Do cruise ships ever sail near empty?

[ilikeanswers]

I saw a video of a plane passenger who for a number of reasons ended up being the only passenger on a commercial flight and it got me curious if anything like that had happened on a cruise ship. Obviously not in the same extreme (one person on a cruise ship all by themselves imagine that! 🤣) as the flight but perhaps has a ship ever sailed for example at 20% capacity? Or would that be too low already? How low does the number of passengers have to be before they just cancel the sailing? 

[DarrenM]

I have no idea, but being the only passenger on a cruise ship would be incredibly creepy.

[GUT2407]

I doubt it, they’d cancel the cruise and redeploy before they’d let that happen

[Creekside89]

Guy at work’s wife is a travel agent. The 3 day cruise to nowhere on Majestic Princess later this month from Sydney will be half full of travel agents as it wasn’t sold out, and they are allowing partners to come as well.

[donaldsc]

A few years ago, a friend of mine did a cruise out of San Juan Puerto Rico.  The bookings were so low that at the last minute they virtually gave the cruise away to Puerto Rico locals.  He said that it was an interesting cruise.

 

DON

[CruiserBruce]

A dozen years ago we sailed from Ft Lauderdale to Seattle,  through the Panama Canal. The first 15 days, the ship was full....2000 pax. At San Diego, 1400 got off, due to PSVA, none were allowed on. So we sailed 3 days to Victoria with 600, or 30%. The ship was pretty quiet. At Victoria,  200 more got off. So, for one night, we had about 20% on board. 

[Floridiana]

One of the expedition ships we were looking at does the Arctic in our summer and then goes down to the Antarctic. On the way south, it crosses the Atlantic from a Cape Verde Island to Argentina. I wondered if there would be any passenger on it for that leg, but it is in the brochure. 

[Tapi]

In 2005, hurricane Katrina hit Miami while I lived there. The next morning after the hurricane passed, around 10am, I received a call from Carnival offering a modified 2 night itinerary departing that same afternoon. $49pp, best cabin available. They had two ships to choose from doing the same modified itinerary, Fascination and Imagination. With no electricity at home, my wife and I decided to go on the Fascination and get away for a few days. We showed up at the port with one backpack. We were assigned an ocean view stateroom on the Empress deck. When we boarded, the ship was eerily empty. Needless to say, a large percentage of the original passengers couldn’t make it to Miami. Airport had been closed for the last 24 hours and many roads were loitered with debris from the hurricane. We had a wonderful time and at times it felt as if we had the ship all to ourselves. No lines, o let a few tables occupied at the main dining room, and a handful of people occupying the front rows at the theater. The weather was amazing. Clear skies and calm seas. First and only time I’ve sailed on such an empty ship. 

[Tapi]

3 hours ago, donaldsc said:

A few years ago, a friend of mine did a cruise out of San Juan Puerto Rico.  The bookings were so low that at the last minute they virtually gave the cruise away to Puerto Rico locals.  He said that it was an interesting cruise.

I always question the veracity of statements like this one. Puerto Rico locals always account for a large percentage of cruisers sailing from San Juan without the need for resident discounts for the same reasons that Texas locals account for a large percentage of cruisers from Galveston, etc. I think that a lot of mainlanders who sail out of San Juan for the first time don’t realize (and are shocked ) about this and then assume and wrongly conclude that it must be because “the ship was empty and they had to give the cruise away to the locals”. 

 

 Sailings out of San Juan are tailored to address their passenger composition, with music (bands and DJ’s) and activities geared towards the Latin population, and announcements made in Spanish, which definitely makes for an interesting cruise experience for some unsuspecting cruisers who’ve never sailed from ports outside of the US mainland. 

 

I was born and raised in Puerto Rico, and cruising was and continues being one of the top forms of vacation for people who live there. It’s easy and there’s no need for airfare. Rarely would I see resident specials. There’s no need for them. 

[marco]

Not the entire cruise, but many years ago we sailed out of NYC with less than 200 pax onboard.  We went to FLL and picked up the other 1200.  That was back in the day when a few ships sailed out of NYC and stopped in FLA for more passengers.

[leaveitallbehind]

With the cruise industry as strong and popular as it is, with most mass market cruise lines sailing at less than full capacity on any given itinerary is extremely rare.  This has been the case for a number of years, further supported in particular with a strong economy.

[lenquixote66]

8 hours ago, ilikeanswers said:

I saw a video of a plane passenger who for a number of reasons ended up being the only passenger on a commercial flight and it got me curious if anything like that had happened on a cruise ship. Obviously not in the same extreme (one person on a cruise ship all by themselves imagine that! 🤣) as the flight but perhaps has a ship ever sailed for example at 20% capacity? Or would that be too low already? How low does the number of passengers have to be before they just cancel the sailing? 

No idea re a cruise ship but we were on a plane flying from Minneapolis to Fairbanks. There were only 7 passengers on the plane.There were 93 empty seats.

