Have late deals ended?

[Cathygh]

I was having a look for a late deal for June and it looks like those days are over 😪. 1 week in a balcony on Azura is £1400 in June. I remember Paul Ludlow this would be the case as he wants the best deals to be on launch. I suppose it will satisfy the passengers who buy at launch and then find others have got the same holiday at a bargain price. 

[Selbourne]

I don’t think anything has changed. It’s simply a case of supply and demand. P&O want all cruises to sail with almost all cabins occupied. Where that is achieved by balance due date there will be no late deals, as they aren’t needed. Where there are still plenty of cabins to fill you can bet your boots that, in spite of Paul Ludlow comments (no doubt deliberately made to pull many people back to booking early) there will be late offers. As I say, it will vary by cruise, time of year, itinerary etc etc

Edited May 3 by Selbourne

[molecrochip]

There is so little cabin availability across the fleet that there is no need to offer late deals.

 

Same for Princess in Europe.

 

I believe that Carnival Corp may hit a new record for Q3 for having average global capacity sailed above 109%. Noting this industry measure is based on lower berths not ship capacity.

[jaydee6969]

16 minutes ago, molecrochip said:

There is so little cabin availability across the fleet that there is no need to offer late deals.

 

Same for Princess in Europe.

 

I believe that Carnival Corp may hit a new record for Q3 for having average global capacity sailed above 109%. Noting this industry measure is based on lower berths not ship capacity.

 

I also note the lack of reasonable F&F offers too.  The current offerings are not tempting at present, obviously a sign of good bookings from regular pax.

[molecrochip]

3 minutes ago, jaydee6969 said:

 

I also note the lack of reasonable F&F offers too.  The current offerings are not tempting at present, obviously a sign of good bookings from regular pax.

Not sure I would agree there. However that’s not a public conversation.

 

Guess it depends what your looking for.

Edited May 3 by molecrochip

[Funboy]

59 minutes ago, molecrochip said:

There is so little cabin availability across the fleet that there is no need to offer late deals.

 

Same for Princess in Europe.

 

I believe that Carnival Corp may hit a new record for Q3 for having average global capacity sailed above 109%. Noting this industry measure is based on lower berths not ship capacity.

It always baffles me on  a ship sailing with a capacity above 100%.   The term 100% means the ship is full to the brim with no spaces left.. If over 100%(which is impossible unless overloaded) then the ship would be overloaded and people would not have cabins! If the true figure  for capacity is greater than published then the ship is not 100% full until all the berths are filled.

 

[molecrochip]

The industry standard definition of sailed capacity is ALB. Available Lower Berths.

 

So ship has 100 lower berths and 20 upper (additional 3/4th person berths). 107 berths are sold (doesn’t matter the mixture) then sailed capacity was 107%. Sofa beds are upper berths.

[Selbourne]

25 minutes ago, Funboy said:

It always baffles me on  a ship sailing with a capacity above 100%.   The term 100% means the ship is full to the brim with no spaces left.. If over 100%(which is impossible unless overloaded) then the ship would be overloaded and people would not have cabins! If the true figure  for capacity is greater than published then the ship is not 100% full until all the berths are filled.

 

It’s all down to the peculiarities of cabins versus beds. To take made up numbers to illustrate the point;

 

Let’s say a ship has 1,000 cabins and they all have two lower beds. The ships normal capacity will show as 2,000 passengers. Out of school holidays, let’s say that 900 cabins are occupied with couples and 100 with solos. The ship will sail with 1,900 passengers and yet will be deemed ‘sold out’, as all cabins are occupied, even though capacity is 95%. 

 

In peak school holidays there might be 500 children on board, all in upper berths or sofa beds. These beds are not included in the stated capacity, so all of a sudden, with the same mix of couples and solos, you have 2,400 passengers. All cabins remain sold, but the ship is now sailing at 120% capacity. 
 

It’s a bit like when people say that they sailed on Iona or Arvia and the cruise was ‘sold out’ yet the ship didn’t feel busy. There may have ‘only’ been just under 5,000 passengers on board, but as all cabins were occupied the ship is technically sold out. However, when we went on Iona (peak school holidays) there were 5,750 people on board and these ships can (and do) go up to around 6,250. Both the 5,000 passenger cruise (at 95% capacity) and the 6,250 passenger cruise (at 119% capacity) will be termed ‘sold out’ yet one has 25% more passengers and will be a completely different experience!

Edited May 3 by Selbourne

[Cathygh]

Sailing at full capacity is good news for the cruise companies. I'm now looking at land holidays for my bargain hunt but it looks like all holidays have gone up in price again. 

