Adam Goldstein Address Ship Deployment (sorta)

[tahqa]

From Adam Goldstein's Blog

 

He is asking for comments to this entry...

 

Deployment - A Look Inside the Planning Process

 

There is a strong desire amongst the readers of this blog and the followers of our live chats to know more about our deployment planning process, i.e., where we choose to put the ships. We want to respond to this desire but we need to balance it against the competitive and legal framework that applies to this critical subject. In an upcoming guest blog entry, I will ask Diana Block, VP, Revenue Performance & Deployment, and Chris Allen, Director, Deployment & Itinerary Planning to comment in more detail.

 

Because most readers live in the United States, most of the expressed commentary is in the form of questions about why we don’t have more or longer programs around the U.S. Our readers are frequently asking about more cruises from Galveston, New Orleans, Tampa, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Hawaii, Jacksonville, Mobile, etc.

 

This interest reflects a significant shift in U.S. consumer preference over the last 15 years. While a lot of our guests still get on a plane and fly to San Juan, South Florida, New York, Los Angeles or Seattle to board one of our ships, there are many cruisers who prefer to skip the flight and drive straight to a ship based much closer to where they live.

 

We offer cruises out of many homeports around the U.S. either year-round or seasonally. However, this important trend towards “homeporting” inevitably bumps into another very significant trend of the last 15 years – the whole world is catching on to cruising and there is demand for our cruises globally. This conflict between two important market preferences is exacerbated in the northern summer by the seasonal attractions of Alaska, Bermuda and Europe.

 

In the end, we have 22 ships (including Oasis of the Seas and Allure of Seas) to deploy and hard choices to make every year. We are very cognizant of Texans who want to cruise year-round from Galveston as well as Spanish who want us to offer summer programs out of Malaga, and many others as well. We are constantly monitoring guest satisfaction, operational experience, revenue performance, fuel and other costs, consumer research, customer commentary and strategic opportunity to determine what the right deployment of our 22 ships should be. I look forward to your comments on this compelling subject.

[constantcruiser]

He asked for our comments. Sounds like this might be a good time to remind him just HOW much we want a ship to home port year-round in Galveston, Houston or New Orleans. I'm sending another e-mail today.

[Moondawgie]

We would love to have a ship in San Francisco.

 

Thanks for the link tahqa.

[Bruins14]

I left a comment for a Freedom class ship out on NJ.

[tahqa]

He asked for our comments. Sounds like this might be a good time to remind him just HOW much we want a ship to home port year-round in Galveston, Houston or New Orleans. I'm sending another e-mail today.

To me it's interesting that he's soliciting comments... it shows that he really does read the comments to his blog.

 

A bit of advice... when making comments you just justify/rationalize as much as possible. A comment that says "You should deploy a ship to Galveston because of x, y, and z" goes a lot farther than "PUT A SHIP IN GALVESTON!!!".

 

I'm not picking on Galveston, by the way, just using it as an example. :)

 

As for myself, I'm extremely lucky to live in Orlando and have easy access to four ports!

[tahqa]

We would love to have a ship in San Francisco.

 

Thanks for the link tahqa.

You're welcome! :)

[The Big Booper]

The big problem, as I have said before, it is more efficient and cost effective to have one big ship carrying 4,000 pax then two ships carrying 2,000 pax each.

 

BUT, the two ships can each go a different route while the one big ship can only do one route.

 

They have to get some more smaller ships to deploy to secondary markets but Uncle Harry's Used Vehicle Emporium is empty of suitable ships.:)

[tkportersat]

I posted on behalf of the Texas cruisers!!!!

[Texas Teen]

From Adam Goldstein's Blog

 

He is asking for comments to this entry...

 

Deployment - A Look Inside the Planning Process

 

There is a strong desire amongst the readers of this blog and the followers of our live chats to know more about our deployment planning process, i.e., where we choose to put the ships. We want to respond to this desire but we need to balance it against the competitive and legal framework that applies to this critical subject. In an upcoming guest blog entry, I will ask Diana Block, VP, Revenue Performance & Deployment, and Chris Allen, Director, Deployment & Itinerary Planning to comment in more detail.

