Are ships not sailing at full capacity?

[Traveling52]

[quote name='nschurr']A good TA could manipulate the system to get your friends the same price you paid and it's legal.[/quote]

She is a very good TA and tried. We even tried booking them under us as family, did not work.

[Host CJSKIDS]

Well all I can say is that our 4/5 Crown sailing was completely sold out and many on our roll call got great offers to "move over". One in the group actually took the offer as they just couldn't pass it up. (My girlfriends 2/15 Crown sailing was sold out as well.)

[Sunviking]

We were on the Coral Princess 4/2 and the ship was full. While onboard I spoke to a staff member at breakfast one morning. He told me that a good friend of his is on the Diamond Princess and that sometime last month (March) the ship sailed with only slightly more than 500pax onboard. Obviously I have no first hand knowledge of this, but if it's true that doesn't sound good.

[cruisecrasy]

[quote name='Traveling52']It seems people like to shoot the messenger.

You can follow Carnival/Princess stock and see they are really hurting like everyone else. I feel bad for our friends and neighbors that work for Princess, because they are worried they might lose their jobs. Although because of the prices and family and friends traveling, more people are on the ship, but Princess is still making less money. We have a friend that works in photography for Princess and he said their photo business is really down. Discresinary spending has really dropped.

I know some of these people really love their cruise lines and are so protective, you would think it was a family member.[/QUOTE]

I defend my plate of food and wine glass no matter what the logo :)

Have happy cruisin'!

[cruisecrasy]

[quote name='StarTrkGeek']Carnival Corporation (the parent of Princess) stock peaked at $52 per share in October 2007. It hit a low of $15 per share in November 2008 -- a 71% drop!!! As of yesterday, the stock closed at $25.51 -- still 50.9% below its peak.

Also, Standard & Poor's believes that the Carnival Corporation is not doing very well. The following story was posted on MarketWatch on March 26, 2009:

"[B][SIZE=2]S&P Downgrades Carnival Corp. on Forecast Revenue[/SIZE][/B]
Standard & Poor's said Thursday it lowered its long-term corporate credit rating on Carnival Corp. to BBB+ from A- on a lower revenue outlook. S&P also cut Carnival's issue-level ratings on long-term debt by one notch. The outlook is negative. "We have revised our expectations for 2009 and 2010, and now project net revenue yields to decline in the high-teens percentage area in 2009, which, despite scheduled capacity increases in fiscal 2009 of about 5%, we estimate would result in [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization] declines in the mid- to high-teens percentage range," said Ben Bubeck, an S&P credit analyst, in a statement."

However, Royal Caribbean Corp (parent of Celebrity and Azamara) has done worse. Their stock peaked at $45 per share in June 2007 and hit a low of $5.50 per share in March 2009. That's a 87.8% drop!!! Yesterday, it closed at $11.15 per share -- a 75.2% drop from its peak.[/QUOTE]

Scary stuff!! :(

[LuAnn]

[quote name='fairstars']Hello Everyone,

It depends on the itinery, as others have said it appears that Alaska is not as popular as it was, we are booked on the Diamond for a September cruise of 22 nights, Vancouver to Beijing, and there are still plenty of cabins available especially for the first 7 nights inside passage. However we wished to add a 16 night Beijing to Bangkok and there were very limited cabins available for the last 6 months. We were lucky enough to notice a PS stern suite come up and booked it, (our first full suite). So as I said it realy depends on the itinery how quickly they fill up, but there will always be last minute offers for any remaining cabins.

Regards
Chris[/quote]

We are looking at doing this trip next year as we have a friend who works in Bejing and this would be a wonderful way to get there and only fly 1 way...plus see some unique spots. I assume you are on the roll call for this cruise? I think I'll go over there and "lurk" so I can pick up some great ideas for next year! LuAnn

[StarTrkGeek]

[quote name='cruisecrasy']Scary stuff!! :([/quote]
Some people would agree. Others would say it's a great opportunity to make some money by buying stock in Carnival and Royal Caribbean corporations.

[TXFrank]

We were just on the Coral Princess from Acapulco to Ft. Lauderdale (April 2 - April 12). It sailed near capacity (around 120 short). There was never an issue with seating in the theater and we had the pool to ourselves on more than a couple of occassions. I spoke to some others on the sister ship, the Island Princess, and they reported much the same. At the future cruise sale office there was availability on almost every remaining 2009 cruise. They were doubling the ship credits if a 2009 cruise was booked on this cruise ... that says to me there are some capacity issues occurring.

[cruisecrasy]

[quote name='StarTrkGeek']Some people would agree. Others would say it's a great opportunity to make some money by buying stock in Carnival and Royal Caribbean corporations.[/QUOTE]

Yes possibly although not sure it is yet time & only concern of mine is the 'belly-up' possibility or doing the 'flat-line' thing for years..

Too much debt always concerns me when it comes to investing in any company...what think?

Have happy cruisin'!

[COMBOY]

[quote name='JudithLynne']My husband and I are seasoned cruisers.

We are going to be on the Pacific Princess one month from today (Alaska). This ship is not full! And this is a small ship!

There are cabins available in every category except suite. There are several cabins available in mini-suites. We have an OV cabin and are listed as “will accept an upgrade.”

Our last cruise, also Alaska, was in Aug. 2008 on HAL and the ship was filled.

I am curious to hear from those of you that are recent cruisers (or going to cruise in the near future), is this typical for ships in these times to not fill up? It has been many years since we have been on a ship that wasn’t full to capacity with a waiting list.



Judith[/QUOTE]

Well....since I work in the travel industry it's very hard for an individual to know what the true occupancy rates by just looking at any travel booking website. Since cruise lines like the airlines and hotels use yield management systems, category(s) that might show available will not necessary reflect the true occupancy of the ship. Cruise line typically "oversell" categories to ensure the ship sails at 100% occupancy due to cancellation. If they don't get enough cancellations prior to sailing the cruise line will offer move over incentives to other ships or sailing dates. Also, they might keep overselling cheaper cabins and then upgrading passenger to higher categories even though those cabins are already filled. That's why guaranteed cabins are sometimes only available in some categories. It could also be that the ship is sailing at 98% occupancy with just a few cabins available in each category. You will never know the true available as the cruise line will never post actual numbers. There are so many factors effecting availability prior to sailing that an individual need not worry too much about occupancy. Even in past recessions cruising has always had high levels of occupancy although pricing will be weak.

[smoosh21]

[quote name='JudithLynne']My husband and I are seasoned cruisers.

We are going to be on the Pacific Princess one month from today (Alaska). This ship is not full! And this is a small ship!

There are cabins available in every category except suite. There are several cabins available in mini-suites. We have an OV cabin and are listed as “will accept an upgrade.”

Our last cruise, also Alaska, was in Aug. 2008 on HAL and the ship was filled.

I am curious to hear from those of you that are recent cruisers (or going to cruise in the near future), is this typical for ships in these times to not fill up? It has been many years since we have been on a ship that wasn’t full to capacity with a waiting list.

Very interesting……

Judith[/quote]

May is still early for Alaska.
Our Panama Canal Cruise on the Coral was absolutely full. There were 1958 passengers on it (if I remember correctly) That is almost capacity.