2023/2024 America cruises

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Carmen Roig is having a webinar on Facebook/You Tube on Thursday July 28 at 11am PT or 2pm ET for a preview on 2023/2024 Caribbean, Hawaii, Panama, Mexico and California coast.

[Tak8]

Yes, finally some movement on the release of 23/24.   

[AtlantaCruiser72]

At long last!!!!!!  I have to feel that “if” there is any change to the launch of the Sphere class vessels this is when we will get a clue. 

[cruisefan2012]

Where on youtube will this webinar be available to view? I'm in the UK

[phabric]

A retired travel agent received webinar notice and  posted on Facebook, that 2023-2024 itineraries for Caribbean, Panama Canal, California coast, Hawaii will be released August 10.  More information on webinar July 28.

[AtlantaCruiser72]

1 hour ago, phabric said:

A retired travel agent received webinar notice and  posted on Facebook, that 2023-2024 itineraries for Caribbean, Panama Canal, California coast, Hawaii will be released August 10.  More information on webinar July 28.

I got the webinar invite today and accepted - starts at 2pm EDT Thursday. As I get information I will post, especially if there is any update on Sphere Class delivery date/deployment

[cruisefan2012]

Fab!! I will be at work so will welcome the posts

 

I'm especially interested in Vancouver to California cruises

[AtlantaCruiser72]

One nugget was them specifically calling out Galveston in the invite as a seasonal homeport for fall 2023 - spring 2024.  Will be interesting so see which ship they base there and what itineraries look like.

[CruizinSusan70]

46 minutes ago, AtlantaCruiser72 said:

One nugget was them specifically calling out Galveston in the invite as a seasonal homeport for fall 2023 - spring 2024.  Will be interesting so see which ship they base there and what itineraries look like.

Interesting since they will compete with the NCL Prima and the Carnival Jubilee, which will make for tough competition.

[AtlantaCruiser72]

Galveston will be equipped for LNG bunkering. To my knowledge FtLauderdale and San Pedro will not. Could it be possible that if Sphere class #1 debuts winter 23/24 as planned that she sails from Galveston?

 

1 hour ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

Interesting since they will compete with the NCL Prima and the Carnival Jubilee, which will make for tough competition.

Harmony of the Seas too!

[CruizinSusan70]

2 hours ago, AtlantaCruiser72 said:

Could it be possible that if Sphere class #1 debuts winter 23/24 as planned that she sails from Galveston?

Port Canaveral or Miami would be a better bet.   Too much competition in a market where the majority of cruisers drive to the port instead of fly.  The Ruby sails out of there four months a year with a 3000 person capacity and you think they would replace her with the jewel of the line for a greater amount of time and with almost double the capacity?   Don't see that scenario at all.

[AtlantaCruiser72]

17 minutes ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

Port Canaveral or Miami would be a better bet.   Too much competition in a market where the majority of cruisers drive to the port instead of fly.  The Ruby sails out of there four months a year with a 3000 person capacity and you think they would replace her with the jewel of the line for a greater amount of time and with almost double the capacity?   Don't see that scenario at all.

I agree on principal, about a new ship being homeported in a “Marquee” port, but as far back as I can remember Princess has not ever based a ship in either Miami or Port Canaveral. They do have an on and off history with cruising from Galveston/Houston, and Carnival Corp has been VERY bullish on increasing capacity from Galveston.  The redeployment of Ruby to Galveston for winter/spring 2023 was a rather last minute affair due to the decision to further reduce capacity in SE Asia and Australia/NZ and homeport Royal in San Francisco in place of Ruby.

 

NCL certainly think that placing their new shiny Prima in Galveston is a good idea.  RCCL will sail the relatively new Harmony of the Seas from there alongside the Adventure of the Seas. Carnival will have the brand spanking new Jubilee along with the still fairly new Vista, Breeze and the Dream. 
 

The market has changed and grown since Princess last did long term planning and homeported from the area (albeit from the Ill-fated Bayport terminal).  Hence why I suggested Sphere #1 “could” be homeported there, with the LNG bunkering being a big factor alongside the nod to Galveston in the Webinar invite.
 

I most likely will be WAYYYY offbase and proved completely wrong in this theory, thankfully I have only 2 more days to be proved wrong or right!

