Ships at full capacity?

[joseph123]

Any idea when Celebrity ships might return to full capacity? I will be on the Millennium for Feb 2023 cruise and am wondering if the ship will be fully booked. Would be nice if it is not that crowded. Have not been able to find any formal announcement on this.

[emmas gran]

It would seem a little early to say

[Jeremiah1212]

Your cruise is nearly a year away so its anyones guess. However currently Celebrity is not substantially restricting capacity. The light crowds are due to low bookings. Not because they want ships at half capacity. 

[sailnsee]

Celebrity Silhouette for 4-8-22-over 490 cabins empty…1/3 of ship😳

[LGW59]

35 minutes ago, joseph123 said:

Any idea when Celebrity ships might return to full capacity? I will be on the Millennium for Feb 2023 cruise and am wondering if the ship will be fully booked. Would be nice if it is not that crowded. Have not been able to find any formal announcement on this.

At this point I'd really not spend any time worrying about it.  We are sailing on a B3B in Nov/Dec 2022, if the ship is full, woohooo, it means people are back to living normal lives.  Precautions then, if so, sure I will follow, but will be awesome to be on a ship.

Edited March 29, 2022 by LGW59

[mac_tlc]

About 50% on Edge this week. Getting spoiled. 
 

mac_tlc

[esther e]

I’m on the celebrity constellation right now and they said the passenger number is under 900

[JFontaine]

58 minutes ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

Your cruise is nearly a year away so its anyones guess. However currently Celebrity is not substantially restricting capacity. The light crowds are due to low bookings. Not because they want ships at half capacity. 

It sounds like many of Royal Caribbean's ships are at or near full capacity.  Any idea why the difference in bookings? I would think Celebrity cruisers are a more cautious group due to age, income, etc , but there should be pent up demand. Thanks. 

[mfs2k]

Too many unpredictable factors now. Covid; Booking Demand; port restrictions to name a few.
And I don’t think very many of us fully grasp the staffing issues the cruise lines are dealing with for these ships.
You can’t sell a full ship without full staff levels. 

[Jeremiah1212]

36 minutes ago, JFontaine said:

It sounds like many of Royal Caribbean's ships are at or near full capacity.  Any idea why the difference in bookings? I would think Celebrity cruisers are a more cautious group due to age, income, etc , but there should be pent up demand. Thanks. 

 

I think there is some interesting analysis behind it. Much of it we won't see since RCG doesn't report much in the way of financials on a brand by brand basis. I think timing has a lot to do with it and so does the average passenger mix. Many of Royal's passengers have kids who couldn't (or wouldn't) have sailed or traveled at all the past 2 years due to COVID restrictions, vaccine requirements, etc. COVID finally calmed down a bit right during the crush of spring break bookings, which are popular on Royal but not so much on Celebrity. I do think Celebrity passengers as a whole are spending more than they normally did pre-COVID. The Retreat bookings must be producing have some interesting margins right now. Prices are not low and bookings are strong. 

[TeeRick]

17 hours ago, joseph123 said:

Any idea when Celebrity ships might return to full capacity? I will be on the Millennium for Feb 2023 cruise and am wondering if the ship will be fully booked. Would be nice if it is not that crowded. Have not been able to find any formal announcement on this.

Just no way to know now.  But consider that in the past two years the COVID virus has peaked post- Thanksgiving and Christmas and many sailings were affected through Jan and Feb.  Lots of cancellations and low passenger numbers.  But you need a crystal ball really.

[Cruising89143]

Our cruise on the Edge is in late May out of Civitavecchia and I have checked the website that shows the staterooms currently available for this sailing and while that website may not be 100% up to date, there are a lot of staterooms open. A lot! We just reached final payment. The Retreat has sold well and the current prices reflect this as did the move up offers. Now will be the time to see if X drops prices to try and fill the ship. Both X and RCI have a lot of inventory (as do many cruise lines) in Europe this year. I hope that they can fill the ships. 

[graphicguy]

Not going to be a light switch.....all of a sudden ships will sail at full capacity just because they're sailing.  Celebrity tried to be all things for all people for a little while with their "included" promos, which included the popular perks (drinks, internet, tips ,etc).  That caused a ruckus and people wanted to sail without all the perks.  So, they offered "Sail Only" or Guarantee rates, with no perks.  Some didn't like that, either.

 

Looks like they're back to fares that include the perks.  As such, the fares look higher than other cruise lines.  But, once you factor in the perks, they're right in line with apples to apples comparisons with other lines.

 

So, pricing is a factor.  As others pointed out, there are no rock climbing walls, no huge water slides, no big attractions for children.  That means families with no children are the focus, which cuts down on the available pool of cruisers.

 

I think they'll take the steady, if unspectacular, guest growth they're experiencing now.  Truth told, on my reduced capacity sailings, I loved it.  I know it won't last forever.  It may not last into the Summer or Fall of this year.  But, enjoy it while it lasts.

