What happens when a cruise is not selling well?

[kuldalai]

Typically what happens if there is spare capacity the cruise line waits till balances have to be paid by date . That sorts the men from the boys .

 

The yield management then kicks in and this is whenyou get upgraded typically, with the result that eveeryone moves up on the escalator leaving Insides and perhaps Ocean View obstructed free to sell at rock bottom pricing .

 

This happens as it is reasonably easy to sell cheap cabins at the last minute but near impossible to sell the more expensive staterooms .

[ORV]

Typically what happens if there is spare capacity the cruise line waits till balances have to be paid by date . That sorts the men from the boys .

 

The yield management then kicks in and this is whenyou get upgraded typically, with the result that eveeryone moves up on the escalator leaving Insides and perhaps Ocean View obstructed free to sell at rock bottom pricing .

 

This happens as it is reasonably easy to sell cheap cabins at the last minute but near impossible to sell the more expensive staterooms .

 

It's actually easier to sell a balcony or oceanview at inside prices, and leave the people in the insides in place. If a sailing has stalled in sales this would be more effective than opening up the insides, unless of course you can get the people in the insides to pay extra to move up, and you have people to fill the inside & oceanviews with.

[StarFlyr]

We are booked on a Caribbean Cruise out of Miami in February. I checked today and it appears that there are MANY cabins still available. The breakdown is as follows:B3:14, B2:39, B1:43, A4:3, A3:2, A2:12, A1:3, PH1:4, PH2:15, PH1:4, OS: 1.

 

Where are you getting these cabin numbers from and what cruise? We're going on our first Oceania cruise after doing a Regent cruise last Nov. On the Regent cruise, about 2 weeks before it left, we got an offer to upgrade to a PH for about $1200 more, which we took. Don't know if Oceania offers upgrades directly, but so for not a whisper about an upgrade on our Feb Caribbean cruise.

Edited January 26, 2015 by StarFlyr

[pinotlover]

I'll restate that I'm not talking from my own experience in that the only Carribe cruise I have ever done was on a barefoot sailboat. I will probably never do a big ship cruise in the Carribe. The only O cruise that maybe interests me is the one up the Amazon.

 

That being said: Oceania has a fairly consistent demographic clientele base. They are not Disney, Celebrity, HAL, etc. Because of several factors, Oceania runs quite a few Carribe cruises, on several ships, throughout the winter months to maintain some income during those months. When one expands that clientele base, over the number of available cabins, out over a number of years, I don't find it hard to believe that O will have trouble filling its multiple Carribe cruises. I would do multiple Med cruises in the Fall, or even (near) repeats of past ones, before I did any Carribe cruises. Our 30 something year old children might give you a difference answer, but they wouldn't be sailing Oceania either, that demographic thing.

[Pirouette]

In response to Starflyr, the available cabin count came from adding up the cabins that still showed as available for booking on both the Oceania website and on another well-known travel site that lets cruisers select their cabin. That search was a couple weeks ago. Things have tightened up a little since I checked last week, but there are still many cabins available for this February cruise.

 

I am wondering if anyone with an assigned cabin next month has been offered an upgrade or upsell? It appears that some TA's have been offering great deals to their regular clients based on other posts here. I am open to either an upgrade or upsell for my assigned cabin but my TA says he hasn't been approached by Oceania yet. I don't know why he can't be more proactive-it is usually better than waiting to see what happens!

[tropicalkerry2002]

call your TA with an offer...has worked for me!

[LHT28]

I am open to either an upgrade or upsell for my assigned cabin but my TA says he hasn't been approached by Oceania yet. I don't know why he can't be more proactive-it is usually better than waiting to see what happens!

