Celebrity Century moving to San Diego

[San Diego Ellie]

Just noticed that Celebrity Century is moving to San Diego for some 2011 and 2012 sailings (Hawaiii, RT; etc.) Good news for those of us on the left coast!

[ccruisequeen]

Wish they'd come to Long Beach!

[C 2 C]

Just noticed that Celebrity Century is moving to San Diego for some 2011 and 2012 sailings (Hawaiii, RT; etc.) Good news for those of us on the left coast!

 

8 cruises in 2011 and 2012 does not quite make San Diego Century's homeport. It seems that there are 5 15-day cruises to Hawaii, and two 8-day wine cruises in May 2011 and 2012 prior to relocation for the Alaska season. It's nice to see Hawaii back as a destination giving some additional choice. Century is a fantastic ship.

[LuAnn]

to have some options for Hawaii again...we have done the R/T twice out of SD and love it...might have to do it again!! LuAnn

[Bruin Steve]

I got excited for a short second...

 

Over the past few years, Celebrity/Royal Caribbean have systematically disappeared from California...

 

First Celebrity discontinued its Mexico and San Francisco-based cruises...Then Royal Caribbean pulled out of the 3/4 night Baja market...

 

We got a great and much appreciated piece of good news when they brought the Mariner of the Seas to Los Angeles...but, then, almost just as suddenly, they pulled the plug on that...

 

Leaving dreaded Carnival a near monopoly on the market...and many of us won't cruise Carnival...

 

It may be a good tactical move but a horrible strategical move by the company...

 

Most people start cruising on a shorter, cheaper, close to home cruise...and get hooked...and then tend to return to the line they started on...Why? Because, if you are going to enjoy cruising, NO cruise is terrible...every first cruise is fun, exciting and leaves you thinking you want to do it gain...even Carnival...

 

So, here we have a large population base of nearly 40 million Californians plus 7 million Arizonans, 3 million Nevadans and another 3 million Utahans...53 million people in close proximity, even driving distance, to the California ports (Not even counting those from other Western states for whom LA or San Diego is a short trip)...an incredibly large market who RCI is pretty much conceding to the Carnival Corporation...

 

In the long run, this will have a major impact on their customer base...7 or 8 expensive longer cruises over two years will not make that big a dent in it...

[patty1955]

I got excited for a short second...

 

 

 

So, here we have a large population base of nearly 40 million Californians plus 7 million Arizonans, 3 million Nevadans and another 3 million Utahans...53 million people in close proximity, even driving distance, to the California ports (Not even counting those from other Western states for whom LA or San Diego is a short trip)...an incredibly large market who RCI is pretty much conceding to the Carnival Corporation...

.

 

Add to that the fact that it's horribly unfair that we must pay cross-country airfare to get cruise credits. People in Florida can take a bunch of 2 or 3 night cruise and rack up the points. We can't fly 5 hours for a 2 night cruise and enjoy ourselves, not to mention the cost. As much as I love Celebrity, I've thought of trying another line that has a base in California

[ArtM]

X/RCL will put ships wherever people are willing to pay enough for the cruise line to make a desired profit. That is the experiment X is going to try by homeporting Silhouette in Bayonne, NJ or that area.

 

As I recall, there were a gazillion posts about the great deals people were getting on Mercury? cruises to the West coast of Mexico.

 

And, if someone says that was because the itineraries were not so good, where exactly could X/RCL go from SAN or LAX that would fill ships at a profitable price point?

 

Art

[Cruise Arizona]

Nice to see some Celebrity cruises out of San Diego as it is the closest port to our home.

[Denny01]

Not sure where that works in - if the whole point of cruising is to build up member points, than I guess it gives an edge to those near the ports. But I haven't cruised on one of the 2-3 day Caribbean cruises - not my thing, and I have a feeling it isn't the 'thing' of many cruisers. Fills a need niche, but doesn't really track.

 

And for my most recent cruising: S America out of Bunos Aires; E Med out of Roma; TA out of Roma; Two West Coast Wine cruises out of Vancouver and Seattle; Panama Canal LA to FLL.....and two 5-day cruises on Carnival out of Jacksonville for a Party Group - didn't care what ship just a quick cruise and neither were Celebrity!

 

Just as you don't fly to S Fla for a short excursion, many of us don't drive for 12+ hrs there for a short one either. Life.

 

We booked a Princess Hawaii 14N out of LA in Jan 11 before they released the Century - but didn't want to wait until Fall 11so not changing over . May try Her later, who knows.

 

I agree I wish Celebrity would mix up their itineraries more, but then again, they don't send me a personal schdule to fill out for them to then meet.

 

Denny

[Bruin Steve]

X/RCL will put ships wherever people are willing to pay enough for the cruise line to make a desired profit. That is the experiment X is going to try by homeporting Silhouette in Bayonne, NJ or that area.

 

As I recall, there were a gazillion posts about the great deals people were getting on Mercury? cruises to the West coast of Mexico.

 

And, if someone says that was because the itineraries were not so good, where exactly could X/RCL go from SAN or LAX that would fill ships at a profitable price point?

 

Art

 

Actually, Mexican Riviera routes do just fine...I cruise all over, so I've followed rates for a long time...Typically, I see far more bargains on Caribbean cruises than I do on Mexican Riviera cruises...I've considered some of my Mexico cruises to be bargains because I don't have to pay for airfare clear across the country...but, in terms of the actual cruise fares, I've typically found myself paying $100-200 per 7 night cruise per person MORE than cruises on the same cruise line, same week in the Carribbean...with the exception, of course, for brand new ships--where there is typically a premium...

 

There has always been a strong demand for the typical 7 night Cabo-Mazatlan-Puerto Vallarta route...but if a cruise line wanted to mix them up and create different demand for those more adventurous, they could bring one ship out alternate some of the sail dates with three or four different other routes one could do from Los Angeles or San Diego: The longer Hawaii cruises, the California Coastal going mostly north, the Sea of Cortez routes to LA Paz and Copper Canyon that HAL does...and, if they wanted to do something really exotic, they could throw in a couple of one way and reverse cruises for two weeks down to Ecuador via Central America's West Coast--and tie in some land packages on the Ecuador end to Cuzco and Macchu Picchu...

 

Of course, I would keep those more exotic cruises to a couple times a year or so--probably Winter when you can catch warmer weather further south, but not oppressive, leaving the bulk of the high summer season to the standard high demand Mexican Riviera route.

 

Do you REALLY think we have no money here in SoCal? That we can't afford to cruise? Do you really think they don't fill up ships here? I've yet to cruise out of LA or San Diego and have the ship not sail full.

 

And, you missed my point entirely...it's a bad STRATEGICAL move to abandon Southern California...it concedes 50 million plus potential NEW cruisers to Carnival...Carnival cruises out of LA year-round with multiple ships...Princess cruises out of here half a year, moving the ships to Alaska for the summer...same with HAL...Those latter to entities are Carnival-owned...If a new cruiser starts with Carnival and doesn't like it that much, their marketing people are very adept at steering them to Princess or HAL...How do I know? I've cruised Carnival three times and Princess twice...never on HAL...Yet, HAL has me on their mailing list, has a repeat customer number issued to me and constantly markets for my business.

 

With all of Royal Caribbean's ships, it would be a good STRATEGIC move to leave at least one nice ship year round in Southern California...