 

Because most readers live in the United States, most of the expressed commentary is in the form of questions about why we don’t have more or longer programs around the U.S. Our readers are frequently asking about more cruises from Galveston, New Orleans, Tampa, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Hawaii, Jacksonville, Mobile, etc.

 

This interest reflects a significant shift in U.S. consumer preference over the last 15 years. While a lot of our guests still get on a plane and fly to San Juan, South Florida, New York, Los Angeles or Seattle to board one of our ships, there are many cruisers who prefer to skip the flight and drive straight to a ship based much closer to where they live.

 

We offer cruises out of many homeports around the U.S. either year-round or seasonally. However, this important trend towards “homeporting” inevitably bumps into another very significant trend of the last 15 years – the whole world is catching on to cruising and there is demand for our cruises globally. This conflict between two important market preferences is exacerbated in the northern summer by the seasonal attractions of Alaska, Bermuda and Europe.

 

In the end, we have 22 ships (including Oasis of the Seas and Allure of Seas) to deploy and hard choices to make every year. We are very cognizant of Texans who want to cruise year-round from Galveston as well as Spanish who want us to offer summer programs out of Malaga, and many others as well. We are constantly monitoring guest satisfaction, operational experience, revenue performance, fuel and other costs, consumer research, customer commentary and strategic opportunity to determine what the right deployment of our 22 ships should be. I look forward to your comments on this compelling subject.

 

Thanks for the link! Looks like we have some hope for a full time RCCL ship in Texas!

[CVU]

We would love to have a ship in San Francisco.

 

Thanks for the link tahqa.

Yes!!!

And some that go to Hawaii too from there or even Vancouver again.

They took the Serenade from Van. to Hawaii, at the end of the Alaska run in 2007.:(

 

Easy for BC people to drive to, fly to. Anywhere other than Calif. takes us so long to fly to and more $$$ too.

[CruiseDreaming]

I would love to see more cruises out of Galveston and the return of 4 night cruises out of LA!!!!! I used to cruise the Monarch every other year. We would do a 7 night one year and a 4 night on Monarch the other year--it was the best!

 

Kerrie:)

[Annefran]

Would love another ship out of NJ. Sorry is the link Adam Goldstein's blog?

[tahqa]

Would love another ship out of NJ. Sorry is the link Adam Goldstein's blog?

Yes, the link is to his blog. You can leave comments at the bottom of that page.

[TPKeller]

:) Someone left a comment suggesting that they do a cruise on the Great Lakes... I didn't know the answer, so I looked it up, the St. Lawrence Seaway is the path to go from the Atlantic to the Great Lakes, and according to Wikipedia, the largest ship that can traverse the seaway is 740 ft (225.6 m) long, 78 ft (23.8 m) wide, and 26 ft (7.9 m) deep, well below the dimensions of the smallest ship in the Royal Caribbean fleet at this time.

 

Theron

[oakley2414]

:) Someone left a comment suggesting that they do a cruise on the Great Lakes... I didn't know the answer, so I looked it up, the St. Lawrence Seaway is the path to go from the Atlantic to the Great Lakes, and according to Wikipedia, the largest ship that can traverse the seaway is 740 ft (225.6 m) long, 78 ft (23.8 m) wide, and 26 ft (7.9 m) deep, well below the dimensions of the smallest ship in the Royal Caribbean fleet at this time.

 

Theron

 

great info.. i found that very intersting

[janabm81]

What I don't understand is why the ships do the same itinerary all the time. Don't get me wrong I like finding new cruises to go on each year. But our problem is that we only get our vacation time at a certain time of year and so far all the ships we'd like to go on again are still doing the same itinerary. I wish they could switch the schedules every year that way one year we could do one itinerary and the next year do the other.

