Minimum Occupancy?

[DatawCruiser]

I was wondering if Regent ever considers cancelling a cruise because they don't have enough cabins filled.  Has anyone ever heard of this happening?

[gnomie1]

Never heard of it - what Regent does do for a cruise that is not selling well is either offer a number of promotions (i.e., increased ship board credit, discounted prices, free laundry, offering passengers who are either on the cruise immediately before or after the poor selling cruise a deeply discounted price to extend their cruise ) to increase sales. As the sailing date approaches, they also use discount consolidators - I belong to quite a few of these groups and often get notifications of a amazing last minute deals. Depending on which port the ship is leaving from, last minute deals may only be offered in specific regions, i.e., only the US, or only the UK, etc. By the time embarkation date arrives, the ship sails.

 

gnomie

Edited October 22, 2018 by gnomie1

[flossie009]

Much of the overhead is fixed (ship, fuel, crew etc), and the ship has to get to its next embarkation port, so no point in Regent cancelling a cruise.

As gnomie rightly says they will rather put the cruise on promotion in order to fill as many suites as possible.

[poss]

But does one hear about such promotions mainly if she/he belongs to those discount consolidators?

And how close to sailing do those discounts usually show?   Varies, maybe?

Thanks.

[DatawCruiser]

Thanks for the replies.  Which begs a followup question.  What is the least occupied Regent cruise anyone has been on?  I only ask because my cruise in Jan 2019 appears to be at about 75%.  Thanks.

[GOARMY]

Been with Radisson--now Regent Seven Seas for, it seems eons.  Actually, about 15 years.  All ships currently in service have been utilized on numerous cruises.  Never had to deal with a canceled cruise segment.  And, as to a very-recent post, almost-all ships seem to have been at a least 90% occupancy rate.   

 

Quite the contrary.  We have experienced two situations where Regent obviously "oversold" a segment.  So--scrambled by offering extensive incentives to currently "ticketed" clients to cancel that segment in exchange for total refund, plus cash.  One such situation was several years ago on a Voyager cruise from Sydney to Beijing.   It got to the point where my wife and I were offered a full refund + $23,000 in cash to cancel.  Well, considering we were taking that cruise with relatives and friends, not really an option.  They did not cancel, either.  Somehow, I guess, others took advantage of the offer.  Of course, that Voyager ship was FULL.

 

As stated in earlier posts, it would be logistically impossible, and customer service-wise a disaster to actually cancel a cruise segment.  Tip over one domino, and the cascade goes downhill.  There are, of course, situations which do have significant effects on an itinerary.  These can range from hurricanes, problems with engines, civil unrest, and environmental factors such as volcano eruptions.  Folks usually book a particular segment far in advance of embarkation. 

 

Never say never; never say ever. So--others may post as to experiencing a complete segment being canceled.  That simply has not been our experience.

 

We have a Travel Agent (TA) who keeps in close contact with Regent as to potential--and actual--situations impacting a particular itinerary.  Often, we get a notification months in advance of a change in itinerary.  This specific situation just-occurred on an Explorer January, 2021 segment from Sydney to Auckland.  Change in scheduling.  Result:  we gained an additional day, with no additional cost. 

 

Have a competent TA.  That eliminates a lot of potential worries. 

 

GOARMY!

 

 

 

[crusin7]

Our least occupied Regent cruise was our first,  Sydney to Aukland, November 2008. We were on The Mariner with a total of 450 passengers. I was hooked from the start!

[FlyerTalker]

Let's try a thought experiment.

 

The Mariner is currently on a cruise from Miami to Honolulu.  Let's just say that, for whatever reason, the cruise was selling poorly.  Would they cancel?

 

Well, what happens when the ship needs to be in Honolulu for the next segment to Tahiti?  Does it just magically use a Star Trek transporter to get from MIA to HNL??  No - it needs to keep to the schedule to then deal with the next cruise.

 

I have heard similar questions about airline flights....do the airlines cancel a flight if there are only a few passengers?  Nope - because the aircraft and crew need to be in the other city to fly THOSE passengers for the next flight for that ship.

 

 

[JMARINER]

9 hours ago, poss said:

But does one hear about such promotions mainly if she/he belongs to those discount consolidators?

And how close to sailing do those discounts usually show?   Varies, maybe?

Thanks.

 

 Unlike hotels and airlines I have never heard of " discount consolidators" in  the Cruise industry. All Travel agencies get the say deal form the Cruise Lines. The Agency themselves might add amenities in order to sweeten the deal for potential clients. But there is no secret way to get some type of hidden deal. At least based on my 30+ years of travel on over 100 cruises. 

[gnomie1]

4 hours ago, JMARINER said:

 

 Unlike hotels and airlines I have never heard of " discount consolidators" in  the Cruise industry. All Travel agencies get the say deal form the Cruise Lines. The Agency themselves might add amenities in order to sweeten the deal for potential clients. But there is no secret way to get some type of hidden deal. At least based on my 30+ years of travel on over 100 cruises. 

