Don't you just love this?

I spent some time today looking at Christmas cruises. Seems that plenty are available, including this:

10 Days Caribbean-Southern

Princess Cruises • Royal Princess

Fort Lauderdale, Princess Cay, St. Thomas/Charlotte Amalie, Dominica, Grenada, Aruba, Fort Lauderdale

1 departure date: Dec 19 2014

Inside from

$889

$89 per day

Balcony from

$1084

$108 per day

In fact, one agency offered a balcony for two for $1,990.

What's wrong? This seems like a spectacular cruise to desirable islands and actually covers Christmas. Yet there doesn't seem to be much demand.

14 Days Caribbean-Western

Holland America Line • ms Nieuw Amsterdam

Fort Lauderdale, Grand Turk, San Juan/Puerto Rico, St. Thomas/Charlotte Amalie, Half Moon Cay, Fort Lauderdale, Half Moon Cay, Ocho Rios, Cayman/George Town, Costa Maya, Fort Lauderdale

1 departure date: Dec 7 2014

Inside from

$399

$29 per day

OceanView from

$499

$36 per day

They both look like great deals. We enjoy being on a Christmas cruise and already have one booked. It's a great way to celebrate the holiday.

I guess demand is not very good.

Maybe, like me, lots of people don't have any vacation time left this time of year.:(

Or maybe they have to be home to host Holiday dinners for their annoying, ungrateful, never offer to bring anything in-laws. :mad: This one is definitely not personal experience..... honest.;)

The timing seems a bit off to include families with children who don't get out of school until Friday (19th).

HAL (on which we have cruised over 300 days) has some issues. The line has developed an awful reputation among younger adults (with good cause) which sometimes results in amazing deals in the Caribbean. Christmas is not always so good for a line like HAL because many of their best customers are older cruisers with children, grandchildren and even great grand children. These folks are not going to take a cruise and miss Christmas :). Two years ago we did the back to back on the Westerdam (in early December) and hated the cruise for multiple reasons. The turn around day in Ft Lauderdalee sucks and when we did the cruise HAL reduced port times (in many of the ports) so they could slow down the ship and save on fuel. Leaving 1 or 2 hours early in many ports can really impact one's ability to fully enjoy an island.

As to Princess, we have no idea why there is such a good deal on the Royal (the newest ship). Given an choice we would jump at the Princess offer. But if you are really on a tight budget and want to take a cheap cruise then perhaps HAL would be OK for you. When we did the back to back on the Westerdam we were aware of the issued, but chose to save money and take the cruise. Being older cruisers who have been to most of the islands many times, we were OK with the reduced port times...

Hank

The timing seems a bit off to include families with children who don't get out of school until Friday (19th).

In the school district here, it used to be easy to blow off the last day or two of school before winter break -- often teachers will show films or kids will be told to bring board games. A few years ago, the academic calendar was changed so that the fall semester ends at winter break. So now kids (at least middle and high school ones) have to be there to take semester finals. It would be still easy to make local cruises starting on that Saturday, but many families probably would want the next day free for traveling a major distance (such as Florida from the west coast).

Definitely the first week of December will have a much lower demand (the cruise indicated in the second post) unless you have adults who want to avoid a cruise with a lot of school-aged kids.

I tracked prices of about a dozen New Year's cruises from mid August until last month. We finally booked on the Caribbean Princess three weeks ago for back-to-back short cruises leaving December 27 and returning (the second time) on January 3. The price for the two cruises was less than most of the week-long ones before considering the amount of onboard credit we received ($200 per person plus more for having future cruise credits and being a Carnival Corp. shareholder).

The better deals are for next week and the other weeks before Christmas. I wish we could take off then, but DH has to teach.

I'm retired so doesn't apply to me or my contemporaries but many salaried workers have not had raises in years, their expenses have risen, price of food, health care etc and perhaps when the families look ahead to college tuitions, some are choosing to stay home. Maybe there are some out here who have a general unease about world conditions and safety issues?? Lots of ships with lots of cabins to fill. Maybe there is a situation of too much inventory?

10 and 14 days.

There is 75% of the issue.

We'd love to take our kids and grandkids on a Christmas cruise. Schools here in Nebr. are fairly flexible as to missing a day or two, but coaches aren't, even if technically they are not supposed to 'punish' players for not participating during vacations, realistically it happens. One grandson is in basketball (he's a freshman) and would probably lose playing time or a starting position if he was gone over the holidays. We can't leave one kid home.

With grandkids in high school now, we have someone--or two--involved in sports every season. Makes scheduling very difficult. I know, I know, life should come before sports, but that's not the reality. They're all good students, so at least that's not a problem.

Also, there is the airfare problem. The cruise may be dirt cheap, but flying isn't. We could go on our own, but we prefer to be home with the family for Christmas.

Hmmmmmm

I've noticed the same thing on my side of the Pond.

