Why is Celebrity Cruises Ignoring California Ports ?

[cruisestitch]

See post #45😀

[TommyD3]

22 hours ago, JLMcruise said:

I wish they would do a LA- Cabo - Hawaii - I would do B2B2B2B. We love the longer cruises! 

They had Hawaii round trip from San Diego 15 night cruises in 2013. Did 2X B2B !!! Would do again in a heartbeat if offered by Celebrity !!! Holland has SO MANY sailings round trip San Diego. Even 50+ days to French Polynesia !!

[Mountain Chickadee]

My late husband and I did two Celebrity cruises on the west coast. The first was 10 days from San Diego to Vancouver. Stopped in Santa Barbara and met family for lunch! Overnight in San Francisco!  While onboard I booked a Mexican Riviera Celebrity cruise from LA round trip. It was Thanksgiving week and we nabbed a Sky Suite. Ate in the Luminae every day! Enjoyed Michael’s Lounge. I had afternoon tea in Michael’s Lounge everyday and the bartender would remember I was coming and have it ready for me. I enjoyed the glass blowing classes! We never got off the ship as we have cruised this route many times. My husband was in his fifth year of cancer treatment and it turned out he would pass 3 months later. He was still feeling so great during this cruise. It was a wonder last cruise together.  We were married 48 1/2 years!🩷💔

[mcrcruiser]

9 hours ago, Mountain Chickadee said:

My late husband and I did two Celebrity cruises on the west coast. The first was 10 days from San Diego to Vancouver. Stopped in Santa Barbara and met family for lunch! Overnight in San Francisco!  While onboard I booked a Mexican Riviera Celebrity cruise from LA round trip. It was Thanksgiving week and we nabbed a Sky Suite. Ate in the Luminae every day! Enjoyed Michael’s Lounge. I had afternoon tea in Michael’s Lounge everyday and the bartender would remember I was coming and have it ready for me. I enjoyed the glass blowing classes! We never got off the ship as we have cruised this route many times. My husband was in his fifth year of cancer treatment and it turned out he would pass 3 months later. He was still feeling so great during this cruise. It was a wonder last cruise together.  We were married 48 1/2 years!🩷💔

Sorry for your loss . 48 + years is a lofe time .We are married 62 years 

[crusinthrough]

Can someone explain the lack of demand?  All other major cruise lines to include Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Disney, Princess and NCL have ships leaving from the West Coast all year but somehow there is no demand?  This makes no sense. 

 

When the Celebrity Eclipse was in CA the demand may have been low because the ship was old and needs to be refreshed.  People want to cruise but not on the worst ship.  

 

Generally speaking, folks west of TX would rather fly or drive to a port than fly across the country to FL.   

[hcat]

5 minutes ago, crusinthrough said:

Can someone explain the lack of demand?  All other major cruise lines to include Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Disney, Princess and NCL have ships leaving from the West Coast all year but somehow there is no demand?  This makes no sense. 

 

When the Celebrity Eclipse was in CA the demand may have been low because the ship was old and needs to be refreshed.  People want to cruise but not on the worst ship.  

 

Generally speaking, folks west of TX would rather fly or drive to a port than fly across the country to FL.   

Is Eclipse in that bad shape? we thoughg it was the M Class ships that were aging next.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

If Celebrity could make money by cruising the west coast of Mexico, they would be there 

 

[crusinthrough]

24 minutes ago, hcat said:

Is Eclipse in that bad shape? we thoughg it was the M Class ships that were aging next.

It's a S Class ship built in 2010.  Due to the pandemic it has not been revolutionized.    

[crusinthrough]

24 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

If Celebrity could make money by cruising the west coast of Mexico, they would be there 

 

This doesn't meant there is no demand in the west coast as many posts indicated.  Princess also does short pacific costal cruises from west cost cities and Vancouver.  Perhaps Princess has a better marketing and business strategies that fill their ships. It could also be there are no piers available because Celebrity is late to the game. 

[markeb]

26 minutes ago, crusinthrough said:

Can someone explain the lack of demand?  All other major cruise lines to include Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Disney, Princess and NCL have ships leaving from the West Coast all year but somehow there is no demand?  This makes no sense. 

 

When the Celebrity Eclipse was in CA the demand may have been low because the ship was old and needs to be refreshed.  People want to cruise but not on the worst ship.  

 

Generally speaking, folks west of TX would rather fly or drive to a port than fly across the country to FL.   

