Is cruising as a family getting harder?

With January in full swing and many many people looking to get their holidays in place for the forthcoming year or 2, I have come across a rather big issue, especially directed at those travelling with children.

P&O like to limit the amount of children in each age group on any given sailing to ensure kids club spaces are available to all those travelling. A great idea in principle, but what if you find your perfect cruise, and they have closed of booking for children in your age groups. On at least 5 occations I have had this issue in the last 4 weeks!!

I have grabbed the above image from our agent booking system for the Azura sailing on the 11th August 2018 as an example.

Now with more and more families cruising for their holiday this is surely costing P&O a great deal of bookings and forcing families to take their business elsewhere. I’m no business expert, but I’m pretty certain it’s not too clever?

Another line under the Carnival umbrella, Princess, also have the same rules in place, however we do not have such problems with them, but rather a slightly different issue. Whilst looking at the Sapphire Princess sailing on the 26th May 2018 (half term) whilst there are plenty of cabins that can sleep 3 or 4 people, Princess have closed off bookings for cabins with upper births in use.

With the cruise industry becoming an early booking market, I can see this problem getting worse and worse and families that wish to sail with P&O and Princess will need to book over a year in advance to ensure that these cruise lines will have space for their children.

Has this issue affected your plans?