October available cruises - insights? mistakes? insightful mistakes??

[Honolulu Blue]

I took a look at the cruises available by searching on Carnival's Web site for October (and only that month).  These are the things that caught my eye:

 

• There were 75 results when I checked this yesterday.  Now it's down to 53.  Obviously some ships and their itineraries have been chopped.
• Some ships are showing as unavailable for all of October - Breeze, Freedom, Glory, Horizon, Legend, Magic, Pride, Radiance, Vista, and Mardi Gras.  Of course the Mardi Gras and Radiance are being worked on and weren't ever going to be available in October.  Some of the others were on the "first eight" list from last month.  Could this be capacity control?  I can't imagine any of these ships being on the sales block (which might be another reason to stop selling berths on them), but the Legend and Pride are getting a little long in the tooth...
• Of the available cruises, most are very short - 5 days or fewer.  Maybe there's a lobster shortage?  Just kidding.  Their thinking might be that shorter cruises might be better for now, or at least easier to sell to the CDC.
• With these short cruises, I'm seeing a lot of ports you'd expect - Nassau, Freeport, HMC, Princess Cays, Cozumel, Progreso, Ensenada, Grand Turk, Amber Cove.  Key West was a bit of a surprise and I saw a couple heading to Grand Cayman - which I doubt will be open then. I only saw one cruise with Ocho Rios as a stop and I didn't see Costa Maya at all.
• One of the cruises that caught my eye was the Miracle out of San Diego which offers two days in Cabo San Lucas.  "An overnight" was my initial thought.  But that's not what they're doing.  After a sea day, they stop at Cabo 9-6.  Then apparently they go out to sea and head back to Cabo from 7-4 the next day.  Then it's back to San Diego.  I've never seen a Carnival cruise with two stops at the same port on different days.  Is this a new cruise or has this always been around?
• Ignoring the Australian cruises, the longest cruises I found were exactly 7 days - Mexican Riviera on the Panorama and the Eastern/Southern Caribbean route on the Fascination.
• With a few exceptions, these cruises are at giveaway prices.  I wonder why...

 

Of course, this could all change by the time you take a look.  But this is what I found.  Strange days indeed... anyway, thanks for reading.

[bury me at sea]

I noticed when I did my daily price checking this morning that all October sailings for Vista and Freedom were gone.  Yesterday they were listed, though the 2 I looked at showed unavailable for booking at about step 3 of the booking process.

[sanmarcosman]

2 hours ago, Honolulu Blue said:

 

• One of the cruises that caught my eye was the Miracle out of San Diego which offers two days in Cabo San Lucas.  "An overnight" was my initial thought.  But that's not what they're doing.  After a sea day, they stop at Cabo 9-6.  Then apparently they go out to sea and head back to Cabo from 7-4 the next day.  Then it's back to San Diego.  I've never seen a Carnival cruise with two stops at the same port on different days.  Is this a new cruise or has this always been around

Yes, that's the regular routine for Cabo and Miracle has operated this schedule for years as well as other ships of the line sailing to Cabo.

 

As of now our October 31st cruise on Panorama is still offering cabins starting at $334pp for the Halloween Cruise. Spooky prices 🙂 

Edited June 19, 2020 by sanmarcosman

[lostsoulcruiser]

I noticed the same thing this morning when checking on my October 18 cruise on the Glory.  All 7 day cruises out of NOLA are not listed.

[lovetocruise79]

I noticed too the Freedom cruises for October are not showing up. We are booked on the October 18th out of Galveston. 

[bury me at sea]

37 minutes ago, lovetocruise79 said:

I noticed too the Freedom cruises for October are not showing up. We are booked on the October 18th out of Galveston. 

 

We should be arriving at the terminal while you are debarking. 

[chipmaster]

I had high anticipation of a Summer cruise Alaska/Europe, then it was winter, I'm thinking 2022 at the earliest and who knows what it will look like.

[firefly333]

My guess is people booking 6 days or longer to get that $600, leaving the short cruises. I know I'm looking at the longer cruises.

 

Otherwise put 2 dream cruises b2b and you get a whole cruise at the same price.

 

Until that incentive to book 6 days or longer gone, those are the ones going to be booked and hitting capacity

[Honolulu Blue]

I took another look at what's available to be booked for October at Carnival.com .  The total available cruises for that month is up to 59.  Curious.  I then limited the search to 6-9 day cruises, and apart from the Australian cruises, this is what I found:

 

• October 4 6-day Eastern Caribbean on the Breeze (Ft. Lauderdale)
• October 3 7-day Western Caribbean on the Magic (Miami)
• October 10 7-day Eastern Caribbean on the Magic (Miami)
• October 3, 10, and 24 7-day Mexican Riviera on the Panorama (Long Beach)
• October 4 and 11 7-day Western Caribbean on the Freedom (Galveston)
• October 11 6-day Western Caribbean  on the Horizon (Miami)
• October 3 7-day Western Caribbean on the Vista (Galveston)
• October 4 7-day Western Caribbean on the Glory (New Orleans)
• October 3 8-day Southern Caribbean on the Horizon (Miami)

This is an interesting mix of dates, itineraries, and embarkation ports.  I wonder if it means anything?  Probably not, because they're all likely to get removed soon.

