Will Princess sail if ship is partially booked?

[mlparksoi]

We are on the Sky Princess in December, 2021, and there are many non-booked cabins. Does Princess have a "minimum booking" for sailing? Can we assume a reduced price sale to fill the ship? 

Happy Cruising to all!

Mike

[uspearls]

Glad you asked that, because I was wondering the same for our 5 day on the Grand out of LA in September (her very first!).  Will be interesting to see if some of the posters with "inside" knowledge have something to say.   But, I would imagine a lot of questions and answers will come with a post-COVID caveat now.  The economics, logistics and strategy around pre- and post- start up will I think bring a new normal and less predictability for a while at least. 

 

While reduced pricing is nice, I'm hoping for a half empty ship and upgrades at check in!

[LACruiser88]

I think they will sail regardless of the number of passengers. They'll have full crew and it would be horrible for appearances if they cancel a cruise due to a lack of passengers...

[Wishing on a star]

I have no info or expertise.

I would imagine, that conditions and lawsuits, etc... pending, the cruise lines will want to sail, with any number of passengers.

Good 'test cruise' opportunity.

 

Yes, normally, the cruise lines will do everything that they can to sail as close to capacity as possible.

That is the icing on the cake, the butter on their bread.

But THESE ARE NOT NORMAL TIMES.

 

At this point, it seems that the fares I am seeing are not low,  they are not being discounted, there are no big promotions out there.

 

For me, I would absolutely LOVE the opportunity to sail on a partially filled ship!!!

[Tak8]

Probably best to not have a full ship for Princess and passengers best interests.  Although less money, proving sailings can happen without large outbreaks is a key to a successful future.  They will sail just as movie theaters show films with less than full capacity.

[JerrySueW]

I remember reading that the break even capacity was around 50%. I would imagine that depends on the size of the ship and other variables, but they don't need a full ship to make money and at this point they are probably anxious to get some cash flowing.

 

[mtnesterz]

You did not say which of the six posted cruises you were you were on in Dec '21, but let's say you're on a 7 night RT. They wouldn't also cancel the 14 night, or 21 night sailings of which the 7 day loop is a part. Nor would they cancel a non-looping cruise, because the ship needs to get to it's next embarkation point, regardless of passenger count.

Keeping an eye on prices before submitting your final payment could save you some money.

 

[wowzz]

1 hour ago, mlparksoi said:

We are on the Sky Princess in December, 2021, and there are many non-booked cabins.

But is it not possible that people have booked unallocated cabins, so that the cabins will be shown as empty, purely because they have not yet been allocated?

[cr8tiv1]

1 hour ago, uspearls said:

Glad you asked that, because I was wondering the same for our 5 day on the Grand out of LA in September (her very first!).  Will be interesting to see if some of the posters with "inside" knowledge have something to say.   But, I would imagine a lot of questions and answers will come with a post-COVID caveat now.  The economics, logistics and strategy around pre- and post- start up will I think bring a new normal and less predictability for a while at least. 

 

While reduced pricing is nice, I'm hoping for a half empty ship and upgrades at check in!

 

When the Golden first moved down to San Pedro and doing 3-4 days voyages, they couldn't give away the cabins.  The offer was:  Sail and your entire cruise fare will be applied to any cruise 7 days or longer.  You either gave them your money up front or later...didn't matter to me.  I did many...many...some b2bs in a Window Suite.  Paid for 18 days on the Coral (balcony) to LA/Alaska/Vancouver. Didn't hurt that I made Elite along the way.  

 

I'm on a 4 day to San Diego on the Grand.  So glad she will be homeported here this season.  She, too, is empty.

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

They will try everything they can do to “fill” the ship including price brakes. (I say “fill” because right now ships sailing full are only at 50% capacity).  But they will sail. We were on a trans Panama Canal sailing out of Alcapulco a few years ago and we only were about 2/3 full.  It was awesome!