[SantaFeFan]

Occasionally they will sail empty on their way to or from a dry dock. Reasons could be to get started early on interior renovations, to completing renovations, to unexpected problems requiring immediate maintenance in an available facility. The latter happened to Grand Princess when a tender platform somehow opened while under way from Hawaii to the US mainland and suffered enough significant damage to make the ship non seaworthy. The ship returned to Hawaii and all passengers were flown home. The platform was temporarily welded shut in prior to permanent repairs. The ship had a dry dock scheduled on the US mainland and traveled there at restricted speed with no passengers on board, arriving a couple of days late for their drydock schedule. 

 

 

Edited September 2, 2019 by SantaFeFan

[nybumpkin]

1 hour ago, leaveitallbehind said:

With the cruise industry as strong and popular as it is, with most mass market cruise lines sailing at less than full capacity on any given itinerary is extremely rare.  This has been the case for a number of years, further supported in particular with a strong economy.

I remember some years back there was a show that focused on a NCL ship and how the ship was expected to generate revenue during the cruise - casino, photos, shore excursions, drinks, etc. A crew member they interviewed commented that if the ship sailed with empty cabins they lost those revenue opportunities, so the shoreside staff would make every effort to fill those cabins before sailing.

Edited September 2, 2019 by nybumpkin

[Heidi13]

On the above example provided by SantaFeFan, the Classification Society (probably Lloyd's Register) will have issued the Master a "Condition of Class", which most likely provided approval for a single voyage to a specified shipyard. Although the inner door provides the water-tight integrity of the hull, the removal of the outer door has introduced a risk factor that will have dictated no passengers during the transit. They may also have re-assigned some non-essential crew to other ships.

 

When we drydocked in Victoria after the Alaska season we also sailed to/from  Esquimalt with no passengers, as we had insufficient crew to meet the passenger certificate.

[NJ Gal]

Rarely in the last few years do any ships sail with many empty cabins. Sometimes people do have an emergency at the last minute so their cabins might become available & stay empty.

Edited September 2, 2019 by NJ Gal

[ldubs]

11 hours ago, ilikeanswers said:

I saw a video of a plane passenger who for a number of reasons ended up being the only passenger on a commercial flight and it got me curious if anything like that had happened on a cruise ship. Obviously not in the same extreme (one person on a cruise ship all by themselves imagine that! 🤣) as the flight but perhaps has a ship ever sailed for example at 20% capacity? Or would that be too low already? How low does the number of passengers have to be before they just cancel the sailing? 

 

One passenger.  Hmm, wouldn't have to worry about chair hogs or saving seats for the show.  😀

[sail7seas]

13 hours ago, GUT2407 said:

I doubt it, they’d cancel the cruise and redeploy before they’d let that happen

 

 

Sell the cabins at very low prices (as they did after 9-11)    and hope for lots of on  board spending.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[evandbob]

16 hours ago, donaldsc said:

A few years ago, a friend of mine did a cruise out of San Juan Puerto Rico.  The bookings were so low that at the last minute they virtually gave the cruise away to Puerto Rico locals.  He said that it was an interesting cruise.

 

DON

 

This isn't a myth????  I've heard this said and refuted on CC many times.

 

edit: I now see that Tapi has already questioned this tale's veracity.

Edited September 3, 2019 by evandbob

[donaldsc]

Just now, evandbob said:

 

This isn't a myth????  I've heard this said and refuted on CC many times.

 

All I can say is that these friends have done many many many cruises and they were on the aforementioned cruise.  I am just repeating what they say and they do not complain about cruise problems very frequently.

 

DON

[clo]

This is slightly OT but is there any site where you can find out how many people are booked on a specific cruise?

[ilikeanswers]

59 minutes ago, clo said:

This is slightly OT but is there any site where you can find out how many people are booked on a specific cruise?

 

I was once looking if that sort of information was available for airplanes came across a website that said that sort of information for airlines, cruise lines and tour companies are considered industry secrets😕. They would lose some competitive edge if that sort of information came out before date of departure. 

[clo]

5 minutes ago, ilikeanswers said:

 

I was once looking if that sort of information was available for airplanes came across a website that said that sort of information for airlines, cruise lines and tour companies are considered industry secrets😕. They would lose some competitive edge if that sort of information came out before date of departure. 

I booked directly with O and have a super relationship (I think!) with the guy.  Would he be able/willing to tell me.  We cruising in three months and our "roll call" is minute.  Not that that really means anything.  But in light of this thread I do wonder if they'd cancel the cruise if there weren't a minimum number of pax.  Any experience or opinions are welcome.  Thanks.

[ilikeanswers]

5 minutes ago, clo said:

I booked directly with O and have a super relationship (I think!) with the guy.  Would he be able/willing to tell me.  We cruising in three months and our "roll call" is minute.  Not that that really means anything.  But in light of this thread I do wonder if they'd cancel the cruise if there weren't a minimum number of pax.  Any experience or opinions are welcome.  Thanks.

 

No harm in asking, I would give it a go😁👍. In my experience they always had to check availability before booking so it does make me wonder if the staff who process bookings would have this information but I still would give them call. Let me know if you do get an answer🤗. 

[clo]

2 minutes ago, ilikeanswers said:

Let me know if you do get an answer🤗

I sure will.  I'll ask in conjunction with making our final payment 🙂  Thanks.