August Sailings

[Stryker50]

Just wondering does anyone know if August sailings will be at full capacity?

[Joe817]

42 minutes ago, Stryker50 said:

Just wondering does anyone know if August sailings will be at full capacity?

I think the general consensus if a definite no. What that capacity is, is anybody's guess. Some say 55%-60%. Some say about 75%. What ever it is, Carnival isn't saying. 

[cmukid87]

54 minutes ago, Stryker50 said:

Just wondering does anyone know if August sailings will be at full capacity?

I can't say.  I do know that all the similar cabins in my category have sold out and all of them were available to book.  It's not a lot of cabins but all of them being made available leads me to believe the capacity will be closer to 100 than 50.  The wild card is are that many people booking to cruise so soon?  Just because capacity is 80% doesn't mean they will fill all of those rooms.  

[Stryker50]

I don't hold much faith in that all cabins sold out. We've seen it on princess almost all cabins sold out on every deck then miraculously 2 weeks before all kinds of unsold cabins show up. Full or half full lookin forward to august 21st sailing.

[JFasbender]

According to John Heald this morning sailings in July and August will not be at capacity.  He did not say what level they will be at other than saying they will not be 100%.

[HaveWeMetYet]

I think the biggest capacity restrictions are because of limited staffing not CDC rules. It is something that is changing by the day so no telling what will happen by the time your cruise departs.

"No telling what will happen" probably describes cruising for the next few months.

 

There is likely to be a lot of action out of the CDC either late this week or early next. Removing all covid mandates including masks on airplanes and ships along with the CSO allowed to expire are likely.

[Jasonsterling]

I don't know but a lot of people received incredible "last minute" offers recently via email. Things like $125.00 dollars total for a 5 days cruise going solo and that's a VIFP offer not Casino. $25.00 a day single occupancy. I jumped on it and I figure it's due to Carnival deciding to throw open a bunch of rooms that had previously been marked closed for capacity control. As the CDC recommendations ease and as Carnival has decided to go 95% vaccinated route I think they've decided to get as many people on as possible since on board purchases drive profit more than selling the room. I'm planning on the ship being full or close to it which is fine with me. I'm vaccinated and I like a crowd, I like a party atmosphere. So, who can say except I do think a lot of rooms were heavily discounted to fill them up quickly. 

[bogeydi]

6 hours ago, Jasonsterling said:

I don't know but a lot of people received incredible "last minute" offers recently via email. Things like $125.00 dollars total for a 5 days cruise going solo and that's a VIFP offer not Casino. $25.00 a day single occupancy. I jumped on it and I figure it's due to Carnival deciding to throw open a bunch of rooms that had previously been marked closed for capacity control. As the CDC recommendations ease and as Carnival has decided to go 95% vaccinated route I think they've decided to get as many people on as possible since on board purchases drive profit more than selling the room. I'm planning on the ship being full or close to it which is fine with me. I'm vaccinated and I like a crowd, I like a party atmosphere. So, who can say except I do think a lot of rooms were heavily discounted to fill them up quickly. 

We just booked a 7-day Caribbean out of Galveston for July 31 with a VIFP rate of $250 ea.  Too good to pass up.  

[tap_out]

Add us to the list of people who got a crazy deal and pulled the trigger. We will be on the 8/1 sailing for horizon.  We booked a Havana cabana.  With the offer we were given we saved 2k! I'm not sure if carnival is placing restrictions on capacity or more so having trouble filling ships given the restrictions for children and vaccinations. Talking to my pvp seems like most cruises for the next two months are sitting around 60% capacity.  

Edited June 29, 2021 by tap_out

[Wanna_Cruize]

I spoke to my VIFP this morning, while adding my brother to our August cruise, since he got that screaming last minute deal too. He said that from a meeting they had this morning, he'd estimate it at starting off at 60% capacity, and escalating from there. Not sure how quickly it will escalate however. 

 

As far as these last minute deal, I think it's because of last minute cancellations of families, because of the closure of Kids Club at the beginning. I think they are just trying to get back to that 60% or so capacity. You can apparently only book 1 cabin with that deal. 

[jimbo5544]

8 hours ago, tap_out said:

Add us to the list of people who got a crazy deal and pulled the trigger. We will be on the 8/1 sailing for horizon.  We booked a Havana cabana.  With the offer we were given we saved 2k! I'm not sure if carnival is placing restrictions on capacity or more so having trouble filling ships given the restrictions for children and vaccinations. Talking to my pvp seems like most cruises for the next two months are sitting around 60% capacity.  

