How full are ships now? What have experiences been like?

[beltsbear]

We did our first post 2020 cruise in September and it was 850 passengers on the 2900 capacity Celebrity Edge.  We are cruising in December on NCL.  How full are ships going out now?

[www3traveler]

2 minutes ago, beltsbear said:

We did our first post 2020 cruise in September and it was 850 passengers on the 2900 capacity Celebrity Edge.  We are cruising in December on NCL.  How full are ships going out now?

Somewhere between 50% and 60%.  The Christmas and New Year's cruises will probably be close to 60%.

[shof515]

i was on the breakaway on the oct 31 sailing,they was only about 1900 people onboard the ship

[fava]

At a conference call last week  NCL stated that capacity was currently capped at 70% and no cruise has actually reached that threshold yet.  I would expect 50-60% on most cruises for the next little while.

[Calvin]

7 minutes ago, fava said:

At a conference call last week  NCL stated that capacity was currently capped at 70% and no cruise has actually reached that threshold yet.  I would expect 50-60% on most cruises for the next little while.

Wow!  I'm not sure if I should be happy or sad about that.  I'm sailing NCL in January and fewer pax could be a good thing but only if the crew numbers are not lowered.

[Turtles06]

1 minute ago, Calvin said:

Wow!  I'm not sure if I should be happy or sad about that.  I'm sailing NCL in January and fewer pax could be a good thing but only if the crew numbers are not lowered.

 

I don't think they are lowering the crew numbers.  Our Oct. 24 sailing on the Breakaway was at 38% capacity (1574 pax), and they told us we had a pax:crew ratio of 1:1.   It was incredible. 

[Sand and Seas]

1 hour ago, Turtles06 said:

 

I don't think they are lowering the crew numbers.  Our Oct. 24 sailing on the Breakaway was at 38% capacity (1574 pax), and they told us we had a pax:crew ratio of 1:1.   It was incredible. 

Nice ☺️   We will be on the Breakaway out of New Orleans in December.   

 

When watching the video for Safety check-in, it reminded us of how crowded it was at the end of the 'old style' muster drills.  Elevators, stairways and main hall ways were impossible to navigate.

[BirdTravels]

6 hours ago, Calvin said:

Wow!  I'm not sure if I should be happy or sad about that.  I'm sailing NCL in January and fewer pax could be a good thing but only if the crew numbers are not lowered.

They are sailing with reduced crew. And, if you look carefully, reduced offerings. 

[tafawke]

Any thoughts on what the Breakaway will be like out of NOLA on 19 December ??? 

[KAYKAY121]

13 hours ago, tafawke said:

Any thoughts on what the Breakaway will be like out of NOLA on 19 December ??? 

Through Dec 31 sailings should be 50-60%. That hasn't changed for NCL. I thing other lines might be more.  I was told when I called to ask about changing room categories on our 12/26 sailing on the Bliss that the ship would be around 55% for 12/26 so I would expect the same. 

[gmbhardy]

15 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

They are sailing with reduced crew. And, if you look carefully, reduced offerings. 

Please explain “reduced offerings” please.

[The Fun Researcher]

Didn't realize that NCL was intentionally reducing passenger count.  We're on the 5 night Dec 22nd Getaway cruise.  Looking forward to less passengers if that is indeed the case.

Dan

[kpjb]

18 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

They are sailing with reduced crew. And, if you look carefully, reduced offerings. 

But the crew is reduced much less than pax, correct?  Last I heard was passengers around 60% and crew over 90%.  I mainly attributed that to no kids club stuff and one less show.

 

[CruisingWalter]

On 11/15/2021 at 11:03 AM, The Fun Researcher said:

Didn't realize that NCL was intentionally reducing passenger count.  We're on the 5 night Dec 22nd Getaway cruise.  Looking forward to less passengers if that is indeed the case.

Dan

All cruise lines are still running with reduced capacity at this time as a precaution against covid infections. The cap on passengers varies between cruise lines and the itineraries. 

[CruiseMH]

On 11/15/2021 at 7:48 PM, kpjb said:

But the crew is reduced much less than pax, correct?  Last I heard was passengers around 60% and crew over 90%.  I mainly attributed that to no kids club stuff and one less show.

 

Yes,crew is 75-90%.

Reason is that is very difficult to get vaccinated crew within a short time.Many former crew is working in their home countries and/or are not vaccinated with international accepted vaccines.

SO to be ready once the cruise industry is booming again the cruise lines keep the amount of crew members as high as economically bearable.

