If you believe one Wall Street pro, Royal Caribbean (NYSE: RCL) is the most attractive stock in the battered cruise ship sector. An analyst at Wedbush this week called it a worthy buy compared to peers like Carnival (NYSE: CCL) and Norwegian Cruise Lines (NYSE: NCLH). Shares could land at $63 per share within the next year, the analyst predicted, from around $42 per share today. Royal Caribbean did prove the strongest cruise ship business in the quarters preceding the COVID-19 pandemic. Net revenue yields jumped 8% in 2019 compared to a roughly flat result for Carnival. And those gains came despite a few significant challenges, including the worst hurricane season Royal Caribbean had endured. Through those issues, its focus on customer satisfaction and on creating novel experiences like its exclusive island resorts allowed it to attract better pricing and occupancy trends than either Carnival or Norwegian Cruise Lines last year. Image source: Getty Images. Under normal circumstances that performance gap would make Royal Caribbean a clear favorite for investors going forward. But times have changed. Months of forgone revenue from canceled cruises have forced the company to load up on debt, and it is still losing about $250 million each month, with global cancellations likely to last at least through July. That's when the real challenges begin, with some of the major risks to the business including social distancing requirements, sluggish economic growth, and far too much industry capacity. Investors who believe the cruise industry will sail through those issues might consider buying Royal Caribbean stock. But they should still temper their expectations for a quick rebound or a surging stock price in the short term. Operating trends are likely to get worse before slowly rebounding over a period of years. 10 stocks we like better than Royal CaribbeanWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the ten best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Royal Caribbean wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. See the 10 stocks *Stock Advisor returns as of April 16, 2020 Demitrios Kalogeropoulos owns shares of Carnival. The Motley Fool recommends Carnival. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Source