New US Embarkation Ports???

[RocketMan275]

Has anyone seen anything about Princess sailing from additional ports? Port Canaveral? New Orleans? I understand Princess is dropping Houston which would free up a ship.

 

We are getting so tired of driving 14 hours to Fort Lauderdale. (We are more tired of flying.)

[skynight]

Has anyone seen anything about Princess sailing from additional ports? Port Canaveral? New Orleans? I understand Princess is dropping Houston which would free up a ship.

 

We are getting so tired of driving 14 hours to Fort Lauderdale. (We are more tired of flying.)

This Caribbean 2015/2016 season it is Fort Lauderdale and Houston, with one sailing of the Ocean Princess from Miami. Next season 2016/2017 the sailing schedule shows all ships departing from Fort Lauderdale.

2017/2018 Nobody knows.

[Pam in CA]

Has anyone seen anything about Princess sailing from additional ports? Port Canaveral? New Orleans? I understand Princess is dropping Houston which would free up a ship.

Highly unlikely. Always follow the money. Supply and demand. Princess sails from where they can charge the highest prices. There isn't enough demand to sustain filled ships sailing from alternative embarkation ports.

[Cruise Raider]

Highly unlikely. Always follow the money. Supply and demand. Princess sails from where they can charge the highest prices. There isn't enough demand to sustain filled ships sailing from alternative embarkation ports.

 

Just as long as they don't drop San Francisco, we'll remain happy.

 

I see you are leaving tomorrow for a 5 nighter --- have fun, Pam.

[fishywood]

Has anyone seen anything about Princess sailing from additional ports? Port Canaveral? New Orleans? I understand Princess is dropping Houston which would free up a ship.

 

Caribbean Princess, which is sailing the final Houston season, will return to Port Everglades to replace Emerald Princess, which will go to Australia following Summer 2016 in Europe, thence Alaska Summer 2017.

 

Golden Princess has been permanently reassigned to the Asia/Australia market to replace Dawn Princess which is leaving the fleet. Also leaving are the small ships Ocean Princess (next year) and Pacific Princess (likely in late 2017).

 

And the new Majestic Princess is "following the money" to Asia as well.

 

The new larger ships mean than Princess can maintain capacity in a region with fewer of their "smaller" ships and fewer turnaround days. And in the case of Houston, one less turnaround port.

Edited November 19, 2015 by fishywood

[beg3yrs]

Also leaving are the small ships Ocean Princess (next year) and Pacific Princess (likely in late 2017).

 

Ocean Princess' sale is a done deal but do you have any factual information on the Pacific Princess leaving? This could be news articles, press releases, corporate announcements and so on. Even a "For Sale" ad in a trade magazine would be good.

 

If you don't, it is just speculation, possibly correct but speculation nonetheless.

[fishywood]

Ocean Princess' sale is a done deal but do you have any factual information on the Pacific Princess leaving? This could be news articles, press releases, corporate announcements and so on. Even a "For Sale" ad in a trade magazine would be good.

 

If you don't, it is just speculation, possibly correct but speculation nonetheless.

 

Perhaps I should have been more clear that yes, any date given for Pacific's departure is speculation at this time. But all the publicity at the time of the initial announcement was that Ocean and Pacific were both leaving the fleet as soon as arrangements could be made. The fire was further fueled by the abrupt cancellation of Pacific's major refit in 2013 which roughly coincided with the confirmation of Ocean's early 2016 departure date.

 

You have to admit it is surprising that a Summer 2017 season in Europe has been announced for Pacific; we'll see if those sailings actually open for booking next month as promised. (Again, more speculation on my part)

[TracieABD]

I would love it if they would host a few sailings out of Charleston, SC!

[PenguinLife]

Personally we will be shopping for a new cruise line to use if Princess does not offer a gulf coast cruising option, the bigger ships is another turn off, and part of the reason we switched to Princess to begin with.

[moki'smommy]

Port Canaveral has a couple negatives--it is almost an hour drive from MCO and CCL (same parent company as Princess) has a large presence there for 3,4, and 7 night cruises. And they would be going head to head with the overpriced Disney cruises.

 

Just my opinion, but the ideal port has less competition and is closer to the main airport for the region. We like sailing out of PC, but I can't see it as a super deal for Princess.

