Short Caribbean cruises not selling

[gordylad]

if they want to attract European/Worldwide visitors who need to fly for many hours then short cruises are not the way to go

[markeb]

1 hour ago, gordylad said:

if they want to attract European/Worldwide visitors who need to fly for many hours then short cruises are not the way to go

Not the cruise for that demographic. They have plenty of other cruises. 

[LouChamp]

Aloha. Been blessed to sail since 1971 and with Celebrity since its inception.  Have done countless cruises to nowhere and also short cruises just for fun including many with Celebrity. Problem over the past few years I find is in an effort to fill berths the prices are low which attracts a booze crowd leading to fights, arguments and general mayhem. It may seem like an exaggeration but the general atmosphere has certainly changed. I will go again and hopefully enjoy!

[Lena11033]

1 hour ago, gordylad said:

if they want to attract European/Worldwide visitors who need to fly for many hours then short cruises are not the way to go

 

Quite frankly I wouldn't fly from Canada for a short cruise either, where I live I either have to drive to the US or its going to take a day of traveling so doesn't seem worth it.

 

Short cruises to me seem more designed for people who are closer to the port

[Ex-Airbalancer]

27 minutes ago, Lena11033 said:

 

Quite frankly I wouldn't fly from Canada for a short cruise either, where I live I either have to drive to the US or its going to take a day of traveling so doesn't seem worth it.

 

Short cruises to me seem more designed for people who are closer to the port

1-1/2 hr drive to airport , pay for parking , get there 3 hrs early , 3-1/2 hr flight , get to hotel to spend the night , just for a 3/4 days cruise , and it is in Caribbean, no way 

[Lena11033]

1 minute ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

1-1/2 hr drive to airport , pay for parking , get there 3 hrs early , 3-1/2 hr flight , get to hotel to spend the night , just for a 3/4 days cruise , and it is in Caribbean, no way 

 

Exactly, I have a 20 min drive to my closest airport BUT then its you need to be 2 hours early, 1 hour flight to Toronto, wait 4 or 5 hours there until the next flight which is a what 3/3.5 hours then get to the hotel.

 

But that's if its even doable, I looked at one recently for my cruise in April it had travel time as 17 hours so looks like I'll be driving to Detroit for that one.

[aylamarguerida]

For some of us, we don't mind flying.  If I go someplace for a weekend I am doing the flying anyway.  Yeah I am up really late Friday night or up really early Saturday morning but then I get to catch up on sleep on the plane.  And then I have a couple of days in FL.  Thing is... Land is stressful. Have to deal with Ubers or rental cars in an unfamiliar city. Argue over every meal. Pay for every little thing. If there is an affordable cruise, you get on and everything is done. No worries about fleabag motels.  No worries about where to get lunch. No worries about what to do for entertainment. Instead of sitting in a hotel bed watching TV, you actually get real entertainment in a theater.  Getting up a little early for travel sure beats spending the weekend at home.  That is what I get for every other weekend.  Every day is just like a workday. Wake up in my own dreary bed.  Prepare my own breakfast.  Waste my life away.  Would much rather be on a cruise. 

 

I have a job where there is no such thing as work from home.  If I am not working in person, I have nothing. Only get limited vacation time.  Why not take advantage of a weekend!  By the time I am retired I won't have the energy to walk all day when I get off the boat like I do now.  I have seen too many people wait to live life until they are retired... And it doesn't go well.  They drop dead. Or they are in a wheelchair.  Or they are just old.  Would rather live life now even if only 2 or 3 days at a time.

[chemmo]

Shorter cruises also provide ‘tasters’ for those who are uncertain if cruises are for them. In the UK a 3/4 day cruise is often marketed as an add on to an Orlando holiday. Our first cruise (about 30 years ago) was one of these on Carnival! We decided we loved cruising but not Carnival…Never cruised on them since!

 

1 hour ago, aylamarguerida said:

 

 

I have a job where there is no such thing as work from home.  If I am not working in person, I have nothing. Only get limited vacation time.  Why not take advantage of a weekend!  By the time I am retired I won't have the energy to walk all day when I get off the boat like I do now.  I have seen too many people wait to live life until they are retired... And it doesn't go well.  They drop dead. Or they are in a wheelchair.  Or they are just old.  Would rather live life now even if only 2 or 3 days at a time.

