What happens if a ship is half sold?

We're booked on the Mercury 12/21 (out of Baltimore, which puts it within 3 hours driving distance of a huge population) and I just looked at a European site that seems to show the available staterooms. So doing a quick count of the available rooms, I saw 523 unsold on a ship with only 949 cabins (subject to my bad eyesight).

I understand that the economy is difficult right now, but the other cruises around that date have sold out of of some categories.

So - what is likely to happen? Will they suddenly schedule a dry-dock? Cut the prices down to a lower multiple of the non-holiday rate? Upgrade everyone and donate the extra cabins to a charity?

I don't mind a half-empty ship (think: no problems getting a deck chair or waiting to board or get off) but am not sure we could handle the attention of having a dedicated staff person to follow us everywhere.

Any ideas about what's going on or likely to happen?

j

They still have a lot of time to sell a lot of cabins.

David

Your cruise is six months in future. And a few days before XMAS week. It probably will sell out by then. It's too far in advance to speculate.

12/21 is really a long way off and it's too early to tell. IMO, a better indication will be late August or the first part of September, by that time you should start seeing some discounts, but not rock bottom prices. They won't sail half full, even if they practically give the cabins away. For example, Carnival clearanced out a 12 night Hawaii cruise in April for $399 for insides several weeks prior to sailing.

They will sail and pretty close to capacity. They will cut prices if they have to. An empty cabin provides no income. But a heavily reduced cabin, produces tips, drinks, excursion, photos, spa treatment, bingo, and casino revenue.

Ship will turn over, because of the lesser weight! Sorry no offence just kdding!

Michael

Agree that it's a long way off but the cruises that bracket it are much more heavily booked and even sold out in some categories.

I just hate to see it become a winter break party cruise if they cut prices too far. On the other hand, that could get us some nice reductions - or an upgrade.

Now if they'd offer a deal to people already booked - you know - book one cabin, get additional for half-price, then we'd invite the family...

j

I was on a cruise for my folk's 25th wedding anniversary. They were married on September 16th, 1976. That, of course, put their 25th on September 16th, 2001, just after the 9/11 attacks. The cruise ship (Explorer of the Seas? I think that was the one) sailed only half full. We called them and they said that they were sailing no matter how many people were able to make it or not. So, with no flights available to us, ours having been canceled, we rented an SUV, put everything aboard, and we drove for about 36 hours from Lubbock, Texas to Miami, Florida. It was a crazy drive.

We had this amazingly huge ship and it was only half full.

I think that the only thing that might keep them from sailing would be an outbreak of Swine Flu which hits all of your ports (and even then they probably would do a closed loop sailing during those dates). I wouldn't worry about it.

We're booked on the Mercury 12/21 (out of Baltimore, which puts it within 3 hours driving distance of a huge population) and I just looked at a European site that seems to show the available staterooms. So doing a quick count of the available rooms, I saw 523 unsold on a ship with only 949 cabins (subject to my bad eyesight).

 

I understand that the economy is difficult right now, but the other cruises around that date have sold out of of some categories.

 

So - what is likely to happen? Will they suddenly schedule a dry-dock? Cut the prices down to a lower multiple of the non-holiday rate? Upgrade everyone and donate the extra cabins to a charity?

 

I don't mind a half-empty ship (think: no problems getting a deck chair or waiting to board or get off) but am not sure we could handle the attention of having a dedicated staff person to follow us everywhere.

 

Any ideas about what's going on or likely to happen?

 

j

 

 

can you share the web site???

Bear in mind that rather than booking many months to more than a year ahead (as used to be the norm), many people have taken to waiting as long as possible to book, knowing that the cruise lines have taken to offering "fire sale" prices to unload unsold cabins closer to sail date.

yes, I would also love to have the name of the site where you are able to get this information. Thanks.

To OP:

Mecury is a great ship. We were excited to hear it was returning to the East Coast but not that excited with the dates offered..

