A bunch of empty staterooms

Our eastern Caribbean cruise on Reflection is scheduled to sail in 78 days and by the latest count on the Celebrity website, there are 139 available staterooms in every category except the very high end suites. I'm sure that the current port status....especially the scheduled overnight in St. Martin has something to do with the number of empty cabins. My question is, has anybody ever been on a ship that is far from fully booked? Is there a notable difference between a full ship and a ship that is light 300 passengers? I'm sure that the Oceanview won't feel as full, but are there deals to be had in the spa or at the specialty restaurants? Maybe disembarkation won't be so hectic also....

Don't worry, you'll have plenty of company. Expect ship will sail full or almost full. MIght take some heavy discounting and lots of LLP's friends and family to get there though. Keep an eye out for cheap upgrade opportunities.

We did a trans-Atlantic that wasn't fully booked, but just a few rooms, but only about 10 passengers in third and fourth berths, so that made it very noticeably thin on the crowds and it was a very enjoyable, relaxing cruise.

That would make me look at the sailing now as a last minute!

Thank you...

bon voyage

The Summit repo that took place last week was undersold. Lots of cancellations due to the hurricane changes. RCL even booked 300 employees on board for a conference.

They do tend to fill them before they sail. They can do much better if there is a paying passenger onboard than if they sail with a lot of empty cabins. We are booked on a cruise that sails out this weekend ... part of that big Equinox sale when first bringing her back to the Caribbean. There were very high prices for awhile but still a lot of room availability. A few weeks after final payment, the hurricanes started hitting the Caribbean ... now even more cabins available. I checked about a month ago and boy, were those cabins ever cheap!! They sold nearly all of them in a couple short weeks ... probably without all the perks but nonetheless, they reduced that inventory really quickly. They also offer deals for certain residents, travel agents and casino gamblers for next to nothing. As I said, it is more profitable for them to fill those cabins with passengers that are spending money that to sail with a lot of empty cabins.

I did sail on a ship quite some time ago that had a lot of open cabins, though, on NCL. The prices were already at rock bottom and they still couldn't fill the ship.

Interesting..I wonder what Celebrity's policy is about selling out cabins last min to fill them?

I know Royal's policy is to NOT do that.

They proudly announce they would rather sail with empty cabins, then sell them off cheaply or last minute.....

Interesting..I wonder what Celebrity's policy is about selling out cabins last min to fill them?

 

I know Royal's policy is to NOT do that.

 

They proudly announce they would rather sail with empty cabins, then sell them off cheaply or last minute.....

They still offer very low rates espcially aftet final payment if the ship is not fully booked.

That was a lie from Royal to support early bookings in combination with less flexibility, especially for bookings made in Europe.

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That is exactly why we typically inside the final payment window-usually 30-45 days out. We select an itinerary(s), then follow the pricing of three or four ships. If we require air we also follow that pricing. Often to/from PBI, FLL, and MIA if it is a Caribbean cruise. When our target price for a balcony cabin hits, we push the buy button.

Our eastern Caribbean cruise on Reflection is scheduled to sail in 78 days and by the latest count on the Celebrity website, there are 139 available staterooms in every category except the very high end suites.

Wouldn't an average of just under 2 bookings per day fill those staterooms?

Interesting..I wonder what Celebrity's policy is about selling out cabins last min to fill them?

 

I know Royal's policy is to NOT do that.

 

They proudly announce they would rather sail with empty cabins, then sell them off cheaply or last minute.....

Although Royal may not publish fire-sale prices post final payment, they will surely offer unpublished deals for group rates to large TAs.

It's totally possible to have a "full" ship without selling every cabin...simply means cabins with 3-4 berths are fully booked....it's all about the NUMBER OF PASSENGERS...not the number of cabins!!!

Fewer passengers equals DREAM CRUISE

Several years ago we went out of San Juan and found out that all the empty cabins were offered to locals who paid almost half of what we paid. We were upset but not much we could do,I guess Celebrity wanted to fill the cabins and figured the people would spend money onboard to make up the difference in pricing. When you figure they did not have flight costs they got a good deal.

We did a 4 day cruise out of San Juan a number of years ago... As I recall it was over a holiday... the ship left on a Friday and returned Tuesday am. At the time we arrived, I commented to my husband that this would be an ideal cruise if you lived in PR because you could leave after work and be home before work... not missing a day of work and having a nice cruise. Well it turned out there were only about 3% of the cruise passengers that were not from PR. I was a wild time. Whole families cruised and there was dancing in the isles in the dinning room to Ricky Martin. We had a great time. The only problem was that they moved dining times. As I recall late seating was 9:30 and early seating was later than normal as well. It was on that cruise that we learned that people in the Caribbean like to buy cheese when they go to Dutch islands... we saw people carry on 10 pound wheels of cheese. It was crazy... we even felt the need to buy a package of three small cheeses.

It's totally possible to have a "full" ship without selling every cabin...simply means cabins with 3-4 berths are fully booked....it's all about the NUMBER OF PASSENGERS...not the number of cabins!!!

It's called creative accounting or messaging a word's meaning to fit what they are trying to convey.

How do you check to see how many rooms are unsold without going through and counting on Celebritys site?thought maybe there was another area to check..

OP said sailing is in 79 days. That's plenty of time for the cruise to appear multiple times on the weekly "Exciting Deals" offered (usually on Tuesdays) by X which can be found here:

http://www.creative.rccl.com/Sales/Exciting_Deals/XcitingDeals_cel_tues.pdf

These I understand these are for "new bookings only" and that is strictly enforced.

That's how the inventory will likely be sold.