Yes, it is important to make the most of ‘now’, none of us knows what is around the corner. I guess the benefit of a short cruise is you do tend to squash into it what is important to you be it pool time, shows or dining…

[ScottC4746]

On 6/25/2024 at 8:43 AM, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Looks like short Caribbean are not selling that great , they are offering upgrades already 

My feeling is it is election year, which always makes people anxious with finances and to me short Caribbean equals booze cruise, which I am not into.

[JustAPilot]

16 hours ago, Lena11033 said:

 

Exactly, I have a 20 min drive to my closest airport BUT then its you need to be 2 hours early, 1 hour flight to Toronto, wait 4 or 5 hours there until the next flight which is a what 3/3.5 hours then get to the hotel.

 

But that's if its even doable, I looked at one recently for my cruise in April it had travel time as 17 hours so looks like I'll be driving to Detroit for that one.

And for us that live near Toronto, it’s a 30 minute drive to the airport, 6am direct flight to FLL, arrive by 10am, take Uber to cruise port and get on the ship. Pretty straight forward and easy long weekend getaway.

[Lena11033]

9 minutes ago, JustAPilot said:

And for us that live near Toronto, it’s a 30 minute drive to the airport, 6am direct flight to FLL, arrive by 10am, take Uber to cruise port and get on the ship. Pretty straight forward and easy long weekend getaway.

 

You must be close to the airport, it used to take me about an hour to get to plus you still have to get there early/do customs before leaving.

 

Last time I travelled from GTA to the US the line up was so long people were almost missing their flights (and yes we were early just lack of staff and slow airport).

Honestly I'm not a fan of Pearson it's not the best airport, it takes a long time to get through and for a major airport there's not that much there.

[JustAPilot]

Having Nexus also helps with customs and lineups, no traffic when you’re leaving that early. 

[Tom and Ingrid]

9 hours ago, chemmo said:

Shorter cruises also provide ‘tasters’ for those who are uncertain if cruises are for them. In the UK a 3/4 day cruise is often marketed as an add on to an Orlando holiday. Our first cruise (about 30 years ago) was one of these on Carnival! We decided we loved cruising but not Carnival…Never cruised on them since!

Watched a fun YouTube video by the Ritzy Travel Guide of cruising in the 70s and 80s, and it featured a lot of Carnival archival footage.  Some scary stuff back in the day 😄. Honestly, had we taken a Carnival cruise in the 80s, I don't think I'd have ever taken another one.  Maybe the 90s were a more reasonable time.

[phoenix_dream]

13 hours ago, aylamarguerida said:

For some of us, we don't mind flying.  If I go someplace for a weekend I am doing the flying anyway.  Yeah I am up really late Friday night or up really early Saturday morning but then I get to catch up on sleep on the plane.  And then I have a couple of days in FL.  Thing is... Land is stressful. Have to deal with Ubers or rental cars in an unfamiliar city. Argue over every meal. Pay for every little thing. If there is an affordable cruise, you get on and everything is done. No worries about fleabag motels.  No worries about where to get lunch. No worries about what to do for entertainment. Instead of sitting in a hotel bed watching TV, you actually get real entertainment in a theater.  Getting up a little early for travel sure beats spending the weekend at home.  That is what I get for every other weekend.  Every day is just like a workday. Wake up in my own dreary bed.  Prepare my own breakfast.  Waste my life away.  Would much rather be on a cruise. 

 

I have a job where there is no such thing as work from home.  If I am not working in person, I have nothing. Only get limited vacation time.  Why not take advantage of a weekend!  By the time I am retired I won't have the energy to walk all day when I get off the boat like I do now.  I have seen too many people wait to live life until they are retired... And it doesn't go well.  They drop dead. Or they are in a wheelchair.  Or they are just old.  Would rather live life now even if only 2 or 3 days at a time.

Just as a counter note, I've been retired for 15 years and I cruise often and regularly walk all around for hours in various ports to explore or just to get exercise.  I know i am not alone.   I do agree that if one can afford it, do your traveling while you can as you never know what life will bring.

