how many passenger cancellations would cause O to cancel a sailing?

[susiesan]

I am wondering, with so many people canceling their cruises scheduled for the next few months over virus panic, how may passenger cancellations would it take for Oceania to decide it is not economically feasible to run a particular cruise sailing? Has Oceania ever done this before, cancelled a sailing for lack of interest? Have their ships sailed with less than half the cabins occupied? I am thinking about cruises that are overseas, like mine in the Baltic. If airlines were to stop flying from the US to particular countries or even to Europe as a whole, but the cruise wasn't cancelled, then Americans would have to cancel the cruise since they couldn't get there. How many empty cabins would Oceania sail with? Airlines sometimes cancel particular flights if they don't have enough tickets sold to justify the expense of flying the plane. They use the excuse of mechanical problem and book passengers on another flight.

[StanandJim]

35 minutes ago, susiesan said:

I am wondering, with so many people canceling their cruises scheduled for the next few months over virus panic, how may passenger cancellations would it take for Oceania to decide it is not economically feasible to run a particular cruise sailing? Has Oceania ever done this before, cancelled a sailing for lack of interest? Have their ships sailed with less than half the cabins occupied? I am thinking about cruises that are overseas, like mine in the Baltic. If airlines were to stop flying from the US to particular countries or even to Europe as a whole, but the cruise wasn't cancelled, then Americans would have to cancel the cruise since they couldn't get there. How many empty cabins would Oceania sail with? Airlines sometimes cancel particular flights if they don't have enough tickets sold to justify the expense of flying the plane. They use the excuse of mechanical problem and book passengers on another flight.

The cost savings would be miniscule for a cancelled voyage.  

The Crew has to be fed and  paid, regardless.

The food cannot be saved, it would just have to be tossed.

Fuel would be saved, but docking costs would increase.  

Not a happy picture-

[roger b]

2 hours ago, StanandJim said:

The cost savings would be miniscule for a cancelled voyage.  

The Crew has to be fed and  paid, regardless.

The food cannot be saved, it would just have to be tossed.

Fuel would be saved, but docking costs would increase.  

Not a happy picture-

The way things are going here in Europe ,things are soon going to be out of control All schools in Italy closed , The U.K government have asked all people arriving from Rome to self isolate ) and I see little hope of things improving in the next 3 months.

 I don't think that many ships will be sailing the Med lets hope I am wrong

[LAexNY]

5 hours ago, susiesan said:

I am wondering, with so many people canceling their cruises scheduled for the next few months over virus panic, how may passenger cancellations would it take for Oceania to decide it is not economically feasible to run a particular cruise sailing? Has Oceania ever done this before, cancelled a sailing for lack of interest? Have their ships sailed with less than half the cabins occupied? I am thinking about cruises that are overseas, like mine in the Baltic. If airlines were to stop flying from the US to particular countries or even to Europe as a whole, but the cruise wasn't cancelled, then Americans would have to cancel the cruise since they couldn't get there. How many empty cabins would Oceania sail with? Airlines sometimes cancel particular flights if they don't have enough tickets sold to justify the expense of flying the plane. They use the excuse of mechanical problem and book passengers on another flight.

 

If people cancel after final payment, they will lose their money.  Oceania would then profit by keeping the money and not providing room and board to those people.

[Noxequifans]

Interesting but there is no standard answer. Way too many factors to be considered such as, is the next cruise to be cancelled also, etc. We are in as they say "uncharted waters". 

[bbwex]

While cruise lines try to fill every cabin, nobody likely knows what the minimum number of passengers is for them to start considering a cancellation of the entire cruise.  I agree with Noxequifans that we are in unusual times, and the cruise industry is going to have to adapt at least for the short term. Viking just advertised some Alaska sailings where you can postpone your cruise up to a year as late as 24 hours before departure. NCL, O's parent, has reduced the number of days before sailing for final payment. Other lines, O included, will start to adapt.  Our making guesses doesn't really add much, but wait and see.  Things are developing rapidly.

[Paulchili]

26 minutes ago, bbwex said:

Viking just advertised some Alaska sailings where you can postpone your cruise up to a year as late as 24 hours before departure.

I believe Viking made this a policy for all currently booked cruises (Ocean and River) as well as cruises booked by 4/30.

Now, that is a generous offer.

[susiesan]

I hope my cruise sails as scheduled, I am not planning on canceling. My concern now is that I can't get to Europe due to airline cancellations. European guests would be able to sail as they could drive or take a train to Copenhagen. If there are no flights to Europe then I would have to cancel, through no fault of my own. I would hope O would at least give me a FCC to take another cruise, like Viking is doing. I booked my own air with award miles and I can get the points redeposited in my account for a fee and my hotels on both ends are refundable, I haven't paid for them yet.

 

The opposite dilemma could happen for Europeans and other internationals booked on O cruises in the US, Alaska and Caribbean. They may not be able to get flights here for their cruise. Would they lose all their money if they had to cancel because they can't get to the embarkation city?

[Paulchili]

1 hour ago, susiesan said:

I hope my cruise sails as scheduled, I am not planning on canceling. My concern now is that I can't get to Europe due to airline cancellations. European guests would be able to sail as they could drive or take a train to Copenhagen. If there are no flights to Europe then I would have to cancel, through no fault of my own. I would hope O would at least give me a FCC to take another cruise, like Viking is doing. I booked my own air with award miles and I can get the points redeposited in my account for a fee and my hotels on both ends are refundable, I haven't paid for them yet.

 

The opposite dilemma could happen for Europeans and other internationals booked on O cruises in the US, Alaska and Caribbean. They may not be able to get flights here for their cruise. Would they lose all their money if they had to cancel because they can't get to the embarkation city?

I think that you are considering an extreme scenario in which things would be much worse than just not being able to fly or cruise.

While airlines are cutting back due to lack of interest, there is no indication that they would stop flying to Europe in general -  Scandinavia in particular.

[susiesan]

4 minutes ago, Paulchili said:

I think that you are considering an extreme scenario in which things would be much worse than just not being able to fly or cruise.

While airlines are cutting back due to lack of interest, there is no indication that they would stop flying to Europe in general -  Scandinavia in particular.

Yes, it would be an extreme scenario. But it has already happened for flights to China, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Japan. You can get to the countries but there are so few flights now it is almost impossible. Of course, all the cruises in that part of the world were cancelled before the flights were. Europe is trickier as there are so many countries involved. Another part of the world that could soon become a problem is French Polynesia. Now, the FP government is requiring a certificate of good health issued 5 days before you arrive into PPT. They could decide to ban all flights there on a moments notice if a case of the virus shows up, brought in by a tourist. O does have some cruises there in March and April and that is a place there is no other way to get to without flying.

[SellaVee]

Back in 2015 the first Oceania Round The World Cruise suffered a delayed start following an engine room fire on Insignia.  Instead of starting in Miami in January it began in Singapore in March.  Lots of people cancelled and the ship sailed from Singapore with about 350 passengers.  I was on the first segment and I think on subsequent segments the numbers improved.  Needless to say the service was fantastic.