[tony@stanton19.freeserve.]

We have just done a Rome to Athens cruise on the Getaway and were told that the ship was onlt 1/3 full, with just over 1300 onboard. 
We were told that was partly due to some South Americans cancelling due to difficulties with them entering Turkey.  When we boarded, we were informed that Kusadasi had been removed from the itinerary and we would go to Volos in Greece instead. This actually meant that as the ship never left the EU, they couldn't sell any  Duty Free goods and all tabacco and alcohol was removed from the shops. 
The fact that the ship was so empty made for a great cruise experience with lots of space in the Garden Cafe, no waits for elevators and no trouble getting into the shows. In fact they seemed to be press ganging the entertainment staff to attend the shows to fill up the seats. 
But you have to remember that this is the Med in winter which is a very quiet period anyway and tourism is just waking up from the COVID Coma.  Places like Pompeii and Dubrovnik were virtually empty so with travel restictions just tstarting to be lifted, not many people are travelling.  I suspect it will take the warmer spring weather and increasing custome confidence to bring tourists out of their enforced prolonged hibernation. 

Edited November 19, 2021 by tony@stanton19.freeserve.

[BermudaBound2014]

On 11/16/2021 at 1:11 PM, creativegenius said:

All cruise lines are still running with reduced capacity at this time as a precaution against covid infections. The cap on passengers varies between cruise lines and the itineraries. 

 

I do not believe this is accurate. According to the President of NCLH at the 2Q earnings call, cruises would begin with 30% and would ramp up the number of passengers allowed. Within 60 days they could sail at 100%. So, if a NCL ship has been sailing for more than 60 days, it's capacity is 100%.

 

The ships are sailing with reduced number of passengers because Johnny Public does not want to cruise just yet. I believe there are a variety of reasons (vaccination mandate, stigma of a petri dish, hassle of pre-testing, possibility of quarantine due to close contact, general covid fear, etc...) but the reality is that if there were enough passengers ready to sail, NCLH ships would be sailing full. They obviously prefer to be sailing full right now. The cruise companies are still sailing red every month and both Carnival and NCLH just borrowed another huge chunk of money to stay afloat.

 

On a side note, at the Q3 earnings call, the reported occupancy rate was 57%. Moral of the story, if you are comfortable with the current policies, it's a good time to experience a ship less full.

[ontheweb]

2 hours ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

I do not believe this is accurate. According to the President of NCLH at the 2Q earnings call, cruises would begin with 30% and would ramp up the number of passengers allowed. Within 60 days they could sail at 100%. So, if a NCL ship has been sailing for more than 60 days, it's capacity is 100%.

 

The ships are sailing with reduced number of passengers because Johnny Public does not want to cruise just yet. I believe there are a variety of reasons (vaccination mandate, stigma of a petri dish, hassle of pre-testing, possibility of quarantine due to close contact, general covid fear, etc...) but the reality is that if there were enough passengers ready to sail, NCLH ships would be sailing full. They obviously prefer to be sailing full right now. The cruise companies are still sailing red every month and both Carnival and NCLH just borrowed another huge chunk of money to stay afloat.

 

On a side note, at the Q3 earnings call, the reported occupancy rate was 57%. Moral of the story, if you are comfortable with the current policies, it's a good time to experience a ship less full.

Though I do not disagree with you that the lower occupancy rates are basically due to decreased demand as the general public is not ready to cruise yet, I do not think they could get to 100% even if the demand was there. The reason I state that is that until there is a change there will have to be at least some cabins, or even sections of cabins, left unoccupied in order to accomodate passengers who theoretically would have to be quarantined.

[BermudaBound2014]

1 minute ago, ontheweb said:

Though I do not disagree with you that the lower occupancy rates are basically due to decreased demand as the general public is not ready to cruise yet, I do not think they could get to 100% even if the demand was there. The reason I state that is that until there is a change there will have to be at least some cabins, or even sections of cabins, left unoccupied in order to accomodate passengers who theoretically would have to be quarantined.

 

That make perfect sense.

 

Technically they can't yet sail at 100%, but they sure would love to be sailing at 95% lol.

 

Happy travels to you 🙂

[ontheweb]

7 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

That make perfect sense.

 

Technically they can't yet sail at 100%, but they sure would love to be sailing at 95% lol.

 

Happy travels to you 🙂

Thanks for the happy travels wish. We are among those who are not quite ready to sail yet. But, we do have a future cruise booked, but not until 2023 on the Prima. Hopefully. all of the restrictions will be over by then, hopefully well before then.🤞