Are cruises half full because of capacity control or lack of booking?

[Longwood50]

I was recently on two 14 day cruises. Both were half capacity.  I see some cruises indicating they are sold out yet I see continual comments with passengers noting their ships were about 50% full.  Are the cruise lines limiting the passenger count on ships to less than full capacity.  It just seems strange that you would have some cruises be 100% filled and sold out while the majority of cruisers are saying on board they have a half filled ship. 

[Honolulu Blue]

2 hours ago, Longwood50 said:

Are the cruise lines limiting the passenger count on ships to less than full capacity.  

I don't think any cruise line has limited passenger count since April.  

[cruiserdru]

It may be caused by staff availability on a particular ship(s) so they closed bookings early to not overwhelm the staff and only provide less than stellar service to the ones who were on the ship 

 

It's also possible that there was a high rate of covid test failures just before sailing, both in vaccinated passengers and ones who had not received their results and did antigen tests at the pier.

 

Princess was also limiting the number of unvaccinated passengers allowed on each ship as a percentage of how many vaccinated passengers were booked.

[Alcairns]

I believe there is an element of capacity control. Our cruise on Sky has been listed as currently unavailable for the last month. ( as have other Sky voyages). Immediately   prior to the cruise becoming unavailable there was plenty of rooms available. Princess has taken a lot of stick lately due to poor service standards resulting from lack of staff. I believe They are now limiting capacity to proportion to staff available. 

[PacnGoNow]

4 hours ago, Longwood50 said:

I was recently on two 14 day cruises. Both were half capacity.  I see some cruises indicating they are sold out yet I see continual comments with passengers noting their ships were about 50% full.  Are the cruise lines limiting the passenger count on ships to less than full capacity.  It just seems strange that you would have some cruises be 100% filled and sold out while the majority of cruisers are saying on board they have a half filled ship. 

What ship were you just on?

I believe they are doing a capacity control on some of the ships, due to staff shortage. JMO

[Longwood50]

21 minutes ago, PacnGoNow said:

What ship were you just on?

 

I was on the New Statendam on Holland America and the Reflection both in the Greek Islands.  Both were at about 50% capacity or less.  Now I will say this, that if it was due to a crew shortage, that is certainly a possibility.  In the buffet line, I don't know how they could have fit more staff behind the counters but despite that with them having to serve all the portions they were extremely busy.  The main dining rooms were half filled or less.  Despite that service was very slow.  We often could not make the 9:00 Pm shows even though arriving in the dining room at 7;30PM.  On one instance on Celebrity I finally had to go get a manager.  We had waited an hour and still didn't even have water. 

[hpeabody]

I was on Discovery Princess July 31st  Alaska sailing.  No evidence at all of limiting capacity.  Full ship and back to the usual long lines and full elevator issues.  Yes, they did seem short staffed at times, but crew was still great.  It may vary by the popularity of location

[PacnGoNow]

22 minutes ago, Longwood50 said:

I was on the New Statendam on Holland America and the Reflection both in the Greek Islands.  Both were at about 50% capacity or less.  Now I will say this, that if it was due to a crew shortage, that is certainly a possibility.  In the buffet line, I don't know how they could have fit more staff behind the counters but despite that with them having to serve all the portions they were extremely busy.  The main dining rooms were half filled or less.  Despite that service was very slow.  We often could not make the 9:00 Pm shows even though arriving in the dining room at 7;30PM.  On one instance on Celebrity I finally had to go get a manager.  We had waited an hour and still didn't even have water. 

Seems all lines are having staff shortages as well as new crew to train.

 

Do you know you posted on the Princess forum, not HAL?

 

[partybarbie]

I think that Discovery Princess is consistently full due to it being a new ship and doing a popular 7-day itinerary. The other ships, not as much. 

[kywildcatfanone]

They are certainly not doing capacity control at all at  this point, just the wariness of the passengers in booking.

[hpeabody]

I am booked on a Sapphire 15 day Hawaii sailing from LA in November.  It has been unavailable for booking now for weeks.  I can not get any information from Princess.  I have a few thoughts, It could be so popular that it has sold out completely.  It could be they are attempting to limit capacity.  It could be they are planning to cancel Sapphire sailings like they recently did with the Diamond, which I suspect will be the case.  I can't imagine Princess could easily overcome their issues causing the Diamond cancellations.  I just wish Princess would make their decision already!

[PRINCESS Sweet Pea]

Yes, we can see that Princess has cancelled a few sailings, and has also made some savings 'unavailable'.  Before that, I don't think that there was any capacity limits at all.

I notice that the cruses just mentioned involved the Greek Isle, and were also on other cruise lines.  Greece has had the most restrictive Covid requirements.  Also, due to international travel and long flights to Europe, I think that those sailings might have had less demand.  I looked at a Europe cruise, after getting the Promo email from Princess.  This is for next year.  And it is already very heavily booked.  No lack of demand or capacity limitations there.  They are offering promos to fill the ship as much as possible.   Alaska, on the other hand, I am thinking that these cruises have been pretty filled.

[eclue]

I have been on several cruises this year and the only one with limited capacity was way back in Feb. The ones in March, end of June and beginning of August were full.....

