Is everything REALLY full????

[jrljel]

So I looked yesterday to find a 3 or 4 nighter on Freedom just to get away and not have it cost toooo much right now, and I swear there were at least 25 or 30 different choices of cabins for July or August.  So I went on today to book one, and low and behold, EVERYTHING is gone!  Really?  Both for Mariner and Freedom for almost all of July and August?  I am devastated since I teach and can only really go during the summer months and the flights to St. Maarten or Nassau are just too expensive.  Anyone else notice this?  

 

I was on Vicki's Coffee Talk today where she said that there were a lot of closed sailings, but I never expected that!  Plus when I called Royal, two different people told me that Freedom had been cancelled up until Sept but I could not find anything out about that.  Any help anyone?

[Redtravel]

If bookings are down, expect cruise cancellations.  Many people are not flexible with vacation dates.   With covid, there could be other vacation options on land.  Take a look, many hotels aren’t full. Many are offering incredible deals.  Instead of cruising, find a land resort.  We did.  

[Biker19]

3 hours ago, jrljel said:

Really?  Both for Mariner and Freedom for almost all of July and August?   Anyone else notice this?  

Yes, mentioned in a few threads. A sailing not found does not mean the sailing will no longer be for sale, or sold out or cancelled or any other thing folks conjure up. Just wait for a bit to see what happens. Also, look at a few TA web sites to see if the same is true there.

[molly361]

4 hours ago, jrljel said:

So I looked yesterday to find a 3 or 4 nighter on Freedom just to get away and not have it cost toooo much right now, and I swear there were at least 25 or 30 different choices of cabins for July or August.  So I went on today to book one, and low and behold, EVERYTHING is gone!  Really?  Both for Mariner and Freedom for almost all of July and August?  I am devastated since I teach and can only really go during the summer months and the flights to St. Maarten or Nassau are just too expensive.  Anyone else notice this?  

 

I was on Vicki's Coffee Talk today where she said that there were a lot of closed sailings, but I never expected that!  Plus when I called Royal, two different people told me that Freedom had been cancelled up until Sept but I could not find anything out about that.  Any help anyone?

Mariner has availability August 30th 4 nights.  Looks like still insides OV Balcony and suites 

[ace2542]

Cruise ships are NEVER FULL not matter what they say. The staff are ordered to say they are.

[Ourusualbeach]

50 minutes ago, ace2542 said:

Cruise ships are NEVER FULL not matter what they say. The staff are ordered to say they are.

Wrong as usual.  Plenty of times they are offering guests incentives for another sailing because they have too many booked

Edited June 17, 2021 by Ourusualbeach

[sford75]

I am booked on the July 2 sailing on the Freedom. It’s has disappeared twice and reappeared once. Royal called me yesterday to ask about my vaccination status and they told me they are 100% still on. They are trying to determine capacity limits and are removing them from inventory from time to time. They are also trying to determine how many unvaccinated people will be on the sailing. My guess is if they have too many unvaccinated guests, they will stop selling. They success of these first few sailings are important, so they would rather have less people on the sailing than any cases on board. 
if you are really interested in booking, just keep checking. I expect some will pop back up again. 

[ace2542]

1 hour ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Wrong as usual.  Plenty of times they are offering guests incentives for another sailing because they have too many booked

And other times when more guests get off at the port then get on for the next sailing and they claim the ship is full. QM2 said that on the NYC/Quebec leg of their 26 Soton/Soton August 2019 with stops round trip. 800 got off at Brooklyn and 500 got on and the sign we are sailing saying we are at full capacity was up at reception.

[RFerrington]

1 hour ago, sford75 said:

 Royal called me yesterday to ask about my vaccination status 

That's very interesting.  First time I have heard of Royal calling anyone to ask about vax status.

[ArthurUSCG]

Also, full on a ship doesn't mean that every room is booked, it means the ship has reached capacity of the life boats. Often, based on max capacity of the rooms, the ship can hold more then what the life boats or other SOLAS gear can accommodate.

So, a full ship can still have empty rooms. Saying a ship is at maximum passenger capacity is a better description.

Edited June 17, 2021 by ArthurUSCG

[LoriLoriLori]

11 hours ago, jrljel said:

So I looked yesterday to find a 3 or 4 nighter on Freedom just to get away and not have it cost toooo much right now, and I swear there were at least 25 or 30 different choices of cabins for July or August.  So I went on today to book one, and low and behold, EVERYTHING is gone!  Really?  Both for Mariner and Freedom for almost all of July and August?  I am devastated since I teach and can only really go during the summer months and the flights to St. Maarten or Nassau are just too expensive.  Anyone else notice this?  

