Pull up a quote for Carnival Corp. (NYSE: CCL) after Monday morning's highly anticipated quarterly report -- it's not pretty. Shares of the world's largest cruise line operator traded as much as 12% lower on the news, ultimately ending the day with an 8% slide. 

Finding the culprit following a post-earnings dip is typically as easy as rounding up the usual suspects. Did the financial results fail to meet expectations? Is guidance problematic? Is there something in the subsequent earnings call that scared off analysts? You'll come up empty on all fronts in sizing up Carnival's encouraging update. Let's take a closer look at three things I learned from the cruising giant's fiscal second-quarter report.

The headline numbers look good. Revenue more than doubled, soaring 105% to hit a second-quarter record of $4.9 billion. The results are stacked against depressed results a year earlier, but they still surpassed projections from Wall Street pros. They figured that Carnival's top line would fall just short of doubling at $4.8 billion. 

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Source Fool.com