Upcoming cruise looks nearly empty! Will it be cancelled?

[Joy Bunny]

We have a bit more than 3 months left before our first Princess cruise to Hawaii. Looking over the cabin availability today it appears the ship is less than half booked, and actually is probably closer to 1/3rd booked. And the roll call for this cruise is pretty much dead with only 9 posts!

 

Is this normal for Princess cruises? We've been on other cruise lines and the cabin availability was quite low at this point. These were for Med, Caribbean and Asia cruises. 

 

If the bookings don't increase much, is the cruise at risk of being cancelled or venues on board limited or closed entirely? 

 

We're a couple of weeks to final payment and we'd like to know if the cruise activities will be normal on such a high sea day itinerary. We'd hate to spend 9 sea days with half the venues closed because of low bookings.  

 

Thanks. 

[Charles4515]

6 minutes ago, Joy Bunny said:

 

If the bookings don't increase much, is the cruise at risk of being cancelled or venues on board limited or closed entirely?

 

If that is true they will lower the price until the ship fills up. Last minute bookings will pay less then those before final payment. 

[Coral]

We sailed on a ship with 400 people last year. It was great!!!!

 

No, it won't be cancelled because of that. 

[that]

Which ship

[Astro Flyer]

On 7/14/2022 at 1:54 PM, Elua said:

 

Aloha Y’All!

I’ve had some people writing to us asking me to post up our schedule for the coming Hawaiian cruise season. Here is where you will find us through the summer of 2023:

 

Ship                             Date                                    Starting Port

Crown Princess         October 18, 2022              Vancouver

Crown Princess         November 9, 2022            San Pedro, CA (28 day cruise)

Crown Princess         December 7, 2022            San Pedro, CA

Crown Princess         December 22, 2022          San Pedro, CA

Crown Princess        January 16, 2023               San Pedro, CA

Crown Princess        January 31, 2023               San Pedro, CA

Crown Princess        February 15, 2023              San Pedro, CA

Crown Princess        March 2, 2023                     San Pedro, CA

Grand Princess         April 8, 2023                        Aukland, NZ (20 days onboard)

Emerald Princess     July 6, 2023                         San Pedro, CA

Emerald Princess     August 5, 2023                    San Pedro, CA

 

Leialoha and I are very much looking forward to this schedule, as we have not worked a full Hawaiian season in about 2 1/2 years. It’s going to be a lot of fun with some great memories to be made…see you onboard!!

 

Tiki Dave

(of Elua)

 

Living in San Jose guessing you’re sailing from SF? If from LA this duo are on Crown Princess & are great. I’ve also heard good things about the other Hawaiian Ambassadors sailing from SF.

 

The Princess Aloha Spirit Program has many things to experience.

 

https://www.princess.com/learn/cruise-destinations/hawaii-cruises/things-to-do/

[Honolulu Blue]

2 hours ago, Joy Bunny said:

We have a bit more than 3 months left before our first Princess cruise to Hawaii. Looking over the cabin availability today it appears the ship is less than half booked, and actually is probably closer to 1/3rd booked. And the roll call for this cruise is pretty much dead with only 9 posts!

 

Is this normal for Princess cruises? We've been on other cruise lines and the cabin availability was quite low at this point. These were for Med, Caribbean and Asia cruises. 

 

If the bookings don't increase much, is the cruise at risk of being cancelled or venues on board limited or closed entirely? 

 

We're a couple of weeks to final payment and we'd like to know if the cruise activities will be normal on such a high sea day itinerary. We'd hate to spend 9 sea days with half the venues closed because of low bookings.  

 

Thanks. 

I wouldn't say it's normal, but the first few months of cruises after the restart had lots of cruises that sailed less than a third full. Like the first two I took during that time period (one on Princess).

 

They did things to adjust, like close part or all of some dining venues, limit the amount of shows, limit the cleaning given to each room, etc.

[SantaFeFan]

3 hours ago, that said:

Which ship

 

Royal Princess, perhaps? It sails out of San Francisco about an hour drive north of San Jose.  

Edited November 21, 2022 by SantaFeFan

[VibeGuy]

They don’t cancel single sailings between two other sailings due to low bookings.   Sailings before or after drydock, it has happened.  Delayed restarts due to soft bookings?  May I show you LA and San Diego with Sapphire and Diamond?