Always cheap cruises early December, and this year's no different.

But if you wanna cruise over Christmas, advice has always been to book early despite the premium prices, because they book-out early.

But not this year.

I'm getting e-mails daily, pushing Christmas cruises. Including 2 - 3 day cruises.

JB :)

I spent some time today looking at Christmas cruises. Seems that plenty are available, including this:

 

10 Days Caribbean-Southern

Princess Cruises • Royal Princess

Fort Lauderdale, Princess Cay, St. Thomas/Charlotte Amalie, Dominica, Grenada, Aruba, Fort Lauderdale

1 departure date: Dec 19 2014

Inside from

$889

$89 per day

 

Balcony from

$1084

$108 per day

 

 

In fact, one agency offered a balcony for two for $1,990.

 

What's wrong? This seems like a spectacular cruise to desirable islands and actually covers Christmas. Yet there doesn't seem to be much demand.

The Royal Princess might be one reason the prices are so low. This is a different class of Princess ship. The balconies are tiny, elevators are overly crowded with long waits, and there are less swimming pools than on other Princess ships. The Royal works well in cooler weather itineraries in the summer and I wouldn't hesitate to book a British Isles cruise on that ship. At those prices, a Caribbean cruise on the Royal Princess might make some sense. You would still have a great time, but just realize that this ship falls short of the Ruby Princess or most other Princess ships for Caribbean cruises.

Hmmmmmm

I've noticed the same thing on my side of the Pond.

 

Always cheap cruises early December, and this year's no different.

But if you wanna cruise over Christmas, advice has always been to book early despite the premium prices, because they book-out early.

But not this year.

I'm getting e-mails daily, pushing Christmas cruises. Including 2 - 3 day cruises.

 

JB :)

Where would a 2 or 3 day cruise get you - assuming it's from a UK port, as flying anywhere that time of year for a short cruise would not make much sense?

Somehow I can't imagine the North Sea, Irish Sea, or anywhere in the North Atlantic close to Britain being inviting in December.

Hmmmmmm

I've noticed the same thing on my side of the Pond.

 

Always cheap cruises early December, and this year's no different.

But if you wanna cruise over Christmas, advice has always been to book early despite the premium prices, because they book-out early.

But not this year.

I'm getting e-mails daily, pushing Christmas cruises. Including 2 - 3 day cruises.

 

JB :)

This also applies to us here in Australia too. There has been a lot of discounted cruises around Christmas time this year. I was also told that NYE needed to be booked early and they never drop in price. Well, this year my NYE has come down in price. I wish I had booked later rather than early in the year.

We are taking a 10-day pre-Christmas cruise Dec. 9. However, for next Christmas I will keep all options open. And I'll make my selection after the final payment deadline passes.

I'll resort to this strategy based on the price and availability this year that suggest there will be plenty of choices next year as well.

It has been noted by posters in this thread the same circumstance exists in Great Britain/or in general the 'other side of the pond' and noted also in Australia.

WHY?

Why are there so many empty cabins when historically Holiday cruises always sold out early at high prices?

This is about a whole lot more than school vacation schedule. Schools in my area have not permitted day(s) before or immediately after vacations absence for vacations for a great many years. There were severe consequences for such absence. Nothing new about that.

Something else to consider is the cost of airfare and possible difficulties in getting flights this late in the season.

There was a fantastic deal on a Celebrity sailing this Christmas, sailing from San Juan. I was really interested until I looked at the cost of airfare. Nope.

If you can get to NOLA by Saturday you can get an inside room for a 7 day Caribbean cruise on the Serenade for $179...

Sent from my iPod touch using Forums

It's for the same reason you can get great car deals at the end of December. People want to spend money on Christmas (and other holiday) gifts. People like visiting and being visited during the holidays.

The majority of people are just not into taking a cruise-or any sort of vacation over the Christmas holidays. Obviously many do, but the demand is not great.

Something else to consider is the cost of airfare and possible difficulties in getting flights this late in the season.

 

There was a fantastic deal on a Celebrity sailing this Christmas, sailing from San Juan. I was really interested until I looked at the cost of airfare. Nope.

My question is why are there so many empty cabins not sold that are being offered at these ridiculous prices? Why were they not booked months ago as is the usual circumstance for holiday cruises?

My question is why are there so many empty cabins not sold that are being offered at these ridiculous prices? Why were they not booked months ago as is the usual circumstance for holiday cruises?

 

A 7 day Xmas cruise normally attracts families. But at the very high air fares to SJU (over $600 pp from many places) the cost of the cruise becomes a bit steep. In fact, in many cases the cost of flying a family of 4 to San Juan will actually exceed the cost of the cruise. And Puerto Ricans, who do not have to deal with the air fare, tend to be very family oriented and mostly stay on the island to Celebrate Christmas with their extended families. That would be my take on the subject.

Hank