[phoenix_dream]

2 hours ago, Tom and Ingrid said:

Watched a fun YouTube video by the Ritzy Travel Guide of cruising in the 70s and 80s, and it featured a lot of Carnival archival footage.  Some scary stuff back in the day 😄. Honestly, had we taken a Carnival cruise in the 80s, I don't think I'd have ever taken another one.  Maybe the 90s were a more reasonable time.

I did my first cruise on Carnival for our honeymoon in 1982. It was so awful I swore I'd never cruise again (besides the ship itself the weather was terrible). Thankfully my persistent husband eventually changed my mind and I now have 90 under my belt, 80 of them on Celebrity!

[Ex-Airbalancer]

Another reason why I don’t think short cruises are selling 😉

 

[CaroleSS]

16 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Another reason why I don’t think short cruises are selling 😉

 

Short cruises in the middle of an active hurricane season......Celebrity must be desperate!

[Cruise Junky]

And will they learn?   Nope 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

[canderson]

1 hour ago, CaroleSS said:

Short cruises in the middle of an active hurricane season......Celebrity must be desperate!

To be fair, these cruises are SO short, that if you're taking one as what Celebrity calls in that brochure above a "last minute get-away", you can actually time it between tropical storm development off the African coast.  It's often possible to say with good certainty that there will be no major tropical storm type weather, much less a hurricane, between Florida and the Bahamas for the next three days and four nights.

 

[markeb]

27 minutes ago, Cruise Junky said:

And will they learn?   Nope 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

 

I'd say they've learned there are enough status chasers that they can sell cruises in a shoulder season without cutting prices by offering little trinkets. Maybe they only need to sell them once to be a good deal. We'll see.

 

Yes, if they suddenly create a lot of Zeniths it's a bad return on their investment. But if it tips enough people into taking a short cruise, then it could be a really good return for them.

 

I would think they might review the short cruise/longer (7 day) cruise mix going forward if they're having to incentivize them in September and October.

[canderson]

2 minutes ago, markeb said:

I would think they might review the short cruise/longer (7 day) cruise mix going forward if they're having to incentivize them in September and October.

Probably not possible near term, though, unless they want to cancel a bunch.  Amongst all of the other short cruises, they show 30 dates for this 3 night Reflection itinerary alone, running well into 2026:

 

Roundtrip From:Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Visiting:

Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Key West, Florida

Bimini, Bahamas

Fort Lauderdale, Florida

[markeb]

1 minute ago, canderson said:

Probably not possible near term, though, unless they want to cancel a bunch.  Amongst all of the other short cruises, they show 30 dates for this 3 night Reflection itinerary alone, running well into 2026:

 

Roundtrip From:Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Visiting:

Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Key West, Florida

Bimini, Bahamas

Fort Lauderdale, Florida

 

And there is one of the problems scheduling cruises that far in advance. If they decide to change things, it's now almost 3 years before they can have an impact, and by that time they might be selling just fine...

 

Similar issue dealing with much higher than recent historical averages for inflation, or availability of beef, etc. over the last 2-3 years. The industry does live in the world of long lead time. In a lot of ways that seems self-inflicted.

[hcat]

On 7/5/2024 at 6:31 PM, LouChamp said:

Aloha. Been blessed to sail since 1971 and with Celebrity since its inception.  Have done countless cruises to nowhere and also short cruises just for fun including many with Celebrity. Problem over the past few years I find is in an effort to fill berths the prices are low which attracts a booze crowd leading to fights, arguments and general mayhem. It may seem like an exaggeration but the general atmosphere has certainly changed. I will go again and hopefully enjoy!

Agree!  Noticeable decline in decorum.

Hope our short Carib cruise on Silhouette is not like that!  We have 2 ports ( not Coco Cay)  & just want to relax before Xmas!  

[Iamcruzin]

2 hours ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Another reason why I don’t think short cruises are selling 😉

 

My sailing is Sept 30. Were is this?

[1Virgo]

On 7/5/2024 at 7:09 PM, Ex-Airbalancer said:

1-1/2 hr drive to airport , pay for parking , get there 3 hrs early , 3-1/2 hr flight , get to hotel to spend the night , just for a 3/4 days cruise , and it is in Caribbean, no way 

so agree. supposed to arrive in Fort L from Toronto at 3 pm.  Touched down at 8:30.  Then 1 hr on tarmac.  We said hardly worth it for a 7 day