 

No one seems to be doing well out of Texas. Disney had to severely discount their cruises out of Galveston and ultimately agreed to "occasional" sailings thru the next few years in order to get out of their original contract. Princess is offering great prices out of Bayport--again, far better prices than similar cruises from Florida.

[Colo Cruiser]

Has anyone seen anything about Princess sailing from additional ports? Port Canaveral? New Orleans? I understand Princess is dropping Houston which would free up a ship.

 

We are getting so tired of driving 14 hours to Fort Lauderdale. (We are more tired of flying.)

 

 

NOLA has already been tried and did not last long quite a few years ago.

 

In regard to the Pacific Princess I have heard from a couple of sources that its gone in 2017.

[DebJ14]

Port Canaveral has a couple negatives--it is almost an hour drive from MCO and CCL (same parent company as Princess) has a large presence there for 3' date='4, and 7 night cruises. And they would be going head to head with the overpriced Disney cruises.

 

Just my opinion, but the ideal port has less competition and is closer to the main airport for the region. We like sailing out of PC, but I can't see it as a super deal for Princess.

 

No one seems to be doing well out of Texas. Disney had to severely discount their cruises out of Galveston and ultimately agreed to "occasional" sailings thru the next few years in order to get out of their original contract. Princess is offering great prices out of Bayport--again, far better prices than similar cruises from Florida.[/quote']

 

How do you figure that NO ONE is doing well out of Texas? Carnival has 3 ships based in Galveston year round. Royal Caribbean has just upped their capacity out of Galveston year round by moving the Liberty of the Seas to Galveston to replace the smaller Voyager Class ship, Navigator of the Seas.

 

I think RCCL will be the prime beneficiary of the Princess pull out. We already booked our winter 2017 cruise on RCCL. For the past 3 years we have done it on Princess and will sail Princess again in January 2016.. We sailed RCCL in January for 4 years in a row before that. I was surprised that even this far out there were only a couple of Grand suites to choose from on our sailing in Jan. 2017 on the Liberty of the Seas. We booked early before the price goes up any more and the Princess people all find out that they will not have Princess (or NCL) after April 2016. The suites on RCCL are pricing significantly higher than the suites on Princess.

Edited November 20, 2015 by DebJ14

[caribill]

Princess is dropping Houston which would free up a ship.

 

 

Princess has moved several ships to the far East and to Australia.

 

Leaving Houston just allows that ship to replace one of those that now sail on the other side of the world.

[Potstech]

I would love it if they would host a few sailings out of Charleston, SC!

 

Per the news it looks as if the people of Charleston, SC do not want a ship out of there. They even tried to stop them from coming for port visits. Do you think amy cruise line would now consider them after all the problems. I like Charleston and was married outside of there.

 

Would love to see ships out of Norfolk as they have a terminal that is just beging for the business as is the Governor.

[TracieABD]

Per the news it looks as if the people of Charleston, SC do not want a ship out of there. They even tried to stop them from coming for port visits. Do you think amy cruise line would now consider them after all the problems. I like Charleston and was married outside of there.

 

Would love to see ships out of Norfolk as they have a terminal that is just beging for the business as is the Governor.

 

As I live in Charlotte, I would be happy with Norfolk, as well. It would be great if Princess could spread the wealth on the East Coast a bit. (and too bad that Chucktown is so grumpy about cruise ships...)

[capriccio]

 

Would love to see ships out of Norfolk as they have a terminal that is just beging for the business as is the Governor.

 

Not to mention that it is a great area for excursions (Williamsburg, Yorktown, Jamestown, Virginia Beach, etc.) whether the ships embark/disembark or just stop in Norfolk.

[sunsetbeachgal]

I think those of us on the East coast and south can keep wishing and hoping, myself included, but reality seems to be Ft. Lauderdale and Brooklyn are the only East coast ports that Princess utilizes. For that reason, some of our cruise business has gone elsewhere over the years.

Edited November 20, 2015 by sunsetbeachgal

[crawford]

Not to mention that it is a great area for excursions (Williamsburg, Yorktown, Jamestown, Virginia Beach, etc.) whether the ships embark/disembark or just stop in Norfolk.

 

Cruised out of Norfolk a few years ago on Carnival. Pretty nice terminal as I remember.

