Cruise cost seems much higher that 2 years ago

[Checkmate1955]

We did a nice oceanview on Royal Carribean two years ago for $850. total out of New Orleans..In March... I am seeing that same price doubled tonight... on NCL.... I do not get it... Free drink package was another $160. ... what is free about that... They advertise a good price and then you find it is for the ... deal where they pick the deck and cabin... when you pick a deck or cabin it goes up $200 PP...

 

Been on 12 cruises in 30 years and loved each and every cruise... It seems we have very little in choice unless we fly to Miami and we do not want to do that... Am I wrong...? or has cruising going out of sight....cost wise....

 

Thanks..

Edited December 22, 2015 by Checkmate1955

[Checkmate1955]

We did a nice oceanview on Royal Carribean two years ago for $850. total out of New Orleans..In March... I am seeing that same price doubled tonight... on NCL.... I do not get it... Free drink package was another $160. ... what is free about that... They advertise a good price and then you find it is for ... the deal where they pick the deck and cabin... when you pick a deck or cabin it goes up $200 PP...

 

Been on 12 cruises in 30 years and loved each and every cruise... It seems we have very little in choice unless we fly to Miami and we do not want to do that... Am I wrong...? or has cruising going out of sight....cost wise....

 

Thanks..

 

Any suggestion or help will be appreciated....

[LHT28]

Stay home

 

Drive to Texas & pick up a cruise there

 

Fly to the west coast & get a cruise there

 

What type of suggestions would you like ?

 

The price has gone up on a lot of thing in the past 2 yrs you have the option to pay the price or not

[CruiserBruce]

Not sure why you think the price should go down. The economy is improving, travel demand is growing... Last year's, or two years ago's prices have little to do with next year's.

Edited December 23, 2015 by CruiserBruce

[sail7seas]

I went to the grocery store Friday. I bought the same items (roughly) I have bought every week for months. My bill was about 15% higher in the same market for mostly the same things.

 

When price of oil was so high, many things were priced higher to accommodate that extra expense to companies. The price of oil has dropped but grocery prices have not.

 

I pay more for everything now than I did two or three years ago.

Cruises will also be priced higher as long as the cruise lines can sell the cabins. Supply and demand. If they don't sell, the price will be lowered.

[paul929207]

As to Cruises, Carnival Corp announced their quarterly earnings last week. They said that bookings for the next 9 month were ahead of a year ago at higher average prices. The economy is good. The stock market is at record highs. Unemployment is down substantially.

[grandebarca]

Definitely higher this year versus the last 7-8 years. We used to routinely get cruises for $30 per night or so. Best I'm seeing now is $42+/nt unless you're talking transatlantic repositioning (which are still mostly $42/nt!).

 

It's nothing more than strong demand for cruises leading to higher prices. The cruise lines charge what the market will bear. I guess folks have recovered from the 2007-2009 recession and are now comfortable enough to spend discretionary income on cruises.

 

What's crazy is that with these very low oil prices, the cost of operations is down quite a bit for the cruise lines, yet they are able to charge premium prices across the board. I've been watching Carnival and RCL stock so I could buy 100 shares to get the shareholder benefit OBC, but it keeps going up and up! Should have bought CCL back when it was under $40 - over $50 now. :(

[kitty9]

OP. Have you compared the price of beef/eggs/milk today with prices from 3 years ago? Definitely not cheaper. And what makes anyone think that these perks cruise lines give are free? Nothing is free, and you pay for those perks with higher fares. In addition, you're not comparing prices on the same cruise line----you can't compare what RCI charged three years ago with what NCL charges today. Prices are higher across the board, for all cruise lines.

[whogo]

We did a nice oceanview on Royal Carribean two years ago for $850. total out of New Orleans..In March... I am seeing that same price doubled tonight... on NCL....

I find the balcony cabins on the Norwegian Dawn for $1299, roughly 50% over what you paid two years ago on RCL. Different ship, different line, different year, different price.

 

I also find balcony cabins on the Carnival Dream for $780. Different ship, different line, different year, different price.

[crystalspin]

Checkmate:

 

My advice, that *just* worked for me, is to book way out. I cancelled a Princess 5-port, 14-day Panama Canal cruise for this coming Feb/Mar and booked a HAL 10-port 19-day PC cruise 16-months out, for the same amount... and I am watching almost daily for any reduction in fares.

 

The other suggestion, if you can neither predict YOUR availability that far in advance NOR tie up the minimum required downpayment for over a year (knowing that it is 100% refundable if you book yourself) -- is to get your ducks in a row and be ready to jump at last-minute bargains. Of course that requires a convenient port, because last-minute airfares will eat up the savings!

[Keith1010]

It all comes down to supply and demand.

 

Don't forget about inflation.

 

And if you adjust for inflation a cruise is so much more affordable today than 10 or 20 years ago.

 

Keith

[Hlitner]

The cruise industry has gone through many changes in "price strategy" over the decades and we think it is now going through a new phase. The tendency is to raise prices (in a big way) and then toss in amenities (such as drink packages, pre paid gratuities, etc) as a sweetener. But the final price is still somewhat high. So, we have lately changed our personal booking strategy with some success (we book 70-100 days of cruises per year).