Actually, there are discount consolidators with cruises that are not made available to TA's - usually get an email and have a very limited time (usually 24 hours or less) to respond and then the deal is gone. The discounts are quite significant and may or may not include transportation. On a number of occasions when I have received an offer, I will ask my TA and been told that the consolidator bought a block of excess inventory at a significant discount (kind of like a fire sale) and that they do not have access to the same block. (Yes, I have a very good TA, one of Regent top seller's)

 

These discount consolidators do not work only with cruises, but with hotels, tours, etc - been using them as long as the internet has been around, best trip so far (and this was about 16 years ago) - r/t flight to Beijing (coach) and six nights in a great 4 star hotel with breakfast and three tours - we paid $207 each which included all fees and taxes. This was a tour with excess capacity. A couple of years ago my friends and I took a one week cruise from NJ to Bermuda on Celebrity in cabins with a butler and we each paid less than $200 per person.

 

EVERY cruise line at times has excess inventory that they need to sell and not wanting to upset the passengers who have paid full price by offering discount prices, sell it through back channels. While my TA has been able to get us significant discounts on cruises that are not selling well (and these discounts are never published), these last minute (usually two months or less before sailing) cruise deals are only available through consolidators. Due to CC rules, I cannot name or identify any of these consolidators but with a little patience, your friend google can help you.

 

One has to act quickly because although the offers are usually available for 24 hours, in my experience they sell out much quicker, sometimes in minutes, depending on the level of discount.

 

gnomie

Edited October 23, 2018 by gnomie1

[HotRoot]

Agree on the "discount cruise TA".  We use one.  Have found most "deals" are half price but include air, pre-cruise hotel, and additional onboard extras.-

[Dolebludger]

I know nothing about discount consolidators, but I do know of a Navigator cruise we went on back 14 years ago that was only 30% full, and it went. 

[DeepFreeze63]

In our 13 Regent cruises, DW and I have never been on a cruise that wasn't at least almost full, often overbooked. Regent is very good at filling their ships.

That being said, I believe we are on the same January 2019 cruise as you - Cape Town to Rio, a unique itinerary. It is sandwiched between two very popular cruises and involves many sea days, including a difficult tender port. Getting to CP easily in Business Class during the Holiday season is especially difficult as well as expensive. Regent has already made at least 3 "special" offers; yet as you noted, there are still many open cabins. My guess is that Regent will ultimately almost fill the Explorer by making sensational offers to both the previous Explorer cruisers and the Oceania Nautica cruisers who disembark CP on January 5th.

 

The Explorer's public areas are spacious; a lightly loaded Explorer may seem eerie or maybe even more delightful than normal.

[gnomie1]

7 minutes ago, DeepFreeze63 said:

In our 13 Regent cruises, DW and I have never been on a cruise that wasn't at least almost full, often overbooked. Regent is very good at filling their ships.

That being said, I believe we are on the same January 2019 cruise as you - Cape Town to Rio, a unique itinerary. It is sandwiched between two very popular cruises and involves many sea days, including a difficult tender port. Getting to CP easily in Business Class during the Holiday season is especially difficult as well as expensive. Regent has already made at least 3 "special" offers; yet as you noted, there are still many open cabins. My guess is that Regent will ultimately almost fill the Explorer by making sensational offers to both the previous Explorer cruisers and the Oceania Nautica cruisers who disembark CP on January 5th.

 

The Explorer's public areas are spacious; a lightly loaded Explorer may seem eerie or maybe even more delightful than normal.

They may actually offer it to residents of South Africa at a discount because the cost of flying passengers to the port is eliminated. A couple of years ago we were on a cruise that left from Haifa and three months before the cruise, there were still plenty of cabins, so much so that many passengers on the following cruise were offered a significant discount to join the ship early. There were also a significant number of Israelis on board and we learned that the cruise had been marketed to them at a very significant discount, far less than the prices available either in the US or the UK, even subtracting the airfare - the ship left full.

 

Yield management is very exacting and made much easier with the use of computers - for many reasons, RSSC, as well as any other cruise line, would rather sail with 90% occupancy with some of the cabins selling at a significant discount than sailing with 60% occupancy.

 

gnomie

[orvil]

I have some good friends who sail Oceania often.  They had booked the top suite for a special occasion.  Another very important person wanted the same suite for the same segment.  A series of letters and phone calls started about 6 months before sail away.  The frequency increased as the time of departure came nearer.  The offers of compensation increased each time.  Eventually, Oceania asked what did they want?  (This must have been some good customer they were trying to accommodate.)  They agreed to downgrade to the next level suite, a full refund and a free segment in the top suite at a later date.  That's what it took to accommodate them.  This is unlikely to ever occur again.  It helps if one is in the right place at the right time.