Buying a single night of a longer cruise?

While its an intriguing idea, I don't think the market interest will support the increased cost. The luxury lines may find it worth their while, small ships so fewer rooms to sell and at higher price point. But a huge number of cruises are 7 nights or less because many people can't take more than a week off.

Retired people have plenty of days off, and there are plenty of retired people. I'm not sure the costs are that high. Booking would be handled like segmented cruises are already. The ship has to deal with more luggage, cleaning, muster drills and a lot of paperwork. All those things had to be paid for when cruises to nowhere still existed, and you could book those for less than $200. A wild guess: total cost for embarking and disembarking a guest: about $50. Less than one of the cheaper excursions.

Retired people have plenty of days off, and there are plenty of retired people. I'm not sure the costs are that high. Booking would be handled like segmented cruises are already. The ship has to deal with more luggage, cleaning, muster drills and a lot of paperwork. All those things had to be paid for when cruises to nowhere still existed, and you could book those for less than $200. A wild guess: total cost for embarking and disembarking a guest: about $50. Less than one of the cheaper excursions.

Wow, didn't think about that....imagine having to attend a muster drill every 2-3 days. Not my way of enjoying a cruise.

Wow, didn't think about that....imagine having to attend a muster drill every 2-3 days. Not my way of enjoying a cruise.

Not every 2-3 days. Just one extra drill (if it's needed at all, I didn't need to attend the second muster drill on a B2B) during your cruise, in exchange for enjoying a week on your favorite island mid-cruise. You should compare the hassle of flying to that island (and back again) to one extra muster drill.

A wild guess: total cost for embarking and disembarking a guest: about $50. Less than one of the cheaper excursions.

Except it's an entirely new thing. Currently there is no one in st thomas, st Martin, etc on a regular basis looking to hitch a ride back to the US on a cruise ship. The marketing costs to let people know and convince them it's a good idea are high. And until it becomes a thing, the market will be extremely unreliable. They will have to account for rooms going empty on a regular basis. Plus, I agree that it will hurt them in onboard spend.

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Not every 2-3 days. Just one extra drill (if it's needed at all, I didn't need to attend the second muster drill on a B2B) during your cruise, in exchange for enjoying a week on your favorite island mid-cruise. You should compare the hassle of flying to that island (and back again) to one extra muster drill.

On most cruiselines, there is a muster every time there is a new passenger load. We did a cruise that started in Boston, but also picked up people in Ft Lauderdale. We had to attend two muster drills.

Yes, I believe there's at least one cruise line that doesn't require people to attend multiple drills on B2B cruises, but many do.

As much as I hate flying, I'd rather do that than attend multiple muster drills.

The muster drills I've attended are really no big deal....at one time we had to line up on the promenade deck, beneath our assigned lifeboats, regardless of the weather, and stand there for about a half hour.

Lately, we are assigned to a lounge or restaurant, sit and watch a video or crew life-vest demo, and that's it....no big deal...

Except it's an entirely new thing.

It's not entirely new. People are used to have the cruise line take care of pre and post cruise affairs, like hotels and flights, even post cruise excursions. The new thing is mid cruise affairs. The difference is that a cruise previously sold as "A 7 night cruise, visiting St Thomas and St Martin" could also be sold as "A 14 night cruise visiting St Thomas including a full week on beautiful St Martin, with many exciting excursions!".

Maybe people don't want it, but it's not that difficult to explain the concept to TAs or guests. It's a really long overnight port where you stay in a hotel instead of on the ship.

Currently there is no one in st thomas, st Martin, etc on a regular basis looking to hitch a ride back to the US on a cruise ship. The marketing costs to let people know and convince them it's a good idea are high. And until it becomes a thing, the market will be extremely unreliable. They will have to account for rooms going empty on a regular basis.

I'm not proposing people standing at the pier hitchhiking to their next port. They'd book such a cruise a year in advance.

In the beginning of the season, people would get off at St Martin and leave an empty bed selling for next to nothing to entice people living on St Martin to get a really cheap cruise. At the end of the season, more people will want to sail back to the US which needs heavily discounted beds sailing to St Martin. This would be similar to a repositioning cruise.

During the season however, week 10 will have 50 guests arriving in St Martin, and another 50 who got there in week 9 want to get back to the US. Maybe not exactly those numbers, it could be 48 and 55, but the lines are extremely good at changing prices so it will be exactly those numbers. A cruise on a ship with 2000 pax capacity is never interesting for exactly 2000 pax. Maybe 500 want to sail, maybe 6000. You can't sail a quarter of a ship and you can't magically have 3 ships doing that itinerary. Some will decide to cruise 2 weeks later, some can't refuse a free beverage card. Pricing makes sure the ship sails at full capacity.

Plus, I agree that it will hurt them in onboard spend.

