Panama Canal - Is Crystal Cancelling Panama Canal in December?

[Roland4]

1 hour ago, ryndam said:

Based on current sailing schedules, Serenity is sailing from Miami until it returns from the World Cruise in June 2024. FLL sailings later.

 

FWIW, FLL has 8 cruise ships with 28,000+/- arrivals/departures on 9 December 2023, so congestion isn't much better in FLL than in MIA.

I just looked at Dec 1, when we disembark from Oceania Vista, and the count is eight ships and about 27K passengers off and on!! MIA is going to be a zoo that day!!!

[Critically Cruising]

1 hour ago, Roland4 said:

I just looked at Dec 1, when we disembark from Oceania Vista, and the count is eight ships and about 27K passengers off and on!! MIA is going to be a zoo that day!!!

 

All the more reason to stay in SoFla and fly home on Monday.  Plus, the air tickets will be less expensive with less demand.

 

 

[ryndam]

2 hours ago, Critically Cruising said:

 

All the more reason to stay in SoFla and fly home on Monday.  Plus, the air tickets will be less expensive with less demand.

 

 

Check out the weekend hotel rates in S.Florida. Primetime pricing. $$$$ 🤪😳

 

Rob

[Critically Cruising]

5 minutes ago, ryndam said:

Check out the weekend hotel rates in S.Florida. Primetime pricing. $$$$ 🤪😳

 

Stay a bit away from South Beach or the FLL beach and the rates become quite reasonable.

[Keith1010]

This is the season in Miami folks.

 

Anne Marie and I have been staying in Miami pretty often in December and/or January.  Pricing will be higher then and the ships are just a small factor for this.  I've been there with two ships in port or seven (don't think I remember 8 but that is possible for WC 2015 and the cruise before that with one of them having a tent rather than a building). I looked at pricing for that weekend versus often when we come before the holiday cruise and some hotels are less expansive, about the same or more.  If you want an easy selection just go to the Marriott site as they own tons of them from the airport to downtown., etc. In fact, I just saw a reasonably priced one they have near Brickell downtown.

 

Or if you are debarking that day get a flight. But get one 1;00 PM or later to be on the safe side and all the better if you have Clear or Global Entry.  

 

Book a room now and just keep checking prices.  booked a room for a cruise and as is often the case they now added a promotion and I could actually add two nights and saved money as the additional two nights took the total price down. Go figure.

 

As to flights they are funny. Had to update the outbound flight and no change. But one day I look at the same R/T and the total price went up $1,500.00 per person. Like that for a couple of days and the a day later price is what it was.

 

Anyway, Miami has lots of hotel rooms.  If you want to pay higher price come for New Years Eve.

 

Keith 

[History&Wine]

Keith makes some excellent points.  It is worth checking options. 

 

When booking my flight to Miami for the World cruise next year I thought there was little need to arrive a day early since the flight was short and domestic.  But the flight schedules were awful.  So I checked a day early. Better flight options since I could arrive late.  And  I found I could pay for a hotel near the airport as well as the flight for LESS than the price of the flight alone the day of departure.  In addition, I could use miles the day before while there was no option for miles the day of departure. 

 

Go figure indeed! 

 

Dwight

[travelberlin]

How can we know how many ships will be in the port of Miami for departures in January 2024?

Ivi

[skybluewaters]

11 minutes ago, travelberlin said:

How can we know how many ships will be in the port of Miami for departures in January 2024?

Ivi

 

https://www.cruisemapper.com/ports/miami-port-40?tab=schedule&month=2024-01#schedule

[travelberlin]

28 minutes ago, skybluewaters said:

 

https://www.cruisemapper.com/ports/miami-port-40?tab=schedule&month=2024-01#schedule

Thank you. 8 ships on the day I am embarking with Crystal😲. How does this will work? Has anybody experience on embarkation when so many ships are scheduled?
I realize that while all ships show how long they will be on port, for Crystal there are no times given. Why is that?

[BWIVince]

6 hours ago, travelberlin said:

Thank you. 8 ships on the day I am embarking with Crystal😲. How does this will work? Has anybody experience on embarkation when so many ships are scheduled?
I realize that while all ships show how long they will be on port, for Crystal there are no times given. Why is that?

I wouldn’t put much stock in the times listed, that site just aggregates data from other schedules.  It’s a great general guide, but the details may not be 100% current or complete when you get down to that level.  Definitely go by what Crystal gives for port times, they will advise you of any changes when they are confirmed enough to communicate.