[bplazo]

Another vote for a ship out of Galvaston.

[unklez]

What I don't understand is why the ships do the same itinerary all the time. Don't get me wrong I like finding new cruises to go on each year. But our problem is that we only get our vacation time at a certain time of year and so far all the ships we'd like to go on again are still doing the same itinerary. I wish they could switch the schedules every year that way one year we could do one itinerary and the next year do the other.

 

That's a great point. it seems that the cruise lines like to plan their schedule once and then stick to it until they can fill the ship year around on that schedule.

[waterbug123]

What I don't understand is why the ships do the same itinerary all the time.

 

My guess is that it has to do with scheduling port calls. It's probably a lot easier to get a "contract" with a port of call if you say "we'd like ship X to dock at your port for 8 hours every Thursday for 12 months" than to say "we'd like it to sometimes come on Thursdays but sometimes Monday but if it's a full moon we'll be there on Saturday etc. etc."

[ehfl]

Those that really want more ports around the country, should write to their members of congress, to get the Passenger Vessel Act (PSA) of 1886 repealed.

 

This will allow for more eastern seaboard, gulf coast, and west coast cruises, as well as the opening up of Hawaii as a departure port.

 

It's in your hands....if you have ever voted for a member of congress that does not support the repeal of the act, then you are as much a part of the problem as Adam Goldstein is.

[janabm81]

Waterbug:

I understand what you're saying but I still think it would be just as easy as for one year do X one week then Y itinerary the next week (just like they do now) But then the next year switch the two and do Y itinerary then X. That way us cruisers that cruise the same week each year have differences to choose from.

[negc]

What I don't understand is why the ships do the same itinerary all the time. Don't get me wrong I like finding new cruises to go on each year. But our problem is that we only get our vacation time at a certain time of year and so far all the ships we'd like to go on again are still doing the same itinerary. I wish they could switch the schedules every year that way one year we could do one itinerary and the next year do the other.

 

They sail the "same" itineraries all the time because that is where the most demand is and it is more profitable to sail on itineraries where it is easiest to fill their ships. When demand for any particular itinerary begins to fade or when they are convinced that another itinerary will be more appealing and more profitable, you will see them change. In recent years they have expanded the number of departure ports to a considerable degree. If you do even a cursory examination of their website or their brochures you will find a much greater variety of itineraries than you believe exists. It is a sad but true fact that they have to take into consideration the views of all of their prospective customers and cannot tailor their sailings to fit any one person's peculiar circumstances. It isn't your fault, but neither is it RCI's, that you are only able to take vacation time at a certain time of the year. If you read enough of these posts suggesting alternative itineraries and longer seasons from a variety of ports you may begin to appreciate the problems that all cruiselines face when deciding when and where to deploy their vessels.:)

[janabm81]

Negc:

But what I'd like to be able to do is the other half of the itinerary rotation. I think they'd get more return if they switched it year to year. That way if some one (like me) goes on a week long cruise that goes to points a,b,&c and truly enjoys the ship can then the next year go to points d,e,&f.

For example this year we went on the Southern Caribbean route that goes to barbados. The other week is the one that goes to St. Thomas. Unfortunately, the St. thomas cruise is always on the week before or after my allotted vacation time. If they switched year to year I'd have the chance to go and the cruise line would get more of my hard earned $. Instead we have to look at other options (cruise lines) because we've already done all the itineraries offered during that week and would like to do something different.

[blueyfish]

Just posted for a Freedom Class in Bayonne.

[unklez]

Those that really want more ports around the country, should write to their members of congress, to get the Passenger Vessel Act (PSA) of 1886 repealed.

 

This will allow for more eastern seaboard, gulf coast, and west coast cruises, as well as the opening up of Hawaii as a departure port.

 

It's in your hands....if you have ever voted for a member of congress that does not support the repeal of the act, then you are as much a part of the problem as Adam Goldstein is.

 

While I am not a fan of PVSA, I don't really see how it is contributing to the problem.