Are You Seeing Price Increases for Cruises?

[jhannah]

In the new e-supplement to Ocean & Cruise News, Bill Miller reports that as the demand for cruises increases and as fewer new ships come on line since the downturns of late 2001, pundits say that cruise fares will rise.

What do you think? Are you still getting fares that are in line with what you've paid before? Are you seeing these fares creep up or take a jump? What if fares do rise? Will you just bite the bullet and continue to cruise as you do now ... or will you have to scale back on the number/duration of your trips?

[CaptData]

My trip on the Summit has gone up $1000.00 for an inside room:eek: . This is for a mid Jan 2006 cruise. I have seen some creep up and some jump up so I am not sure what is happening. I can afford once a year as I am single (widow). I intend to cruise once a year anyway. I will just have to save more.

[cruise pup]

I've gotten some incredible bargains in the last 6 months. However, I noticed that one of my booked cruises has gone up in price considerably but that may have to do with it filling up which is when prices usually begin to rise.

[Charliesmom]

We got as good a deal for our upcoming December cruise as we had last December (before Christmas). I think it depends on what the expectations are for filling up the ships. Yes, there is more demand, but a lot of that demand has come from lowered prices.

We paid $1250.00 plus for a balcony stateroom on Princess in 1997. We are paying $1300. total for an S Suite on HAL for December 2005 before Christmas. And we have shipboard credits and a few other goodies because we are paying with an Amex Platinum Card.

That said, the ship lines are playing the same game that the air carriers have been playing for years - it's called yield management. The goal is to fill up the ship at the most they can get. If they have good demand, the price rises. For sailings with less demand, the price goes down. A few years ago, we took a cruise on the Sea Princess out of San Juan. They were selling inside rooms for $299 for a 7-day cruise. Wait staff from the San Juan hotels were going on cruises. It was a cheap vacation.

The economy has improved. Traveling to Europe is now very expensive because of the price of the Euro (a few years ago it was a bargain). Threats of terrorism keep people closer to home. Cruises are a relative bargain, especially if you shop around and book early.

Roberta

[ekerr19]

They are definitely going up and I think they will continue to do so. I have read several acticles as well indicating the days of true bargains (on lines such as HAL) are over. I think there are still some real deals on 7-day cruises, but those aren't the kind that interest me.

[RuthC]

I see it as more of a "cost correction" than an increase.

After 9/11 the bottom fell out from under and prices nosedived. People were cancelling and ships were sailing at much less than capacity. Naturally, the industry did whatever it could to encourage people to book cruises---one method was to reduce cost.

Now demand is increasing again, and cost is rising. But who knows what prices would have been had 9/11 not happened. I'm betting that they would be even higher than they are now.

[jaguarstyper]

For comparison sake:

Sailed on Zuiderdam in April 2004. $3400 for 2 of us in an S suite for Eastern Caribbean.

Booked on Zuiderdam for October 2005. $3200 for 3 of us in an S suite for Western Caribbean.

Seems to me like they are going down. But that could have something to do with the time of the year.

Personally, I think cruising represents a travel bargain.

Tim

[jhannah]

I agree. It's a bargain considering what you get. Pricing does depend on many factors as noted above. The pundits in the report did say that prices WILL increase ... indicating that maybe they aren't showing up as higher right now but will be going forward. It will be interesting to see what happens.

[heyabbott]

I agree. It's a bargain considering what you get. Pricing does depend on many factors as noted above. The pundits in the report did say that prices WILL increase ... indicating that maybe they aren't showing up as higher right now but will be going forward. It will be interesting to see what happens.

Bargin is a relative term. We've gone on resort vacations, paid at least a thousand dollars a day just for a hotel room on the beach, USVI, with breakfast and dinner. We considered it to be a bargin not because of the money but because there are not many places with the kind of service, privacy and beauty of the resort.

Have to say when we were in Bangkok a couple of years ago, we stayed in a great hotel, with a huge suite and it was less than $200/day. But the cost to fly around the world certainly evened the situation out.

As someone who has never cruised I'm curious about the realtive costs between an all-inclusive resort and a cruise ship. I've always been hesitant about all-inclusives, but I've taken the plunge, so to speak on a cruise.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Just got through reading our e-mail from Ocean & Cruise about the article of cruise prices going up.

For the last few months we have been watching the prices of several cruises that we have booked going up and going up.

There was a time when we used to call our TA and say "Hey - just saw the price of our cruise went down - get us the new price". Not anymore.

Those days are gone for now.