 

But a random one where they haven’t moved sufficient cabins.  It would be chaotic.  

[Joy Bunny]

Thanks everyone for assuring me it won't be cancelled. We really need to do this cruise to give us some much needed R&R. It's been a rough couple of years!

 

But, I am still concerned that the ship will look like a ghost town with multiple venues closed and entertainment options cut. We need to have lot's of things to do and enjoy other than sitting around with only books to read. Our sanity is at risk!! 🤪 

[VibeGuy]

We did four B2B SF sailings with less than 50% occupancy after the restart, got off for a month, and then came back for another month with slightly above 50% occupancy.   I think our actual numbers for the first four were 23%, 48%, 40%, 32%, with Christmas and NYE bumping up the average. 
 

Let me assure you - the experience was fantastic.  How fantastic?  When we left home we only planned to do B2B.  We added number three because the first two were so good, and number four because we realized we’d stumbled into something great.  The only reason we didn’t stay for the next two was that my DH didn’t like the itineraries.   
 

Despite being a ghost ship, there was almost no indication that Princess was discouraged and cutting back.   You had to *look* to find where they weren’t staffing or scheduling things - like how the IC closed at 11 or Midnight, or how one dining room/side of the Horizon Court never opened.  The rest?

 

Let me tell you about the rest.   The crew was relaxed and helpful to the point of aggression.  My silverware got replaced four times in one lunch at the Horizon Court.  My wine glass in Vines arrived before I did.    I actually felt bad for the performers in Wheelhouse and the Princess Theatre - one comedy headliner show had fifty people attending.  That’s a big room to find the energy in.  I think the combo in Wheelhouse had two tables to play for, and one of the guitarists had three (and he was quite good).   I wish I had the Patters - they were absolutely the normal Princess level, but the whole thing felt like a much, much more expensive cruise line - the staff:passenger ratio + Medallion = Best. Cruises. Ever.  
 

 

[jeromep]

1 hour ago, Joy Bunny said:

Thanks everyone for assuring me it won't be cancelled. We really need to do this cruise to give us some much needed R&R. It's been a rough couple of years!

 

But, I am still concerned that the ship will look like a ghost town with multiple venues closed and entertainment options cut. We need to have lot's of things to do and enjoy other than sitting around with only books to read. Our sanity is at risk!! 🤪 

One of the reasons that getting cruise lines going again is so hard is because the whole of the cruise business is basically a fixed expense for the company.  Whether or not there are pax on a ship, the ship still costs you money.  You still have to crew it and you still have to feed and water the crew, along with other support items, like crew medical, and crew operational support, like laundry and housekeeping.

 

Wonder why cruise ships usually look great in spite of them operating in the same salt water environment as their freight carrying cousins, who usually have visible surface rust and a certain amount of allowed corrosion?  Because the crew is always painting and cleaning.  So, you have the staff to do the painting and cleaning, you just have the added expense of the gear you need to do the painting and cleaning.  I saw some of the photos of the active Princess fleet when they had them at sea or off the coast of the Philippians during the shut down and they were pretty rusty.  They had moved to skeleton crews to keep the ships running and they weren't doing the exterior maintenance they normally would do.  While this was all surface rust and easily solved with an angle grinder and some paint, it sure did indicate that they were running the ships at the most minimal staffing possible.  Ships that are laid up and not operating turn to garbage pretty quickly, so keeping the ships moving and in operation was key to getting them going again when cruising restarted.

 

Port charges are basically fixed, you have to be in port or at least at a moorage, which is also an expense if you are not moving.  Depending on where you are ported or moored, you may also have to burn fuel to generate electricity to keep everything going on board.  So no savings there.

 

So, unlike a store, which may close down early some night because there are no customers, and they can save a few bucks in labor and electricity expense, a particular sailing that has a small number of guests isn't so easily canceled as the ship is already scheduled for the ports it is visiting and is already staffed and ready to go.  Just because one week's sailing isn't very popular doesn't mean that the next week's sailing won't be totally full.

 

It is a game of averages for the cruise lines.  Some sailings have tremendous margins, other sailings they are scraping by or loosing money.  The goal is to have a lot more sailings that are profitable than those that are not, which is what keeps you in business.