Orlando Sentinel: Port Canaveral Planning For No Cruises in 2020

[Husker Mike]

Port Canaveral officials have put together a budget plan that includes no cruises until January, and after that, only limited cruises.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/ne...1-with-50-25-cruise-ship-capacity/ar-BB18p01X

Part of that projects no cruises from the port until at least January, and at that point, only four ships sailing at 50% capacity - one ship each from Disney Cruise Line, Carnival Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean Cruises and MSC Cruises. Norwegian Cruise Line has said they won’t return until March.

Also this:

Murray projects Port Canaveral will get up and running, but with the majority of passengers driving in and sailing on short itineraries at reduced ship capacities. While Grandiosa sailed at 70% capacity, Murray’s projections stuck with 50%, although if the CDC required less than 50%, Murray posited it wouldn’t be financially feasible for lines to sail at all due to fuel costs.

Port officials do say that while it's possible that some cruise lines will resume operations (MSC says they plan to resume in November), they aren't counting on it.

 

[T & R]

They had to lay off half their staff. Just shows how the cruise ban is effecting a lot of other folks who do not even work onboard cruise ships. As far as the 50% capacity thing they mentioned, have we seen any evidence that DCL is even attempting this or is this just their opinion? The reason I ask is when looking at Jan+ sailings, it looks like they are full ahead on sales and doesn't look like capacity is trying to be reduced to me. I also haven't seen any offers or perks to get people to switch sailings so that they can reduce capacity on the existing reservations.

 

[Ila Sikorski]

They had to lay off half their staff. Just shows how the cruise ban is effecting a lot of other folks who do not even work onboard cruise ships. As far as the 50% capacity thing they mentioned, have we seen any evidence that DCL is even attempting this or is this just their opinion? The reason I ask is when looking at Jan+ sailings, it looks like they are full ahead on sales and doesn't look like capacity is trying to be reduced to me. I also haven't seen any offers or perks to get people to switch sailings so that they can reduce capacity on the existing reservations.

I agree with you. DCL is actually offering incentive to book in January with 25% off bookings. I don't see cruises sailing for the remainder of 2020 but I am feeling confident 2021 we will see the return of sea vacationing. At least, I'm hopeful as we have 2 sailings currently booked, haha.

 

[ChiTownZee]

FWIW They were offering Florida resident discounts for some shorter cruises in the beginning of the month but now the earliest one is Jan 22. They are still offering discounts an 4 7 night cruises in Feb and March....and just this week stopped offering FL discounts on sailings out of Miami for the beginning of the year.

 

[ScooterScott44]

DCL accepting reservations is no indication of plan to resume. It is just a way to get capital. Your down payment is just a “loan” to them. $1000 isn’t bad to part with as your down payment but to DCL it can be a significant investment.

Rounding things off for easy math. There are 875 something rooms on the Classics and 1,250 on the Dream class. So if all the rooms are filled with a $1000 deposit, they are sitting on roughly a million in cash. They invest that million and the interest accrued on that million before they issue refunds helps offset costs. Sure this is all small amounts for an individual cruise, but if you multiply by four ships and every sailing those deposits can add up.