Very low occupancy cruise: your experience?

[BrandiGreg]

We are booked on a 3 day repositioning cruise from Vancouver to LA in September. Per the Princess site, there are perhaps only 20% of the cabins sold, and I am doubting many will be sold unless they drop the price down to almost free...... I am curious if anyone can tell me what their experience has been on very low occupancy cruises.....do they upgrade everyone? do any of the activities or entertainment change? dining venues? if a deck hallway has very few cabins sold, do the room stewards get reassigned to cover a full compliment of rooms, or do they just have a lighter load in their assigned area? Any other observations from your experience? Thanks!

[dplusd]

I was on a fog delayed cruise on Voyager of the Seas out of Galveston. We were stuck there 2.5 days before we could depart and a full refund was offered to anyone wishing to leave the ship. About 930 passengers left (25%) before we sailed.

 

No, there were no cabin upgrades...we did ask. The only difference was that the restaurants and entertainment venues were not as crowded as usual. Once we sailed, the cruise was quite enjoyable.

[shredie]

I was on a fog delayed cruise on Voyager of the Seas out of Galveston. We were stuck there 2.5 days before we could depart and a full refund was offered to anyone wishing to leave the ship. About 930 passengers left (25%) before we sailed.

 

No, there were no cabin upgrades...we did ask. The only difference was that the restaurants and entertainment venues were not as crowded as usual. Once we sailed, the cruise was quite enjoyable.

 

2.5 extra days on the ship sounds good to me.:)

[Pam in CA]

Princess gave the 3- and 4-day cruises for free last January and February. Literally. I was able to apply the 100% credit of my 4-day Sapphire cruise in January towards final payment of my upcoming Royal cruise.

 

Princess still has time to give these away or close to it.

[cruzsnooze]

Princess gave the 3- and 4-day cruises for free last January and February. Literally. I was able to apply the 100% credit of my 4-day Sapphire cruise in January towards final payment of my upcoming Royal cruise.

 

Princess still has time to give these away or close to it.

 

Kinda yes and kinda no Pam.

 

They charged full fare for the short cruise and applied that fare towards a 7 night or longer cruise taken within a year. Some people will not take advantage of the credit in which case Princess wins. If they just gave the short cruise away for free I suspect people would book it not really knowing if they are going to really show up or not but wanted to hold the space "just in case" they could get the time off.

Because it's a repo there is air involved which costs more then the cruise. Airfare for a 3 night cruise is not economical for many people. I think that's why your cruise is less then full.

Edited July 10, 2014 by cruzsnooze
typo

[SoCal Cruiser78]

Because it's a repo there is air involved which costs more then the cruise. Airfare for a 3 night cruise is not economical for many people. I think that's why your cruise is less then full.

 

This is why I am not doing this sailing as of yet, even though I will be on the following sailing and would love to do a B2B. If they drop the fare to next to nothing, then I may be on board. It would be a solo trip for me this time and so far, surprisingly, they are still asking 100% SS.

[kath00]

I have never been on a cruise that was not completely sold out. They find ways to fill the ship, it seems. Sometimes the ship feels more empty because there are less children so no 3rd and 4th passengers in the cabins.

[caribill]

I have never been on a cruise that was not completely sold out. They find ways to fill the ship, it seems.

 

I have been on several Princess cruises that were definitely not sold out.

 

These were mostly eastbound TAs. Also on a Med itinerary which had itinerary changed after the revolution in Egypt (and then changed back again).

[SoCal Cruiser78]

I have been on several Princess cruises that were definitely not sold out.

 

These were mostly eastbound TAs...

 

Just curious if you know as to why the eastbound TAs didn't sell out? I am considering a TA and would prefer to sail over and fly home. Is there something I am missing?

[RLBlack]

Wondering where on the Princess site you found the percentage of cabins that are sold on a particular ship and sailing?

[caribill]

Just curious if you know as to why the eastbound TAs didn't sell out? I am considering a TA and would prefer to sail over and fly home. Is there something I am missing?

 

I have enjoyed everyone I have taken.

 

Each one I have taken has been the first segment of a b2b or b2b2b. (So have all but one of my westbound TAs.) In effect, the TA was a better way to get to Europe than flying.

 

However, I think the following factors may influence others:

o The length of a TA trip in either direction is more than many people have available to cruise.

o The cost of one-way airfare across the Atlantic

o The fall westbound TAs often have more interesting itineraries

o Some people do not like 7 days in a row of sea days

[SoCal Cruiser78]

...The fall westbound TAs often have more interesting itineraries...

 

Thanks for your response. I may have to take a closer look at the westbound TAs after all!

[PunkiC]

We were on a westbound TA that had a lot of empty cabins. They removed passengers from two decks, put crew in the cabins on those decks and used the cruise to refurbish some of the crew quarters.

Edited July 10, 2014 by PunkiC

[SadieN]

Just curious if you know as to why the eastbound TAs didn't sell out? I am considering a TA and would prefer to sail over and fly home. Is there something I am missing?

 

 

Eastbound TA's lose an hour a day crossing the ocean.

Westbound gains an hour.

[skynight]

We were on a T.A. on the Grand with less than 1500 passengers. They closed off deck 5 cabins and were doing some work down there. Other decks had empty cabins all over, but not gathered into one area. Some room stewards were assigned to other work, for example deep cleaning the empty cabins. All dining, shows and activities went on as normal. It was great with the ship being so empty.