 

Edited July 26, 2022 by AtlantaCruiser72

[caribill]

7 hours ago, AtlantaCruiser72 said:

One nugget was them specifically calling out Galveston in the invite as a seasonal homeport for fall 2023 - spring 2024.  Will be interesting so see which ship they base there and what itineraries look like.

 

The itineraries for the Ruby this winter from Galveston probably are about what the 2023-2024 itineraries will be.

 

The 7-day itineraries this coming winter are about the same as what CCL and RCI have. There are a limited number of ports that can be reached from Galveston on a 7-day cruise.

 

I would not expect the ship homeporting in Galveston will be one of the newest Princess ones.

 

Princess left Galveston last time because the competition with similar itineraries resulted in less profits than if the ship had a different home port.

 

The only reason Princess was in Houston (Bayport) for a couple of years was that the port "bribed" Princess to cruise from there because they had built a cruise terminal and no company wanted to use it. The port gave Princess a fee to use Bayport as well as waiving a bunch of normal port charges and giving Princess a share of parking revenues. When the two year contract was over, Princess stopping using Bayport. NCL, also "bribed," was there for a year and also left when Princess did. The terminal building is now used for imported car storage and no longer has the equipment needed to serve as a cruise terminal.

 

Caribbean Princess docked at Bayport

[CruizinSusan70]

13 hours ago, AtlantaCruiser72 said:

I agree on principal, about a new ship being homeported in a “Marquee” port, but as far back as I can remember Princess has not ever based a ship in either Miami or Port Canaveral.

 

The only reason I suggested those two ports as possibilities is because of the LNG bunkering that would be available there because of the Mardi Gras and the Celebration needing LNG as well as Sphere 1.

[Cruise till you drop]

On 7/25/2022 at 7:12 PM, AtlantaCruiser72 said:

I got the webinar invite today and accepted - starts at 2pm EDT Thursday. As I get information I will post, especially if there is any update on Sphere Class delivery date/deployment

Any link to this webinar ?

[Jersey42]

Plenty of pdfs with itinerary details on this thread:

 

 

Edited July 28, 2022 by Jersey42

[azbirdmom]

1 hour ago, Cruise till you drop said:

Any link to this webinar ?

 

The replay is here.  And there won't be an announcement about the Sphere class ship until September.  

 

[AtlantaCruiser72]

Others beat me to the punch hence why I didn’t post anything earlier. The only “surprise” was basing the Regal out of Galveston. I was anticipating either the Caribbean, Emerald or Ruby. 

[AtlantaCruiser72]

2 hours ago, azbirdmom said:

And there won't be an announcement about the Sphere class ship until September.  

Based on that I expect Sphere to launch in the Mediterranean in late Spring/early Summer 2024 which would be about a 6 month delay. 

[azbirdmom]

3 minutes ago, AtlantaCruiser72 said:

Based on that I expect Sphere to launch in the Mediterranean in late Spring/early Summer 2024 which would be about a 6 month delay. 

 

Makes sense.  They keep kicking the can down the road to provide information about the new ship so it's very likely that there is a delay.  I'm still holding out hope that they launch from Port Canaveral and will use the new facility built for the Mardi Gras.  Our good friends have a condo in Cape Canaveral and it's a two block walk from their place to that terminal.  Would be awesome to walk to a cruise LOL.

[eclue]

On 7/25/2022 at 7:52 PM, CruizinSusan70 said:

Interesting since they will compete with the NCL Prima and the Carnival Jubilee, which will make for tough competition.

If you have cruised on NCL or Carnival, believe me, they are no competition for Princess - they are a totally different crowd.

 Hoping Princess continues with Galveston - we will be sailing at least every month.

 

[CruizinSusan70]

18 minutes ago, eclue said:

If you have cruised on NCL or Carnival, believe me, they are no competition for Princess - they are a totally different crowd.

 Hoping Princess continues with Galveston - we will be sailing at least every month.

 

Fully aware that Celebrity and Holland America are more in the wheelhouse as competition for Princess.  But the Sphere Class should be based in PC or Miami as opposed to Galveston since the Galveston market consisting of more drivers than cruisers can't handle all of the new large builds from Royal, NCL and Carnival as well as a Sphere Class ship.  One of the smaller, older ships in the fleet would be a perfect fit there instead of the first Sphere Class ship.

[caribill]

On 7/26/2022 at 2:04 AM, caribill said:

I would not expect the ship homeporting in Galveston will be one of the newest Princess ones.

 

Turns out it will be the Regal.