176 (+/- 3) pax on the Grand Nov 20-28

[Steelers36]

10 hours ago, pms4104 said:

Not seeing comments that other lines are experiencincing such low occupancy.

 

Even for 800, 900, 1000 pax on a Princess ship, Royal Class or not, the percentage of pax is amazingly low.  

 

What is different about Princess ... when other lines are at 50 or 60%?

 

Has all the MedallionClass promo deterred potential bookings?  Has that program burped and hiccuped once too many times?

 

I don't know ... but the numbers are not sustainable, particularly when one considers that so many bookings are now being coverrd by FCC, cash long since spent by Princess.

 

 

Seems to me when Princess started up, numbers were good.  And when they slapped on heavier mask mandates, the numbers fell.  Certainly many posted here they were cancelling out.  Is there a connection?  I would think that would be more of an impact than the MC App foibles.

[cr8tiv1]

I agree with many of the other poster that prefer the Grand over the Royal Class ships.  I have a booking on the Sky in a Vista Suite and that is not at all enticing to me (originally booked on the Grand in a suite).

 

I was recently on the Grand.  It was so good to be back at sea on a smaller ship.  The last time I was on her, she had buckets all around to catch water drips.  This time, she was in great shape.  Glad to see a Grand Class ship back in Los Angeles.  

 

I doubt if Princess will consider smaller ships again.  That is a huge miscalculation.  Look at how well the Pacific Princess survived at higher fares.  

 

I do think that her low passenger count is because of the itinerary change from Hawaii to coastals.  It did give people the opportunity to "try" out the Majestic for a lower fare.  Hopefully, once Hawaii gives the okay, the Grand will increase passenger load.  

[cruisingrob21]

34 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

I was recently on the Grand.  It was so good to be back at sea on a smaller ship.  The last time I was on her, she had buckets all around to catch water drips.  This time, she was in great shape.  Glad to see a Grand Class ship back in Los Angeles.  

 

I doubt if Princess will consider smaller ships again.  That is a huge miscalculation.  Look at how well the Pacific Princess survived at higher fares.  

 

It's comical to think that maybe 10 years ago we all would have considered the Grand a "large" ship.

 

I don't think the Pacific ever really made much money for Princess and CCL which is why she was one of the first to go due to covid.   Think of her sisters that were also let go (Royal II and Tahitian/Ocean) well before she was.  Princess probably got a heck of a deal when Renaissance cruises went under to scoop up 3 of those ships.  The small ships really need to command a premium to make money - look at HAL selling off the Prinsendam, before covid even, and that was a very loved ship among the HAL faithful who sailed on her.

 

I think we can be hopeful however, the latest NCL and RCCL ships were not "one-uppers" on their existing huge ships (Prima and Quantum classes) - perhaps they have found the "sweet spot" however both of those lines, NCL especially really depend on on-board spending to make their bottom line.  I have to imagine however that the several cruise lines look at their fleets and understand that not all their ships can go everywhere.  While Princess seems to sell the most LA/SF to Hawaii cruises, I think they struggle from time to time filling even the original grand class ships.  Meanwhile, Vancouver is constrained by the Lions Gate Bridge which sometimes necessitates odd departure times for some of the Royal Class ships because its a tight fit.  Finally, some of these ships are so large they only have drydock capabilities at the yards where they were built or Grand Bahama.  Princess has a lot of their ships on schedule at the drydock in Portland, OR over the next year, but I don't believe the Royal class ships can fit under the 4 bridges between the open water and the drydock.  

 

Unfortunately the next 2 Princess ships will be the biggest yet.  Our last two cruises were on the 1400 passenger Amsterdam and the 3600 passenger Sky Princess and while HAL and PCL have their differences, the Amsterdam just didn't have crowds that we experienced and its sad to see those ships go.  We probably only have a few years left of sailing on the remaining R class sister with HAL or the Coral Princess which is similarly right sized.

[john watson]

4 hours ago, cruisingrob21 said:

It's comical to think that maybe 10 years ago we all would have considered the Grand a "large" ship.

 

 

When Grand Princess was built 1998 she was the largest cruise ship in the world. Presumably that is why she was called "Grand" meaning, of a huge size.  Thankfully Princess did not compete with Royal Caribbean in a size war and end up with monstrous size ships trying to beat them.

 

Regards John

[pms4104]

8 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

Seems to me when Princess started up, numbers were good.  And when they slapped on heavier mask mandates, the numbers fell.  Certainly many posted here they were cancelling out.  Is there a connection?  I would think that would be more of an impact than the MC App foibles.

I think the numbers were good at restart because those were Alaska sailings ... there seems to be a mystique about that destination that draws in a lot of pax at high pricing.

 

I don't have an explanation, more head-scratching than anything ... but I would expect the newly-appointed John Padgett ought to be scurrying about in analysis and damage-control mode.

