Breakaway Initial Capacity

[ihopfar]

Greetings All,

 

I saw this mentioned on another thread, but it interested me enough to start a new one. I may call NCL tomorrow to see if I can get an "official" answer, but often the folks on here seem to have more accurate information than the call center folks.

 

1. It was mentioned that cruise ships are purposely sold with less than 100% for there first several sailings to make it easier to "break them in." Can anyone confirm they are doing this for the Breakaway, what % capacity they are filling the ship, and how long/how many sailings before they are booking her at 100%?

 

2. If they do this, do they still have 100% of the staff working, 100% dining facilities open, 100% of the buffet lines open, 100% shows/entertainment, etc. with only say 75% on board, or do they scale services back accordingly?

 

Thanks,

Brad

[njhorseman]

I seriously doubt anyone here knows exactly what percentage of the ship's capacity will be booked for its early sailings and I'm sure no one you'll be able to speak to at NCL reservations will have the answer.

 

I can tell you from personal experience that all shops, restaurants, bars, entertainment venues, etc. will be operating (provided construction of the ship is completed as scheduled in the shipyard) as if the ship was at maximum capacity. You'll just have slightly fewer passengers on board, not fewer services or crew.

[ColinIllinois]

Think about it. It would make zero sense to launch a new ship, make it available to guests and scale back on any venue, be it entertainment or dining. The ship will be manned by seasoned professionals ready and trained for day one.

 

No one at NCL is going to release any manning information to you anyway.

[time2cruise1]

Having done the maidan voyages of the Jewel, Pearl, Gem, and Epic the ship will be near or fully staffed and everything will be open. They have reduced the total passengers booked on those cruses but only to give the crew so slack to work out the new processes and get them to peak efficiency without sacrificing service on those first cruises. If they didn't have everything operating they would never be ready for a packed ship.