Is There a Way to See Occupancy for an Upcoming Cruise?

[bobomonkeyrage]

Does anyone know of any way to gauge how full a sailing currently is? I'm sure HAL doesn't post such things but anything unofficial anyone is aware of?

[CruiserBruce]

Nothing that is fully transparent, unless you are a travel agent.

 

What you can see on line doesn't account for guarantee bookings. So you can see if given categories are sold out, but can't see really how many cabins are still available.

[Crew News]

Two months from sailing when I coordinate my roll call Meet & Greets with Ship Services, I ask for the current passenger number.  When I report my final Meet & Greet numbers to HAL two weeks from sailing, I get an updated passenger number. 

 

I think my HAL PCC could make a good guess from her sources if I asked earlier in the booking process.

[albingirl]

And to add, going forward, with winter approaching, I would guess that ships will be sailing fairly full soon, after the holidays.

[Crew News]

1 minute ago, albingirl said:

And to add, going forward, with winter approaching, I would guess that ships will be sailing fairly full soon, after the holidays.

My Rotterdam cruise next month has 2381 so far.

[REOVA]

You can find someone onboard current ship (from CC roll call) and have them ask someone (like matre d') about next cruise count. They usually have an estimate. 

[CruiserBruce]

32 minutes ago, albingirl said:

And to add, going forward, with winter approaching, I would guess that ships will be sailing fairly full soon, after the holidays.

I always, in non-Covid times, expect the ship to full, or so close its hard to tell the difference.

[Torquer]

On my upcoming cruises to find out how full the ship is going to be, I go in to pretend to start making a new booking.  For the main categories of cabins, go into pick your own room and the map will show you which are still available for that cruise.  I don't bother to actually count all the empty cabins, but within 10 minutes, I can know the ship's occupancy to the nearest 10%.

[VMax1700]

1 hour ago, Torquer said:

On my upcoming cruises to find out how full the ship is going to be, I go in to pretend to start making a new booking.  For the main categories of cabins, go into pick your own room and the map will show you which are still available for that cruise.  I don't bother to actually count all the empty cabins, but within 10 minutes, I can know the ship's occupancy to the nearest 10%.

This is a great system, but how do you make provision for Guarantee bookings?  10% of total bookings?  25% of total bookings? 50% of unallocated cabins?

It may work if used after Guarantees have been allocated.

[crystalspin]

1 hour ago, Torquer said:

On my upcoming cruises to find out how full the ship is going to be, I go in to pretend to start making a new booking.  For the main categories of cabins, go into pick your own room and the map will show you which are still available for that cruise.  

Maybe it will, maybe it won't. I have experienced cabins showing on both legs of a B2B but not showing for the combined collectors cruise. My PCC couldn't see it either! had to call "Inventory". Also HAL used to hide specific cabins that would still let you book them by putting the room number in the search. 

 

I don't know that they are still playing those games, and surely many cabins showing as available (as opposed to NOT showing), can tell you something.

[carnivaljunkie]

For the ships with mixed with long and short  cruises it is even more difficult to determine how full the ship is.  My 21 day Rotterdam cruise February 4 to 25 is sold out.  However, the other four cruises sharing dates with us are not full. January 25 to February 14, February 4 to 14, February 14 to 25 and February 14 to March 7 all have open cabins.  I looked a year out and it appears that only 25 percent of the cabins are assigned to each 21 day cruise and 25 percent to each 10 and 11 day cruises.

[carnivaljunkie]

That should be; 50% for the shorter cruises and 25% for the other 21 day cruises. 

Edited November 26, 2022 by carnivaljunkie

[cbr663]

3 hours ago, Torquer said:

On my upcoming cruises to find out how full the ship is going to be, I go in to pretend to start making a new booking.  For the main categories of cabins, go into pick your own room and the map will show you which are still available for that cruise.  I don't bother to actually count all the empty cabins, but within 10 minutes, I can know the ship's occupancy to the nearest 10%.

 

With dynamic pricing it is rare for HAL to release all the empty cabins as available cabins.  Typically a small number of cabins are released at certain price points and then when sales targets are met prices are adjusted with more cabins released.

[Torquer]

When my method is used 1-2 weeks before the cruise starts to tell you how fill the ship will be, it is very accurate (at least to the +/-10% that I quoted since I don't actually count the cabins).  Obviously, you just want to check the individual segment(s) you are on and ignore listed cruises that combine multiple segments.  Also obviously, you cannot do this 6 months ahead since many people will still be booking your cruise.