Why is Celebrity Cruises Ignoring California Ports ?

[Liao]

On 4/6/2024 at 3:41 PM, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Last year the cruise on the west were dirty cheap and still not filled 

who wants to do a short cruise 

what they should do is take a Mclass ship sale to Bora Bora and back in January , people would fly to LA to do that 

Apparently many want to do short cruises, the 4 day ones from FL are extremely popular 

[highway180]

2 hours ago, Liao said:

Apparently many want to do short cruises, the 4 day ones from FL are extremely popular 

Too short for myself. I hate doing a 7 day trip!

LOL

Cheers

[doghog]

Just booked a October 2025 California/ Mexico cruise with Princess on the Royal. Almost the same itinerary we did with Celebrity in October 2024 on the Eclipse. Only 7 days but... 

[Ex-Airbalancer]

3 hours ago, Liao said:

Apparently many want to do short cruises, the 4 day ones from FL are extremely popular 

I like 21-28 day cruises 🤣

[Arizona Wildcat]

On 4/6/2024 at 11:18 AM, crusinthrough said:

This makes more sense than there is no demand.  FL is the bread and butter of cruises and Seattle / Vancouver during the Alaska season.  

 

Celebrity has 3 ships in the PNW for  the Alaska season this year (Edge, Solstice and Summit). Surely one of three could stay.  The Solstice is old like the Eclipse so this is a no.  Edge may be too big to fill but the single cabins and the infinite verandah are attractions. There is less of a need for a traditional balcony when crossing the Pacific during off season. The Summit would also be good but all the other lines have invested a new ship in CA except RC, which has the revamped Navigator. Celebrity was too little too late and missed the market.  

As an Arizona resident I love cruising the West Coast.  The choices today are pretty much short 4 day cruises out of LA or week long to Seattle/Vancouver. 

Mexico with level 4 violence ratings is not possible except for Ensenada.  Santa Barbara has limited port calls.  Monterrey eliminated large ships.  SFO made it too expensive on port costs to do an overnight.  Ships are required to cruise slower to help whales.  Astoria has limited docking.

Bottom line is the short get away cruises marketed toward a younger crowd don't match Celebrity demographic.   Fewer ports and no variations.  Until or unless Mexico comes back things will be quiet.

[Liao]

29 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

I like 21-28 day cruises 🤣

I recently combined a 4&5 night on Summit but they both still had the party booze cruise vibe.  I won’t make that mistake again and I’ll stick with the long TA’s as I primarily cruise for the ship not the ports.

 

[Cruising89143]

We cruised on the Solstice last April from San Pedro for a seven night California coastal cruise. We had an overnight in SFO with stops in Santa Barbara, San Diego and Ensenada. The ship was about 3/4 full. Prices were cheap. 

[hcat]

3 hours ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

As an Arizona resident I love cruising the West Coast.  The choices today are pretty much short 4 day cruises out of LA or week long to Seattle/Vancouver. 

Mexico with level 4 violence ratings is not possible except for Ensenada.  Santa Barbara has limited port calls.  Monterrey eliminated large ships.  SFO made it too expensive on port costs to do an overnight.  Ships are required to cruise slower to help whales.  Astoria has limited docking.

Bottom line is the short get away cruises marketed toward a younger crowd don't match Celebrity demographic.   Fewer ports and no variations.  Until or unless Mexico comes back things will be quiet.

Glad we did these ports early on.. except  for Astoria.. a very limited port!

[phoenix_dream]

5 hours ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

As an Arizona resident I love cruising the West Coast.  The choices today are pretty much short 4 day cruises out of LA or week long to Seattle/Vancouver. 

Mexico with level 4 violence ratings is not possible except for Ensenada.  Santa Barbara has limited port calls.  Monterrey eliminated large ships.  SFO made it too expensive on port costs to do an overnight.  Ships are required to cruise slower to help whales.  Astoria has limited docking.

Bottom line is the short get away cruises marketed toward a younger crowd don't match Celebrity demographic.   Fewer ports and no variations.  Until or unless Mexico comes back things will be quiet.

I did Puerto Vallarta, Cabo San Lucas, and Ensenada last year on Celebrity, as well as Santa Barbara, San Francisco, San Diego and Catalina Island.  We did have some unfortunate port time changes as well as itinerary changes due to the whale concern on our 4 west coast cruises (2 to Mexico and 2 up the coast plus Ensenada)

[phoenix_dream]

9 hours ago, Liao said:

Apparently many want to do short cruises, the 4 day ones from FL are extremely popular 

It will be interesting to see if that lasts.  They are deliberately attracting a younger crowd, but that also puts them in direct competition with their own company Royal Caribbean, who is also adding more shorter cruises to the same port.  This younger crowd also has much less free/vacation time available compared to their older, loyal cruisers so it will be interesting to see if the popularity continues.  There is only so much vacation time in a year, compared to those of us who are retired or who are in our later working years with many weeks of vacation.  I guess time will tell.

[Bobsgonecoastal]

On 3/23/2024 at 11:31 AM, CDRonboard said:

Last time we sailed on a Celebrity ship was  March 2023 on Soltice  doing a B2B for 14 days . We really like the cruise line; but .we are no longer able to travel to  Florida to board a Celebrity ship 

As Ex-Airbalancer explained, post Covid cruises were half booked if that.  We were on two California/Mexico and they were obviously not profitable.

Princess Cruises dominates the west coast and has for some time.  They have U.S. departures from San Francisco and San Pedro, so they are pretty stiff competition for X.  We’ve also taken HAL out of San Diego through the Panama Canal, great cruise.  We’re sort of burned out on west coast/Alaska/Mexico cruises, so having to fly as we recently did for an ABC Caribbean cruise was a PITA.  Flying is the worse part of cruising.