PortMiami currently has 10 cruise ship berths, so 8 ships in port is a pretty average day for them.  Miami is also used to handling some pretty massive ships, so if a Crystal ship is taking up one of those spots, it probably means there will be a few less passengers in port that day than usual.  🙂. Not saying it’s not crazy busy, just that they’re at least used to processing lots of people.

 

Vince

 

[Keith1010]

7 hours ago, travelberlin said:

Thank you. 8 ships on the day I am embarking with Crystal😲. How does this will work? Has anybody experience on embarkation when so many ships are scheduled?
I realize that while all ships show how long they will be on port, for Crystal there are no times given. Why is that?

Ivi:

 

You are not looking at an official site and wherever they pulled the data it was not available. I see another ship not showing departure time either.

 

I've been in Miami when we either had 7 or 8 ships embarking. I t was the case for the 2015 WC or the one right before it.   It will be busy but it works.  The question will be what terminal does Crystal get.  Normally the stand along terminal J goes to the ship with less guests so Serenity might get that unless Explora gets that.  It's an ideal terminal since you are away from the main area.  Should Crystal get the main area because they are not there regularly sometimes they get a less ideal terminal. But it all works.  Could be more of a challenge for debarkation and getting the ship cleared. You just never know and that holds true in the USA even if you have a few ships in port.

 

Keith 

[goldengatecruisers]

The fares listing from highest to lowest is how they have been displayed on Silversea for some time.  Perhaps Crystal have borrowed from the Silversea marketing approach on how to sell the upper suites.

[BWIVince]

4 hours ago, goldengatecruisers said:

The fares listing from highest to lowest is how they have been displayed on Silversea for some time.  Perhaps Crystal have borrowed from the Silversea marketing approach on how to sell the upper suites.

Crystal has done the same at many points as well, including most of their brochures.  

 

Vince

[May B]

6 hours ago, BWIVince said:

If we’re trying to gauge demand by category and not overall, I’m not really sure that means the lower categories aren’t selling…  Or haven’t already sold out (maybe multiple times, from reports in this thread).

 

Inventory management has a lot of tactics, but there are two main overarching modes they operate in.

 

When travel suppliers have dates/groups/sailings/destinations where they think they have demand for premium inventory, they will let the lower categories/rooms/buckets sell out naturally as a means to drive bookings to the higher categories.

 

When travel suppliers believe they would be challenged to sell premium inventory, they move inventory from the higher categories/rooms/buckets into lower categories where the inventory is actually moving to avoid spoilage and keep categories open for sale where the interest actually is.  In the case of cruise lines, this is largely done through guarantees.

 

Crystal clearly thinks these fall in the latter — it’s a low fare, non-premium region, during their historically lowest-demand weeks of the year, and they got an extremely late start selling them because of the itinerary change.  To me, the fact that we see categories opening and closing means that they’re moving inventory to keep everything open…. Which is exactly what any travel supplier would do in this situation.  
 

It would indicate they’re not getting a premium for these voyages (which would be physically impossible for them to do), but it also doesn’t mean that any of the categories aren’t already sold out in the sense of measuring inventory sold by category…. If that makes any sense.

 

Vince

It makes sense, and it isn’t anything most of us would realize! We would certainly know, if we wanted to book those lower categories and found we could only book it as a guarantee.

[KenzSailing]

9 hours ago, BWIVince said:

If we’re trying to gauge demand by category and not overall, I’m not really sure that means the lower categories aren’t selling…  Or haven’t already sold out (maybe multiple times, from reports in this thread).

 

Inventory management has a lot of tactics, but there are two main overarching modes they operate in.

 

When travel suppliers have dates/groups/sailings/destinations where they think they have demand for premium inventory, they will let the lower categories/rooms/buckets sell out naturally as a means to drive bookings to the higher categories.

 

When travel suppliers believe they would be challenged to sell premium inventory, they move inventory from the higher categories/rooms/buckets into lower categories where the inventory is actually moving to avoid spoilage and keep categories open for sale where the interest actually is.  In the case of cruise lines, this is largely done through guarantees.

 

Crystal clearly thinks these fall in the latter — it’s a low fare, non-premium region, during their historically lowest-demand weeks of the year, and they got an extremely late start selling them because of the itinerary change.  To me, the fact that we see categories opening and closing means that they’re moving inventory to keep everything open…. Which is exactly what any travel supplier would do in this situation.  
 

It would indicate they’re not getting a premium for these voyages (which would be physically impossible for them to do), but it also doesn’t mean that any of the categories aren’t already sold out in the sense of measuring inventory sold by category…. If that makes any sense.

 

Vince

 

Oooooh, that use of guarantees never occurred to me.  That certainly helps demystify the whole "hey our guarantee got upgraded" phenomenon.