Originally Posted by
BamaVol
A question for those who have taken TATL repositioning cruises on non-luxury, non-premium lines. How occupied were the ships? Our last 2 cruises were sold out and I would like just once to cruise without all the other passengers. It would also help me determine the risk of booking a guarantee.
The mass market lines would lower their prices if they still have cabins available - the goal for them is to sail in FULL occupancy at all possible.
If you are not willing to pay higher prices to cruise higher priced lines, (for example, some Celebrity ships could still be not full due to the prices), then your quest will be in vain. Seriously.
As for booking guarantee cabins, other than obstructed oceanview (not found on newer ships any more), that one needs to pick the "right cabin", we always book guarantee, and have not had a single issue thus far - after over 14 or 15 TATL cruises since 2008, among Princess and HAL, as well as Celebrity. No idea on the lower level lines such as NCL / MSC / Costa - those I do believe you need to book the high end cabins in order to have a peaceful cruise, on NCL and MSC - the high end cabins have completely day and night experiences versus the "mass" who book the lower priced cabins. Costa you can forget about it unless you are willing to put up with lots of loud Italians / other Europeans who dont have the concept of queuing.
Originally Posted by
guv1976
I can't answer your question, but it seems to me that if you price the cruise low enough, any ship is likely to come close to being full.
Exactly.