Are Bookings of Royal Caribbean Bermuda Homeport Cruises Below Expectations? Flights Being Offered For As Little As $99 RT

[njhorseman]

Royal is offering roundtrip fares for as little as $99 from EWR and LGA. I suspect bookings must be lower than expected for them to subsidize the airfare that

heavily. It may speak to how unattractive the itinerary is to many potential passengers.

 

https://www.royalgazette.com/tourism/news/article/20210422/cruise-company-subsiding-flights-to-boost-passengers-on-bermuda-cruise-report/

[Charles4515]

5 minutes ago, njhorseman said:

Royal is offering roundtrip fares for as little as $99 from EWR and LGA. I suspect bookings must be lower than expected for them to subsidize the airfare that

heavily. It may speak to how unattractive the itinerary is to many potential passengers.

 

https://www.royalgazette.com/tourism/news/article/20210422/cruise-company-subsiding-flights-to-boost-passengers-on-bermuda-cruise-report/

I speculated that bookings might not be good on the Royal Caribbean forum yesterday based on someone reporting airfares going down to $149 rt  and someone claimed bookings were good. Today’s article speaks otherwise. 

[Azulann]

Bookings on the Viking Ocean cruises for June and July are filling up. The first cruise in June will only be 50%full by design.  Later curises will have more passengers. The ships hold 930 passengers.  I  be in flying to Berumda on July 10 on Delta . I got my flight through Viking air, it  was a fair price in my book. 

Roayl Carribbean is a huge ship by comparison. 

Edited April 23, 2021 by Azulann

[Charles4515]

3 minutes ago, Azulann said:

Bookings on the Viking Ocean cruises for June and July are filling up. The first cruise in June will only be 50%full by design.  Later curises will have more passengers. The ships hold 930 passengers.  I  be in flying to Berumda on July 10 on Delta . I got my flight through Viking air, it  was a fair price in my book. 

Roayl Carribbean is a huge ship by comparison. 

 

Royal Caribbean is also only booking 50% capacity. Vision holds 2000 passengers, a larger ship than Viking's but not exactly huge.

[Azulann]

You are right, 2000 is not in the huge category. I used to sail Celebrity on constellation, solstice size ships. 
good to know that they are also doing 50% capacity. These cruise lines want to get it right on these first sailings . 

[Tapi]

That’s my uneducated assessment as well. All sailing dates on Vision of the Seas are still showing the same exact cheap pricing. While there are no specials on airfare from ATL (my closest airport), I can drive to CLT (4 hours away) and get $149rt airfare. Even with the airfare included, the total package is cheaper than taking a 7 night cruise from a drive to port during “non-pandemic” times.

 

Yes, it’s an older ship, and the itinerary leaves a lot to be desired, but I’m tempted to book it. I just don’t know which week will work for me.

 

On the other hand, sailings on Adventure out of Nassau seem to be selling much better. Prices are creeping up, and several sailings are already more than what I’m willing to pay for this ship and itinerary. And without airfare subsidies from Royal, airfare to NAS is also considerably more than to BDA. Overall, at this point in time, Adventure would be at least $1,000 more for than Vision for my family of 4, even on the cheapest date. But it’s also a bigger, nicer ship with a more attractive itinerary. Decisions, decisions. 

[EllaDuChien]

On 4/27/2021 at 3:41 PM, Tapi said:

 

Yes, it’s an older ship, and the itinerary leaves a lot to be desired, but I’m tempted to book it. I just don’t know which week will work for me.

 

I live in Charlotte so it was a no brainer.  The itinerary is boring...that's for sure, but I booked it as soon as I saw the airfare just to get back to sailing.  I booked the second sailing, July 3.  I had some pretty good offers for the NAS sailings as well, but the airfare clinched the Bermuda sailing.