Tot. passenger capacity

[JuniorCruiser]

How many persons of the total passenger capacity is normally onboard when you're on a cruise?
Yes, this is a weird question, and very hard to formulate. Let's use Freedom Of The Seas as an example. The tot. capacity is 3634 beds/persons. How many of these is really on the cruise ship?

What's normally? Do you often have a feeling of that the ship has so many passengers onboard as possible, or is it really contrary?

[Dave]

Actually, the number you quote is for double occupancy of each cabin. Freedom can handle 4370 passengers if all the 3rd and 4th berths are filled.

Cruise ships often sail at or near capacity. Why build a ship that can hold 4370 people and not try to fill it? Whether a cruise sails at capacity depends on many factors - not the least of which is the time of year and the popularity of the itinerary. It is quite common for Caribbean cruises in the summer to be maxed out. The same cruise probably won't be full in the fall or early December.

We typically take cruises in the summer and they are usually full ships. On the maiden Freedom voyage we took in June, RCCL made a decision to not sell the ship out. They wanted to get a handle on how the ship would be with all of those people so we sailed at a maximum capacity for the Voyager class - which meant we were several hundred passengers short of a full load. RCCL then added more passengers as each week went by. I imagine Freedom is often leaving Miami with over 4000 passengers now.

The is no "normal". If a ship is properly designed it will handle a capacity load of passengers without making things feel crowded.

[JuniorCruiser]

Thank you for great reply, Dave56. You're doing a good job in this forum.

The is no "normal". If a ship is properly designed it will handle a capacity load of passengers without making things feel crowded.

No, just wondered what you felt typical

[Kathryn Smith]

Dave56 did an outstanding reply. Since I travel in the off-season, I can tell you the cruise ships are booked heavily in off season too.

My favorite time to cruise is the first two weeks in December or the first two weeks in January -- the cruise lines off-season for Winter rates. Hurricane season is over.

[sun_seeker]

When hurricane season is over is always a good idea.

[sether]

is there a way to tell how many people have booked the same ship/same time as you have? i just think it would be interesting to know beforehand how many people will be on the ship with you.

[Dave]

Cruise lines usually don't announce how many bookings they have for X cruise. Probably the best way to see if your cruise is full is to simply go on-line to one of the travel sites(Travelocity for instance), or the cruise line website if they offer on-line bookings, and go through the motions of booking your cruise. You'll be able to see how many cabins are available.

[sether]

that's pretty smart. didn't think about that.