El Cheapo Cruises Thread

[mum and son]

47 minutes ago, queenslander said:

I just booked on a Queen Elizabeth 6 day cruise to Tasmania. It was a nice surprise to get a Princess Grill suite to myself for only $1689! 

Congratulations! I've booked my parents on the same cruise but can't find any mention of a cabin number anywhere in their personaliser. I know it was only booked as a guarantee but I can't even see where cabin number is supposed to appear. Is it just on the Booking Summary page where the voyage details appear? There are so many broken links/images on the page that it's hard to follow. This is our first time dealing with Cunard.

[mum and son]

56 minutes ago, queenslander said:

 

Sorry, duplicate post...

Edited February 24, 2020 by mum and son

[amatuercruiser]

Do cruise ships or cruise ship travel agents do heavily discounted last minute cruise deals or is it a waist of time in that it just gets too rushed and complicated?

 

When is the cheapest time to get a bargain cruise. I really don't care where I go.

[LittleFish1976]

6 minutes ago, mum and son said:

Congratulations! I've booked my parents on the same cruise but can't find any mention of a cabin number anywhere in their personaliser. I know it was only booked as a guarantee but I can't even see where cabin number is supposed to appear. Is it just on the Booking Summary page where the voyage details appear? There are so many broken links/images on the page that it's hard to follow. This is our first time dealing with Cunard.

 

From my experience with the new VP, the cabin assignment will take some time - much closer to sailing - and then they will only be able to see it once their documents, and luggage tags are ready to be printed from the VP. The cabin number will be on their e-ticket and the luggage tags.

 

Edited February 24, 2020 by LittleFish1976

[MicCanberra]

2 minutes ago, amatuercruiser said:

Do cruise ships or cruise ship travel agents do heavily discounted last minute cruise deals or is it a waist of time in that it just gets too rushed and complicated?

 

When is the cheapest time to get a bargain cruise. I really don't care where I go.

The last few weeks prior to a cruise leaving, are generally when the best last minute sales come out.

[mum and son]

20 minutes ago, LittleFish1976 said:

 

From my experience with the new VP, the cabin assignment will take some time - much closer to sailing - and then they will only be able to see it once their documents, and luggage tags are ready to be printed from the VP. The cabin number will be on their e-ticket and the luggage tags.

 

Thanks for the info. I've seen a number of people who have received cabin assignments so I was just curious. The website is just very "broken". E.g. there are two buttons to choose bed configuration but no wording or diagrams to say what the options are. I guess they're just playing catch up with their website??

 

 

[LittleFish1976]

15 minutes ago, mum and son said:

Thanks for the info. I've seen a number of people who have received cabin assignments so I was just curious. The website is just very "broken". E.g. there are two buttons to choose bed configuration but no wording or diagrams to say what the options are. I guess they're just playing catch up with their website??

 

 

 

The new website has been in what could only be described as a parlous state since its inception, I'm afraid. In my experience, the buttons surrounding the 'bed configuration' (and almost everything else) do nothing. It'll all be okay when your folks get on the ship, though, which is the most important thing.

 

Similarly, where it asks you to put your insurance details in won't work. I rang them about this a few weeks ago and they said 'it's not working for us either; we know it doesn't work but it's okay, we don't have to have your insurance details anyway', so that's all okay. But don't waste your time struggling with it.

 

My advice would be, that if there is anything important that you need to add or alter and you can't do it on-line, wait a week or so and give them a call. Unless you have an hour to wait in which case you could call them now - they're still super busy with taking bookings for the last-minute changes to sailings as I discovered this morning

 

I'm on one of the Tassie cruises, also. I'm not expecting to see a cabin number or have any docs until about a week before sailing.

 

Your parents are lucky they have you to organise and help them1

[queenslander]

45 minutes ago, mum and son said:

Thanks for the info. I've seen a number of people who have received cabin assignments so I was just curious. The website is just very "broken". E.g. there are two buttons to choose bed configuration but no wording or diagrams to say what the options are. I guess they're just playing catch up with their website??

 

 

 

Yes - it's the first time on the Cunard website for me too and I agree that it's not working too well at the moment! I'm not expecting to find out the suite number until the last week when I print out the documents. 

[linanles]

9 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

Good point, although that all depends on when you sell.

Exactly. As with all shares, you've lost nothing when the price falls. You only lose money when you panic and sell when they are low. Hang on to them for the long term and the price will come back up. After all you are looking to purchase them to get the benefit of the onboard credit. As others have said the onboard credit is not guaranteed the benefit is renewed at the AGM along with Director's benefits and I don't think the Director's are going to give themselves benefits but take them away from shareholders. There would be a revolt if they did.

