinguish the Kindle Blockbuster, TiVo Team Up to Upset Netflix But bookings for the remainder of the year are about 10% higher, and the company cites "significantly lower prices" as the key factor in getting recession-hammered customers to open their wallets. You can-t say these guys are navigating without a compass. Carnival looks for second-quarter earnings of $0.30 to $0.32 a share. That-s down from the $0.49 earned a year ago, but in line with Wall Street estimates. You can bet the company is scrunching operating expenses wherever possible. For the year, Carnival expects to earn $2.10 to $2.30 a share, down from its previous forecast of $2.25 to $2.75 a share. The company is betting on a turnaround in the future, and has 16 ships valued at about $9 billion under construction and scheduled to be delivered through 2012. Most of the cost will be covered by cash from current operations. That-s not hocus-pocus or accounting hanky-panky on the high seas - although a horizontal variation of the latter might be just the thing for discombobulated portfolios.