[tonit964]

4 hours ago, hpeabody said:

I am booked on a Sapphire 15 day Hawaii sailing from LA in November.  It has been unavailable for booking now for weeks.  I can not get any information from Princess.  I have a few thoughts, It could be so popular that it has sold out completely.  It could be they are attempting to limit capacity.  It could be they are planning to cancel Sapphire sailings like they recently did with the Diamond, which I suspect will be the case.  I can't imagine Princess could easily overcome their issues causing the Diamond cancellations.  I just wish Princess would make their decision already!

I am on the first sailing on Sapphire 9/24 and am now hopeful that they are just capacity controlling these sailings that have been showing 'unavailable' for over a month now rather than canceling them like they did with the Diamond sailings 3 weeks before embarkation for those folks.

 

We'll know one way or the other soon enough.

[MileHighAko]

7 hours ago, partybarbie said:

I think that Discovery Princess is consistently full due to it being a new ship and doing a popular 7-day itinerary. The other ships, not as much. 

 

I think you are correct. Popular itineraries are having no shortage of full bookings. I think we're seeing a lot of new cruisers as well, which lend themselves to shorter duration cruises.  A family member was just recently on Mardi Gras where it was reported they had 6009 passengers onboard. It was also mentioned that over a quarter of them were first time cruisers (at least to Carnival). I don't know for sure what Princess is experiencing, but I would assume the same for those shorter and popular sailings.

[Ptroxx]

9 hours ago, hpeabody said:

I was on Discovery Princess July 31st  Alaska sailing.  No evidence at all of limiting capacity.  Full ship and back to the usual long lines and full elevator issues.  Yes, they did seem short staffed at times, but crew was still great.  It may vary by the popularity of location

I was also on this cruise.  
 

3416 pax. 4200 max 

Kids 600

2500 new to princess 

44 different countries 

1350 crew. 
 

 

was an amazing trip.   
I tried to stay on another week but the ship was totally booked.    
 

never felt like it was short staffed at all.   Granted I never went to a bar for a drink but I did everything else lol.  

[memoak]

On the Royal now. 2,400 passengers last week. 2,100 this week. Some cabins set aside for covid but still many not being used. Also have seen notes of people testing positive after land tours and not able to board as they are stuck in covid isolation   Mask up and enjoy a cruise it beats isolation every day

[partybarbie]

5 hours ago, MileHighAko said:

 

I think you are correct. Popular itineraries are having no shortage of full bookings. I think we're seeing a lot of new cruisers as well, which lend themselves to shorter duration cruises.  A family member was just recently on Mardi Gras where it was reported they had 6009 passengers onboard. It was also mentioned that over a quarter of them were first time cruisers (at least to Carnival). I don't know for sure what Princess is experiencing, but I would assume the same for those shorter and popular sailings.

I spent two weeks on the Royal last month. Out of approximately 2300 passengers, about 1500 were first time cruisers with Princess. I was very surprised at the numbers. 

[suzyed]

18 hours ago, Honolulu Blue said:

I don't think any cruise line has limited passenger count since April.  

We were on the Crown in July and there were about 2100 onboard.  Definitely below capacity.  But service was just fine.
And I believe we should all just enjoy the smaller number of passengers on board and make the best of it!!

Edited August 28, 2022 by suzyed

[suzyed]

16 hours ago, PacnGoNow said:

What ship were you just on?

I believe they are doing a capacity control on some of the ships, due to staff shortage. JMO

 

Edited August 28, 2022 by suzyed
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[caribill]

23 hours ago, Longwood50 said:

Are the cruise lines limiting the passenger count on ships to less than full capacity.

 

I don't think Princess is. As others noted, some itineraries were close to or at full capacity.

 

Also, since Princess (and other brands) has announced reduced Covid restrictions, CCL Corp, which owns Princess, has said that bookings have increased for both this year and next year.

[NavyVeteran]

On 8/27/2022 at 7:45 AM, Alcairns said:

I believe there is an element of capacity control. Our cruise on Sky has been listed as currently unavailable for the last month. ( as have other Sky voyages). Immediately   prior to the cruise becoming unavailable there was plenty of rooms available. Princess has taken a lot of stick lately due to poor service standards resulting from lack of staff. I believe They are now limiting capacity to proportion to staff available. 

How do you know there were plenty of rooms available immediately prior to the cruise becoming unavailable? You can't tell by looking at available cabins online, since you don't know how many guarantees they've sold.

[bobloblaw007]

The data is interesting, but how do you all find out these numbers? do you just ask guest services on board or is it posted somewhere?

[Honolulu Blue]

1 hour ago, bobloblaw007 said:

The data is interesting, but how do you all find out these numbers? do you just ask guest services on board or is it posted somewhere?

Speaking about all cruise lines, not just Princess:

 

• Sometimes the cruise director/entertainment staff release some numbers
• Sometimes the Captain or their representative make a numbers-related announcement
• Some guests go down to Guest Services and ask

[latebloomer56]

21 hours ago, tonit964 said:

I am on the first sailing on Sapphire 9/24 and am now hopeful that they are just capacity controlling these sailings that have been showing 'unavailable' for over a month now rather than canceling them like they did with the Diamond sailings 3 weeks before embarkation for those folks.

 

We'll know one way or the other soon enough.

Hi, if possible after your on board can you post how you make out boarding? Or at some point how the crowd flow appears to you.

Thanks and enjoy your trip the week before ours 😁