Will Princess Build Any More Grand-Class Sized Ships?

[dorisis]

Prices on Royal Princess have gone down recently. Might be an indication that there are too many mega ships. It seems I have also seem RC"s big ships lowering prices. Oceania is not lowering on most itineraries. They have prices going up.

[TorontoTL]

Prices on Royal Princess have gone down recently. Might be an indication that there are too many mega ships. It seems I have also seem RC"s big ships lowering prices. Oceania is not lowering on most itineraries. They have prices going up.

 

There are a lot of berths available in the Caribbean at the moment and soon there will be even more. The NCL Getaway is soon going to join the NCL fleet sailing out of Miami and in the spring the Regal Princess will join as well. Later this year, Quantum of the Seas will sail as well. There will be a lot of pressure on prices which is great for those of us wanting to cruise in the Caribbean but hard on cruise line's whose ships don't command higher prices such as Princess. Although they are my favourite cruise line, their ships aren't so different as the Oasis or Quantum or even the Reflection to command higher prices.

[Smokeyham]

How many passengers do the Oasis class ships hold?

 

5,400 passengers at double occupancy 6,296 maximum

 

Yikes!! That (to my mind) is going in the wrong direction. Hoping to see some ships built which are more in the 2,000 to 3,000 passenger size.

[TorontoTL]

Yikes!! That (to my mind) is going in the wrong direction. Hoping to see some ships built which are more in the 2,000 to 3,000 passenger size.

 

I believe HAL's next new build is in that range, I think 2600?

[Smokeyham]

Yikes!! That (to my mind) is going in the wrong direction. Hoping to see some ships built which are more in the 2,000 to 3,000 passenger size.

 

I believe HAL's next new build is in that range, I think 2600?

 

Interesting... I wonder if this (difference in size of ships) is a way in cruise lines might differentiate themselves from each other in the future? It seems that the different sized ships might, to a certain extent, appeal to different markets.

[RickEk]

Interesting... I wonder if this (difference in size of ships) is a way in cruise lines might differentiate themselves from each other in the future? It seems that the different sized ships might, to a certain extent, appeal to different markets.

 

Well, that seems to be the case between Princess' larger ships and the smaller ships...the little girls command higher prices because they are doing desirable itineraries and have limited capacity... It'll be interesting to see pricing when Venice's restrictions kick in and the mainstream cruise lines start putting smaller ships in the Med.

[caribill]

Prices on Royal Princess have gone down recently. Might be an indication that there are too many mega ships.

 

Or it can be an indication of a non-competitive itinerary on a 7 day cruise.

 

Royal: Princess Cays, St. Thomas, St. Maarten, 3 days at sea

 

Caribbean, Crown, Ruby: Princess Cays, St. Maarten, St. Thomas, Grand Turk, 2 days at sea.

 

Caribbean, Ruby: Grand Cayman, Roatan, Cozumel, Princess Cays, 2 days at sea

 

Royal has 3 ports, the others have 4.

[Iamcruzin]

If you look over the coarse of history when skirts got as short as they can get, jeans got as tight as they could get they both reverted back to longer and looser. When the airlines stopped filling the 747's they reverted back to single aisle planes. I suspect that if they can't fill these mega ships that is when they will start to down size. Everything seems to go full cycle.

[Gunner22aa]

We sail the Grand Class ships exclusivly now and I have no desire to cruise on a floating theme park. If I want to ride on a rollar coaster I'll go to Disneyland. Climbed real mountains so I don't need a wall and have parachuted extensivly so nothing a floating city has really impresses me. The Grand Class have never felt crowded to me, the similar layout has become familiar to us and I just think that the service is better on smaller ships where your bartender of choice might see 75 customers in a day and not 750. We take longer cruises to more exotic locations these days and the crowd onboard is much older than your average 7 day Caribbean trip on the Oasis or a ship like that. I'm not sure a ship like that could even compete in a market that was essentially baby boomers and more interested in relaxation then their next adrenelin rush. I'm sure there are more like me out there and that there will always be a market for ships that don't offer para sailing off the fantail!

Edited January 16, 2014 by Gunner22aa

[Blk_Amish]

Prices on Royal Princess have gone down recently. Might be an indication that there are too many mega ships. It seems I have also seem RC"s big ships lowering prices. Oceania is not lowering on most itineraries. They have prices going up.

