City Stay pricing--what am I missing?

I've been looking at a 7 night Pursuit cruise in October 2019, Monte Carlo to Barcelona. The cruise price starts at $2499, while the cruise plus the 3 night Barcelona City Stay starts at $6839. While I'm pretty tight with a dollar, I also weigh out convenience, and at times we've booked a hotel, air or transportation through the cruise line.

For the life of me, though, I can't figure out why the city stay would be $4340 more per person. As far as I can tell, it's transportation, hotel, some meals (B, L, D first day, B and L the second, B the third), and a private guide for a day. Two of the meals are advertised as dining with a local family, and there's a flamenco performance one evening, and a wine tasting the next. Can convenience really be worth that much to someone, or am I missing some factor that makes Azamara-booked city stays worth the extra price?

Does the package include transatlantic flights?

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Does the package include transatlantic flights?

 

 

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At first I thought maybe that was why it was so expensive, but it says cruise only.

I also was shocked by the price of City Stays for our January Cuba intensive cruise - same as the amount we paid for the 9 day cruise in a balcony cabin. The following thread is Bonnie's post when Azamara announced this new program. Interesting comments.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2661648

I was looking at May 28th 2019, 3 day stay in Barcelona then cruise on Journey which includes Le Harve for the 75th Anniversary of D.Day.That is priced from £7502.

I couldn’t find it as cruise only ( ie no flight to Barcelona, or 3 night stay)

I was looking at May 28th 2019, 3 day stay in Barcelona then cruise on Journey which includes Le Harve for the 75th Anniversary of D.Day.That is priced from £7502.

I couldn’t find it as cruise only ( ie no flight to Barcelona, or 3 night stay)

The cruise only is certainly available on the North American site.

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Veranda dropped on 10 day Caribbean March cruise, but city stay did not. Over $1000 per day per person. What type of Hotel are they putting you up in? Very limited details on line. We are also looking at Denali tour for June. They tell you to call travel agent, but they are not getting info either. We need to start looking around for alternatives.

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I've been looking at a 7 night Pursuit cruise in October 2019, Monte Carlo to Barcelona. The cruise price starts at $2499, while the cruise plus the 3 night Barcelona City Stay starts at $6839. While I'm pretty tight with a dollar, I also weigh out convenience, and at times we've booked a hotel, air or transportation through the cruise line.

 

For the life of me, though, I can't figure out why the city stay would be $4340 more per person. As far as I can tell, it's transportation, hotel, some meals (B, L, D first day, B and L the second, B the third), and a private guide for a day. Two of the meals are advertised as dining with a local family, and there's a flamenco performance one evening, and a wine tasting the next. Can convenience really be worth that much to someone, or am I missing some factor that makes Azamara-booked city stays worth the extra price?

Barcelona is our favorite but you can stay at a very nice hotel, eat 3 excellent meals a day, see the sights, pay entrance fees and hire a private guide for much less than $4340.

We are considering a Africa cruise on the Quest, that offers a 5 night pre or post cruise package. The cruise only is$3,999pp. The 5 night package adds either $5100. pp or $7,900 pp more depending upon which itinerary you choose. It does not include Air to Africa, but does include a couple of flights within Africa. Seriously, $10,200 - $15,800 for 5 nights. My sister & husband did a18 night Africa trip for $15,000 for both all inclusive (air from US, meals, lodging, guides, tips, entrance fees, etc).

I get that the Azamara wants to make money on these packages but I’m not willing to pay these inflated prices. I have identified a couple of highly rated tour companies in Africa and it looks It will be a considerable savings to do a post cruise stay indpendently.

We did a similar thing to visit the Taj Mahal. Celebrity wanted $2400 pp for a 2 night trip from the ship to the Taj. We booked with a India company for $725pp.

Agree. If one sails solo then the African five day add on is quite high.It includes some flights but the single is paying for two seats as they pay double. It must be for convenience

Agree. If one sails solo then the African five day add on is quite high.It includes some flights but the single is paying for two seats as they pay double. It must be for convenience

It’s pretty easy to work with a local tour cmpany. For the Taj Mahal it took about 3-4 emails. Many of these companies have packaged itineraries developed so if you tell them you want to go to Victoria Falls, do a coupe of game drives, where you want to start and end they can give you costs, options for lodging and add or delete to customize the trip.