An increase in marketing?

[davecttr]

On 9/21/2019 at 10:51 PM, wowzz said:

Not that useful for those of us looking to have some proper winter sun.  There is a limit to where you can go somewhere warm from Southampton and back in 14 days in January! 

I notice the TUI UK share price has jumped over 7% this morning to over 500p per share and the TUI shop was packed this morning. If you want instant winter sun Marella have 3 ships in the Caribbean, one in the Canaries, one in the far East and one in the eastern Med. I think P&O will remain  basically Southampton based as that is where their customers like be. however note that Marella have a ship based in Southampton for part of this summer season so they are after some of P&O's clientele as well.

[daiB]

2 hours ago, Eglesbrech said:

The big difference about northern sailings is that they tend to run both full and at a sustained price for the cruise company. P&O are selling off cruises in the next couple of months for £399 for a week. Even sailings embarking from as far north as Dundee sell out fast (its a lovely little port and starting to bring in ships for the V&A etc)

 

Move that ship to a more northern port and it would sell cabins at a more realistic price, even late in the year. 

 

If they were selling everything they would not need to bombard pax with emails every other day and post at least once a week. As I said above only time will tell.

I think you are looking at a few facts and turning them for your argument. Whilst it may be true that there are some cheap deals on P&O in November from Southampton this is one of the slow periods for cruise sales. By then there are no cruises out of the Northern ports certainly out of the Tyne as the ships have left for warmer climates. Also the deals are after the final payment day and are often for cabins they have sold once already and people have dropped out. I cruise all through the year from Southampton and I have not been on a ship which has not been full and all indications are that this is still the case.

[Eglesbrech]

7 minutes ago, daiB said:

I think you are looking at a few facts and turning them for your argument. Whilst it may be true that there are some cheap deals on P&O in November from Southampton this is one of the slow periods for cruise sales. By then there are no cruises out of the Northern ports certainly out of the Tyne as the ships have left for warmer climates. Also the deals are after the final payment day and are often for cabins they have sold once already and people have dropped out. I cruise all through the year from Southampton and I have not been on a ship which has not been full and all indications are that this is still the case.

How do you know they are full Dai, just curious?

 

Ps, some of these deals were available well before the payment date as early savers for just a few pounds more £429 rather than £399.

Edited September 23, 2019 by Eglesbrech
Add info.

[Eglesbrech]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

I don't think you can make that assumption. The marketing department will have a budget, which will be spent regardless of how the cruises are selling. As we all know in business, if you have a budget, you need to spend 99.9% of it, otherwise next year your budget will be reduced !!

Yes it is an assumption but based on the fact that I have travelled with P&O for many years and have never previously been bombarded with quite this amount of marketing in the past (and presumably they needed to spend their budget in years gone by as well).

[daiB]

1 minute ago, Eglesbrech said:

Yes it is an assumption but based on the fact that I have travelled with P&O for many years and have never previously been bombarded with quite this amount of marketing in the past (and presumably they needed to spend their budget in years gone by as well).

Often numbers are given at Captains welcome, Peninsula club do’s, chanting to senior staff, ents team who even know average age of passengers etc. Notices on the reception counter saying the ship is full and there are no upgrades.

 

Now we all know that no ship ever sails completely full as they have a few cabins left for emergencies. Also I was surprised to find out how many people drop out at the last moment. This came out when I was on a large roll call and people dropped out in the last week.

 

I get the impression that full on a 3000 passenger ship is between 2900 and 2950 but never 3000.

[AndyMichelle]

7 hours ago, daiB said:

Often numbers are given at Captains welcome, Peninsula club do’s, chanting to senior staff, ents team who even know average age of passengers etc. Notices on the reception counter saying the ship is full and there are no upgrades.

 

Now we all know that no ship ever sails completely full as they have a few cabins left for emergencies. Also I was surprised to find out how many people drop out at the last moment. This came out when I was on a large roll call and people dropped out in the last week.

 

I get the impression that full on a 3000 passenger ship is between 2900 and 2950 but never 3000.

Not sure about the capacities Dai. My friend who works for Carnival says that full means full, or near enough. 

If they have last minute withdrawals, they offer silly 'friends & family' deals to staff who will spend money on board rather than let it go light. 

There must be exceptions, but on our last cruise on Aurora, the Captain announced the figures and it was at the advertised capacity. 

Andy

 

[daiB]

48 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

Not sure about the capacities Dai. My friend who works for Carnival says that full means full, or near enough. 

If they have last minute withdrawals, they offer silly 'friends & family' deals to staff who will spend money on board rather than let it go light. 

There must be exceptions, but on our last cruise on Aurora, the Captain announced the figures and it was at the advertised capacity. 

Andy

 

Well if there is a problem with a cabin, flood etc then cabins are found to decamp the affected cruisers. Perhaps my estimation of 2950 is too low and it is nearer 2980. But there is always spare capacity. 

[AndyMichelle]

4 minutes ago, daiB said:

Well if there is a problem with a cabin, flood etc then cabins are found to decamp the affected cruisers. Perhaps my estimation of 2950 is too low and it is nearer 2980. But there is always spare capacity. 

I'm sure you are right Dai, but I did see a 'cruises from hell' type program where a family had been flooded and no alternative accommodation was available, but that was not P&O. 

Andy

[grapau27]

9 hours ago, daiB said:

Often numbers are given at Captains welcome, Peninsula club do’s, chanting to senior staff, ents team who even know average age of passengers etc. Notices on the reception counter saying the ship is full and there are no upgrades.

 

Now we all know that no ship ever sails completely full as they have a few cabins left for emergencies. Also I was surprised to find out how many people drop out at the last moment. This came out when I was on a large roll call and people dropped out in the last week.

 

I get the impression that full on a 3000 passenger ship is between 2900 and 2950 but never 3000.

We had a thread on RC about this.

There are limits of passenger numbers for each muster station and when some cabins have 3 or 4 passengers this can cause empty cabins to keep the muster station numbers right.