 

(and we are on 2 of the Dec 2020 Sky sailings.  I’m more nervous about the rules in FL right now more than sailing if not full)

[Jadn13]

1 hour ago, cr8tiv1 said:

 

When the Golden first moved down to San Pedro and doing 3-4 days voyages, they couldn't give away the cabins.  The offer was:  Sail and your entire cruise fare will be applied to any cruise 7 days or longer.  You either gave them your money up front or later...didn't matter to me.  I did many...many...some b2bs in a Window Suite.  Paid for 18 days on the Coral (balcony) to LA/Alaska/Vancouver. Didn't hurt that I made Elite along the way.  

 

I'm on a 4 day to San Diego on the Grand.  So glad she will be homeported here this season.  She, too, is empty.

Same promotion was applied to Caribbean sailings as well. I booked a short sailing an applied the fare to a Trans Atlantic

[Sprocket]

This sailing is not happening for somewhere around 6 months from now.   I think a lot of people are taking a wait and see attitude with the upcoming Alaska cruises.  I believe lots of families at this time  are unable to book because of the ages of their children and not being able to be vaccinated.  Still lots of people not fully vaccinated and I think that will change for some when they start to see the ships sailing without them.  I recognize there are some who refuse to be vaccinated under any circumstances and that is their decision.  Personally we couldn't wait for our second shot.

 

I would be surprised if ships sailed much below whatever capacity levels they have set even if they have to offer some spectacular pricing, but I think they will wait until after final payment to do so.

[Kentucky816]

Here is just another thought !  We have seen such an increase of RV’s on the road here in the South.  Just got back from a road trip fourteen days and the highways are packed.  Within 15 miles on I-40 I started counting…..got up to 48 RV’s of various types.   Also, the amount of boats on our lakes has doubled, local dealer is sold out and has back orders.  Wall Street Journal said that National Parks attendance is at records this year and to expect lots of traffic. 
 

Many people have changed their ways of vacationing, we did VRBO in Amelia Island Florida and loved it so much we will give up one of our normal cruises (average 3 times a year) to go every year. Only thing we have booked is Antarctica on the Diamond Princess Jan 2022 and that doesn’t go, then are going to Florida again…..no cruise.  Might book an Alaska cruise if elderly parents want to next year.   Just waiting to see how this all shakes out.  🙃

[wowzz]

Can I just go back to the OP. How do you know that the number of unbooked cabins has any relevance to the passenger occupancy level?

No cruise line allows occupancy levels to be seen by the general public. This cruise could be sailing at 100% occupancy with cabins allocated immediately prior to embarkation. 

No different to seeing an aircraft seating plan showing only 25% seats occupied, just because the other 75% of pax haven't reserved specific seats.

[nini]

We watched a TV show (a few years ago) and they focused on economics of the cruise. The ship was fully occupied and only if they sold enough alcohol and other beverages would they break even or hopefully a profit. I think this was a Royal Caribbean ship.

[Wishing on a star]

I wouldn't put a lot of stock in a TV show.

 

Of course the cruise lines do want to sail FULL.

On many cruises, they would really offer a lot of promotions at Final Payment to get passengers who book last minute.

 

Also, as far as GTY bookings...

Princess does not offer any discount for booking GTY.  Some others do???

So, with no incentive, on Princess I am surprised at how many GTYs that were on my last cruises.  Thought we would sail with a good amount of availability, but at the last minute with GTY assignments and last minute GTY promo bookings, it was a pretty full ship!

 

BUT...  this is a different time.   The cruises I am looking at in the foreseeable future are, like, empty.

These cruise lines are just wanting to get their ships sailing again!!!

They will sail.

Edited June 28, 2021 by Wishing on a star

[Mary229]

I think many are sitting on the sidelines waiting to see if these summer cruises go off without problems then there will be a mad dash to book. I witnessed this last week when booking travel for Canada.  Once Canada announced they would be open for vaccinated persons the phone lines of the organization seized up they were so busy. 

