Eclipse capacity - when is it full?

[leehal]

Is there a way to find out how busy a ship was on a previous cruise and how busy it will be?

 

Trying to do a comparison between our last Eclipse cruise last May to the Norwegian Fjords and our next one to the Western Med in September.

 

 

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[donaldsc]

Is there a way to find out how busy a ship was on a previous cruise and how busy it will be?

 

Trying to do a comparison between our last Eclipse cruise last May to the Norwegian Fjords and our next one to the Western Med in September.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

a) No

 

b) Try booking rooms and that may give you an idea.

 

DON

[Cruise Arizona]

Is there a way to find out how busy a ship was on a previous cruise and how busy it will be?

 

Trying to do a comparison between our last Eclipse cruise last May to the Norwegian Fjords and our next one to the Western Med in September.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

 

It might be hard to get good feel for it now that your are home. In the past we have inquired with the staff while on the cruise as to how full the ship is.

 

Since you can't go back an ask on that other cruise and you want to know what to expect before you get on this next one, you might try to find out the numbers of 3rd and 4th berths still available to be booked.

 

It can be a little confusing as Celebrity has more 3rd and 4th beds than they can actually fill. Unlike Royal Caribbean and Carnival, Celebrity will let 2 people book a 4 berth cabin sbecause their strategy is not to fill every bed. The other two lines will not let you book a cabin with 3 or 4 beds for two people. Their might be rare cases where they would or last minute bookings when this restriction is lifted, but as a general rule you have to have 3 or 4 people for a 3 or 4 person cabin.

 

So that being said, with Celebrity having more beds than life boat capacity, they close the bookings to 3rd and 4th guests even when you can see a cabin available that will hold 3 or 4 people.

 

So what this means in terms or how crowded the ship might feel or not crowded is that when they have maxed out on those 3rd and 4th berths, the ship will fee more packed. Even then, I think Celebrity still feels spacious.

 

Last summer we did the Solstice Alaska and there was a large group doing a fundraising cruise which had many families. It was also mid June so school was out. About 4-5 months before the cruise, it was closed to new bookings for 3rd and 4th persons. I was with a smaller group on this sailing and one couple wanted to bring their son, but they would have had to booked two rooms in order to do that. We brought our daughter along with us as we added her early to the booking. My son's schedule was a bit up in the air, so by the time we go around to considering adding him, we couldn't add the 4th person to the room.

 

6:00 dining was over booked and they had to seat our group in the area that was normally reserved for flexible dining. With the addition of Luminea taking up some space, this was really the only place where the ship felt a little too packed during that 6:00 dining time. Really we didn't feel squeezed at all any other time.

 

When we sailed on the Trans-Atlantic on the Solstice years ago, I imagine there were very few 3rd and 4th berths sold because there were about 10 kids on the whole ship and the crowds were very thin.

 

So now to make a long story short the ships almost always sail with every cabin sold, but it is those 3rd and 4th berths that make the difference. You could check from time to time and see if they are still accepting 3 and 4 person per cabin reservations. Is your cruise during a break time? If school is back in session in Europe as it is here you are not likely to have very many 3rd and 4th cabins filled.

 

I hope that helps. You might even call Celebrity and ask them.

[DYKWIA]

Our last two Western Med Cruises on the Eclipse (the one you're doing this year) have both been supposedly full, but as there were hardly any kids on board there was probably not so many cabins at full occupancy.

 

Never struggled to find a lounger (that's not saying there were lots free), service at the bars was reasonable, we always managed to get seats in the theatre going in 10 mins before curtain up, and at the 6.15 seating at dinner there were always tables free.

 

The only time the ship felt full was just after Muster Drill when everyone is on the move at the same time.

 

This cruise has 6 sea days over 14 which means there's no rush to see everything the ship has to offer.

Edited July 17, 2016 by DYKWIA

[cb at sea]

Even if cabins are still available, that doesn't mean there isn't a "full house"..you could have lots of quads..or triples....it's the number of souls aboard..not the number of cabins sold!

[ighten]

Just reflecting on the pevious post ;I find the big difference no matter what ship or cruise line - is how many kids are on board..

 

If its full to capacity with no kids it can feel half as empty as a half capacity ship during school hols

[DYKWIA]

Two years ago this cruise sailed the first week in September, after most schools have gone back to school, and I'd be surprised if there were more than 5-10 children of any age on board. Last year it sailed a week earlier in the last few days of the school vacation and it felt as though there were a few more, but still a VERY small number.

 

Whether with the recent failure of the prosecution of a parent who took his child out of school to go on holiday and the now reluctance by some authorities to pursue these cases results in more children on board remains to be seen; I suspect the numbers will probably increase most on the Disneyworld vacations than a two week cruise to Genoa, Florence and Rome.