Has the economy affected cruise lines?

[Jeffski]

To those who have recently cruised, are numbers down on cruise ships?

 

Do cruise ships cancel trips if they cannot fill them? What is the average capacity...90% full? 99% full?

 

Has the cost of cruising decreased, increased, stayed the same? Do you see a swing in either direction in the near future?

 

Just to curious to hear your thoughts. If this has been discussed elsewhere please redirect me as my search did not discover a related thread.

[Philip217]

We are seeing the same pattern that we saw after 9/11. The cruise lines - especially the mass market lines - are slashing fares to make cruising so affordable that Americans cannot afford to stay home.

 

After 9/11, most mass market ships were busier than they had ever been before.

 

So far it appears that the scenario is repeating itself.

 

My large mass market ship has not sailed with an unsold cabin since last March. That month we had 2 inside cabins unsold.

 

My booking reports for the next 6 months are forcasting fulll sailings every week.

[JanineM]

The economy has absolutely affected cruiselines, as it has all companies that rely on discretionary consumer spending.

 

First, their share prices are down fairly dramatically. Fuel prices spiked for several months, which also affects their bottom line.

 

But where I am seeing it as a passenger is in the fares (which have dropped), the number of promotions (which have increased), and the number of additional charges on Royal Caribbean and Celebrity.

 

If you're interested in doing more of an academic look then you may want to take a look at some of the filings and quarterly reports of the various cruiselines. The CEOs have been making comments for the past few months, indicating that they are being adversely affected.

[Cruzman]

My experience, and from reports I have been getting, is that ships are still sailing at or near capacity, but at lower fares. The marketing philosophy seems to be to drop the price to whatever level it takes to fill the ships.

[gunner22a]

Discreationary spending on things such as vacations rates number two right after fast/restaurant food cuts in virtually every consumer spending cut polls that I have seen. Take a look at Royal Caribbean (rcl) or Carnival (ccl) on the NYSE. Their stocks are trading at 1/3 of their values last year. I watch them as I own small positions (enough for stateroom credits) in both.

 

They are hurting and both lines have numerous ships on order just at the time they will find the whole industry is suffering from excess capacity. They will be one of the last industries to recover as the economy comes out of this global recession. Tourism always is.

[Jeffski]

But have fares really dropped? I've cruised once, almost one year ago, and am considering a second cruise soon. For my family of 5 with a balcony room on Carnival we paid $2,500 for a 7 nighter to Western Caribbean. I am pricing that same cruise at over $3,000 this year (actually looking at Eastern Caribbean which seems to be a bit more expensive but all in all the fares seem the same to me).

[grandmato4]

It would appear that by the time the ship sails statistics show they are still sailing full but many reports I've read indicate that people aren't booking as far ahead as previous years and may be taking less cruises per year or sailing closer to home because of airline cost and problems and because of so many booking far ahead those factors take time to have a really noticeable effect on the cruiselines. Ive known several people that had cruises booked far ahead and then hit difficult financial situations but because they had planned for their cruise so far ahead they still went ahead and took their cruise this year but the key factor is they didn't yet book another cruise for the coming year when normally they would have.

 

I think the real question is if the pax are still spending as much while on board? That is the money that either makes or breaks the mainstream cruiselines. I don't know if this is happening on many sailings or just the one we took in Oct but on our 5 night sailing I was truly amazed by the lack of extra spending by that group of pax in general. Sure some people were spending extra money all over the place but a much large percent than I've ever noticed in the past just were not spending that extra money on the things we all complain about being nickled and dimed about. If that wasn't a freak occurance but rather being more of the norm then the cruiselines really are going to be in trouble in the future year.

[chipmaster]

To those who have recently cruised, are numbers down on cruise ships?

 

Do cruise ships cancel trips if they cannot fill them? What is the average capacity...90% full? 99% full?

 

Has the cost of cruising decreased, increased, stayed the same? Do you see a swing in either direction in the near future?

 

Just to curious to hear your thoughts. If this has been discussed elsewhere please redirect me as my search did not discover a related thread.

 

I have not cruised after the economy really started to implode.

But this past summer our ship was FULL, all the flights were FULL, and over the holidays it seemed every flight was FULL.

 

Will it effect the bottom line of the cruise, absoutely. The ship, crews and to a large extent fuel and supplies are already bought and fixed cost. Sure they could cancel a partially filled cruise but only to the huge ill-will generated to the booked cruisers. Likelyhood of that LOW, like airlines they got to fly or sail even with empty seats. It does seem like every week I get a email or other promos and the deals seem to be getting better. Expect to see low profits or loss from the cruise line. Expect they will do everything they can to entice people to sail no matter what the deal. An empty cabin is a bigger loss then any paying passenger.

 

As to if you are planning to cruise, couldn't be a better time in my opinion with promos and the fact you'll also find vendors / tours also offering deals in port too. Get out and help the economy I say :D

[maofthree]

started cruising 10 yrs ago same time of yr. march , and this is our cheapest cruise and cheapeat air. but i worked hard to find them... plus now i am past guest on all cruise lines. and thats where you find the deals, friends are new to princess so we just booked one of them in each room so we all get the discount. there is always a way to save money.:cool:

[momofmeg]

was the "hard sells" I was getting in the ports. Jamacia has always been terrible. Cozumel alnd Nassau were also always about as bad-but this last crusie-was much worse. In Roatan, Belize, and Cozumel, I could not even look at the markets without getting hard sells. I left fairlyquickly and sadly, I may would have bought a few trinkets if I had been allowed to look around and decide what I wanted.

 

I am in no hurry to take another caribbean cruise. If I do another, I will stay as far away from the markets as possible- or perhaps simply stay on ship.

 

The economy is in trouble everywhere I guess.

[runner15km]

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/090105/cruise_operators_sector_snap.html?.v=1

[misterjohnny]

Prices are way down. My family has a spring break cruise for less than $100 per day. Some of the sailings out of Los Angeles are going for $55 per day. If you can drive to a port, you can get a really cheap vacation.

[sail7seas]

We are seeing the same pattern that we saw after 9/11. The cruise lines - especially the mass market lines - are slashing fares to make cruising so affordable that Americans cannot afford to stay home.

 

After 9/11, most mass market ships were busier than they had ever been before.

 

So far it appears that the scenario is repeating itself.

 

My large mass market ship has not sailed with an unsold cabin since last March. That month we had 2 inside cabins unsold.

 

My booking reports for the next 6 months are forcasting fulll sailings every week.

 

How about on board spending? Any difference there?