Passenger Totals

[odysee]

Looking at available cabins, sales must go well. When shopping around for Mediterranean cruise in April, May or June on Beyond, Edge or Reflection, only very small number of free cabins where shown 

(on both US and German large Cruise Agencies which show all availables not like X who shows always small nr cabins).

Edited March 11, 2022 by odysee

[JamieLogical]

5 hours ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

Cruises are not capacity restricted right now. There may be a small amount of cabins held for quarantine, but there is no magic 50% number or whatever the case may be. Low guest count is due to weak bookings. 

 

March sailings had 60 day final payment windows. Many of those cancelations were made in January at the height of omicron. Late March into April and Alaska for summer seems quite a bit stronger. 

 

There's no requirement from the CDC to reduce capacity. In fact, there never was a capacity limit set by the CDC. However, if you track cruise bookings, it is very clear that for the immediate future (cruises through March at least) Celebrity has been intentionally keeping bookings down to around 50%. If they were trying to fill their ships, they wouldn't RAISE prices by hundreds and hundreds of dollars in the weeks before sailing, right as bookings hit 50%.

[Jeremiah1212]

37 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

There's no requirement from the CDC to reduce capacity. In fact, there never was a capacity limit set by the CDC. However, if you track cruise bookings, it is very clear that for the immediate future (cruises through March at least) Celebrity has been intentionally keeping bookings down to around 50%. If they were trying to fill their ships, they wouldn't RAISE prices by hundreds and hundreds of dollars in the weeks before sailing, right as bookings hit 50%.

 

Interpret it is as you may. I'm quoting the SVP of Sales from comments she made on Tuesday. If they could fill the ship, they would.

[Mango Tango]

1 hour ago, odysee said:

Looking at available cabins, sales must go well. When shopping around for Mediterranean cruise in April, May or June on Beyond, Edge or Reflection, only very small number of free cabins where shown 

(on both US and German large Cruise Agencies which show all availables not like X who shows always small nr cabins).

 I just found this to be the case last week when booking a Panama Canal/Southern Caribbean cruise on the Beyond for January 2024.  Not many open cabins showing available, even though it was two years out.  I even checked on another travel website and they showed the same few rooms available.  On the Celebrity website, I did a search for the cabin I wanted, even though it showed unavailable on the deck plans.  I put the number in and it WAS available.  Checked a few more in that area and they were available as well.  I called Celebrity and booked the room I wanted.  So, lesson learned...just because it looks like there are only a few rooms available, it is not necessarily the case.

[dgoz]

I just checked my July 1 Solstice cruise to Alaska and there are hardly any rooms available in any of the categories. I'm hoping that this is because they are holding back a percentage of rooms and not because it is sailing at nearly 100% capacity.

[Jeremiah1212]

10 minutes ago, dgoz said:

I just checked my July 1 Solstice cruise to Alaska and there are hardly any rooms available in any of the categories. I'm hoping that this is because they are holding back a percentage of rooms and not because it is sailing at nearly 100% capacity.

 

Alaska bookings are supposedly strong. However - I'm not sure where you are looking, but there are all sorts of cabins open on that particular cruise. 

 

[dgoz]

1 minute ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

 

Alaska bookings are supposedly strong. However - I'm not sure where you are looking, but there are all sorts of cabins open on that particular cruise. 

 

I just did mock bookings for each category and most rooms were greyed out.

[Jeremiah1212]

23 minutes ago, dgoz said:

I just did mock bookings for each category and most rooms were greyed out.

 

Are you trying to book 3+ to a cabin or something? That one is no where close to sold out.

[scidee]

Sailing Silhouette Now Mar 7-18.  1200 on board.  Cruise Director told us 2600 on transatlantic April 8 and 1800 last cruise.   So its up and down.

[dgoz]

5 minutes ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

 

Are you trying to book 3+ to a cabin or something? That one is no where close to sold out.

No just for 2. I'm glad to read that you are seeing something different than I am. I have not been known for my technology prowess so maybe I'm doing something wrong...

