Carnival owns the Caribbean Seas next summer

[bajathree]

With 9 ships Carnival ships sailing out Florida next June compared to only 5 Royal Ships, I would have to say that Carnival pretty much owns the Caribbean next summer.....it will be interesting to see if Royal's big switch to Europe pays off.

[LBumb]

look at the type of ships though. freedom, oasis, allure are awesome.

[BillB48]

Those numbers may not be that bad when you consider there will be 12,000 berths on just two ships. In total there still will be a lot of bunks that need bodies in them. Needless to say Adam and Richard did not ask me what I thought about moving all those ships around;)!

[negc]

With 9 ships Carnival ships sailing out Florida next June compared to only 5 Royal Ships, I would have to say that Carnival pretty much owns the Caribbean next summer.....it will be interesting to see if Royal's big switch to Europe pays off.

RCI isn't the only line which reduces or eliminates its presence in the Caribbean during the summer months, so unless you believe that there will be a great upsurge in demand for summer Caribbean cruises, and with five large ships there, it isn't as if RCI has abandoned the area. Obviously they believe that those five ships will be sufficient to meet the demand, and that it will be more profitable to operate their other ships in Alaska and Europe during those months. That is why they get paid the big bucks.:rolleyes: One of their great advantages is the fact that, if their "big switch" doesn't work out as they predict, they can, relatively quickly, redeploy their vessels to areas where the demand will be greater. Five Royal Caribbean ships in the Caribbean certainly doesn't leave you without any options and it could easily turn out that it is Carnival that has backed the wrong horse in this competition.

[The Big Booper]

What is the capacity of the Carnival ships running out of Florida and how old are they, vs the RCI fleet?

 

The main advantage Carnival will have is that 9 ships can go on 9 different routes while 5 ships can only do 5 routes....and being older, the Carnival per diems will be less, a major attraction.

[tntornadox]

Carnival will always dominate the Caribbean market because their ventures to Europe have been lackluster at best in years past. Their product really draws Americans, but it didn't pull in the Europeans as they hoped it would, so they more or less abandoned that market (Carnival Magic will do a few routes in the Med when she's introduced). All of this is odd, because Costa is more or less a carbon copy of Carnival with a different funnel and does wonderful in Europe...

 

Princess, RCI, X, HAL, NCL along with the traditional lines such as Cunard, P&O, Pullmantur, MSC among others will have significant amounts of tonnage in Europe next Summer, hopefully they won't over-saturate the market...

[Marie51]

I am looking to leave from the Miami/Fll area and the only RC ships in the summer seem to be Allure and Oasis. Balcony cabins are just too pricey so my only choice is to pick one of the Carnival ships. I'm sure there are others that feel the same way.

[The Big Booper]

I just checked the RC homepage and searched Florida - Caribbean July 2011. Aside from the Allure / Oasis duo out of FLL, the Freedom sails from Canaveral, the Explorer from Bayonne NJ and the Serenade from San Juan. And the Enchantment does one run out of Baltimore. Not much there as the big guys are expensive. We want to go on Allure and are looking at a B2B in May as June pricing is high and July higher.

 

I think that Celebrity is also pulling out of the Caribbean in the summer, leaving the S class fleet in Europe.

[negc]

Princess, RCI, X, HAL, NCL along with the traditional lines such as Cunard, P&O, Pullmantur, MSC among others will have significant amounts of tonnage in Europe next Summer, hopefully they won't over-saturate the market...

And if they do, the result will be more bargain prices for European cruises, or a redeployment that sends some of those ships elsewhere. Supply and demand, as always, rules.:)

 

I am sure that there are others who feel as Marie51 does about her only option being to sail on Carnival, but the question is just how many "others" there actually are. Apparently, RCI doesn't view that number as being sufficiently large enough to justify leaving another ship in the market when it could operate more profitably elsewhere. That is their decision to make and one that they have to live with.

[Marie51]

I just checked the RC homepage and searched Florida - Caribbean July 2011. Aside from the Allure / Oasis duo out of FLL, the Freedom sails from Canaveral, the Explorer from Bayonne NJ and the Serenade from San Juan. And the Enchantment does one run out of Baltimore. Not much there as the big guys are expensive. We want to go on Allure and are looking at a B2B in May as June pricing is high and July higher.

 

I think that Celebrity is also pulling out of the Caribbean in the summer, leaving the S class fleet in Europe.

 

Yes, We'd love to go in May but kids are not out of school then so June or July is just too pricey. We will have to look at Freedom out of PC although that would not be my first choice as I want to leave from Miami. Other choices are Carnival ships.

[bajathree]

What is the capacity of the Carnival ships running out of Florida and how old are they, vs the RCI fleet?

 

The main advantage Carnival will have is that 9 ships can go on 9 different routes while 5 ships can only do 5 routes....and being older, the Carnival per diems will be less, a major attraction.

 

I am looking to leave from the Miami/Fll area and the only RC ships in the summer seem to be Allure and Oasis. Balcony cabins are just too pricey so my only choice is to pick one of the Carnival ships. I'm sure there are others that feel the same way.

 

The problem I see is that summer family vacation is going mostly on 7 nightr's....not 3 and 4 nightr's like Majesty and Monarch....so if you take them out of play you are only left with Allure/Oasis and Freedom. Pricing on Freedom is starting at $1299 for balconies and in the 800's for interiors on Freedom and then jumping all the way to $1679 for balconies on Allure/Oasis and interiors starting at $1299...not sure how much luck they are going to have trying to fill 2 jumbo ships with pricing like that...I think with most summer families traveling with loads of kids, Carnival is going to look extremely attractive....not saying it's a better product, but in this economy better product seems to play second fiddle to price.

 

 

I just checked the RC homepage and searched Florida - Caribbean July 2011. Aside from the Allure / Oasis duo out of FLL, the Freedom sails from Canaveral, the Explorer from Bayonne NJ and the Serenade from San Juan. And the Enchantment does one run out of Baltimore. Not much there as the big guys are expensive. We want to go on Allure and are looking at a B2B in May as June pricing is high and July higher.

 

I think that Celebrity is also pulling out of the Caribbean in the summer, leaving the S class fleet in Europe.

 

You are quiet correct...the other side of Royal...Celebrity has left Fl pretty empty for next summer....the entire S fleet is across the pond.....and even NCL takes Epic over the pond.

[The Big Booper]

I am a self-employed CPA and DW is a retired school ogre, also known as a discipline administrator. So we have flexibilty in travel but my income fluctuates like crazy, especially after tax season is over. The number of business clients this year who are holding off doing their companies until the last minute puts a crimp in our vacation planning.

 

We want to go on the Explorer this December for the last scheduled long holiday cruise but will wait to book until November or the first week in December, the prices will come down and I can sort of borrow the income from next tax season by proper timing on the credit cards. Not a whole lot of business for accountants in Nov and December.