 

I do not see why your TA cannot call Oceania & ask what it would cost for you to upgrade or make an offer to them to upgrade

Agree on what you would pay to upgrade to the CAT you want if cabins are available

[G&G]

I do not see why your TA cannot call Oceania & ask what it would cost for you to upgrade or make an offer to them to upgrade

Agree on what you would pay to upgrade to the CAT you want if cabins are available

 

We have a very good TA. On our recent Regatta cruise our TA made several calls to Oceania concerning upsells. Each time Oceania claimed the cruise was oversold even though a cruise website showed many cabins available. Three (3) days prior to sailing he checked one more time and got us an upsell from an inside to a balcony. I guess the cruise was not so oversold :D.

[LHT28]

The website may not be a good indicator of how well the cruise is selling ;)

[Pirouette]

Interesting update from my TA today. I Instructed him to be proactive rather than wait for O. Apparently there have been no upgrade/upsell offers extended for our cruise which sails in mid-late Feb. There is some new policy in effect from 2015 forward that upgrade/upsell offers will be extended (if at all) within 12-15 days of sailing based on inventory, rather than within 30 days as in previous years and that the offers come from O, again based on inventory.

[LHT28]

Interesting update from my TA today. I Instructed him to be proactive rather than wait for O. Apparently there have been no upgrade/upsell offers extended for our cruise which sails in mid-late Feb. There is some new policy in effect from 2015 forward that upgrade/upsell offers will be extended (if at all) within 12-15 days of sailing based on inventory, rather than within 30 days as in previous years and that the offers come from O, again based on inventory.

 

Makes sense

If they can sell a cabin at full price rather than offering an upsell for a couple of hundred $$

[StanandJim]

Interesting update from my TA today. I Instructed him to be proactive rather than wait for O. Apparently there have been no upgrade/upsell offers extended for our cruise which sails in mid-late Feb. There is some new policy in effect from 2015 forward that upgrade/upsell offers will be extended (if at all) within 12-15 days of sailing based on inventory, rather than within 30 days as in previous years and that the offers come from O, again based on inventory.

 

Using the Stock Market as a barometer, the economy has improved drastically in the last year. With more money comes more demand. Did you really believe that the upsell rules would not change?

[pinotlover]

Don't quite get the part: "and the offers will come from O". First, O never speaks to me, before boarding, only my TA, so perhaps the offer will come from O through my TA. Second, if the offers, for upgrades, weren't coming from O before, who were they coming from? Was O offering a block of upgrades to TAs on a fcf basis, and the TAs then decided who to call?

[StanandJim]

Don't quite get the part: "and the offers will come from O". First, O never speaks to me, before boarding, only my TA, so perhaps the offer will come from O through my TA. Second, if the offers, for upgrades, weren't coming from O before, who were they coming from? Was O offering a block of upgrades to TAs on a fcf basis, and the TAs then decided who to call?

 

LOL, The Offers coming from O is their version of "don't call us, we'll call you".

 

The number one strategy for ANY cruise Revenue Department HAS TO BE that they make their "process" incomprehensible to outsiders.....else why would anyone EVER pay full price for a cabin again?

 

Do yourself a favor and buy the cabin you want. The Buyers Market is over.

Edited January 29, 2015 by StanandJim

[Pirouette]

As the OP on this topic, frankly StanandJim, it would never occur to me to consider improvements to the economy as an impetus to "rule" changes for the timing of upgrades or upsells. I don't think that much about cruising at all except during the time period between booking and sailing, which for me is generally about 3 months.

 

Though the American economy may have improved drastically, the same cannot be said worldwide. Most other currencies are weak against the US dollar. Many Canadians cruise on O as do many other nationalities. Our dollar was below $.80 today relative to the USD. The Euro is not faring much better. Consider that together with the fact that the Caribbean is a very competitive market, hence the basis for my original post.

 

My particular cruise has been slow to fill up and there still appears to be availability-not just based on the O site.

 

I am happy with the cabin I have selected, I have stayed in that category before and it was great. I also received an upsell on my cruise last September which was also great. The ship is not full and I see nothing inappropriate in exploring other availability options at this stage.