 

I was on Vicki's Coffee Talk today where she said that there were a lot of closed sailings, but I never expected that!  Plus when I called Royal, two different people told me that Freedom had been cancelled up until Sept but I could not find anything out about that.  Any help anyone?

The part where you called and they stated that Freedom has been cancelled until September is very interesting to me.  I would like to know more about this.  Have Freedom peeps been able to check in?  I have read that some could for the early July cruise.   It's promising that upthread a Freedom person talked to RCI and they stated it's 100 percent still on.  I do wonder/worry if they are going to cancel them eventually.  Hopefully not. I am concerned about my Aug 8 cruise on Odyssey. I am already thinking of alternative vacation plans. 

[mek]

3 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Wrong as usual.  Plenty of times they are offering guests incentives for another sailing because they have too many booked

One of the best deals we were ever got was for a 10 night Panama Canal cruise that was overbooked and we were offered several choices if we would switch. The one we took was a 14 day west coast South America cruise starting in Santiago and ending in Ft Lauderdale, including air for exactly the same price.

Edited June 17, 2021 by mek

[Joseph2017China]

4 hours ago, ace2542 said:

Cruise ships are NEVER FULL not matter what they say. The staff are ordered to say they are.

The capacity limits are in place, that the ship stops selling until they are certain how many they can sell.  The first couple months are in a new world of cruising, and support them for not wanting to over book a capacity cap.  

[linga]

1 hour ago, LoriLoriLori said:

The part where you called and they stated that Freedom has been cancelled until September is very interesting to me.  I would like to know more about this.  Have Freedom peeps been able to check in?  I have read that some could for the early July cruise.   It's promising that upthread a Freedom person talked to RCI and they stated it's 100 percent still on.  I do wonder/worry if they are going to cancel them eventually.  Hopefully not. I am concerned about my Aug 8 cruise on Odyssey. I am already thinking of alternative vacation plans. 

I’m on Freedom July 2nd.  I checked in a week or so ago.    Received an email from Royal yesterday that said “we’re ready to welcome you”!   So far, it’s still a go 👍

[bouhunter]

11 hours ago, Redtravel said:

 Take a look, many hotels aren’t full. Many are offering incredible deals.  Instead of cruising, find a land resort.  We did.  

Not the case in Alaska.  Hotel rooms are now twice(or more) what we booked for August.  And there are little to no rental cars available.  So glad we booked our flights/hotels/car when we did!  Pent up demand for travel is here.

[LoriLoriLori]

28 minutes ago, linga said:

I’m on Freedom July 2nd.  I checked in a week or so ago.    Received an email from Royal yesterday that said “we’re ready to welcome you”!   So far, it’s still a go 👍

I hope you have a great cruise and looking forward to hearing reviews and info from these July cruises! 

[firefly333]

12 hours ago, Redtravel said:

Take a look, many hotels aren’t full. Many are offering incredible deals.  Instead of cruising, find a land resort.  We did.  

I booked my hotel for Galveston a long time ago luckily as prices are triple what I paid. Summer seems high season for Galveston hotels. 

 

Speaking of capacity, I know its carnival not rcl but I was looking at a date but the cabin I wanted disappeared before my eyes. Sometimes its booked sometimes someone just clicked on it, so I put another cabin on hold and went back today to look for cabins. Oct 30 breeze is gone, must have reached capacity. It's like OPs, only a cheap 5 day.  I've read once it's at capacity cant change cabins ... its take the cabin on hold or dont book. When someone cancels the cruise should reappear. Families with kids are cancelling and moving their deposits on all lines imo. And capacity isnt 100% so you cant go by oh plenty more cabins to choose from.

[notmyrealnameoremail]

1 hour ago, linga said:

I’m on Freedom July 2nd.  I checked in a week or so ago.    Received an email from Royal yesterday that said “we’re ready to welcome you”!   So far, it’s still a go 👍

I would guess that any reference to Freedom cancelations were the ones out of Bayonne, NJ.  At one point we were booked for a July 9 cruise on the Freedom from NJ to Bermuda.  Now we have a July 2 cruise on the Freedom from Miami to The Bahamas.  Life is funny sometimes.