[Host CJSKIDS]

11 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

Seems to me when Princess started up, numbers were good.  And when they slapped on heavier mask mandates, the numbers fell.  Certainly many posted here they were cancelling out.  Is there a connection?  I would think that would be more of an impact than the MC App foibles.

 

 

I would agree with this 100%.  

 

It's much more the masks than the App.  Since you can still take care of the App issues once at the port or onboard for 99% of the people, I just don't see that having such a overly large impact.

 

 

 

[southerngirlllikestotrave]

I agree also. Celebrity ships for next summer are almost sold out, but they do not require masks. Princess has dropped price again on our Baltic cruise forJuly. Many unsold cabins in all categories. I guess more people prefer to pay thousands more to have a more normal experience than Princess is providing.

[PRNole47]

10 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

Seems to me when Princess started up, numbers were good.  And when they slapped on heavier mask mandates, the numbers fell.  Certainly many posted here they were cancelling out.  Is there a connection?  I would think that would be more of an impact than the MC App foibles.

Some of the reasons the crew reported as to why the drop in pax capacity for the Nov 20-28 cruise was related to vax and masking requirements during the T'giving week.   Apparetntly some pax indicated that they either cancelled or did not sign up because they couldn't get everyone in their  families to get vaxxed or accept masking, so they preferred to stay home with the turkey rather than have the turkey at sea.

[AnyMajorCruiseDude]

22 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

Seems to me when Princess started up, numbers were good.  And when they slapped on heavier mask mandates, the numbers fell.  Certainly many posted here they were cancelling out.  Is there a connection?  I would think that would be more of an impact than the MC App foibles.

Interesting.  So how do you explain the higher bookings on the longer cruises that actually require more invasive/stringent  masking policies?  we've run into many on the last several months that originally threatened cancellation, but ultimately did not as the "real life" experience on the ship is not as severe as many thought.

[Steelers36]

9 minutes ago, AnyMajorCruiseDude said:

Interesting.  So how do you explain the higher bookings on the longer cruises that actually require more invasive/stringent  masking policies?  we've run into many on the last several months that originally threatened cancellation, but ultimately did not as the "real life" experience on the ship is not as severe as many thought.

I don't have an explanation.  I don't have full sets of statistics to analyze.  It was just some musing and speculation.

[AnyMajorCruiseDude]

1 hour ago, Steelers36 said:

I don't have an explanation.  I don't have full sets of statistics to analyze.  It was just some musing and speculation.

Yes, musing and speculation.  Carry on with the speculation!

[teecee60]

On 11/29/2021 at 11:47 AM, franktown said:

When I talked to my PVP this morning she told ne that they have less than 1k passengers booked on the Sky for February 12 out of Fort Lauderdale.  She didn't know how many less.  Tons of rooms available in every category.  I didn't expect it to sail full but under a 1000 was a surprise.  What also surprises me with that less than 1k passengers is how much the cruise has gone up in price since I booked.

 

On 11/29/2021 at 1:04 PM, lx200gps said:

Very interesting. Our trip this past week on the Sky had a little over 2000 pax and the follow-on trip has about 1700.  I can relate to the comments about the crew being bored, even on our trip which was half full. Many times over the course of the week, in various venues, a waiter would bring us our drinks, then stand there and yak with us for 10 or 15 minutes. Even when we wanted some "private time" they would just stand there, and it really seemed like they simply needed someone to talk to.  Needless to say, the service from these "bored" crew members was superb.

 

On 11/30/2021 at 10:01 PM, Steelers36 said:

Seems to me when Princess started up, numbers were good.  And when they slapped on heavier mask mandates, the numbers fell.  Certainly many posted here they were cancelling out.  Is there a connection?  I would think that would be more of an impact than the MC App foibles.

Just off the Sky's transatlantic from South Hampton. There were only 1024 passengers. Mask policy was pretty well enforced all over the ship... the "sip and recover" in the theater and lounges was a real drag that made us completely avoid any and all activities in those areas. NOT my idea of a fun time... especially considering that every employee and every passenger was fully immunized and tested before and during the cruise. The captain did announce 100% negative on the final test the day before debark. 

[PRNole47]

9 hours ago, AnyMajorCruiseDude said:

Interesting.  So how do you explain the higher bookings on the longer cruises that actually require more invasive/stringent  masking policies?  we've run into many on the last several months that originally threatened cancellation, but ultimately did not as the "real life" experience on the ship is not as severe as many thought.

The explanation I got from some of the crew members had to do with the holiday period around T'giving week.  Pre-pandemic T'giving brought a lot of families to celebrate aboard ship. This time many family members either did not get vaxed in time for the cruise, did not want to vax, or had issues with masking requirements. As a result, many cancelled while others decided not to complete the initial booking and got their deposits back, while some others simply did not bother booking.

[cruisingrob21]

Heading out on a 4 day coastal from LA later this month, I'll try to report how full the Majestic is for that voyage.  Given that its the weekend before xmas, I would imagine it will push 75% full, but my available cabin tallys the last few weeks still show the ship hovering around around 40% full and no real trend of that number going down.

