That is a good question and I’m not going to be able to answer it with this article because there are so many variable factors involved. What I will do is present the reasons and potential pitfalls to you and then you can come to your own conclusion.

In the ‘good old days’, airlines used to have a whole department dedicated to yield management. The main aim of this group was to identify when an aircraft reached a level of budgeted profit. After that, all the seats sold would be pure profit. At that point those seats were released to their consolidators (bucket shops as they were known in the airline industry). That made perfect sense as the flight costs would be the same regardless of the number of passengers carried.

When and why does a cruise line pass it’s ‘late booking’ discounts on to their consolidators?

There are really three reasons – the first is the same as the airlines. Next is the cruise not selling to expectation and finally there is a block of cabins left unsold on a cruise departing within 4 to 6 weeks.

The lines with the older vessels usually need a higher occupancy percentage because their operating costs are more – more engine room crew, more fuel consumed and often less cabins per vessel.

The newer, larger cruise ship are more fuel efficient and obviously have more cabins, so why, if they could sail at 50% - 65% capacity and still be profitable, do they discount the remaining cabins through consolidators?

Again, there are again several reasons for this.

One – After the budgeted profit level is reached, as with the airlines, all further bookings are profit.

Two – Increase the possibility of on-board spend. More passengers = more spend (Drinks, shop purchases, shore tours etc.)

Three – As it is difficult and not conducive to good staff relations, they do not usually land excess staff when a cruise looks like departing ‘light’. So the vessel will carry a full crew but, in some cases their workload will be less. As you have a full crew, why not try and sail at full passenger capacity?

Four – This may be a little cynical but on a lot of cruise ships the crew’s wages comprise of a standard salary and a share of the tips from passengers. If a ship is sailing at 50% capacity then the amount of money available from gratuities is reduced accordingly and so therefore, so are the crew’s salaries.

This gratuity scenario is covered by cruise lines in different ways. Some include the amount in the price of the cruise, some suggest a daily amount but leave it to the discretion of the individual passenger while others automatically add a gratuity amount to every passengers cabin bill. Some lines go another step further and add a 15% service charge on all bar services and drinks in the restaurants.

Please be aware that some cruise lines do not allow you to bring alcohol on-board if you were thinking about getting round the cost of drinks on the ship. They will politely relieve you of your bottle(s) and re-unite you at the end of your cruise.

Yet again there is more to investigate. Some cruise companies upgrade passengers who have paid full price for their cruise and ‘back-fill’ those cabins with consolidated passengers. Other lines with many thousands of berths in their inventory do not have the staff to do this so you can find yourself in an outside balcony cabin having paid a lot less than those passengers on either side of you.

Regardless of the above, please believe me when I say there are very few holidays that can beat what a cruise has to offer, whether on sea or river.
When you check into a hotel, do you wake up most mornings, pull back the curtains and there before you is a different view and sometimes, even a different country? Is high quality entertainment part of the package? On a cruise, yes it is. This includes cabaret as well as interesting lectures, cinema presentations and of course the well stocked shops (yes you do have to pay for items purchased).

Do you get fed 6 times a day and not have to pay for the food in a hotel? On a cruise ship, including breakfast, mid morning snacks, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and the midnight buffet you get more than enough opportunities to eat a fine selection of good quality food. Some vessels actually have ‘all day dining’ and others offer 24 hour dining.

There are now, on a lot of ships, an amazing array of sporting activities available to passengers including a rock climbing wall, tennis, a golf driving range and incredibly, a surf park.

Finally, from a lady’s point of view, you only have to unpack and pack once regardless of how many countries you visit.

Now you know what questions to ask, details to consider and reasons explained, go to your local travel agent, direct to the cruise line or an on-line travel company and book your next river or sea cruise knowing that there will be less nasty surprises waiting for you because of this article.