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El Cheapo Cruises Thread


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2 minutes ago, JJG99 said:

Ahhh, remember the good old days when the aussie dollar was around 90c, it is back up to 70c at the moment.

We were in Hawaii a few years ago when it was 48c- now that hurt😱

I can remember buying a stack of US dollars when it was $1.20, now that was along time ago!!!!

I have a heap  with the picture of Benjamin Franklin on them and I’m kicking my self for not cashing them in a couple of months ago when the $A was down to $US55

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20 hours ago, woodyren said:

 

Jenny.

 

Some cruise companies do not let a person without a USA address book with a USA agent. From what I understand they regulate this by not paying the agent commission for breach of their conditions.

 

Princess, HAL and some of the 5 star lines dont allow these bookings. 

 

RCL, Celebrity, Carnival, NCL and other 5 star lines do allow bookings through USA TA's. I have booked at least one cruise on each of the mass market lines mentioned with a USA TA and have two current RCL bookings through the USA. 

 

From my recent experience which is only with RCL I have found that since the AUD has dropped bellow the mid 70's cents US that almost every cruise once you factor in foreign exchange rates, port charges and tips (which are not included in the advertised USA prices) and even including the extra OBC that USA agent provide it is far more likely that the Aussie price is the better option. 

      

We did a HAL cruise in 2019 booked through a U.S. agent. I think they added 100u.s. per person but it was still cheaper and we received obc  as well. Our fare worked out to $4200 aud for 17days all up for 2 people. We did have to pay gratuities as well. 

 

We have done about 7  cruises with Celebrity and no problems there and 2 Hawaiian cruises with NCL.  1 Asian RCL cruise as well.

 

All of these were booked through the same U.S. agent. 

 

We have saved thousands and have never had a problem.

Edited by GCHAN
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3 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

The problem with the AUD rising at the moment is that those of us who are waiting on refunds from cruises booked in USD are going to lose money due to the exchange rate.

Depends on the cruise company, their TA and how they booked. On some recent cancelled cruises, we got dollar for dollar and some were for overseas cruises (in USD) and with currency fluctuations, we would have got more money back if they had stuck with rates at time of purchase and time of refund.

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1 hour ago, MicCanberra said:

Depends on the cruise company, their TA and how they booked. On some recent cancelled cruises, we got dollar for dollar and some were for overseas cruises (in USD) and with currency fluctuations, we would have got more money back if they had stuck with rates at time of purchase and time of refund.

We had a decent rate when we paid for the cruise, and if the refund had been paid when the cruise was cancelled we'd have made a bit on the transaction but the rate is around the break even point now so if the exchange rate keeps going up we could lose a fair bit. It was a Crystal cruise so quite expensive. 🙁

Edited by OzKiwiJJ
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Expensive is relative.

You must consider if it is worth paying such a high price or not.

You would not have booked it, if you felt it was overpriced.

Very few can afford these ultra luxury lines

 

 

 

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14 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

The problem with the AUD rising at the moment is that those of us who are waiting on refunds from cruises booked in USD are going to lose money due to the exchange rate.

 

And that's always the greatest risk of booking overseas, the customer bears that risk.

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10 hours ago, drsel said:

Expensive is relative.

You must consider if it is worth paying such a high price or not.

You would not have booked it, if you felt it was overpriced.

Very few can afford these ultra luxury lines

 

 

 

Expensive can still mean a lot of money even if it is a real bargain.

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11 hours ago, drsel said:

Expensive is relative.

You must consider if it is worth paying such a high price or not.

You would not have booked it, if you felt it was overpriced.

Very few can afford these ultra luxury lines

 

 

 

Expensive isn't the same as overpriced. It was actually a really good deal as the B2B2B cruise was sold as a "grand voyage" with a considerable reduction over the individual sector prices, plus it was an itinerary most of the mass market lines rarely do.

 

Yes it was a more expensive than a similar length mass market cruise but not outrageously expensive and worth it for the itinerary which, of course, we didn't get to do. 😪 But when the exchange rate is working against you on a higher priced cruise it does mean you stand to lose more.

 

There are some excellent deals on Crystal at times so worth watching out for them. 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, MicCanberra said:

Expensive can still mean a lot of money even if it is a real bargain.

Which it was. 

 

It wasn't unaffordably expensive, just expensive enough to wince when the exchange rate isn't working in your favour.

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20 minutes ago, GUT2407 said:

I can remember when I considered all cruises too expensive, many still do.