[newparks]

Princess gave the 3- and 4-day cruises for free last January and February. Literally. I was able to apply the 100% credit of my 4-day Sapphire cruise in January towards final payment of my upcoming Royal cruise.

 

Princess still has time to give these away or close to it.

 

Pam, I did the same, had the credit applied to my just completed Baltic cruise on the Royal. Fun but tiring itinerary!!

[DougH]

I sailed many years ago on the HAL Prinsendam right after they had bought her. She holds about 650 and we only had a little over 400 passengers. Very easy to get seats at most shows and I don't think they ever held Bingo because there were not enough participants.

 

Several years ago I was on the Star Princess in South America on the cruise affected by the big earthquake in Santiago, Chili. Most passengers including myself could not get to the ship and it sailed with mostly passengers from the previous cruise who could not get off. I joined the ship in Buenos Aires, with the next stop in Rio for the start of the next leg. All of the previous passengers had to disembark as they did not have visa for Brazil, so for a couple of days there were only about 400 passengers on the ship. (those of us that had made it one way or the other to the ship) We had one dinner seating and one show, the ships was deserted. In Rio everyone else boarded and it was back to normal

[StLouisCruisers]

Just curious if you know as to why the eastbound TAs didn't sell out? I am considering a TA and would prefer to sail over and fly home. Is there something I am missing?

 

 

As mentioned earlier, the eastbound TAs lose an hour a night for at least 5 of the 7 nights sailing over, the westbounds gain an hour on the other hand. Everyone, including crew is much more rested coming back on the westbounds. Then there's the fact that on a westbound TA, you do a port intensive Med. cruise first, then have all those days back to the US to rest up. On the eastbound, you arrive to the Med. and do a lot of ports in a row, then have to fly a long distance home and perhaps go right back to work after all that. Less favorable circumstances. JMHO.

[LC1968]

BrandiGreg, friends of mine are on your same cruise in September!

[gooch47]

My only experience with this was on the small Celebrity Xpedition which does the Galapagos Islands. Probably doesn't really apply, I guess, but it was only about 75% full. It was heaven!

[Pam in CA]

You might not think that losing an hour of sleep every day or every other day is a big deal but by the 3rd or 4th day, you're exhausted and want the time change to just stop. :) It can really affect people. With the westbound T/A, having 25-hour days is great by comparison.

 

On my Diamond cruise last year from Beijing to Anchorage, a large group of Russians disembarked in Japan, the last port before the US. I heard that the reason was US visas but I don't know for sure. Once they disembarked, their cabins were refurbished:

 

 

Edited July 10, 2014 by Pam in CA

[geoherb]

You can't tell from the available cabins that show up exactly how many cabins are unsold. Some could be unassigned guarantees. Our upcoming cruise (Aug. 2 on the CB) went from plenty of cabins showing up to hardly any overnight. I'm thinking Princess finally assigned a bunch of guarantees at that time.

[caribill]

Several years ago I was on the Star Princess in South America on the cruise affected by the big earthquake in Santiago, Chile.... I joined the ship in Buenos Aires, with the next stop in Rio for the start of the next leg. All of the previous passengers had to disembark as they did not have visa for Brazil.

 

Since then a visa requirement was added for Argentina. I wonder what would happen if this occurred again.

Edited July 10, 2014 by caribill

[Astro Flyer]

Since then a visa requirement was added for Argentina. I wonder what would happen if this occurred again.

Having flown to Argentina from LAX with an overnight in MIA the airlines offered to assist those who had not paid the Argentinian reciprocity fee. Even at the boarding gate for the flight from MIA to Buenos Aires they offered to assist anyone who had not paid the fee. The fee is paid online electronically so Princess may assist passengers purchasing them in such a scenario. I've read about cruise lines providing complimentary internet access when major itinerary changes occur & Princess may do that to assist those requiring the reciprocity fee to disembark in Argentina.

Edited July 10, 2014 by Astro Flyer

[stunnedinva]

Several years ago I was on the Star Princess in South America on the cruise affected by the big earthquake in Santiago, Chili. Most passengers including myself could not get to the ship and it sailed with mostly passengers from the previous cruise who could not get off. I joined the ship in Buenos Aires, with the next stop in Rio for the start of the next leg. All of the previous passengers had to disembark as they did not have visa for Brazil, so for a couple of days there were only about 400 passengers on the ship. (those of us that had made it one way or the other to the ship) We had one dinner seating and one show, the ships was deserted. In Rio everyone else boarded and it was back to normal

 

I was one of the passengers from the previous cruise who could not disembark at Valparaiso and fly home from Santiago, so we sailed back around the Horn again to Buenos Aires. After being SO crowded on the first cruise (never being able to get close enough to see the tango dancers in the Piazza, for example), it was like a ghost ship on the return to Buenos Aires because so many weren't able to board at Santiago. I wouldn't want to experience the same circumstances again because things were extremely stressful onboard while Princess decided how to proceed, but the return cruise with many fewer passengers was wonderful. I don't wish to diminish the damage that the earthquake caused to Chile or how many were affected by it, but for us onboard, it was a profound relief to know that we'd eventually get home. And it didn't hurt that we now had front-row seats for everything.