 

Demand is only half of the equation. RCG has invested heavily in cruising mostly from Florida, with Trans-Atlantic cruises to reposition for what appears to be a very profitable European season. From the West Coast, Trans-Pacific cruises from Vancouver allow them to transport passengers to Hawaii, which would be a PVSA violation from California. Seattle and Vancouver give them the Alaska season; Vancouver makes the longer one-way Alaska cruises legal

 

In their current environment (pretty high debt) their ROI using the facilities in Florida is going to be higher than California and they'll break even sooner. Florida is almost certainly a better business environment for them as well.

 

To divert a ship to California, they'd have to sail at least as full as they're currently sailing in Florida, AND almost certainly raise fares to offset costs in California and their opportunity costs for not using their Florida facilities. Or the apparently profitable European and Australia/New Zealand cruises. Their business case must say they can't do that and be competitive with the lines you're listing that are already there. There may have been a time when they would have been willing to make less to build the market, and that may happen again, but not now.

[crusinthrough]

47 minutes ago, markeb said:

To divert a ship to California, they'd have to sail at least as full as they're currently sailing in Florida, AND almost certainly raise fares to offset costs in California and their opportunity costs for not using their Florida facilities. Or the apparently profitable European and Australia/New Zealand cruises. Their business case must say they can't do that and be competitive with the lines you're listing that are already there. There may have been a time when they would have been willing to make less to build the market, and that may happen again, but not now.

This makes more sense than there is no demand.  FL is the bread and butter of cruises and Seattle / Vancouver during the Alaska season.  

 

Celebrity has 3 ships in the PNW for  the Alaska season this year (Edge, Solstice and Summit). Surely one of three could stay.  The Solstice is old like the Eclipse so this is a no.  Edge may be too big to fill but the single cabins and the infinite verandah are attractions. There is less of a need for a traditional balcony when crossing the Pacific during off season. The Summit would also be good but all the other lines have invested a new ship in CA except RC, which has the revamped Navigator. Celebrity was too little too late and missed the market.  

[rinshin]

On 3/24/2024 at 5:12 AM, JLMcruise said:

For those of us who live in the West - we would love more cruises departing from the West Coast. Air fare is much more reasonable. We enjoy the longer cruises.  Cruises less than 10 day are too short for us. Not interested in Caribbean cruises. We have done many Alaska and Mexican Rivera B2B2B cruises. I can always wish for more choice for West Coast departure. Just put me on a ship and give me a book!  A lot of ports we just stay on the ship and enjoy the peace and quiet. 38 days until the next one not that I am counting.

I am with you on this.  I no longer want to cruise Caribbean or out of Florida.  I stopped going to those places since 2005.

Edited April 6 by rinshin
Correct date.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

2 hours ago, crusinthrough said:

This doesn't meant there is no demand in the west coast as many posts indicated.  Princess also does short pacific costal cruises from west cost cities and Vancouver.  Perhaps Princess has a better marketing and business strategies that fill their ships. It could also be there are no piers available because Celebrity is late to the game. 

Last year the cruise on the west were dirty cheap and still not filled 

who wants to do a short cruise 

what they should do is take a Mclass ship sale to Bora Bora and back in January , people would fly to LA to do that 

[Ex-Airbalancer]

1 hour ago, crusinthrough said:

This makes more sense than there is no demand.  FL is the bread and butter of cruises and Seattle / Vancouver during the Alaska season.  

 

Celebrity has 3 ships in the PNW for  the Alaska season this year (Edge, Solstice and Summit). Surely one of three could stay.  The Solstice is old like the Eclipse so this is a no.  Edge may be too big to fill but the single cabins and the infinite verandah are attractions. There is less of a need for a traditional balcony when crossing the Pacific during off season. The Summit would also be good but all the other lines have invested a new ship in CA except RC, which has the revamped Navigator. Celebrity was too little too late and missed the market.  

E class ships suck , I rather cruise on S &M class ships😁

[C 2 C]

11 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

E class ships suck , I rather cruise on S &M class ships😁

You're a bear for punishment, or is that bare?

[C 2 C]

In reality, I think it is a shortage of ships for X.  The ones they have positioned now are profitable.  

[phoenix_dream]

On 3/23/2024 at 3:22 PM, Arizona Wildcat said:

OK.  I love to cruise the US West Coast, but cruise to where?

Mexico, always love a port where the local police carry machine guns and the US travel warning means I have no insurance coverage 

California, San Diego great as a port.  Catalina Island is OK.  SFO great.  But Monterrey and Santa Barbara are shut.  Whales require slow cruising speeds so the 14 day RT to Alaska doesn't work any more.