 

On my Royal sailing it is up and currently would be out of my price range for a Princess cruise. I booked the inside on the Royal, for what I booked a balcony on Carnival and RCI. If this was a regular Princess ship with the same ole design I would not pay as much.

 

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[Josy1953]

P&O are currently having a new ship (Britannia) built that is 141000 tons, the same size as the Royal Princess. I think that this indicates that CCL are not planning smaller ships. P&O are having trouble filling their 2 grand class ships even when they discount the fares so it is unlikely that they will fill a larger ship.

[bdjam]

It would also seem that there are a limited number of ports which can hand the larger ships, though I see that San Francisco's new terminal is being designed to accommodate larger cruise ships.

 

I don't think it's being built to accomodate ships with 4000 people on them. At least I hope not.

When the airlines stopped filling the 747's they reverted back to single aisle planes. I suspect that if they can't fill these mega ships that is when they will start to down size. Everything seems to go full cycle.

I don't think the trend has been for smaller planes...espcially on international routes. The Airbus A380 is definitely not a step toward smaller...either is the 747-8 or the 787. If anything airlines are following the cruise line model - larger planes with greater economies of scale.

 

Again, the market will control the size of the ship. I don't think Princess' market is up for the amuzement park mega ship that Royal Caribbean is turning out. Perhaps the less than overwhelming success of Royal Princess will point to some lessons for Princess to learn, however giving the overall corporate structure, I wonder how open they are to learning.

Edited January 16, 2014 by bdjam

[bhopal21]

Again, the market will control the size of the ship. I don't think Princess' market is up for the amusement park mega ship that Royal Caribbean is turning out. Perhaps the less than overwhelming success of Royal Princess will point to some lessons for Princess to learn, however giving the overall corporate structure, I wonder how open they are to learning.

 

Bingo!:D

 

Anyone thinking otherwise is kidding themselves.

 

Mike:)

[caribill]

Again, the market will control the size of the ship. I don't think Princess' market is up for the amuzement park mega ship that Royal Caribbean is turning out. Perhaps the less than overwhelming success of Royal Princess will point to some lessons for Princess to learn, however giving the overall corporate structure, I wonder how open they are to learning.

 

Princess disposed of the old Royal which had a capacity of about 700 lower berth passengers.

 

They have added the new Royal and the new Regal with a total of 7120 lower berth passengers.

 

That gives Princess 6420 more berths to fill every day of the year (other than dry dock times).

 

Of course RCCL, NCL, and Carnival have also been adding capacity.

 

So Princess has to figure out how to get the additional passengers at the same time the competiton is doing the same.

Edited January 17, 2014 by caribill

[Loonbeam]

Hnce why things are happening like Princess going back into advertising.

 

Princess disposed of the old Royal which had a capacity of about 700 lower berth passengers.

 

They have added the new Royal and the new Regal with a total of 7120 lower berth passengers.

 

That gives Princess 6420 more berths to fill every day of the year (other than dry dock times).

 

Of course RCCL, NCL, and Carnival have also been adding capacity.

 

So Princess has to figure out how to get the additional passengers at the same time the competiton is doing the same.

[ldubs]

[quote name='bdjam'][FONT=Comic Sans MS]I don't think it's being built to accomodate ships with 4000 people on them. At least I hope not. [/FONT]

[FONT="Comic Sans MS"][B]I don't think the trend has been for smaller planes...espcially on international routes. The Airbus A380 is definitely not a step toward smaller...either is the 747-8 or the 787. If anything airlines are following the cruise line model - larger planes with greater economies of scale.[/B]

Again, the market will control the size of the ship. I don't think Princess' market is up for the amuzement park mega ship that Royal Caribbean is turning out. Perhaps the less than overwhelming success of Royal Princess will point to some lessons for Princess to learn, however giving the overall corporate structure, I wonder how open they are to learning.[/FONT][/QUOTE]

Hmm. Airbus certainly went for the mega plane. You can't really include the 747-8 as it is a 30+ year old airframe design (best one out there IMO). Boeing actually avoided going the way of Airbus' super passenger capacity with the 777 and 787. Instead Boeing went with more efficient designs with smaller passenger cap.