[hcat]

On 4/10/2024 at 8:31 AM, Liao said:

Apparently many want to do short cruises, the 4 day ones from FL are extremely popular 

Short cruises can appeal to.locals, but we generally like 7 to 10 days,  but have varied 

 

We took a 4 day cruise on BEYOND as cruising started to open up post- Covid.   We wanted to avoid any need for Covid tests and such, and used up fcc for a suite, so that worked out well. Great cruise, crowded but not a " booze cruise" per se.  We were able to drive  from W Coast Fl and book a pre cruise hotel so it was ok timewise.  

 

We are also taking a 5 day cruise on Silhouette in mid  Dec 2024.. .to try Concierge Class after reading a good review.   We booked  Specialty dining at restaurants we have not been to in yrs,  and "easy does it"  excursions in KW and Nassau... We do not expect a " booze cruise".or many kiddos..pre Xmas... We have one night at a  pre cruise hotel.  It is a long unpleasant drive across Fla but have a routine.

 

We will do the drive again in Jan 2025 for Apex, 7 days and looking  for a longer itin after that.

 

Ca and  Mex not on our list for now!

 

[CruisinShips]

17 hours ago, phoenix_dream said:

I did Puerto Vallarta, Cabo San Lucas, and Ensenada last year on Celebrity, as well as Santa Barbara, San Francisco, San Diego and Catalina Island.  We did have some unfortunate port time changes as well as itinerary changes due to the whale concern on our 4 west coast cruises (2 to Mexico and 2 up the coast plus Ensenada)

Were you on the early October Eclipse sailing?  We were on that one (San Pedro, Santa Barbara, SF, Catalina, Ensenada, San Diego).  Enjoyed that itinerary very much.  As I recall, there was an impact to the amount of time in SF, which was OK with us as we have been there several times.

[phoenix_dream]

7 hours ago, CruisinShips said:

Were you on the early October Eclipse sailing?  We were on that one (San Pedro, Santa Barbara, SF, Catalina, Ensenada, San Diego).  Enjoyed that itinerary very much.  As I recall, there was an impact to the amount of time in SF, which was OK with us as we have been there several times.

I don't remember the exact dates, but we were definitely on in October, doing a B2B.

[NutsAboutGolf]

10 hours ago, Bobsgonecoastal said:

As Ex-Airbalancer explained, post Covid cruises were half booked if that.  We were on two California/Mexico and they were obviously not profitable.

Princess Cruises dominates the west coast and has for some time.  They have U.S. departures from San Francisco and San Pedro, so they are pretty stiff competition for X.  We’ve also taken HAL out of San Diego through the Panama Canal, great cruise.  We’re sort of burned out on west coast/Alaska/Mexico cruises, so having to fly as we recently did for an ABC Caribbean cruise was a PITA.  Flying is the worse part of cruising.

 

The other dynamic with it not being profitable was it seemed that over half the guests were in a free room thanks to the casino.  Only way for Celebrity to become profitable from a comped casino room is for the guest to lose more in gambling than their cruise fare

[phoenix_dream]

20 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

The other dynamic with it not being profitable was it seemed that over half the guests were in a free room thanks to the casino.  Only way for Celebrity to become profitable from a comped casino room is for the guest to lose more in gambling than their cruise fare

Exactly.  And why did Celebrity pick that cruise for the Blue Chip free ones?  Because they weren't selling well otherwise.  Very, very disappointing as those have been some of my favorite cruises over the years.

[mcrcruiser]

Hard to understand that X leaves the west coast maeket to other cruise lines . Perhaps one day we will see a X ship working the West coast .Hawaii , South Pacific , Japan .Korea ie 

As flying becomes  more burdensome & expensive  ,people who can drive to West coast ports will then skip the East coast  cruises

 

Thanks to every one for their input 😃

 

 

 

 

[crusinthrough]

On 4/10/2024 at 9:26 AM, Arizona Wildcat said:

 

Bottom line is the short get away cruises marketed toward a younger crowd don't match Celebrity demographic.   Fewer ports and no variations.  Until or unless Mexico comes back things will be quiet.

This is exactly the demographics that Celebrity is trying to attract. Hence the shorter Caribbean cruises with Perfect Day. 

[AstoriaPreppy]

On 4/11/2024 at 9:08 PM, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

The other dynamic with it not being profitable was it seemed that over half the guests were in a free room thanks to the casino.  Only way for Celebrity to become profitable from a comped casino room is for the guest to lose more in gambling than their cruise fare

 

On 4/12/2024 at 5:41 PM, phoenix_dream said:

Exactly.  And why did Celebrity pick that cruise for the Blue Chip free ones?  Because they weren't selling well otherwise.  Very, very disappointing as those have been some of my favorite cruises over the years.

 

I can attest to this... last year I received *two* casino comp cruises out of LA on Celebrity

 

The first one was offered when we sailed NJ-Iceland in 2022. Coming back to our cabin one afternoon, we found a letter saying we both had a casino comp for later 2022/early 2023. The letter specifically noted this was a book on board only offer. We both assumed it was a mistake, as we are very (very) low-level gamblers, but the future cruise desk confirmed the offer and we jumped at the option. 

 

Coming back from that cruise in January, we received an immediate bounce-back offer for ANOTHER cruise in the next few weeks. I ended up jumping on this offer again, as they offered me an aqua class cabin that I took as a solo cruiser (working remotely from the ship that week). The staff was very confused that I was back only two weeks later, and many remembered me by name. 

 

TBH, we also received casino comps on Carnival in 2022 which we certainly weren't qualified for (~$100 loss over the course of a 7 day cruise). As best as I can tell, this was a combination of unfilled capacity along with an algorithm trying to identify potentially new high-rollers/high-spend gamblers to receive more comps in the future.