[kochleffel]

1 hour ago, bouhunter said:

Not the case in Alaska.  Hotel rooms are now twice(or more) what we booked for August.  And there are little to no rental cars available.  So glad we booked our flights/hotels/car when we did!  Pent up demand for travel is here.

 

I have a non-cruise trip to Alaska planned for August, and I reserved everything the day that AMHS bookings opened. Then, the only things that couldn't be booked were certain hotels that were closed and not sure when, or if, they would open, and one air tour that did not intend to operate at all. Since then Alaska has dropped most of its travel restrictions and many more people have booked. I think that the only restriction still in effect concerns travel to places not reachable either by road or by the Alaska Marine Highway System.

[xqueenfrostine]

6 hours ago, bouhunter said:

Not the case in Alaska.  Hotel rooms are now twice(or more) what we booked for August.  And there are little to no rental cars available.  So glad we booked our flights/hotels/car when we did!  Pent up demand for travel is here.

It’s not just pent up demand, there’s also a supply problem.  Hotel inventory has more or less rebounded, but rental car companies sold off a third of their fleets during the pandemic and it’s going to take a while for them to build that inventory.  So while there are still deals to be had on land vacations (though nowhere near as good as they would have been had you booked when hotels were desperate for guests), if you want a good deal you’re best off looking at places that are walkable/have good local transit options or are within driving distance so you can bring your own car.  Otherwise, any money you save by finding a good deal on a resort or hotel will be wiped out by rental car fees.

[bouhunter]

1 hour ago, xqueenfrostine said:

It’s not just pent up demand, there’s also a supply problem.  Hotel inventory has more or less rebounded, but rental car companies sold off a third of their fleets during the pandemic and it’s going to take a while for them to build that inventory.  So while there are still deals to be had on land vacations (though nowhere near as good as they would have been had you booked when hotels were desperate for guests), if you want a good deal you’re best off looking at places that are walkable/have good local transit options or are within driving distance so you can bring your own car.  Otherwise, any money you save by finding a good deal on a resort or hotel will be wiped out by rental car fees.

Fortunately we booked our car in Anchorage 6 months ago and got a reasonable rate.  Yes a big part of the issue with them is the lack of cars.  Our hotels are pricing out 2-3X what we locked in months ago.  I've travelled to arctic Canada many times, but this will be our first trip to Alaska 🙂

 

Edited June 18, 2021 by bouhunter

[rtazz17]

2 hours ago, xqueenfrostine said:

It’s not just pent up demand, there’s also a supply problem.  Hotel inventory has more or less rebounded, but rental car companies sold off a third of their fleets during the pandemic and it’s going to take a while for them to build that inventory.  So while there are still deals to be had on land vacations (though nowhere near as good as they would have been had you booked when hotels were desperate for guests), if you want a good deal you’re best off looking at places that are walkable/have good local transit options or are within driving distance so you can bring your own car.  Otherwise, any money you save by finding a good deal on a resort or hotel will be wiped out by rental car fees.

Yup, and inflation is going to skyrocket soon. Many things it already is. The end of this year is going to be very bad. 

[pcur]

Big Box has quite a few 3-6 night cruises in late August.  I didn't check July.

[jrljel]

16 hours ago, sford75 said:

I am booked on the July 2 sailing on the Freedom. It’s has disappeared twice and reappeared once. Royal called me yesterday to ask about my vaccination status and they told me they are 100% still on. They are trying to determine capacity limits and are removing them from inventory from time to time. They are also trying to determine how many unvaccinated people will be on the sailing. My guess is if they have too many unvaccinated guests, they will stop selling. They success of these first few sailings are important, so they would rather have less people on the sailing than any cases on board. 
if you are really interested in booking, just keep checking. I expect some will pop back up again. 

Thank you!  I kind of gave up for right now and booked a *gasp* Carnival casino rate for August but will again be on Royal at Thanksgiving!

[Russ Lomas]

17 hours ago, ace2542 said:

Cruise ships are NEVER FULL not matter what they say. The staff are ordered to say they are.

I worked for Princess cruises and worked at the Purser's Desk (Guest Services).  Travel agents always told their clients to ask for a free upgrade when they board.  The ship I was on sailed full for every single sailing except one.  That one sailing that was not full, we had one empty cabin where the person cancelled just prior for a medical reason.  I do not know where you get your information from, but it is 100% incorrect from my experience.