[Denny01]

15 hours ago, dgoz said:

I just checked my July 1 Solstice cruise to Alaska and there are hardly any rooms available in any of the categories. I'm hoping that this is because they are holding back a percentage of rooms and not because it is sailing at nearly 100% capacity.

I checked the Celebrity website and another site that shows SR availability for the 01 July Cruise we are also on, there are a little over 72% booked or blocked. Only a few Suites but the rest show a good number still available. Of course there will be ones that TA’s have holds on that may open later so that isn’t a ‘real’ count of what is actually how many are actually going right now. 

 

I track our cruises because I love doing it just for ‘fun’ (and Im a sick sick person!) and our Edge TransAtlantic in Oct ‘22 is 62% booked or blocked. 

 

Den

[dgoz]

2 hours ago, Denny01 said:

I checked the Celebrity website and another site that shows SR availability for the 01 July Cruise we are also on, there are a little over 72% booked or blocked. Only a few Suites but the rest show a good number still available. Of course there will be ones that TA’s have holds on that may open later so that isn’t a ‘real’ count of what is actually how many are actually going right now. 

 

I track our cruises because I love doing it just for ‘fun’ (and Im a sick sick person!) and our Edge TransAtlantic in Oct ‘22 is 62% booked or blocked. 

 

Den

72% is a lot higher than other passenger totals people have reported on here. Sigh. I am holding out hope that blocked staterooms account for some of that. I'm not really concerned with Covid anymore, just being selfish about not wanting to sit in lines or find empty loungers. :d

[Denny01]

Personally, one of the things I enjoy about Celebrity is the common areas and lounges are well designed and don’t seem to be that crowded. But they are large ships w lots on board.

 

but in the times prior to the Pandemic, the % was much higher 3 months prior. 
 

den

[JamieLogical]

4 hours ago, dgoz said:

72% is a lot higher than other passenger totals people have reported on here. Sigh. I am holding out hope that blocked staterooms account for some of that. I'm not really concerned with Covid anymore, just being selfish about not wanting to sit in lines or find empty loungers. :d

 

I definitely don't expect these reduced capacities to last. Now that more and more restrictions are being lifted and we are approaching the endemic phase of COVID, I expect ships to start filling up over the summer. That's one of the reasons I have tried to squeeze so many sailings in when solo prices were low and capacity was reduced!

[jelayne]

23 hours ago, Mango Tango said:

 I just found this to be the case last week when booking a Panama Canal/Southern Caribbean cruise on the Beyond for January 2024.  Not many open cabins showing available, even though it was two years out.  I even checked on another travel website and they showed the same few rooms available.  On the Celebrity website, I did a search for the cabin I wanted, even though it showed unavailable on the deck plans.  I put the number in and it WAS available.  Checked a few more in that area and they were available as well.  I called Celebrity and booked the room I wanted.  So, lesson learned...just because it looks like there are only a few rooms available, it is not necessarily the case.

IME if you put  in 2 passengers many of the cabins that can accommodate  3 or 4 passengers do not show as available, although they are.

[DCPIV]

I recall Richard Fain commenting along the lines that they were reevaluating what "full capacity" might be on the ships because of how well received the lower numbers have been. Specifically, he mentioned that the average "spend" per passenger actually has gone up. He didn't get much more specific than that, but I wouldn't be surprised if that increase largely is due to the fact that we've all seen the more expensive categories sell very well through all this while lower priced categories tend to be far less full. 

 

Folks love it, and they're willing to spend more. We all also know that many of us are booking more to take advantage of the lower numbers, not to mention that very few of us are looking forward to ships getting full again and are likely to sail less once they do. Like Yogi Berra said, "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded."

 

It'll be interesting to see whether they actually follow through on something like this and to what extent. I know so little about the inner workings of cruise line revenue that this is just speculating, but you'd think they could nix some low revenue, interior cabins and make up for it (or more than make up for it) through increased spending from happier passengers. No telling. 

