How does Royal limit ship capacity to 50%?

[Jimbo]

This is how they do it, they tender every passenger to the ship like this. So you may or may not make your sailing.  It cuts down the passenger load pretty fast so no ships sails with over 50%.

 

https://www.facebook.com/VonGirl/videos/10224514730274345

[ramja96]

13 minutes ago, Zach1213 said:

 

That completely depends on the cost of each room and additional revenue brought in (meals, drinks, excursions, etc.). I'm sure some cruises break even at 25% and some at 80%, like hotels and airlines. There's no such thing as a set occupancy number that every cruise breaks even. 

 

Either way, they don't need to be anywhere near full capacity in order to turn a profit.

[Biker19]

24 minutes ago, ramja96 said:

 

Either way, they don't need to be anywhere near full capacity in order to turn a profit.

According to RCG's SEC filing, at 108% occupancy,  their profit was around 10%.

[jrapps]

I suspect that making a profit may not even be a goal of the first few cruises back. It could just be "lose less money" and prove that sailing can be safe.

[ramja96]

21 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

According to RCG's SEC filing, at 108% occupancy,  their profit was around 10%.

 

Interesting - I remember reading (can't recall where) hat they only needed to be at (around) 60-70% to "break even".

[scorpluvsdolphins]

13 hours ago, ticketsunlimited said:

I would imagine that the only way to justifiably "bump" people without totally ticking everybody off is the old fashioned "fair" way.

In the order of when you booked your cruise.  In other words first come first served.  Lift and shifts would be probably in the "safe zone" I would guess.

That is not how they handled over booking a ship in the past. It was a Florida port, they contacted most everyone that lived in Florida and offered them their money back if they would change ships and or sail dates. I was offered and declined. My guess is so did most of the people. The changes they offered were not better. 

They increased the offer. 

They offered to switch to a 9 night cruise for free, same type of cabin, same time frame, except a longer cruise. 
I jumped on it.
The balcony cabin I got was in the same place as the other ship. So, I got a free cruise and only had to pay the port charges. 
I went from a 4/5 night ( I don’t remember which) to a 9 night for free. 
 

[ramja96]

 

6 minutes ago, scorpluvsdolphins said:

That is not how they handled over booking a ship in the past. It was a Florida port, they contacted most everyone that lived in Florida and offered them their money back if they would change ships and or sail dates. I was offered and declined. My guess is so did most of the people. The changes they offered were not better. 

They increased the offer. 

They offered to switch to a 9 night cruise for free, same type of cabin, same time frame, except a longer cruise. 
I jumped on it.
The balcony cabin I got was in the same place as the other ship. So, I got a free cruise and only had to pay the port charges. 
I went from a 4/5 night ( I don’t remember which) to a 9 night for free. 
 

Sign me up!!  Yeah, I want that deal! 

Edited May 25, 2021 by ramja96

[jrapps]

5 minutes ago, ramja96 said:

 

Interesting - I remember reading (can't recall where) hat they only needed to be at (around) 60-70% to "break even".

The other factor that affects this is the price of the cruise. I don't think it is as simple as they need to be at x% capacity to be profitable.

 

Cruising at peak times like Summer or Christmas costs as much as double what it costs to cruise in February or October...but it doesn't cost twice as much to run the cruise.

 

There is no magic percentage. Every sailing of every cruise is a different "break even" point.

[scorpluvsdolphins]

2 minutes ago, ramja96 said:

 

Interesting - I remember reading (can't recall where) hat they only needed to be at (around) 60-70% to "break even".

Depends on the class of ship, prices for the cabins, sailing date, excursions bought, drink packages and how much the casino made. 

Cruises in the summer make more money as the cabin prices are higher and more people buy excursions. 

[Mapleleafforever]

13 hours ago, ticketsunlimited said:

I would imagine that the only way to justifiably "bump" people without totally ticking everybody off is the old fashioned "fair" way.

In the order of when you booked your cruise.  In other words first come first served.  Lift and shifts would be probably in the "safe zone" I would guess.

It's all gonna come down to dollars......whoever paid the most will get to sail. They really need the money.....

[Biker19]

14 minutes ago, ramja96 said:

 

Interesting - I remember reading (can't recall where) hat they only needed to be at (around) 60-70% to "break even".

That break even point is only at the ship level, it doesn't pay for the sizeable shore side operations. 

[scorpluvsdolphins]

1 minute ago, Mapleleafforever said:

It's all gonna come down to dollars......whoever paid the most will get to sail. They really need the money.....

Probably not. 
A Pinnacle member who is MASTERS or Signature in the casino who got a free JS, probably won’t be asked to move. 
If a person is Signature or Masters in the casino, they know that person has spent a ton of money in the casino. They want them to sail. Add in the person is the highest level in the C&A......

[Mapleleafforever]

Just now, scorpluvsdolphins said:

Probably not. 
A Pinnacle member who is MASTERS or Signature in the casino who got a free JS, probably won’t be asked to move. 
If a person is Signature or Masters in the casino, they know that person has spent a ton of money in the casino. They want them to sail. Add in the person is the highest level in the C&A......

And they'll spend much money in the casino which means that they are paying more. Money money money. I know I for one would be more than willing to pay more to enjoy a half empty ship.....I'm salivating at the thought. 

[ramja96]

10 minutes ago, Mapleleafforever said:

It's all gonna come down to dollars......whoever paid the most will get to sail. They really need the money.....

 

I doubt it's that simple.  Yes, they need to make money, but they also need to make sure people are happy with their return to cruising. There's a lot at stake for them.