 

Would love to see New England or Caribbean itineraries out of here.

[Pierlesscruisers]

Personally we will be shopping for a new cruise line to use if Princess does not offer a gulf coast cruising option, the bigger ships is another turn off, and part of the reason we switched to Princess to begin with.

 

I'm no expert on how cruise lines figure out where to cruise from by any means, but it seems to me that both New Orleans and Houston have 1 thing working against them. That is that both ports are a relatively long way from the Gulf of Mexico where they can cruise at a higher speed and the body of water that they have to sail through to get to the open water are relatively narrow which means traffic problems. Additionally, the Ship Channel at Houston has had a few problems with fog delaying sailings and/or arrivals the past few years. I don't know if the same is true of N.O. Again, these are just suppositions on my part and may not be factual.

 

Tom

[Pierlesscruisers]

Per the news it looks as if the people of Charleston, SC do not want a ship out of there. They even tried to stop them from coming for port visits.

 

Any idea why they didn't want the cruise ships? Seems like that would be good for local businesses and tourism.

 

Tom

[RocketMan275]

I'm no expert on how cruise lines figure out where to cruise from by any means, but it seems to me that both New Orleans and Houston have 1 thing working against them. That is that both ports are a relatively long way from the Gulf of Mexico where they can cruise at a higher speed and the body of water that they have to sail through to get to the open water are relatively narrow which means traffic problems. Additionally, the Ship Channel at Houston has had a few problems with fog delaying sailings and/or arrivals the past few years. I don't know if the same is true of N.O. Again, these are just suppositions on my part and may not be factual.

 

Tom

 

That's correct but you left out one of the real problems with the long voyage down the ships channels. You can't open the casino until you hit the 12 mile limit. Amazing the number of people sitting around the casino waiting for the ship to enter international waters on our last cruise.

[jrzebird]

Any idea why they didn't want the cruise ships? Seems like that would be good for local businesses and tourism.

 

Tom

 

My son lives in SC and I asked him this same question not too long ago. Basically, while the pier is right down town and beautiful, it can't really accommodate a large cruise ship. Also, they have very strict rules to protect the marshes and waterways. I think there was a third reason, but I can't remember it right now.

 

Last time I was down there, there was a P&O ship in port, very small. I've often considered taking the Princess repo that goes from Canada down to Florida, with a stop in Charleston. Maybe someday, when I grow tired of doing the repo from New York, which is probably never. :D

 

Maureen

[PenguinLife]

The problem I see with both Houston and Galveston (much the same for New Orleans) is the limited cruise itineraries offered, for the vast majority of cruises this means only 3 itinerary options with some slight variation between the 4 cruise lines currently regularly sailing from there not counting repositioning cruises.

 

7 days visiting Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel

 

7 day visiting Roatan, Belize and Cozumel (some variations swap out belize city for private island in Belize, or Costa Maya for Cozumel)

 

5 day Cozumel and Progresso

 

Personally I think there is opportunity here for at least one of the cruise lines to offer longer 9-14 day cruises from these ports, skipping the above mentioned ports unfortunately those few that do get offered are typically priced at 2-4 times the price of the typical 7 day cruises from these ports, which makes flying before sailing these itineraries from other ports much more viable.

[little miss s]

I wonder why Princess doesn't originate some of it's Panama Canal cruises from Texas?

 

The biggest problem I see with the ships cruising out of La Porte or Galveston is the proximity to the airport. The Houston airport is just too far away. I've sailed out of Ft. Lauderdale and they are wonderfully positioned to the airport. Easy in. Easy out.

[NYteacher]

The problem I see with both Houston and Galveston (much the same for New Orleans) is the limited cruise itineraries offered, for the vast majority of cruises this means only 3 itinerary options with some slight variation between the 4 cruise lines currently regularly sailing from there not counting repositioning cruises.

 

7 days visiting Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel

 

7 day visiting Roatan, Belize and Cozumel (some variations swap out belize city for private island in Belize, or Costa Maya for Cozumel)

 

5 day Cozumel and Progresso

.

 

Seven day cruises heading south from NYC have even fewer itinerary choices. Pretty much always includes stop in Florida (usually Port Canaveral) then the cruise line's private island, then another stop or two in the Bahamas before heading home. Wash, rinse repeat.