 

I am not convinced that there are "rules" for the timing of upgrades or upsells but rather a series of internal policies within O which may vary from time to time depending on O's relationship with the TA or any number of other intangible factors. I will be happy to wait and see.

[Mura]

Deleted

Edited January 29, 2015 by Mura
Duplicate post

[Mura]

I realize that I'm not talking about an upsell but I have been receiving offers for months to add the cruise before or after our Lima-NY cruise in April at a very beneficial rate. So perhaps the timing rule is flexible depending on how a cruise is selling.

 

(Yes, this is different from an upsell on a cruise that's already been booked.)

 

I DID receive perhaps a month ago an offer to upgrade, but that was based on our being on a wait list. It wasn't the upgrade I want, so we declined.

 

Mura

[StanandJim]

Be careful not to view Up-Sells with rose colored glasses, their true purpose is not necessarily to fill the ship, but rather to maximize the revenue which it generates.

 

Backstage at Oceania, they spend a good deal of time trying to decipher which of us are most likely to help them achieve those revenue goals, and that includes what we spend for our fares, what we spend at the bar, whether we book their excursions, shop in the boutiques, etcetera...

 

There are Upsell techniques, thresholds and policies insinuated and wrapped around all of this information, so if your telephone isn't ringing, perhaps the next big spender up the line is mulling an offer.

 

It's not as simple as availability telling the entire story, dear-

[G&G]

Has this happened to anyone.

 

Friends of ours from California just got an incredible deal a week prior to sailing. They were offered $6,799 cash back to switch from a Verandah Cabin to an Outside Cabin; 20 day cruise. The cruise was apparently oversold. They accepted the offer.

[S&G1968]

Has this happened to anyone.

 

Friends of ours from California just got an incredible deal a week prior to sailing. They were offered $6,799 cash back to switch from a Verandah Cabin to an Outside Cabin; 20 day cruise. The cruise was apparently oversold. They accepted the offer.

 

I'm curious if they booked a Guarantee rather than a specific room. If that is the case they are guaranteed at least that level in which they booked and would get an upgrade if rooms sell out. It can work the other way around if you accept their offer.

 

Steve

[G&G]

I'm curious if they booked a Guarantee rather than a specific room. If that is the case they are guaranteed at least that level in which they booked and would get an upgrade if rooms sell out. It can work the other way around if you accept their offer.

 

Steve

 

They booked a specific room eight months ago.

[S&G1968]

Interesting~ then depending on their desire for that room weighted against the cash back should make for an interesting decision.

 

Let us know if they stay with the room they booked or if they take the offer.

 

 

I have heard of this happening on higher level rooms- it is rare but it happens when you might have a travel agent representing an important client that really wants a particular room or if the cruise line feels they can sell the higher room at a higher level rate due to demand.

 

~Steve

[G&G]

Interesting~ then depending on their desire for that room weighted against the cash back should make for an interesting decision.

 

Let us know if they stay with the room they booked or if they take the offer.

 

 

I have heard of this happening on higher level rooms- it is rare but it happens when you might have a travel agent representing an important client that really wants a particular room or if the cruise line feels they can sell the higher room at a higher level rate due to demand.

 

~Steve

 

They took the offer. Also they were concerned that their TA would make less commission but were told by their TA that Oceania paid the TA extra to reassign the cabin.

 

Same thing happened with my friends last year on a South Pacific cruise ; got $5,400 cash back to go from a booked Conceige Cabin to Verandah.

[LHT28]

Has this happened to anyone.

 

Friends of ours from California just got an incredible deal a week prior to sailing. They were offered $6,799 cash back to switch from a Verandah Cabin to an Outside Cabin; 20 day cruise. The cruise was apparently oversold. They accepted the offer.

 

If O needed the Veranda cabin to fill the wait list or GTY then yes they will offer down sells as well as upsells

 

If you like the the deal take it if you do not say NO someone else WILL take the deal

 

We were offered a downsell a few yrs ago but for just one segment of our B2B so we declined