 

I would think if it's going to be something as simple as that, it would be loyalty status that gets preference.

 

Edited May 25, 2021 by ramja96

[molly361]

11 minutes ago, Mapleleafforever said:

It's all gonna come down to dollars......whoever paid the most will get to sail. They really need the money.....

I highly doubt that will happen

[Mapleleafforever]

1 minute ago, ramja96 said:

 

I doubt it's that simple.  Yes, they need to make money, but they also need to make sure people are happy with their return to cruising. There's a lot at stake for them.

It's never going to be simple but you can bet that cruising will be more expensive for quite some time. With a 50% capacity ship I'm ok with that and willing to pay. 

[Mapleleafforever]

Just now, molly361 said:

I highly doubt that will happen

Time will tell. 

[scorpluvsdolphins]

1 minute ago, Mapleleafforever said:

And they'll spend much money in the casino which means that they are paying more. Money money money. I know I for one would be more than willing to pay more to enjoy a half empty ship.....I'm salivating at the thought. 

Incorrect. The cabin is free and Royal HOPES they spend their usual. 
Royal is taking a gamble (pun intended), that they will spend money in the casino. 

[Mapleleafforever]

2 minutes ago, scorpluvsdolphins said:

Incorrect. The cabin is free and Royal HOPES they spend their usual. 
Royal is taking a gamble (pun intended), that they will spend money in the casino. 

Gamblers gonna gamble gonna gamble. Casinos everywhere know this. I for one have only gambled and lost 20 bucks in Royal casinos over the years.....won't even walk through cause the smoke smell is not so inviting. Hey, maybe they'll ban smoking in casinos if cruising ever restarts, that'll be awesome and I'll probably go lose another 20 one day if that happens. 

[NightOne]

12 hours ago, John Reid said:

They have hired Thanos from "The Avengers: Infinity War" to come up with a plan. He has the experience.

 

 

Oh snap

[SherriZ366]

3 hours ago, jrapps said:

I found an old post on the RC Blog. Seems there isn't an "official" percentage, I think the guideline is  just each line can reduce overall capacity as necessary to achieve the reduced capacity they need in theaters, dining rooms, etc. According to the blog:

 

"One of the health protocols that the Healthy Sail Panel proposed, and adopted by the cruise industry, is to limit how many passengers are able to go on a cruise ship in order to allow for appropriate physical distancing on board. The exact percentage of a ship's capacity that will be reduced will depend on the size and design of each cruise ship."

 

So will it be reduced....yes. Is 50% the right number? Doubtful. My guess is most ships will sail at most 30% reduced capacity. We may never know a true number. My hope is that once info on any specific sailing comes out, a certain # of people will automatically cancel (such as the "I wont sail with a mask" or "my kid won't get the vaccine") and this will naturally reduce the capacity.

I think you're making a good point.  There will be bookings cancellations for early cruises with more restrictions so some booking capacity will be reduced.   

[bstel]

They are being vague on the reduced capacity on purpose so they can increase the capacities as fast as they can if the initial sailings go well.  Then they wont have a bunch of pissed of people who booked early thinking the ship would be at 50% capacity and then find out it is actually at 90% when they set sail.

 

I think the 50% number came from one of the initial announcements regarding Adventure of the Seas sailing out of Nassau when they stated that "initial sailings would be around 50%" or something to that effect.  So they were only committing to the lower number early on and you could easily see August or Sept cruises at higher capacity, assuming demand holds.  My guess is the later August and Sept Adventure Nassau sailing demand will plummet if the US cruises take off in August as planned.

 

When I booked my my June Adventure cruise on the phone, I specifically asked the booking person about capacity and she gave me some vague non-answer.

[cooncat_mom]

I’m interested in seeing how they do this too... we’re booked on a September cruise on the Oasis in a Boardwalk balcony cabins. For the first time in a long while, I went into the Royal site and went to do a mock booking.  It seems they’re only booking Boardwalk balcony cabins on decks 8, 11 and 14 for all the sailings in September.  This is interesting since we’re on deck 10. Hmm....

[Hoopster95]

On 5/25/2021 at 7:45 AM, ramja96 said:

 

Interesting - I remember reading (can't recall where) hat they only needed to be at (around) 60-70% to "break even".

 

biker has been posting excerpts from various SEC filings since Covid began, and I'm pretty sure in one of them was the mention (and then the following discussion on  several  threads here on CC) that the bigger classes (and specifically Oasis Class) can break even at approximately 30% occupancy. There was then a lot of discussion on these forums that it would make sense the return to cruising would be Oasis Class ships on short 3/4 days runs to/from Cococay.

 

It was also mentioned on the SEC filing (not from hearsay) that the smaller ships (and I believe Radiance Class was used as the example) that 50% occupancy was required, as Radiance Class has less passenger ratio per square foot, less revenue producing venues, etc etc.

[Hoopster95]

On 5/25/2021 at 7:56 AM, Mapleleafforever said:

It's all gonna come down to dollars......whoever paid the most will get to sail. They really need the money.....

 

I'll make a bet right now that those who don't agree with this are both naïve and frugal in a sense, and perhaps never involved in big business dealings in their livelihood.

 

I tell you what, if I told my high dollar clients that they were less important than a guy 1000 places down the list that spends $10, they'd find someone else to do business very very very quickly... and influence many of their other high $$$ friends to leave as well.

 

How could RCG decide who sails and who doesn't "fairly"? Like they've already done....

Cancel cruises, redeploy ships, and then double the base fare pricing.