[Cloudyrain]

I don’t really think it’s all that much different: we booked last May for a June cruise and it was a bargain. If I book now for the same week it’s about £300 more on the mock booking I’ve done, but per person that’s £100 each so relatively low for a week. 

I have noticed land-based holidays have gone up a lot. Our last one for the same time of year, booked around the same time, at the same hotel, is now coming up at £5,500 for bed and breakfast with coach transfers - it was £3000 two years ago for half board and private transfers.

[yorkshirephil]

There are deals out there with most cruise lines albeit not in the numbers we have seen in the last two years, it may be that they don't suit peoples needs. If we are just looking for a cruise because we fancy a break then we wouldn't be too bothered where we went and would seek out a deal whereas if it were a bucket list cruise we would book on day one to secure our cabin. It is clear that things are getting back to where they were BC when the cruise industry was still expanding. 

 

 

 

 

 

[GSPG]

On 5/3/2024 at 11:01 AM, Selbourne said:

It’s all down to the peculiarities of cabins versus beds. To take made up numbers to illustrate the point;

 

Let’s say a ship has 1,000 cabins and they all have two lower beds. The ships normal capacity will show as 2,000 passengers. Out of school holidays, let’s say that 900 cabins are occupied with couples and 100 with solos. The ship will sail with 1,900 passengers and yet will be deemed ‘sold out’, as all cabins are occupied, even though capacity is 95%. 

 

In peak school holidays there might be 500 children on board, all in upper berths or sofa beds. These beds are not included in the stated capacity, so all of a sudden, with the same mix of couples and solos, you have 2,400 passengers. All cabins remain sold, but the ship is now sailing at 120% capacity. 
 

It’s a bit like when people say that they sailed on Iona or Arvia and the cruise was ‘sold out’ yet the ship didn’t feel busy. There may have ‘only’ been just under 5,000 passengers on board, but as all cabins were occupied the ship is technically sold out. However, when we went on Iona (peak school holidays) there were 5,750 people on board and these ships can (and do) go up to around 6,250. Both the 5,000 passenger cruise (at 95% capacity) and the 6,250 passenger cruise (at 119% capacity) will be termed ‘sold out’ yet one has 25% more passengers and will be a completely different experience!

While more than 2 adults do share a room, with the higher capacity’s does this tend to suggest there are more children and families on board?

 

[Selbourne]

4 minutes ago, GSPG said:

While more than 2 adults do share a room, with the higher capacity’s does this tend to suggest there are more children and families on board?

 

Not sure that I understand your question, but the mega ships are very much catering for families and can accommodate up to around 1,000 children (I believe) - I’ve certainly heard figures of around 750 children quoted. Whilst there are indeed cases where more than 2 adults share a cabin, I’d suggest that’s a very small number in comparison to cabins occupied by families, especially in school holidays (when the capacity issues arise). 

[purplesea]

On Arvia at Easter we were told that there were 1250 children on board!

[Harryjacobs]

7 minutes ago, purplesea said:

On Arvia at Easter we were told that there were 1250 children on board!

Yes, on Iona Febuary school holiday, we were told 1200 kids on board.  And it was certainly noticible compared to my other out of holiday cruise on Iona.  (I wont count the lockdown cruise as that was half capacity 😀)

[Selbourne]

43 minutes ago, purplesea said:

On Arvia at Easter we were told that there were 1250 children on board!

Yikes 😂 No wonder those who go on Iona and Arvia outside of school holidays say the ship didn’t feel that busy!

 

To be fair, the schoolchildren in themselves weren’t a problem at all when we were on Iona in August. It was irritating that almost every restaurant that we went to had a screaming baby or unruly toddler near to us, but I guess that can happen outside school holidays as well on any family ship. 

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, GSPG said:

While more than 2 adults do share a room, with the higher capacity’s does this tend to suggest there are more children and families on board?

 

I imagine that 3rd and 4th beds in cabins were mainly introduced to encourage families to cruise, although no cruise line is going to refuse to allow adult passengers to use these beds, although I imagine it will be rather cramped.

[amajaa]

On 5/3/2024 at 9:57 AM, jaydee6969 said:

 

I also note the lack of reasonable F&F offers too.  The current offerings are not tempting at present, obviously a sign of good bookings from regular pax.

 

What's F & F 

[Angel57]

7 minutes ago, amajaa said:

 

What's F & F 

Friends and Family

[Red Ray]

4 hours ago, purplesea said:

On Arvia at Easter we were told that there were 1250 children on board!

Puts me in mind of a quotation from Webster's Dr. Faustus - 'hell hath no limits nor is circumscribed in one self place, but where we are is hell, and where hell is there must we ever be.'

Edited May 5 by Red Ray