Is Reduced Capacity the Norm?

[LEMJMcC]

Been seeing some posts about cruises being at reduced capacity...sounds kind of nice and that's one thing I sort of hope continues for a while.  Anyone with insight or knowledgable forsight care to take a guess as to when bookings will go to normal capacity?

 

Gracias

[leisuretraveler223]

I'm rather curious about this as well. Slated for Odyssey the end of December.  I imagine Royal is playing it close to the vest, and there's no definitive info out there.  But it's worth asking.

[smplybcause]

A while back the president/ceo forget which one said they were starting at 30-40% and expected to raise capacity 10% a month which would mean reaching fully capacity in March. 

 

However that was said before delta became crazy and they started adding testing and cruises becoming all vax only, etc. So who knows if they're still planning to up the capacity. All the threads I've read are still under 40% capacity, but it's technically still August. And the first Sept cruises are likely to be low due to all the non-vax 12+ that were booked not being able to sail. 

 

My guess is any cruise in 2021 will sail with capacity low enough that you will notice it's less than normal. The 2022 cruises could go either way, but I wouldn't book assuming capacity would be low. 

 

I have an April 2022 cruise with Symphony and Odyssey at Coco the same day - so I'm hoping it's still low capacity. But that's just wishful thinking lol. 

Edited August 31, 2021 by smplybcause

[Biker19]

42 minutes ago, LEMJMcC said:

Anyone with insight or knowledgable forsight care to take a guess as to when bookings will go to normal capacity?

If by normal you are talking the pre-COVID 108% average for the fleet, maybe summer of 2022. Individual ships/ports may vary wildly from that.

Edited August 31, 2021 by Biker19

[bajathree]

38 minutes ago, leisuretraveler223 said:

I'm rather curious about this as well. Slated for Odyssey the end of December.  I imagine Royal is playing it close to the vest, and there's no definitive info out there.  But it's worth asking.

I don't think you have anything to worry about. I just read a review of a mid august Odyssey sailing where they stated there were under 1000 passengers aboard.

Demand right now is very low, couple that with the added new capacity of ships they keep adding and stricter more restrictive protocols = low capacity for the rest of 2021.

Edited August 31, 2021 by bajathree

[bajathree]

UPDATE: someone doing a live review just stated the current Odyssey sailing has 500 something passengers

[mauraoel]

3 minutes ago, bajathree said:

UPDATE: someone doing a live review just stated the current Odyssey sailing has 500 something passengers

WOW

[Iamcruzin]

7 minutes ago, bajathree said:

UPDATE: someone doing a live review just stated the current Odyssey sailing has 500 something passengers

So much for that pent up demand that the cruise lines were boasting about a few months ago. I bet people are converting the FCC's into cash refunds as they get closer to sailing and they either don't meet the vaccine qualifications or don't agree to the testing and protocols.

[alexgtp]

Hmm..guess I am the outlier. I have 3 cruises booked this year. 

[twangster]

It's a great time to cruise because of reduced capacity.

 

It's going to suck once we are back to full levels whenever that day comes.

 

Before delta the estimate was near normal capacity towards of 2021.  Now that estimate is up in the air.  

[thjeepster]

Would love to find out how many people will be on our Odyssey cruise in Oct.

We are hoping it won't be that busy...since we will be getting married on the ship during a sea day!

[LeeW]

Symphony had around 1100 last week and they bumped it to 1600 this week.  Noticeably more people especially Solarium and pool area.  Supposed to add another 500 next week.  Main dining room still less than 10% at 7:30 and 5th floor is still closed.

[taglovestocruise]

Last week Anthem was over 50% and Windjammer was open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

[ampurp85]

Since Sept and Oct are some of the slowest booking months, plus outside factors that are always being debated. I would guess full capacity to occur maybe around March 2022. Therefore reduced capacity will be the norm for 2021. Also let's be real cruising may be an industry that won't recover fully. Think of the C&A changes or some other aspects that they may keep.

 

I manage a restaurant, we have permanently lost 8 tables and about 14 menu items that corporate believes will never come back. I am sure RCG and other lines will look for ways to streamline profits as consumer confidence will be low for a while.