The guests would spend just as many nights as the ones doing the original 7 night cruise, plus an extra 7 day shorex. Except for the few buying diamonds on the island (in "ship approved, guaranteed everything, your host will explain everything about Tanzanite" shops, which happens to be the exciting excursion on day 3, and which shops also happen to kick back to the ship) instead of onboard, how could this hurt onboard spending? I'd guess the accountant would put all of the money spent on the island as "onboard spending".

The ship only needs to supply 7 expensive nights on the ship, and 7 relatively cheap nights in a hotel, and you can sell it as a 14 night cruise with a really long overnight. 90% of the guests only have 7 days to spend, or couldn't afford it, but 10% loves St Martin and was planning to go there a week by plane anyway, or they have family there, or whatever. They would love it, and I'm sure the Excel people at the cruise lines would love it as well.

Yes! "Hop on hop off cruises".

Are you familiar with Easy Cruise? They attempted ala cart, hop on-hop off cruises. They were out of business in 5 years.

Are you familiar with Easy Cruise? They attempted ala cart, hop on-hop off cruises. They were out of business in 5 years.

I wasn't but Wikipedia helps. It seems they did everything different than the rest of the industry. A la carte dining. "Most beds consist of a mattress placed on the floor with a simple fitted bed sheet and duvet". They were charging seperately for towels and even for cleaning the cabin. If I were in charge of a new cruise line, I'd do precisely what has shown to be successful for a nice ROI, and then slowly move towards a new idea of cruising. Like a la carte dining is happening on HAL -and I enjoyed it!-, but there's free food as well.

Maybe it was the hop on-hop off part let them stay in business for 5 years instead of one. It doesn't show that it's a bad idea.

Thanks for all the replies and the discussion really is interesting. Maybe a crowd-funded cruise critic business idea in here somewhere? I would use a hop on hop off boat circling part of the Caribbean almost every year! And apologies for mixing up the PVSA and the Jones Act.

To those who asked about flying - of course there are flights. What prompted me to ask my question was that only JetBlue flies SJU - STT with a jet (I hate turbo props), and we can only make the 4:00 PM JetBlue flight on the 31st based on the ship's arrival time (their 8:55 AM flight would be too risky). For some reason the price of the late JetBlue flight on the 31st spiked last week (i.e. $63 one-way almost every other day in December and January, and it had been $63 for that flight too, but all of sudden it was $250 one-way for that one flight on the 31st). I need 4 tickets, so $1000 is quite a lot for a 35 minute flight! It has since gone back down somewhat to $150, and the Seaborne turboprop is still at $63 one-way. So we will fly. But that price spike is why I started looking at the sailings -- i.e. if I was going to spend $750-$1000, why not sail on New Year's Eve if possible?

In my original post I was guessing it would only be a last minute thing - agree they would/should only do it if they had an otherwise empty room, so I would need to have a refundable airfare purchased and try this last minute if they would sell the unused cabin. But as others replied when RCCL got back to me they said allowable from SJU to STT, but you have to purchase the entire cruise.

Amazedbycruising - agree, you and I are discussing different concepts. OP is looking for a one night ride to get from place A to place B. In my mind that's more similar to flights than cruises so I'm imagining a cruise line that is literally offering a normal 7 night cruise but is offering it as hop on hop off. So day 1 board ship 1 in Florida, get off in st thomas; can either fly back later or hop on ship 2 as it passes by a few days later and hop on. Then hop off in st Martin or continue on to Florida.

I don't mind your idea of turning a 7 day cruise into a 14 day cruise but I still think the logistics would be more difficult. So question they're left is if the extra income they make from the 'cruise packages' is work the extra logistical effort. I don't know what the answer to that would be.

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Amazedbycruising - agree, you and I are discussing different concepts. OP is looking for a one night ride to get from place A to place B. In my mind that's more similar to flights than cruises so I'm imagining a cruise line that is literally offering a normal 7 night cruise but is offering it as hop on hop off. So day 1 board ship 1 in Florida, get off in st thomas; can either fly back later or hop on ship 2 as it passes by a few days later and hop on. Then hop off in st Martin or continue on to Florida.

 

I don't mind your idea of turning a 7 day cruise into a 14 day cruise but I still think the logistics would be more difficult. So question they're left is if the extra income they make from the 'cruise packages' is work the extra logistical effort. I don't know what the answer to that would be.

Indeed, hopping on and off anytime would be a bit too difficult probably. The 14 day cruise example though shouldn't be. The extra logistics are luggage, cleaning, manifest, and now I think probably an extra muster drill as you are in a different cabin on a different ship. Most ships do that for 100% of the passengers every week, some even every 4 days; I'm sure they can handle one or two ports where maybe 20% is replaced with new passengers. Food, fuel, entertainment, all those remain the same.

The serious extra work comes from organizing hotels, transport, trips, photo opportunities, parties at the beach, perhaps art auctions on land, etc. Cruise lines probably don't mind such extra work, as those are the things needed to earn money.

I hope someone who has been in the industry for decades steps in and explains why again this is a pie in the sky :D