[cellfree]

We have the Sunrise booked out of Port Everglades for October 31. Another “wait and see.” Was a $150 deposit so if cancelled would simply move $150 to another choice along with $300 OBC. Oh the drama!

[lisagro]

They still haven't cancelled the November 1 Journeys cruise on the Pride, but I think it is likely that they will. I just hope they do it before the last minute.

[GLCM GUY]

We are booked on the 3 October Panorama cruise but I am not optimistic.  Mexico and the CDC have big votes!

[firefly333]

I could have not caught where in texas this applies, but gatherings of more than 10 banned thru next feb.

 

Didnt catch if it applies to Galveston... but sounds like a problem to me.

 

We got 5 bodies in refrigerated truck today, no room in morgue and saying not all covid some were preventable deaths for treatable conditions they just didnt come to hospital.

Edited July 15, 2020 by firefly333

[Joebucks]

That is quite the detailed investigation. Perhaps it is accurate or close to what is coming next.

 

For me, I'm done trying to get ahead of any new info. With the way things have been going, I'll just assume the worst, and wait for official words.

[Honolulu Blue]

UPDATE:  I took another look at the schedule, this time looking at all dates and not just October.  Some ships are now unavailable to be booked:  Fantasy, Fascination, Imagination, Inspiration, Sensation, Radiance.  Schedule changes might be coming for these ships.  Stay tuned.

[wikoffclan]

Mobile is grayed out as a home port for All dates. It was available to book yesterday. So sad...

[cruisinthemed]

On 6/19/2020 at 5:52 AM, Honolulu Blue said:

I took a look at the cruises available by searching on Carnival's Web site for October (and only that month).  These are the things that caught my eye:

 

• There were 75 results when I checked this yesterday.  Now it's down to 53.  Obviously some ships and their itineraries have been chopped.
• Some ships are showing as unavailable for all of October - Breeze, Freedom, Glory, Horizon, Legend, Magic, Pride, Radiance, Vista, and Mardi Gras.  Of course the Mardi Gras and Radiance are being worked on and weren't ever going to be available in October.  Some of the others were on the "first eight" list from last month.  Could this be capacity control?  I can't imagine any of these ships being on the sales block (which might be another reason to stop selling berths on them), but the Legend and Pride are getting a little long in the tooth...
• Of the available cruises, most are very short - 5 days or fewer.  Maybe there's a lobster shortage?  Just kidding.  Their thinking might be that shorter cruises might be better for now, or at least easier to sell to the CDC.
• With these short cruises, I'm seeing a lot of ports you'd expect - Nassau, Freeport, HMC, Princess Cays, Cozumel, Progreso, Ensenada, Grand Turk, Amber Cove.  Key West was a bit of a surprise and I saw a couple heading to Grand Cayman - which I doubt will be open then. I only saw one cruise with Ocho Rios as a stop and I didn't see Costa Maya at all.
• One of the cruises that caught my eye was the Miracle out of San Diego which offers two days in Cabo San Lucas.  "An overnight" was my initial thought.  But that's not what they're doing.  After a sea day, they stop at Cabo 9-6.  Then apparently they go out to sea and head back to Cabo from 7-4 the next day.  Then it's back to San Diego.  I've never seen a Carnival cruise with two stops at the same port on different days.  Is this a new cruise or has this always been around?
• Ignoring the Australian cruises, the longest cruises I found were exactly 7 days - Mexican Riviera on the Panorama and the Eastern/Southern Caribbean route on the Fascination.
• With a few exceptions, these cruises are at giveaway prices.  I wonder why...

 

Of course, this could all change by the time you take a look.  But this is what I found.  Strange days indeed... anyway, thanks for reading.

I am booked on the Miracle 5 days out of San Diego to Cabo in October.  Carnival just recently is cruising out of San Diego.  Carnival hadn't cruised from there for years.  On other cruises which were 7 days out of Long Beach some were 2 days Cabo and then a day at Mazatlan or Puerto Vallarta.  You would have the option to stay overnight in Cabo, knowing that is a tender port & if they couldn't tender the next day you would be left there to find your way... Kind of risky, but many used to do it.