Passenger counts this week?

[MomOTwins]

That's not exactly true. DCL has more "beds" than max capacity to allow for flexibility of booking families. Max capacity is determined by lifeboat/life-raft spots as assigned by stateroom. That's why sometimes you can't add another guest to your stateroom even though there are enough beds but the lifeboat is full. Or there might be a room with 5 guests and the room next door goes unused even though the cruise is sold-out because the lifeboat assigned to that section is full with 3+ guests in multiple rooms.

You are correct that pre-covid every cruise was not necessarily maxed out by passenger count. If every stateroom only has 2 passengers, the cruise is "full" but not by number of bodies only by number of rooms booked; this was common on the longer TA or PC cruises that would sell-out but not at max passenger capacity. Then there are also capacities for each of the kids' spaces, and occasionally one may find they can't book a specific cruise because the max number of children in an age group are already booked.

That's a good point. But still, I do think it is weird to anchor to 4000 max guests per sailing pre-Covid, given it was rare for sailings to sell out completely, and rooms often have only 2 or 3 guests. Let's say for the sake of argument you have a ship sailing at 90% of rooms booked, so 1125 rooms occupied. Then assume an average of 3 people per room (e.g., one third of rooms with 2 guests, one third with 3 guests and one third with 4 guests). That only adds up to 3375 guests on our hypothetical very close to sold out ship. So if the Fantasy is currently sailing 2500 people, that would feel more like 75% of a full ship, even though it is only around 60% of the theoretical maximum. And for those who sailed on ships that were not quite full pre-Covid--let's say 80% of rooms sold--with an average of 3 per room, the "feels like" percentage would be more like 83%.

I guess I am just saying, I think people hear something like 50% of capacity and they expect a ship to feel like it has half the guests as sailings before covid. But that's only true if their pre-covid experience was on a truly maxxed out ship that was completely sold out to additional guests, which was rarely the case.

 

[DVC Doc]

Bumping…. Curious about numbers as we get into spring break season

Just got off the Dream today and we had over 2600.

 

[Disneygirlxo91]

Just got off the Dream today and we had over 2600.

I was on the dream last weekend and it felt busy but I never got a number.

 

[Scalemaster34]

That's not exactly true. DCL has more "beds" than max capacity to allow for flexibility of booking families. Max capacity is determined by lifeboat/life-raft spots as assigned by stateroom. That's why sometimes you can't add another guest to your stateroom even though there are enough beds but the lifeboat is full. Or there might be a room with 5 guests and the room next door goes unused even though the cruise is sold-out because the lifeboat assigned to that section is full with 3+ guests in multiple rooms.

You are correct that pre-covid every cruise was not necessarily maxed out by passenger count. If every stateroom only has 2 passengers, the cruise is "full" but not by number of bodies only by number of rooms booked; this was common on the longer TA or PC cruises that would sell-out but not at max passenger capacity. Then there are also capacities for each of the kids' spaces, and occasionally one may find they can't book a specific cruise because the max number of children in an age group are already booked.

I'm just thinking more about how not crowded the beach was on Castaway during out Feb cruise.....

 

[n2mm]

I was on the dream last weekend and it felt busy but I never got a number.

keep in mind there have been some really good discounts lately too, so people are booking, esp since the Dream will be leaving PC in June. Might be awhile before we see any discounts on the Wish. I was on the Fantasy Feb. 26th and it felt crowded to us too. Esp. Sea days.

 

[kps7795]

On the Fantasy now and was informed that the passenger count is 2,500. Not bad at all for Spring Break week!

 

[Bibbidi_Boo]

On the Fantasy now and was informed that the passenger count is 2,500. Not bad at all for Spring Break week!

Probably on the low side for Spring break week, that cruise is usually packed solid with kids.

 

[Dug720]

On the Fantasy now and was informed that the passenger count is 2,500. Not bad at all for Spring Break week!

Not everyone has Spring Break this week. NYC's is Good Friday through the week after Easter.

When Easter is later, "Spring Break" is truly more rolling than usual.