Now is a good time to buy while they are low.

 

[MicCanberra]

They are down to $38.50 today.

[ninjacat8]

18 hours ago, LittleFish1976 said:

 

From my experience with the new VP, the cabin assignment will take some time - much closer to sailing - and then they will only be able to see it once their documents, and luggage tags are ready to be printed from the VP. The cabin number will be on their e-ticket and the luggage tags.

 

Please what is VP

[MicCanberra]

Vice President.?

[RosieCanberra]

Voyage personaliser?

[ninjacat8]

Thank You

[The_Big_M]

6 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

They are down to $38.50 today.

A quick loss of about US$400 if you bought yesterday.

[amatuercruiser]

58 minutes ago, The_Big_M said:

A quick loss of about US$400 if you bought yesterday.

Yes  a loss like that (400) in a single trading day  is equivalent to  one Shareholder 14 day ($250) OBC and one shareholder 10 day (approx  $100) OBC.

 

Your effectively 2 cruises of OBC down before you start.

 

I think the advice ..Only buy Cruise line  shares to get OBC if you can afford to loose.  Needs to be RINGING in peoples ears.

 

But this is not normal times. This Virus level of volatility on the stock market  is exceptional. I think EVENTUALLY the Cruise industry share price will bottom,  pricing in a 3month industry decline..possibly 6 month Industry decline. Or possibly a 12 month cruise industry decline. Any thing longer the Cruise ships themselves will become STRANDED assets.

 

The other issue with Carnival stock is it pays a approx 5% dividend. I think that is over for the next few years.

 

Edited February 25, 2020 by amatuercruiser

[wanderingoz]

58 minutes ago, The_Big_M said:

A quick loss of about US$400 if you bought yesterday.

As has been mentioned previously, only a loss if you sell today.

[amatuercruiser]

2 minutes ago, wanderingoz said:

As has been mentioned previously, only a loss if you sell today.

To me a PAPER loss cuts just as deep.

[MicCanberra]

1 hour ago, The_Big_M said:

A quick loss of about US$400 if you bought yesterday.

But only a loss if you sold again today, as I said, only do it if it is to be a long term investment.

[MicCanberra]

45 minutes ago, amatuercruiser said:

To me a PAPER loss cuts just as deep.

lol

[The_Big_M]

3 hours ago, wanderingoz said:

As has been mentioned previously, only a loss if you sell today.

 

Could be a bigger loss if you sell tomorrow.

 

Essentially, people have differing reasons for wanting to buy it, and may not want to hold it forever. But it may not recover back to profitable levels - I think it took 8 years to recover its peak the last time it went down a lot.

 

If you're just buying for OBC, but the actual value has fallen more than the OBC you get, what is the point? It's actually adding hassle to your life/financial management, and the tax complications are significant.

[The_Big_M]

2 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

But only a loss if you sold again today, as I said, only do it if it is to be a long term investment.

 

Actually, it's still a loss whether you sold or not - just not realised.

[amatuercruiser]

6 minutes ago, The_Big_M said:

 

 

 

 

 

If you're just buying for OBC, but the actual value has fallen more than the OBC you get, what is the point? It's actually adding hassle to your life/financial management, and the tax complications are significant.

I agree. The volatility of a $3900 us investment. versus a $100 (7day) Share holder benefit OBC is questionable. In the past possibly made sense but post Coronavirus correction and possible Cruise ship stigmatisation the financial benefit and unceratinty is very high.

 

My plan is possibly in the future buy 100 share in Carnival and get the OBC as a benefit on Princess HAL, Cunard etc on cruises around Australia.. If it make financial sense if not sell the shares. As noted if the stock gets low enough Carnival may no longer offer the share holder OBC benefit.

Edited February 25, 2020 by amatuercruiser

[LittleFish1976]

11 hours ago, ninjacat8 said:

Please what is VP

 

Yes, sorry - Voyage Personaliser. What the booked guest log-in area was called before the recent 'My Cunard' site.

[LittleFish1976]

1 hour ago, amatuercruiser said:

I agree. The volatility of a $3900 us investment. versus a $100 (7day) Share holder benefit OBC is questionable. In the past possibly made sense but post Coronavirus correction and possible Cruise ship stigmatisation the financial benefit and unceratinty is very high.

 

My plan is possibly in the future buy 100 share in Carnival and get the OBC as a benefit on Princess HAL, Cunard etc on cruises around Australia.. If it make financial sense if not sell the shares. As noted if the stock gets low enough Carnival may no longer offer the share holder OBC benefit.

 

But the shareholder benefits actually support the price of the stock. If they did away with the OBC shareholder benefit it would be a less attractive proposition and so less people would buy it and the price would drop.