Greg Moore wrote: ↑Mon Sep 23, 2019 11:14 am
That said, I've still maintained I think there's a market for a "Disney" train (or set of cars on one of the Silver Service) that starts in NYC and ends at Orlando. Oriented towards family service, you start your Disney experience when you board, with Disney themed rooms, a character dinner and breakfast, etc.
You get off in Orlando, and just like they do with the airlines, they handle all your baggage and drop you and your baggage off directly at your room with no intervention on your part.
Disney owns a cruise line that could do almost the same thing, but they don’t. Norwegian Cruise Line runs at least one cruise ship per week from New York City to Florida and the Bahamas, usually making a port of call for a day at Port Canaveral. Many passengers visit Disney World that day. But one day at Disney World just is not enough time, and Disney World does not have a cruise ship pier reachable from the Atlantic Ocean.
The Norwegian Bliss can carry 4,002 passengers every week on a round trip cruise from New York City. That would be 8,004 passengers the way Amtrak counts them, each way vs round trip. Averaging that subtotal over 7 days per week, that's up to 1,143 passengers per day. During the prime winter months, NCL runs two ships a week from New York City with the same passenger capacity, averaging up to 2,286 passengers per day.
Now compare that to the capacity of both Amtrak Silver Service trains. Averaging around 6 sleepers and 8 coaches per day each way, or 12 sleepers and 16 coaches each day both ways. Each sleeper can carry 30 passengers and each coach can carry 59 passengers.
12 x 30 = 360; 16 x 59 = 944; 360 + 944 = 1,304.
So Amtrak averages at most around 1,304 round trip passengers per day between New York City and Florida, at most because not every passengers is limited to these specific stations.
NCL is not the only cruise line offering weekly New York City to Florida cruises. They include multiple dining options aboard, from ice cream shacks, hamburger grill, cafeteria, continential dining, asian fusion, and steak houses. They include a casino, sport courts, live entertainment at theaters, swimming pools, spas, etc. Therefore I am going to suggest the cruise lines have easily cornered the luxury travel market between New York City and Florida.
Why compete with an inferior land cruise product where superior sea cruise products exist?