Why are some cruise lines slower to post cruises?

[whival]

Hi all,

 

My family and I are going on a cruise in 3 weeks and already planning our next one. We'd like to cruise the Caribbean in March 2011. I notice NCL and Carnival have their cruises posted for this time period, but RCL only has cruises showing until November 2010. What's the delay?;)

[ab0si]

Various reasons:

 

1) Marketing considerations. Some want to get future offerings in front of the public ASAP; some think it better to shorten the time between announcement and reality.

 

2) The sooner you announce, the greater the chance of the need to change pricing, itinerary, cancel the cruise, etc. The latter you announce, the greater chance a potential customer will purchase the product from another line.

 

With the economic conditions being what they are, I would not put a lot of faith in a cruise scheduled two years out.

[wrp96]

RCCL typically doesn't release their schedules until April, but they are actually releasing a lot of their schedules early this year. Here are the release dates for RCCL:

 

Europe & Transatlantic 3/12/09

Alaska 3/19/09

Asia Summer 3/24/09

Northeast

(Carib/Bermuda, Canada,New England) 3/25/09

Panama Canal 3/31/09

Caribbean (Year-round/Summer) 4/9 & 4/16/09

Short Caribbean/Bahamas 4/22/09

Mexico 4/28/09

Seasonal Caribbean 4/29/09

Dubai 5/5/09

Winter Europe 5/6/09

Australia & Hawaii 5/12/09

Asia Winter 5/14/09

South America 7/15/09