On the same sailing, it was quite a deal

[TNcruising02]

8 hours ago, Wanna_Cruize said:

I spoke to my VIFP this morning, while adding my brother to our August cruise, since he got that screaming last minute deal too. He said that from a meeting they had this morning, he'd estimate it at starting off at 60% capacity, and escalating from there. Not sure how quickly it will escalate however. 

 

As far as these last minute deal, I think it's because of last minute cancellations of families, because of the closure of Kids Club at the beginning. I think they are just trying to get back to that 60% or so capacity. You can apparently only book 1 cabin with that deal. 

You're probably right.  Now that the kid's clubs are closed for children, I'll bet even more people waiting for exemptions went ahead and cancelled.

[firefly333]

Seeing others who got crazy good deals when I'm not seeing them does make me want to book elsewhere. Getting a good price shouldn't be a lottery. It should be offered to everyone equally, not pic, and choose. I guess a good way not to offer those booked price drops. Questionable booking practice.

[Roger88]

21 hours ago, Stryker50 said:

I don't hold much faith in that all cabins sold out. We've seen it on princess almost all cabins sold out on every deck then miraculously 2 weeks before all kinds of unsold cabins show up. Full or half full lookin forward to august 21st sailing.

I also doubt it. They just limit the number of people on board. They present it like a high demand thing but if you look at it you will notice that vacant cabins became expensive while other cabins are simply not for sale.. its very frustrating 

[Prismism]

Why would carnival purposefully reduce capacity without having been instructed to do so directly by the CDC? I don't see why they would. What would be their motivation?? I hope the ship is packed like usual. I love meeting all the FUN carnival types.

My wife and I have been to two concerts last month here in Texas.. the Tiesto concert in Fort Worth had over 10,000 people all packed in the venue. Not a mask in site, and zero social distancing. Why would the cruise care about such things, especially if everyone is vaccinated?

[cmukid87]

30 minutes ago, Prismism said:

Why would carnival purposefully reduce capacity without having been instructed to do so directly by the CDC? I don't see why they would. What would be their motivation?? I hope the ship is packed like usual. I love meeting all the FUN carnival types.

My wife and I have been to two concerts last month here in Texas.. the Tiesto concert in Fort Worth had over 10,000 people all packed in the venue. Not a mask in site, and zero social distancing. Why would the cruise care about such things, especially if everyone is vaccinated?

Keep in mind while there may not be restrictions on capacity those onboard employees have not worked in this environment in almost a year and a half or potentially ever.  It's the walk before you run mentality.  They need to make sure they can operate efficiently with new rules, etc. without affecting the customer satisfaction before they open up the floodgates.  That is my opinion at least.

[Jasonsterling]

1 hour ago, firefly333 said:

Seeing others who got crazy good deals when I'm not seeing them does make me want to book elsewhere. Getting a good price shouldn't be a lottery. It should be offered to everyone equally, not pic, and choose. I guess a good way not to offer those booked price drops. Questionable booking practice.

I don't blame you on this- A sale should be a sale. If it's limited to VIFP as a perk, fine- okay but picking and choosing among the program itself is a bad idea and I got the deal so it's not any sort of sour grapes on my part. I just think it's a bad idea to exclude part of your client base in favor of another. But I don't think it has to do with existing booked passage or not booked passage on future cruises. I was already booked for three cruises through the next year beginning on NYE so it wasn't to try and get me to "come back". I was back- maybe it had to do with proximity to the port- people closer might be more willing to jump on the offer? Or something else- who knows but I was already booked so I didn't need luring back.

[ScottsSweetie]

1 hour ago, cmukid87 said:

Keep in mind while there may not be restrictions on capacity those onboard employees have not worked in this environment in almost a year and a half or potentially ever.  It's the walk before you run mentality.  They need to make sure they can operate efficiently with new rules, etc. without affecting the customer satisfaction before they open up the floodgates.  That is my opinion at least.

This is what I am thinking also. I'm on the #3 cruise on the Panorama, and I'm adopting the mindset that everything and everyone is new and there will be lots of bugs and glitches in new processes and procedures. Will be much easier for them to manage with even slightly reduced capacity.

[KurtJ]

5 hours ago, Jasonsterling said:

I don't blame you on this- A sale should be a sale. If it's limited to VIFP as a perk, fine- okay but picking and choosing among the program itself is a bad idea and I got the deal so it's not any sort of sour grapes on my part. I just think it's a bad idea to exclude part of your client base in favor of another. But I don't think it has to do with existing booked passage or not booked passage on future cruises. I was already booked for three cruises through the next year beginning on NYE so it wasn't to try and get me to "come back". I was back- maybe it had to do with proximity to the port- people closer might be more willing to jump on the offer? Or something else- who knows but I was already booked so I didn't need luring back.

I have never received one of these crazy offers and I live less than an hour from a port. I think it truly is a lottery.