[Ombud]

Look for a lot of last minute cruise deals if it stays that way .... I might even puck up one 😉

[Darklady]

Some of the "empty" cabins are "Guarantee" bookings... where you book a cabin category, but not a specific level within the category or a specific cabin.  We used to always do guarantee bookings because we knew we wanted a balcony, but didn't really care what level of cabin in the balcony category... several times we paid base balcony price and got upgraded to top balcony category.... but we didn't know our cabin assignment until about a week before sailing.  Lots of people like to play the upgrade game and book guarantees in the hopes of getting a better cabin.

[Wishing on a star]

True that booking GTY might get a bit of an upgrade.   Even they don't list a discounted rate on GTY.

I had looked at one of the Alaska cruises,  The cheapest balcony cabin was only $35.00 less than choosing a mid-forward cabin that I would select.  So, not a really great incentive.

 

It is a risk vs possible reward thing!

Edited June 28, 2021 by Wishing on a star

[AtlantaCruiser72]

Reasons cruise lines cancel a specific voyage or range of voyages include: Full ship charter, redeployment to another sailing region/homeport, dry/wet dock for mechanical repairs, weather that halts operations from the homeport (hurricanes, fog, etc), strikes that shut down homeport operations

 

Cruise lines generally do not cancel a sailing due to soft bookings, rather they offer extra perks or discounts to try and fill that sailing.

[caribill]

16 hours ago, nini said:

We watched a TV show (a few years ago) and they focused on economics of the cruise. The ship was fully occupied and only if they sold enough alcohol and other beverages would they break even or hopefully a profit. I think this was a Royal Caribbean ship.

 

If I remember correctly, RCI (and maybe CCL Corp) have said that a ship's operating costs are covered with (depending on the ship) 30%-50% occupancy.

 

Now that is just the operating costs. It does not cover overhead such as HQ expenses, marketing, depreciation, etc. It also does not include any profit.

 

So a ship sailing that covers operating costs is better than a fully staffed ship not sailing with zero income.

[chengkp75]

46 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

If I remember correctly, RCI (and maybe CCL Corp) have said that a ship's operating costs are covered with (depending on the ship) 30%-50% occupancy.

 

Now that is just the operating costs. It does not cover overhead such as HQ expenses, marketing, depreciation, etc. It also does not include any profit.

 

So a ship sailing that covers operating costs is better than a fully staffed ship not sailing with zero income.

That statement was that the ships could "break even" at those capacity figures on an "EBITDA" basis.  That is Earnings Before Interest (on the ship's mortgage), Taxes (not much for foreign cruise ships), Depreciation (again, not much), and Amortization (principal payment on ship's mortgage).  It does include "HQ expenses", like marketing and CEO salary, etc.  Since the mortgage principal on a cruise ship is about 70% of the build price, when adding in the interest, that "interest" and "amortization" becomes a heavy burden, especially on a newer ship.

 

Typically, cruise lines price cabins so that a 100% booked cruise will cover all expenses, so you see that the mortgage runs 50 - 70% of fully booked cabin fares.  Since the line is paying the mortgage whether the ship is running or not, that is a fixed expense, and not covered at the 30-50% level nor at the non-operating level.  Since crewing is reduced to a minimum, and that is one of the largest operating costs, along with fuel (which is less when not operating), I'm not convinced that a ship operating at reduced capacity is any better off than one not operating.  Only if onboard revenue, or increased cabin bookings can generate an EBITDA profit, would the ship be any better off.

[Ombud]

@chengkp75perhaps but it might be better (PR wise) to sail partially full than cancel due to low occupancy 

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, Ombud said:

@chengkp75perhaps but it might be better (PR wise) to sail partially full than cancel due to low occupancy 

And in addition to the bad PR, there would have to be some extra compensation offered to the passengers who had their cruises cancelled.