It also depends on what type of cabin you choose to cruise in. We often choose inside cabins and consider balcony cabins too expensive in comparison. But on other cruises we've happily paid for a balcony cabin. We even had a suite once but that was a very rare last minute bargain.

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22 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

It also depends on what type of cabin you choose to cruise in. We often choose inside cabins and consider balcony cabins too expensive in comparison. But on other cruises we've happily paid for a balcony cabin. We even had a suite once but that was a very rare last minute bargain.

Yep, no way I would do an inside, I spend too much time in my cabin, so normally a balcony splurged on concierge class. Once, it was $10 a day less than balcony for some strange reason and took a couple of mini suites when I was set on the cruise and couldn’t;t get anything else accessible, one line charged the same as a balcony which was very nice, the other was a short cruise. But to be honest on most ships an accessible balcony is bigger than a standard mini suite anyway. On one ship the accessible mini was as big as the full suite we had visited on another ship.

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12 minutes ago, Chiliburn said:

People don’t think of the bottom line with a suite.

Free booze,a dedicated restaurant with better food and atmosphere,jump the lines,free ship tours and it goes on.

It depends on what you want out of a cruise, if it is what is included then worth it.

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16 minutes ago, Chiliburn said:

People don’t think of the bottom line with a suite.

Free booze,a dedicated restaurant with better food and atmosphere,jump the lines,free ship tours and it goes on.

That depends on the cruise line. The suite we had was on Carnival so priority boarding and tendering, and two free bottles of water, were the only perks.

 

I track all the cruises we've done, comparing the pp per day price as a base price, and price including drinks which gives me a closer comparison to the all inclusive lines. OK, that doesn't include speciality restaurants but it's easy enough to add a few dollars for that, and we get some free internet on Princess so I don't include that either.

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51 minutes ago, Chiliburn said:

Doesn’t princess have a suite lounge?

We were on symphony of the seas and it had a open bar from 11am till 11pm in the suite lounge.

A lovely venue.
 

No, I don't think any of the Princess ships has a suite lounge. They have a Platinum/Elite/Suites "lounge", every sea day on most ships but not all, where they serve a limited selection of cheaper cocktails and have some nice munchies which vary every night, but that only runs for an hour ot two. 

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1 hour ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

No, I don't think any of the Princess ships has a suite lounge. They have a Platinum/Elite/Suites "lounge", every sea day on most ships but not all, where they serve a limited selection of cheaper cocktails and have some nice munchies which vary every night, but that only runs for an hour ot two. 

There was a separate VIP Lounge on the Majestic, only open to Suite passengers. Not particularly pleasant. Its an internal space without natural light on Marina deck I think. 

 

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1 hour ago, mum and son said:

There was a separate VIP Lounge on the Majestic, only open to Suite passengers. Not particularly pleasant. Its an internal space without natural light on Marina deck I think. 

 

We went there on an Ultimate Ships Tour and weren't impressed. Didn't compare in any way to Micheal's on Celebrity with the piano and the bar tender, plus windows.

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I see Carnival cruises have a 72 hour sale on at the moment for cruises ex Australia for departures through to June 2022. The t&cs are pretty tough ie full payment now, non refundable, room allocation 30 days prior to travel. That's a no from me no matter how good a deal they may be, COVID-19 aside I just can't pay out money that far in advance others may feel differently though.

Edited by Cruisegroover
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2 minutes ago, Cruisegroover said:

I see Carnival cruises have a 72 hour sale on at the moment for cruises ex Australia for departures early 2021. The t&cs are pretty tough ie full payment now, non refundable, room allocation 30 days prior to travel. That's a no from me no matter how good a deal they may be, COVID-19 aside I just can't pay out money that far in advance others may feel differently though.

Looks like they want to get the money rolling in.😉 I am like you and won't be taking up their offer.

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6 minutes ago, Cruisegroover said:

I see Carnival cruises have a 72 hour sale on at the moment for cruises ex Australia for departures early 2021. The t&cs are pretty tough ie full payment now, non refundable, room allocation 30 days prior to travel. That's a no from me no matter how good a deal they may be, COVID-19 aside I just can't pay out money that far in advance others may feel differently though.

I find it hard to believe that Carnival would be selling cruises, with full payment now, and non refundable.  Australian waters are not even open for cruising at present.  How could anyone trust a cruiseline which does that?  Have Carnival provided refunds for all cruises cancelled because of corona virus?

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