 

The best deals now seem to come for those who shop around just inside the final payment period (this varies from about 90 days to close to sailing). We recently grabbed an amazing 10 day cruise deal on the new Regal Princess (around $40 per person/day for a balcony when netted with OBCs) and just this week got a very good deal on a very long (around 2 months) Prinsendam Cruise. This latter deal was interesting because we have only seen it offered through one specific Cruise Agency (there must be others, but we have not found them). This amounted to about a 40% reduction in the typical price charged for this specific cruise.

 

For those who cannot wait until the last minute (job,family issues) or who simply refuse to "shop around".....then we think they might be out of luck.

 

As to Keith's comment about inflationary increases, we would toss out some thoughts. One of the largest single costs associated with cruise ships is the cost of fuel/oil and in recent years the price has dropped from about $140 a barrel to the current under $40 a barrel. And as to Cost of Living....well just take a look at the automatic Social Security COLA adjustments over the past decade which includes a zero increase for 2016 and not much more in the other years.

 

Hank

Edited December 23, 2015 by Hlitner

[payankee]

I read about a beach in Cozumel that is near Mr Sanchos(sp?) that limits guests to 100. I have forgotten the name of it. Can anyone help with this info? Also, do you know their cancellation policy?

[CruiserBruce]

I read about a beach in Cozumel that is near Mr Sanchos(sp?) that limits guests to 100. I have forgotten the name of it. Can anyone help with this info? Also, do you know their cancellation policy?

 

Not sure what this has to do with the cost of cruising, but if you look over on the Cozumel board, here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=210

 

You will find answers to your questions.

[payankee]

Not sure what this has to do with the cost of cruising, but if you look over on the Cozumel board, here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=210

 

You will find answers to your questions.

Thank you for the link. God's blessings on your day.

[Roz]

I may get blasted for this, but I think overall the price of cruises has been artificially low over the past few years. It seemed to all start with the travel downturn after 9/11.

 

Roz

[MommaBear55]

I may get blasted for this, but I think overall the price of cruises has been artificially low over the past few years. It seemed to all start with the travel downturn after 9/11.

 

Roz

 

I absolutely agree. I think the increase in price is a normal response to a strengthening economy. And as long as ships sail full at these prices why would they be lowered? Our strategy is to determine our price point, and pick a cabin and cruise that fits that budget. We also try to take longer cruises or B2B so we only have one set of flights and precruise hotels for the same number of cruise days.

[CruiserBruce]

I may get blasted for this, but I think overall the price of cruises has been artificially low over the past few years. It seemed to all start with the travel downturn after 9/11.

 

Roz

 

I think there is a lot of truth to this...

[capriccio]

I may get blasted for this, but I think overall the price of cruises has been artificially low over the past few years. It seemed to all start with the travel downturn after 9/11.

 

Roz

 

I think the world financial crisis beginning in 2008 with its multi-year fallout also kept prices artificially low.

[LrgPizza]

We did a nice oceanview on Royal Carribean two years ago for $850. total out of New Orleans..In March... I am seeing that same price doubled tonight... on NCL.... I do not get it...

 

On NCL? We cruised NCL Getaway out of Miami in 2014. We booked NCL Escape for the same itinerary, same cabin category, for the exact same week in 2016 and the base cost is identical. PLUS we get free drink package (only paying gratuities) whereas we paid close to a thousand for it on the last cruise, so we've saved a ton of money. No complaints here.

[Roz]

Capriccio,

 

I agree that the 2007-08 economic downturn continued the lower pricing that started after 9/11.

 

Roz

[sail7seas]

How many folks have complained about the cut backs on various cruise lines? If we don't want the cut backs, we have to pay more to have the crew numbers we know previously were the rule, the food/menu items we look forward to, longer time in ports etc

 

We cannot expect to get all the features we complained are disappearing if we are not willing to pay for them.

[BlueRiband]

We did a nice oceanview on Royal Carribean two years ago for $850. total out of New Orleans..In March... I am seeing that same price doubled tonight... on NCL.... I do not get it...

 

Economics 101: Pricing for anything is determined by supply and demand. Any business is going to maximize the yield for their product or service.

 

....They advertise a good price and then you find it is for the ... deal where they pick the deck and cabin... when you pick a deck or cabin it goes up $200 PP...Been on 12 cruises in 30 years and loved each and every cruise....

 

With your sailing experience this should be no surprise. Category guarantee means sacrificing your choice in return for a better price. The cruise line gives you a price break in exchange for giving them flexibility in cabin assignment. You must decide if choice or price is more important to you.

Edited December 23, 2015 by BlueRiband

[Checkmate1955]

Thanks to those of you who answered my questions/concerns... I have found that many just do not read the posters statements/questions/etc... I said that NCL was almost double what we paid for RCCL.....

 

NCL normally does not charge as much for the same room and location that RCCL does.... Is that not a fair statement.... ? out of the same port for the same number of days... So why is NCL charging over a $1000 per person today for that cruise and throughout the year...? Seems high but as some said: they will charge as much as we are willing to pay...etc... Plus they have raised the rate because of the free beverage and then add another $160..? Is that being done on all of the cruise lines or just NCL....?

 

Fuel is way down... Eggs and milk are up as are many items we buy but none are up near 100 percent in two years... Just Saying.....:)

[luddite]

The only thing NOT higher is a gallon of gasoline.