[nini]

Is the crew still utilizing their Promenade Aft Smoking area?

This has become a major concern of passengers and reported in detail on CC.

 

We have 2 future cruises on the Grand and book aft. They are allowed to smoke there 24/7.

Thanks

[nocl]

On 11/30/2021 at 9:01 PM, Steelers36 said:

Seems to me when Princess started up, numbers were good.  And when they slapped on heavier mask mandates, the numbers fell.  Certainly many posted here they were cancelling out.  Is there a connection?  I would think that would be more of an impact than the MC App foibles.

Not really.  The cruises that are having the most problem are Mexican  and California coastal cruises.  The bookings on the Grand for Hawaii for early 2022 are pretty robust, though we will have to wait and see if they even sail. When my Crown cruise got canceled not many rooms were still available.

 

California coastal without Santa Barbara and Monterey are not exactly big attractions.  

 

With Mexico cruises there are more ships doing those cruises this year than normal.  Most cruisers are choosing the big ships doing those routes rather than the older Grand.  Even in normal years  these routes have never been dig money makers and have mostly been low cost cruises designed to keep a ship or two busy on the west coast intermixed with some Hawaiian cruises and then the Alaska season starts. 

 

I would attribute the rush at the start more to people really wanting to cruise when it first restarted and that those will only do so many Mexican cruises.

 

 

[Steelers36]

3 hours ago, nocl said:

Not really.  The cruises that are having the most problem are Mexican  and California coastal cruises.  The bookings on the Grand for Hawaii for early 2022 are pretty robust, though we will have to wait and see if they even sail. When my Crown cruise got canceled not many rooms were still available.

 

California coastal without Santa Barbara and Monterey are not exactly big attractions.  

 

With Mexico cruises there are more ships doing those cruises this year than normal.  Most cruisers are choosing the big ships doing those routes rather than the older Grand.  Even in normal years  these routes have never been dig money makers and have mostly been low cost cruises designed to keep a ship or two busy on the west coast intermixed with some Hawaiian cruises and then the Alaska season starts. 

 

I would attribute the rush at the start more to people really wanting to cruise when it first restarted and that those will only do so many Mexican cruises.

 

 

The Caribbean sector may be affected by uncertainty over freedom to roam certain islands.

 

[nocl]

1 minute ago, Steelers36 said:

The Caribbean sector may be affected by uncertainty over freedom to roam certain islands.

 

I know I am not booking the Caribbean at this time, though I am going on a Mexican cruise in 2 days.

[cruisingrob21]

3 hours ago, nocl said:

I would attribute the rush at the start more to people really wanting to cruise when it first restarted and that those will only do so many Mexican cruises.

 

 

A few years back I saw this news article about CCL purchasing property in Baja for a new private island.  Who knows if it ever came to fruition but this combined with the new cruise port at Rocky Point/Puerto Penasco might help the draw of Mexican Riviera cruises

 

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/tourism/sdut-new-mexican-ports-cruise-revival-2013may08-story.html

[triple7tahoe]

Hope to have new info in a couple of days. We got off the Ruby a little over a week ago; there were 190 =/- for our ten day Mexico cruise, We are off for side by side cruises in the Caribbean in a couple of days. First on the Caribbean and then the Regal-15 days total. I have not seen much from the folks presently on the Caribbean (they are on the first cruise back following shut down) Regal should be a different story .

 

[brisalta]

15 hours ago, teecee60 said:

The captain did announce 100% negative on the final test the day before debark. 

 

That must have been a painful experience removing your bark. 😉

[cruzsnooze]

On 11/29/2021 at 6:50 AM, PRNole47 said:

Yep, there were anywhere from 173 to 179 total pax (depending on which crew member one spoke with) aboard the Grand's Coastal CA plus Cabo Nov 20-28 cruise out of Long Beach.  They were scheduled to have appx 200+ on their follow-up cruise and then jump to about 1,000+ for their Dec 5 sailing.

 

Felt really bad for that crew.

When did Princess start sailing out of Long Beach. I sailed on the Grand in Oct out of San Pedro.  I'm sailing again next week on the Grand and it's out of San Pedro.

Edited December 3, 2021 by cruzsnooze

[AnyMajorCruiseDude]

20 minutes ago, cruzsnooze said:

When did Princess start sailing out of Long Beach. I sailed on the Grand in Oct out of San Pedro.  I'm sailing again next week on the Grand and it's out of San Pedro.

They dont.  We'll also be on for a few weeks.  Always wanted to meet you!

[AnyMajorCruiseDude]

PS, be careful about posting correct information.  Plenty of members here that will crucify you for being nitpicky!!!  

[Re-tired]

We were on the Nov 5 and Nov 10 Grand cruises with the low passenger count.  Other than nearly having the ship to ourselves we were most surprised at the attitude of the crew.  To a person they were happy.  They told us they were thrilled to be back to work and have jobs again. The Grand was just one big happy ship for our 15 days.