Did you send a letter to DCL regarding the new carry-on beverage policy?

[jenny105]

I'm assuming I can just carry them through in my pockets without alerting anyone?

You can try but it's safer to put them in your checked luggage.

 

[squirrel]

This is a common misconception. Ships never sail with empty cabins. Every ship from every major cruise line sails at over 95% occupancy. And most often, they are at absolute 100% occupancy. http://www.f-cca.com/downloads/2013-cruise-industry-overview.pdf (See Page 6, bullet point #10). Now, they may have to "flash sale" some cabins, or dole them out to the highest producing agents to re-sell to their best customers for a song. Or blast email their most loyal guests within driving distance of the departure port. But they do not leave port with empty beds. Given DCL's pricing structure, they have a lot of leeway (pardon the nautical pun) to play around with pricing to make sure that every cabin is full. If they can't fill the cabin at $1,600 per person, they will lower the price until they do. You may never see these lower prices as they may not be offered to the general public. But no cruise line is going to turn down the on board expenditures generated by a cabin, even if they have to get people on the ship for $1 per person.

Well I can tell you that some sailings don't sail full. We upgraded our room after we set sail on a repo cruise and had the choice of quite a few in the category we chose to upgrade to. So I know that at least on that sailing there were at least 3 - 6A staterooms available. The ship was quite empty as I did the same repo the following year and it was very full compared to the previous year.

 

[JimmyV]

Well I can tell you that some sailings don't sail full. We upgraded our room after we set sail on a repo cruise and had the choice of quite a few in the category we chose to upgrade to. So I know that at least on that sailing there were at least 3 - 6A staterooms available. The ship was quite empty as I did the same repo the following year and it was very full compared to the previous year.

Repo sailings are definitely different.

 

[jahber]

Repo sailings are definitely different.

Plus, we always sail in the off-season when the ship can be downright empty-feeling at times. On the Wonder in Alaska in Sept there were just over 300 kids on the ship. Talk about deserted-feeling. BUT, the rooms were almost entirely booked--with adults, who tend to travel two to a room. So, the rooms were nearly all booked, but by no means full. This has been our experience on every cruise because we sail right when school starts for traditional schoolers (we home school). You can't judge how many rooms are booked by how "full" the ship feels. There may have been a dozen rooms they didn't/couldn't/weren't willing to discount any more, but that's rare, based on their sailing occupancy stats.

 

[JimmyV]

Plus, we always sail in the off-season when the ship can be downright empty-feeling at times. On the Wonder in Alaska in Sept there were just over 300 kids on the ship. Talk about deserted-feeling. BUT, the rooms were almost entirely booked--with adults, who tend to travel two to a room. So, the rooms were nearly all booked, but by no means full.

That's a great point. Ships have two occupancy numbers...cabins and berths. All cabins can be filled but still have 30% or more berths empty. And this would be especially true for a cruise line that is set up to cater to families. It is less likely to happen on a Seabourn cruise line ship. So if you are on a ship that feels and looks "empty", don't assume that it isn't "sold out". It may seem hard to believe, but ships rarely leave port with an empty cabin. Again, page 6, bullet point 10.