Carnival Liberty cancels Europe 09

[CLEMM]

I see on the Europe Boards that Carnival Liberty has cancelled its European cruises for 2009 and is going to stay in the Caribbean. Any chance Celebrity will pull one or more ships as well? Thoughts?

[Coco Creek]

Probably not. Carnival business strategy is to dominate the Caribbean.

 

Celebrity for years has done Europe and Alaska in the summer. Both of these markets are higher revenue and more profitable than the Caribbean.

[Andy]

I see on the Europe Boards that Carnival Liberty has cancelled its European cruises for 2009 and is going to stay in the Caribbean. Any chance Celebrity will pull one or more ships as well? Thoughts?

 

Hi Clemm !

 

I was tempted to start a thread, when I saw the news earlier today. This is Carnival's second ship (Liberty) that has been pulled from Europe, and re-deployed to the US. Carnival Freedom was announced a few months ago.

 

As I have been saying for several months, I strongly feel that Celebrity is behind the curb on this. They have a little too much of their fleet deployed in Europe in 2009. They should re-deploy 1 ship from Europe back to the US. I'm surprised they have waited this long.

 

As Celebrity just made some deployment changes with Mercury and Millennium, hopefully, they are now taking a look at Europe, and will consider tweaking their 2009/2010 deployments. We will see what happens.

[Andy]

Celebrity for years has done Europe and Alaska in the summer. Both of these markets are higher revenue and more profitable than the Caribbean.

 

Hi Coco !

 

Based on the amount of Europe deals out there, I'm not so sure that Europe will be the hot spot that it's been in past years. Sure, they may have decent numbers, but I don't think many Cruise lines will get top dollar at this time. Especially, in light of all of the extra ships/berths that are based in Europe in 2009. I have to believe the competition will be tremendous there.

 

I realize there is reasonable demand for Cruising in Europe, but I feel that as the US economy works through its decline, that many US Cruise passengers will choose to economize, and demand will rise for sailings "close to home". As hot as Europe was over the past few seasons, I feel that close to home Cruises will be the new hot vacation item, over the next year or 2. If ever Celebrity needed a ship in the Caribbean during the Summer months, I feel this is the perfect time for it.

 

What we need more than anything else, is for the Economic downturn to stabilize, so we can bottom out, and things can improve over time. Let's hope this happens sooner, rather than later !

[eroller]

I don't see Royal Caribbean/Celebrity following Carnival Cruise Lines. They have two different business models. Carnival Cruise Lines relies almost 100% on the North American market to fill it's ships, even in Europe. They do not source outside North America for the most part. There are other Carnival Corp. brands for this such as Costa, AIDA, P&O, etc.

 

Royal Caribbean/Celebrity doesn't have the multiple brands like Carnival does (although they are working on it with Pullmantur and CDF), and , so Royal Caribbean/Celebrity do a lot of marketing and sourcing outside North America. The fact they don't rely on just North America to fill their ships in Europe means they are better positioned to keep ships in Europe, rather then move them all back to N. America.

 

Ernie

[Hypo]

Wishing they would bring a ship back to Galveston, for year around cruises.

 

Hypo

[rolfecms]

Does anyone know yet where the four additional S-class ships will be based?

[Andy]

Does anyone know yet where the four additional S-class ships will be based?

 

Hi Rolfecms !

 

Other than Solstice, We only know about Equinox at this point. Equinox will be sailing in Europe in the Summer months, and Caribbean in the Winter Season.

 

We won't know about the other 3 Solstice Class ships for quite some time.

[FinelyCruising]

Let's hope that if X does make a decision to remove ships they make an announcement such that cancellation is considered in an ample and favorable manner to the cruiser.

[Coco Creek]

Let's hope that if X does make a decision to remove ships they make an announcement such that cancellation is considered in an ample and favorable manner to the cruiser.

 

A-men to that. Losing my cruisetour to Australia when Celebrity moved out of the market for 2010 after taking deposits was not an endearing experience.

 

As a result I will move to Princess for the Austrialian-New Zealand cruisetour and, if I like it, I just might stay.

[Coco Creek]

Hi Coco !

 

I realize there is reasonable demand for Cruising in Europe, but I feel that as the US economy works through its decline, that many US Cruise passengers will choose to economize, and demand will rise for sailings "close to home". As hot as Europe was over the past few seasons, I feel that close to home Cruises will be the new hot vacation item, over the next year or 2. If ever Celebrity needed a ship in the Caribbean during the Summer months, I feel this is the perfect time for it.

 

 

Assuming passengers want to stay close to home, there are parts of ths US, the West Coast, Alaska and the Northeast that are better suited for a summer cruise. I live in Florida (a few minutes from Port Everglades) and I would not even contemplate going out to the Caribbean during the hot, sticky hurricane season.

[dkjretired]

Celebrity actually did this about 10 years ago or so. One of the ships, I think Century was scheduled for Europe and they pulled it to do the Caribbean in the summer.