Ship occupancies -

[Outlanderssc]

I was just wondering, is there anyway for pax to determine how full (or empty) the ship they're booked to sail on is?

 

I expect TAs have listings of which staterooms are booked, but what of the rest of us?

 

The X website only shows a few staterooms of any cat at a time, so unless the cat is sold out you have no idea how many are available. Even then, categories seem to sell out, only to be available a few days later -

[flashdog_1]

And does anyone know what the occupancy rate has to be for them to offer guarantees in any category?

[kitty9]

On the X website, if you're looking for a particular cabin, all you need to do is type in the cabin number at the top of the page and it will tell you if that cabin is available.

 

With their old website, you could tell pretty much how many cabins were still available, but with the new one, they just seem to offer a few in each category.

[Karynanne]

On the X website, if you're looking for a particular cabin, all you need to do is type in the cabin number at the top of the page and it will tell you if that cabin is available.

 

With their old website, you could tell pretty much how many cabins were still available, but with the new one, they just seem to offer a few in each category.

 

This is exactly what I do....I have my favorite list of cabins, and I just punch in each and every cabin to see what is available...Once in awhile you get a big surprise, and it's just what you wanted!

 

Karyn

[Outlanderssc]

I'm not looking for a specific cabin, I'm just curious how full the ship will be for my cruise.

[chessbriar]

Nope. Agents don't even have this info. Once the ship is just about sold out you can tell cause the categories close. But agents have to enter in cabins numbers as well. They just have a slightly longer list of available cabins to look at, it's about 7 cabins/category. But they can go through the same process of entering cabin numbers.

[ocngypz]

By the time the ship sails, you can count on 99-103% capacity. Cruiselines will do anything to get people on the ship.

[Outlanderssc]

you can count on 99-103% capacity

 

103% ?

 

Do they tow the extra people behind in a dinghy? Make them sleep on deck?

[Luv4dacruise]

103% ?

 

Do they tow the extra people behind in a dinghy? Make them sleep on deck?

 

I am just guessing, but the 103% probably relates to the ship being full at double occupancy. Add the 3rd and 4th passengetrs, and there you go......

[chessbriar]

I am just guessing, but the 103% probably relates to the ship being full at double occupancy. Add the 3rd and 4th passengetrs, and there you go......

 

Exactly, if you look at Century, you will see she has a stated capacity of 1750 people. We had over 2000 on our cruise in October. That's over 114%.

[flashdog_1]

I thought you meant you had figured out the travel industry's legal "overbooking" percentage. Does anyone know that figure?

[rjg41]

While you cannot tell precisely you can get a good idea as suggesed earlier. Got to site like Travelocity, Orbitz, etc, and start the booking process for a particular category. Pick one that has rooms all through the ship. You will be shown all cabins available for sale through that web site. While not inclusive of all rooms it will be pretty close. The availability of cabins in the middle two thirds of the ship will tell the story. Of couse if some popular categories are sold out or with GTY only, that also tells the story. Pretty full ship.

[Longboysfan]

From what my T/A tells me they lock out the system about 48 hours in advance of sailing.

 

There are rules now that they have to have the ships passanger sailing manifest in about 72 hours in advance.

 

So you can't walk up anymore.

 

But... If your on to your T/A you should know if there are cabins still open at a higher level.

 

Then when you get to the pier... Not boarded. See the agent on the pier as you check in to see if you can instant upgrade into a better cabin if they are open.

Be specific and have a $ value you would pay in mind.

[Jimsgirl]

By the time the ship sails, you can count on 99-103% capacity. Cruiselines will do anything to get people on the ship.

 

This has happened on my next trip, which does happen to be on HAL, on that board it has been announced that HAL have overboooked the shipand are looking for people willing to give up their cabins, in exchange for a very good deal on HAL's World cruise instead.

 

I cannot give up my cabin because as yet I have not been assigned one, but I am wondering if in fact I will get the "guaranteed" cabin in view of the overbooking. Still since I have booked the least expensive, inside cabin, I do not suppose many people will be fighting over it.

 

Hope that is the case anyway, due to travel Jan 5.

[cfprunner]

While ships often go out full, rarely are people bumped. However, you can expect an the first few nights that 0 cabins are without pax. By day 3, some folks will likely have left the ship.

[chessbriar]

While ships often go out full, rarely are people bumped. However, you can expect an the first few nights that 0 cabins are without pax. By day 3, some folks will likely have left the ship.

 

Actually this in not completely true. When Carnival started their sailing from Baltimore a few years back, they oversold the rooms as they do for most of the cruises, counting on a good number of last minute cancellations and no shows.

 

As it turned out, Baltimore did not have the standard number of no shows and cancellations and in turn had to keep people from boarding. That is the main reason they no longer sail from Baltimore. They were not able to figure out they should not overbook and received a lot of bad press in that part of the country.

[canderson]

By the time the ship sails, you can count on 99-103% capacity. Cruiselines will do anything to get people on the ship.

There are some exceptions. For whatever reason, the early December trips we've taken are consistently running with empty cabins. I believe we had just over 1500 on our 12/5/05 Galaxy cruise, and have had similar experiences on Summit last year and Infinity the year before that in the same time slot. It's the "cruise between holidays". Due to this, prices for these cruises are also a bit less than those on either side (even at initial offering), especially the "Christmas Cruise".