How do you tell how full is the ship

[BookBikeBeyond123]

I am doing a last minute booking. 02/04/2023 or 02/11/2023 MSC Meraviglia… at the time I checked there are roughly 200+ balcony stateroom and 40+ YC stateroom when I mock booking… does this mean the ship will be 80% full? Can anyone tell me if this will be too crowed?

Thanks! 

[tscoffey]

Due to their price point, MSC ships are normally very full.

”Too crowded” is a subjective assessment. The pool deck will likely fill up most of the day. Other areas could be sparse. It depends on where you go, and your tolerance of people.

 

(And YC is mostly irrelevant when assessing fullness, as they have their own  private areas).

Edited January 31 by tscoffey

[CruisingFox27]

It doesn’t necessarily mean 80% full. The ship capacity is based on cabins being fully occupied, but cabins which can accommodate 3 or 4 may only be booked for 2,  especially if its not school holidays. So, on the deck plan where a cabin is booked out, you can't see if that's 2 or 4 passengers. 

 

And will it be too crowded, as above that's subjective to how much you tolerate crowds. There will always be popular areas which are busy and less popular areas. If the weather is warm, right next to the pool will be busy but, a deck up and a bit further away away will not. And the hour between 1st and 2nd dinner/ theatre lots of the bars are always busy. 

[bob brown]

One minor point..."Full capacity" is not always dictated by all berths being occupied, as in some cases that would exceed lifeboat capacity, which cannot be exceeded according to SOLAS regulation.  In many cases, when "full" capacity is approached, the cruise line may limit further bookings to no more than two to a cabin, even if third or more berths are available in those cabins...

[Brighton Line]

I've heard that the ship is considered full at the number of people that would be double occupancy in every cabin even if guests are not two in every cabin. That is the goal of sales (not counting any single occupancy cabins like on NCL). Purely from a sales aspect nothing to do with SOLAS or actual number of people in each cabin.

Total different of the feeling of a full ship. Trying to get or return your silent disco headset and it taking almost an hour to do so would make me feel that the ship is behind full occupancy.