[leaveitallbehind]

The CDC rescinded their no sail order in January which  lifted the restrictions on booking capacity.  As a result, all ships currently with panned itineraries and those planned to return to active itineraries moving forward are able to book now at full capacity.  When that will be reached is a matter of market demand and would be difficult to predict as a result.  But with on board protocols also easing, the interest in cruising should also rise IMO and I would think full capacity sailings are not too far away.

[Tyler414]

I was on Apex 3/12-3/19 and we had just over 2000 guests on board.  Seems like a lot of the passengers I talked too, booked before the pandemic (myself included)

[nunuc2000]

20 hours ago, joseph123 said:

Any idea when Celebrity ships might return to full capacity? I will be on the Millennium for Feb 2023 cruise and am wondering if the ship will be fully booked. Would be nice if it is not that crowded. Have not been able to find any formal announcement on this.

Even pre-covid, the Millie never felt too crowded at full capacity, so even the slightest bit of reduction in capacity will be a bonus 🙂  We're on the Millennium in Feb 2023 as well... come join the rollcall 🙂  

[gerelmx]

Summit august 19 From Reykjavik to Boston it's SOLD OUT, it disappeared from the web site

[D C]

It's 100% up to the customers being able to get past the "petri dish" nonsense and being willing to sail again.  When is anyone's guess.  

[Guppy99]

20 hours ago, joseph123 said:

Any idea when Celebrity ships might return to full capacity? I will be on the Millennium for Feb 2023 cruise and am wondering if the ship will be fully booked. Would be nice if it is not that crowded. Have not been able to find any formal announcement on this.

With the new statement from the CDC, it is unlikely the cruise lines will voluntarily reduce passengers. It will take a bit for the public to catch up and be willing to cruise, so that is the limiting factor.  Won't take long imo, especially if they offer last minute specials.

[DrKoob]

Was at a meeting with a Celebrity exec last Thursday and he said they are not holding back any inventory as of right now. So they are not reducing their passenger capacity at all. They would love to sell every stateroom they have and all CDC restrictions on capacity are now gone. Any cruises sailing at less than full, are due to people just not being ready to book a cruise yet. 

[Guppy99]

5 hours ago, D C said:

It's 100% up to the customers being able to get past the "petri dish" nonsense and being willing to sail again.  When is anyone's guess.  

Nonsense id YOUR assessment, not everyone's. You (and others) who belittle and ridicule people for continuing to be careful and a bit shy to be all in should not be subject to your sarcasm.

[Guppy99]

6 hours ago, cruisingator2 said:

Our cruise on the Edge is in late May out of Civitavecchia and I have checked the website that shows the staterooms currently available for this sailing and while that website may not be 100% up to date, there are a lot of staterooms open. A lot! We just reached final payment. The Retreat has sold well and the current prices reflect this as did the move up offers. Now will be the time to see if X drops prices to try and fill the ship. Both X and RCI have a lot of inventory (as do many cruise lines) in Europe this year. I hope that they can fill the ships. 

I would suspect that cruise which embark and terminate in different locations, and/or outside the US and UK, will not fill up to capacity as quickly. Flying into and from the different countries is still a logistical problem. Also flights made close to departure can be prohibitively expensive. Especially now with oil prices soaring.

[grandgeezer]

1 hour ago, DrKoob said:

Was at a meeting with a Celebrity exec last Thursday and he said they are not holding back any inventory as of right now. So they are not reducing their passenger capacity at all. They would love to sell every stateroom they have and all CDC restrictions on capacity are now gone. Any cruises sailing at less than full, are due to people just not being ready to book a cruise yet. 

The lack of sailing at capacity is not just people worried about covid. It could also be that the value of the product is not near the asking price as well as having to pay for things not wanted or needed (Always Included).

If they aren’t restricted in capacity, it appears it’s their choice, as I’ve see no effort to reduce prices to get bodies on the ship. There goes the onboard spending plus it greatly reduces the tipping pool, which in turn lessens the money the crew makes.

[d9704011]

3 minutes ago, grandgeezer said:

The lack of sailing at capacity is not just people worried about covid. It could also be that the value of the product is not near the asking price as well as having to pay for things not wanted or needed (Always Included).

If they aren’t restricted in capacity, it appears it’s their choice, as I’ve see no effort to reduce prices to get bodies on the ship. There goes the onboard spending plus it greatly reduces the tipping pool, which in turn lessens the money the crew makes.

That's quite a thesis and I applaud the way you introduced tipping into the discussion.  Frankly, I'll stick with the 'less than full capacity due to lingering Covid-19 concerns, as the more likely explanation.

[LGW59]

6 hours ago, D C said:

It's 100% up to the customers being able to get past the "petri dish" nonsense and being willing to sail again.  When is anyone's guess.  

Totally agree