 

[Bibbidi_Boo]

Not everyone has Spring Break this week. NYC's is Good Friday through the week after Easter.

When Easter is later, "Spring Break" is truly more rolling than usual.

Like almost all of Florida is off this week, and other parts of the country as well, this is a very typical spring break week for many, not all. This year is extra crazy with how much of Florida is the same week. Being in NE FL normally all the counties don't have same spring break week but close but this year most are off.

 

[DCLMP]

Not everyone has Spring Break this week. NYC's is Good Friday through the week after Easter.

When Easter is later, "Spring Break" is truly more rolling than usual.

I cruised on the Dream the first week of May in 2018 and there were 1300 kids on board. We always cruise off-season out of Florida and it's kid soup every cruise. I'm always kind of shocked by how many kids are homeschooled or just pulled out of school for a week. It's the same thing at WDW. Kids everywhere every week of the year. There's definitely no slow season at the theme parks anymore. They're probably exceptionally packed now because they don't make you jump through covid hoops to take a vacation.

 

[mjr0483]

We just got off the Disney Magic on 3/10 and were told by several people, including the cruise director that there 1,400 sailing with us.

 

[Bibbidi_Boo]

I cruised on the Dream the first week of May in 2018 and there were 1300 kids on board. We always cruise off-season out of Florida and it's kid soup every cruise. I'm always kind of shocked by how many kids are homeschooled or just pulled out of school for a week. It's the same thing at WDW. Kids everywhere every week of the year. There's definitely no slow season at the theme parks anymore. They're probably exceptionally packed now because they don't make you jump through covid hoops to take a vacation.

Summers and school breaks have even more 5 and up age kids then when school is in sessions, same with the parks. Off season on the cruises have more under 5 and less school age. We have done both and there is a noticeable difference.

 

[holula]

Summers and school breaks have even more 5 and up age kids then when school is in sessions, same with the parks. Off season on the cruises have more under 5 and less school age. We have done both and there is a noticeable difference.

agree, I did a spring break cruise once (by accident as there was a glitch price for the Fantasy!) and never again. It was just full of teenagers everywhere. Give me the under 5 crowd any day.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

We are on the Wonder WBPC cruise now, docked at PV. We were told there’s just over 1100 onboard. Dh calls it the geriatric cruise. There are maybe 100 children at most. The average adult age is probably 55-60.
Our children are grown so we have no idea how the kids’ clubs have been. I’m guessing not very full. They do offer an open house for adults in the clubs after 10 pm which is really darn creepy if you ask me.

Otherwise we’ve had day after day of gorgeous sun and warmth, with one day of very rough seas.
I’m already getting sad that it will end in 3 days then back to reality.

 

[randumb0]

What's the latest?

 

[FigmentSpark]

On the Fantasy now and was informed that the passenger count is 2,500. Not bad at all for Spring Break week!

I was told 2300 + 1300 crew on the Fantasy this past week (Mar 12 sailing) and that they are ramping up to full ship by June. They're hopeful, at least.

 

[blackhawk118]

Just got off the Magic today and we were at 1558 as stated by the cruise director. One of the Palo servers mentioned they were targeting 60%, of course no idea to know how accurate that is.

 

[randumb0]

I was told 2300 + 1300 crew on the Fantasy this past week (Mar 12 sailing) and that they are ramping up to full ship by June. They're hopeful, at least.

It will be interesting what they do if we see another covid spike in a month

 

[Cheburashka]

I just sailed on the Fantasy this past week, and it felt like a pre-Covid cruise.

 

[Cheburashka]

Summers and school breaks have even more 5 and up age kids then when school is in sessions, same with the parks. Off season on the cruises have more under 5 and less school age. We have done both and there is a noticeable difference.

Yes, I just disembarked from a spring break cruise, and there was a noticeable amount of horseplay (kids running up and down hallways, lying on the floor, messing with others' door magnets, playing in elevators, generally being loud, etc.) Not overwhelming or a reason not to cruise at that time, but definitely more than you'd see typically. It's unsupervised upper-elementary and middle school kids (average age 8 - 12) who cause the biggest issue with this, not young kids or teens.