[Denny01]

15 minutes ago, jelayne said:

IME if you put  in 2 passengers many of the cabins that can accommodate  3 or 4 passengers do not show as available, although they are.

And that’s why I’d check using ‘2’ to check availability and then make it 3 passengers and add those. But this week, I checked ‘2’ then ‘3’ and the 2’s had the same cabin numbers available as listed when I checked ‘3’ passengers so not sure if things have changed that they are now listing all cabins for 2 people even SRs with sleep coaches and pop-down’s.

 

Den

 

[GREG781]

Anyone on the Apex this week - what is the count?

[Guppy99]

On 3/10/2022 at 1:27 PM, mbddisney said:

Is Celebrity still sailing with lower capacity?  Wondering how many on board on Apex for next few weeks.  We are scheduled for April 9 and when  I go to the site to see if I can get a reduced rate for my room with the sale there do no seem to be many rooms left.  I am wondering if they block rooms to insure a lower capacity.

I doubt they are deliberately reducing capacity any longer, with the exception of reserving some cabins for passengers or crew that test positive while on board and require quarantining.

 

I also think you if you traveling through Spring break (which can anytime over a 20 day period), that there will be a greater number of passengers (which is always the case).

[Jim_Iain]

Our August Summit B2B to Greenland has been nearly sold out for about a year.   I have no idea if they are holding back but for the past year about all that is available is Inside and Ocean View.      Occasionally a cabin will open up and then disappear quickly.     Took me 2 months of checking daily to snag a Sky Suite - guarantee. 

[juksing]

Just fyi, I am just back from 5 day cruise on summit( mar14-19) and we were sailing at 1000 passengers ( sources was  concierge staff, wait staff, and cruise director Sarah).  Our waiter told us he stared his current contract in February and his first was only 400 pax.  It was definitely roomy and space to spare, multiple times we were the only people in a facility; for example we had the entire gym to ourselves between 6:45 to around 7:30 on 2 of the days and also several times we were the only people enjoying the cafe and on some mornings we could have each had our own hot tubs for hours if we wanted.   Camp at Sea said there was 58 kids under 18 on the cruise( my daughter was one of 16 kids between age 10-12).  For comparison on the last summit cruise in March 2020 before lockdown they had around 400 kids under 18. 

[blueboro]

We got off the Constellation Friday 3/18 and we’re told between 850-900.

[JamieLogical]

1 hour ago, juksing said:

Just fyi, I am just back from 5 day cruise on summit( mar14-19) and we were sailing at 1000 passengers ( sources was  concierge staff, wait staff, and cruise director Sarah).  Our waiter told us he stared his current contract in February and his first was only 400 pax.  It was definitely roomy and space to spare, multiple times we were the only people in a facility; for example we had the entire gym to ourselves between 6:45 to around 7:30 on 2 of the days and also several times we were the only people enjoying the cafe and on some mornings we could have each had our own hot tubs for hours if we wanted.   Camp at Sea said there was 58 kids under 18 on the cruise( my daughter was one of 16 kids between age 10-12).  For comparison on the last summit cruise in March 2020 before lockdown they had around 400 kids under 18. 

I am on the Summit now and have been told by a couple different staff that we are right around 600 onboard. I have seen 7 children so far.

[schittenden]

On 3/10/2022 at 1:27 PM, mbddisney said:

Is Celebrity still sailing with lower capacity?  Wondering how many on board on Apex for next few weeks.  We are scheduled for April 9 and when  I go to the site to see if I can get a reduced rate for my room with the sale there do no seem to be many rooms left.  I am wondering if they block rooms to insure a lower capacity.

 

We're on the 4/9 Apex sailing as well.  We're hoping the ship isn't packed.  Based on this thread, so far, it doesn't sound like it will be.  I've seen reports of Carnival ships sailing with 3,000+ passengers.  Fascinating how the different lines are faring differently, or coping differently, I should say.

[NCHPcruiser]

Currently on the Apex (3/19 sailing) which is sailing with 1800-1900 passengers as reported last night during the show.   So far no venue has been close to “packed”, actually quite the opposite.