Driving in late Dec so near the Holidays is not something many may want to do & also a bit cold for cruising from the North. Also will be expensive for flying.

But I am sure it will sell out-- School vacation times are always popular. So just watch your prices & you may get a big discount along the way!

Just slogged through my Solstice cruise in 20 Nov 09 and about 35% of the SRs are still open. And of the open ones, over a 1/3 are the Inside/Outside (non-Balcony) SRs, and they are only about 15% of all the SR's.

Wow, I'm getting a bit scared of myself as I start running through all the 'statistics' I can garner up!

Neat site.

Denny

We're booked on the Mercury 12/21 (out of Baltimore, which puts it within 3 hours driving distance of a huge population) and I just looked at a European site that seems to show the available staterooms. So doing a quick count of the available rooms, I saw 523 unsold on a ship with only 949 cabins (subject to my bad eyesight).

 

I understand that the economy is difficult right now, but the other cruises around that date have sold out of of some categories.

 

So - what is likely to happen? Will they suddenly schedule a dry-dock? Cut the prices down to a lower multiple of the non-holiday rate? Upgrade everyone and donate the extra cabins to a charity?

 

I don't mind a half-empty ship (think: no problems getting a deck chair or waiting to board or get off) but am not sure we could handle the attention of having a dedicated staff person to follow us everywhere.

 

Any ideas about what's going on or likely to happen?

 

j

 

 

 

They will probably upgrade those that booked early and put the other staterooms on sale.

What site can you see all at one time?

Has there been a price drop?

What site can you see all at one time?

yes, I would also love to have the name of the site where you are able to get this information. Thanks.

can you share the web site???

I scan the sea so I am a sea scanner with a dot com and no space, you could be too.

Although I am not the OP, this fits the description and provides the same information

Marlee

I was on a cruise for my folk's 25th wedding anniversary. They were married on September 16th, 1976. That, of course, put their 25th on September 16th, 2001, just after the 9/11 attacks. The cruise ship (Explorer of the Seas? I think that was the one) sailed only half full. We called them and they said that they were sailing no matter how many people were able to make it or not. So, with no flights available to us, ours having been canceled, we rented an SUV, put everything aboard, and we drove for about 36 hours from Lubbock, Texas to Miami, Florida. It was a crazy drive.

 

We had this amazingly huge ship and it was only half full.

 

I think that the only thing that might keep them from sailing would be an outbreak of Swine Flu which hits all of your ports (and even then they probably would do a closed loop sailing during those dates). I wouldn't worry about it.

We sailed our first cruise that week. It was nice to have our whole family together during that awful time. We rented a 15 passenger van for 9 of us and drove from Michigan.

We sailed our first cruise that week. It was nice to have our whole family together during that awful time. We rented a 15 passenger van for 9 of us and drove from Michigan.

That sounds lovely...especially because of what had just happened.

To have your whole family together like that:)

Thanks, RLM77, that's a cool site. I checked my cruise in September and it too has a lot of open cabins. I'm not sure how many would usually be sold at this time so I don't know if my cruise is below usual or not.

I scan the sea so I am a sea scanner with a dot com and no space, you could be too.

 

Although I am not the OP, this fits the description and provides the same information

 

Marlee

Thank you for sharing that with us.:) I had been on that site

before but never knew they showed all the cabins available

like that! That is terrific:)

They will probably upgrade those that booked early and put the other staterooms on sale.

We booked a 2A because it was under cabins (instead of dancers or deck chairs) and roughly mid-ship. We're not sure how happy we'd be with an upgrade that put us under something noisy. Guess we'll wait and see. I'd still rather bring the family if they go to a BOGO option to fill the ship. :D

I scan the sea so I am a sea scanner with a dot com and no space, you could be too.

 

Although I am not the OP, this fits the description and provides the same information

 

Marlee

Thanks for getting that up there - finally home from work. Nifty site.

j