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Mariner leaving :( West Coast is sad

Redheada

By Redheada,
in Royal Caribbean International

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Loyal2RCCL

Loyal2RCCL

Posted
Posted

This news comes as no surprise to me. I never understood why RCCL decided to put the Mariner in LA when they had trouble filling the Vision on year round cruises from LA.

 

Not only is the MA not selling cabins at the prices RCCL wants, the onboard revenue is very low. Most of the bar staff are receiving "guaranteed pay" as their sales/tips aren't enough for them to live on. Because of this, a lot of the crew want to transfer off this ship to more profitable ones.

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xpcdoojk "Live from...." Rare

xpcdoojk

Posted
Posted
jc, are you suggesting the West Coast cruise market is not entitled to a government bailout?!?! :eek: ;) :D

 

Tim, it certainly sounds like some on the west coast feel completely entitled.:D

 

Hence the doo doo reference...:(

 

jc

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isujim

isujim

Posted
Posted
LA is too big of a market for Royal to pull out of completely. They'll put something there.

 

I'm not sure I totally agree..........we don't really know just how bad the revenue picture was, but I have a feeling it wasn't pretty. I think if they do position a ship out there it might be 4 and 5 night sailings.

 

It will be interesting to see what actually develops in the year to come.

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PamelaRic

PamelaRic

Posted
Posted
I have the Mariner booked for Jan 2nd. So are those last cruises going to go down in price? Hopefully?? Or am I just wishful thinking! LOL

 

 

Friends and I are on the Jan 2nd cruise too. Price has already come down once. Maybe more by the time we cruise. Us gals can hope. :)

 

Pamela

Tucson

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spencercoop

spencercoop

Posted
Posted
LOL. No we don't work for the cruise line. It's called common sense. Why would any cruise line pull a ship from a market if it is doing well? Think about it. It all comes down to $$$$$. Each ship has a target amount of money that it must make from not only sales from the ticket prices but also on board purchases. Galveston found this out several years ago when they lost a couple of ships. Now they only get one ship for about six months.

 

Also, explain why Carnival moved a couple of ships away from the west coast.

 

Galveston has Carnival ships year round. Carnival is only taking away one ship from the west coast. They still have 2 homeported in CA year round and one seasonal.

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negc

negc

Posted
Posted
In the words of my brilliant Grandmother, "What are we? Chopped Liver?"

Apparently that is a fairly good description but you should realize that they moved to the Mariner based largely on the perception that it was going to be a great market.

The repositioning cruise which almost everyone claimed would be oversubscribed was actually less than popular and they were forced to practically give cabins away in order to come even close to sailing with a respectable number of passengers. Despite all the promises of an enthusiastic West Coast audience, it appears that perhaps due in part to the lack of a variety of itineraries from LA, business just didn't live up to their or your projections. Fortunately for RCI, but unfortunately for West Coasters, they are able to move their ships to more profitable locations with a minimum of disruption.

They are, in the end, influenced more by the numbers than by the enthusiasm of a limited number of enthusiasts who didn't produce the numbers that were necessary to justify leaving Mariner there. Those who lobby hard for the cruiselines to move ships to their favorite local ports should consider this an object lesson and not let themselves be blinded by unrealistic expectations. If the support isn't there, the ship won't be there very long either.:rolleyes:

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GoodAsGold

GoodAsGold

Posted
Posted

Well, I must admit I love Princess. I've sailed her a few times down to Mexico. Twice for 10 days, and one of those out of San Francisco. Loved all three sailings! I've been on RCI once and that was the Mariner last year. Fun ship, but I prefer the food on Princess and the ability to gaze out at sea from the main public areas more so than the Mariner. The Grand Promenade on Mariner is especially nice for night time, though.

 

Still sad to see the Mariner go, especially for those devoted Royal Caribbean fans.

 

Well we have Princess, Holland and NCL, but I have heard nothing but bad about all. Princess got an "ok"....

 

We loved having the Mariner here. So sad...

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isujim

isujim

Posted
Posted

I will agree to some extent that lack of itinerary choices hurts the West Coast out of LA.

 

Look I live in the center of the country...........I can fly East and hook up with cruises to Bermuda, Canada, New England or the Caribbean.........from LA it was Mexican Riviera or a repo through the Panama Canal.......we did both cruises out of LA.......enjoyed the full transit of the Panama Canal but did not enjoy the Mexican Riviera that much.

 

If itinerary is an important factor in your sailing choices........those choices hurt LA.......there just wasn't that many choices.

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PamelaRic

PamelaRic

Posted
Posted

The following is a direct quote from Adam Goldstein, President and CEO of RCI:

 

"Our deployment decision reflects both strategic and financial considerations. Royal Caribbean has had a major presence at the Port of Los Angeles and on the west coast of Mexico for many years with various ships and it is our hope to return in the not too distant future."

 

I colored in the red. From this statement, I take it to mean we will be totally without an RCI ship but that the doors are left open to position one here again some day. I do hope it is sooner than later.

 

Pamela

Tucson

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VernRDH Great Review Rare

VernRDH

Posted
Posted

We had planned a group of us to cruise on Mariner next June. Now we got nothing. Don't know where we are going to go now, we have done the Western Carib. 4 times. Not thrilled with the eastern. Unless I want to go to Europe, there is nothing in June when we could go. So now our group has to figure something else out.

 

Totally bummed............:(

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isujim

isujim

Posted
Posted
The following is a direct quote from Adam Goldstein, President and CEO of RCI:

 

"Our deployment decision reflects both strategic and financial considerations. Royal Caribbean has had a major presence at the Port of Los Angeles and on the west coast of Mexico for many years with various ships and it is our hope to return in the not too distant future."

 

I colored in the red. From this statement, I take it to mean we will be totally without an RCI ship but that the doors are left open to position one here again some day. I do hope it is sooner than later.

 

Pamela

Tucson

 

 

From a business standpoint.........the door is always left open:)

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CptSticky

CptSticky

Posted
Posted
Already booked through April 2012 out of Port Canaveral.

I know, but we were already booked on the Mariner next April and they took her anyways. I have several b2b's booked on the Monarch, but would gladly give them up if they wanted to give her back to us.

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Redheada

Redheada

Posted
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Posted
Apparently that is a fairly good description but you should realize that they moved to the Mariner based largely on the perception that it was going to be a great market.

The repositioning cruise which almost everyone claimed would be oversubscribed was actually less than popular and they were forced to practically give cabins away in order to come even close to sailing with a respectable number of passengers. Despite all the promises of an enthusiastic West Coast audience, it appears that perhaps due in part to the lack of a variety of itineraries from LA, business just didn't live up to their or your projections. Fortunately for RCI, but unfortunately for West Coasters, they are able to move their ships to more profitable locations with a minimum of disruption.

They are, in the end, influenced more by the numbers than by the enthusiasm of a limited number of enthusiasts who didn't produce the numbers that were necessary to justify leaving Mariner there. Those who lobby hard for the cruiselines to move ships to their favorite local ports should consider this an object lesson and not let themselves be blinded by unrealistic expectations. If the support isn't there, the ship won't be there very long either.:rolleyes:

 

Well I guess another cruise line or land based vacation will be getting my business because I will only fly to Florida every once and awhile and it would have to be for a longer cruise. If I am going to pay to fly then Hawaii will get my business over a Florida cruise hands down. We decided after our last cruise to never go out of Galveston again (not really for any other reason then the challenges of air, hotel, transportation to and from the port - we loved the Voyager).

 

I sincerely hope that that RCCL doesnt abandon us.... but then again I am only one guest (well really anywhere from 4-8 when we travel).

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