And the short 4 day cruises are not our style.

Since when is Santa Barbara "shut"?  Was there twice on B2B Celebrity cruises last October

[phoenix_dream]

The bottom line is that they don't have success filling them.  End of story.  For example, I sailed a B2B out of San Diego to Cabo last March, and then a B2B out of San Pedro/LA in October.  Those were the only cruises of the 13 Celebrity cruises I've sailed since Jan '23 that were not 100% full.  There were tons of Blue Chip free cruisers onboard.  There were tons of last minute price drops.

 

It's not because of a lack of port options.  In the past we've sailed the coast including Ensenada, Cabo, San Diego, LA, Santa Barbara, Catalina Island, San Francisco, Seattle and Astoria (not all on the same cruise).  Used to include Monterey but no more.

 

So the real question is why do they have trouble filling them, especially when other lines seem to be successful?  Here's my two cents:

 

• People on the west coast and nearby are already married to other cruise lines that have a lot more options and have more history in the area
• Celebrity does not want to offer longer cruises as they don't attract their now target crowd of 30-40 year olds.  In order to get a good coastal cruise you need more than 7 nights.
• Coastal cruises are not beach cruises per se, so that crowd isn't interested. 
• I believe many people feel that it is a very valid option to drive up and down the coast to see the various cities rather than cruising.  You can't drive Caribbean island to Caribbean island

 

These are obviously just my opinions but I think they are very logical.

Edited April 6 by phoenix_dream

[®Magic]

On 3/23/2024 at 11:41 AM, foodsvcmgr said:

Several ports in California are legislating against cruise visits.

Most of last years Eclipse sailings out of CA were selling at $400 base fare for 7 days.

Most other departure ports can command significantly higher fares.

I’m sure these were some of the factors Celebrity considered.

I got one of those Eclipse deals lol...$429 base for a concierge cabin 

[mom says]

On 4/6/2024 at 3:41 PM, Ex-Airbalancer said:

what they should do is take a Mclass ship sale to Bora Bora and back in January , people would fly to LA to do that 

Except they are too big to stop in Bora Bora. I don't think many of the existing west coast cruise lines have ships small enough for that port. And Celebrity has shown no interest in any long cruises, any more, other than some repositioning cruises. 

[Stockjock]

I did a Celebrity cruise from L.A. to Cabo to San Diego in the fall of 2023.  It was a bit odd, since I live in San Diego, but this was one of those "Amazing Deals" cruises, marked way down, presumably because they didn't have enough passengers.

Even though it hasn't been publicly announced, it appears that MSC will begin sailing Bellissima on 7 day cruises, presumably to Mexico, out of Los Angeles next year.  So even more competition. 

I'd love to see more ships sailing out of my hometown of San Diego.  We've got Holland America and some Disney, and plenty of capacity, I believe.  And SD is a much nicer starting/ending point versus Los Angeles.  But obviously, I don't know what the numbers look like.  Lots of competition for the same ports, i.e. mostly Cabo, Mazatlán, Puerto Vallarta and sometimes, Ensenada.

[hcat]

On 4/6/2024 at 1:13 PM, crusinthrough said:

This doesn't meant there is no demand in the west coast as many posts indicated.  Princess also does short pacific costal cruises from west cost cities and Vancouver.  Perhaps Princess has a better marketing and business strategies that fill their ships. It could also be there are no piers available because Celebrity is late to the game. 

In one of our ports..Princess had the newer pier.  X   passengers had to use an old ramped rickety wooden pier.  It was not a highlight!

[Ex-Airbalancer]

3 hours ago, mom says said:

Except they are too big to stop in Bora Bora. I don't think many of the existing west coast cruise lines have ships small enough for that port. And Celebrity has shown no interest in any long cruises, any more, other than some repositioning cruises. 

They could something like this 

[mcrcruiser]

yes Holland America   dies this cruise  & even one longer 52 days  .It also has cruises from Valifornia to Australia & also circumnavibarion od Australia .  New Zealand is also a target cruise 

[fishmongerrules]

On 4/8/2024 at 3:36 PM, Stockjock said:

Even though it hasn't been publicly announced, it appears that MSC will begin sailing Bellissima on 7 day cruises, presumably to Mexico, out of Los Angeles next year.  So even more competition. 

that would be great as royal has Quantum of the Seas  coming as well.